If you are in a hurry, please save this blog and read it when you have absolute peace around. It took me exactly this kind of solitude on a Sunday afternoon, to start this article, well after over two weeks of our trip. The struggle to find this time made me wonder if I needed another “vacay”, just to pour my thoughts on a word document.
Planning our first pandemic travel in months
The lockdown months were exhausting with WFH and chores, all happening in a day’s time. And we had absolutely no plans for Diwali. Heck, we weren’t even thinking of going out in and around Maharashtra.
So just six days before Diwali, we randomly decided to umm, travel!
Our extensive research on Google maps took us on a virtual tour of India. Spiti was our first choice but the news of COVID cases there, kept us from planning any further. Sure, we were clear in our head about heading North – but where, was a big question mark and we had only six days to first choose a location, book flights, plan road transport and hotels.
“Sorry, we are sold out”, said the lady at the other end, when I called a popular hotel in Mussoorie.
“Wow, people are travelling, eh”, I told my husband.
We kept looking at locations mindlessly and searching for related news. Sikkim was one, but we had no time to do any kind of heavy tourist documentation.
“Let’s go to JIM CORBETT”, my husband said. Eureka!
India’s oldest national park was calling! We had a long holiday and more days at hand, including the weekends. It felt like finally planning your freedom from the clutches of those four walls and milking every opportunity available.
We scoured through more hotels in Mussoorie but our phone calls to these hotels kept proving that more tourists were visiting Mussoorie during the same week.
I had read about Kanatal in the past. And it was a done deal!
Travel Tip: We consciously chose to stay put, at only 3 hotels during the entire trip (2 of which are secluded, offbeat stays).
Preparing for our flights
Over seven months of lockdown had trained us to use sanitisers frequently and “mask up”. I recalled the Netflix movie, Bird Box, where Sandra Bullock's character instructs her children on the rules to follow, as they embark on a dangerous journey, to ultimately find a safe haven at the end. Oddly, it felt the same. Of course, it's an over exaggerated example.
Travel Tip: While our packing included warm clothes and all sorts of medicines of course, we were armed with additional hygiene sprays, handy sanitisers and a steam dispenser.
We booked with Indigo and SpiceJet and followed all the safety guidelines thoroughly.
It is safe to prebook your meals online or eat at the airport prior your flight. We kept washing our hands and using sanitisers, and used the airport washrooms, to avoid the ones inside the flight cabin.
Travel Tip: Due to the pandemic situation still prevailing, we decided to rent a car for our end to end trip that took us around for the entire duration. This helped us avoid exchanging multiple cars. This has an additional benefit of saving you from the last minute frustration of booking cabs from point to point.
Our First Stay At Tanhau in the Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve
Tip: If you really love travel, it's always better to keep reading about destinations, hotels and bookmarking things. Tanhau was part of my wishlist on TripAdvisor!
I had read Tanhau's reviews and the thought of staying in the wild, away from the mainstream hotels felt exciting. The owner's promises of "Drive at Dusk", "Picnic by the River" and "Bird Watching" were real.
We had planned 2 nights' stay here, with no fixed plans of which was our next hotel.
Tanhau Experience
We bid adieu to our driver, after he got us to a road that led to Tanhau. The stay is located at a place where tourists won't usually flock and you will need a 4x4 jeep to get you there. Sunando, owner at Tanhau and Ahmed, the naturalist, waited patiently till we transferred our bags to our new "jeep". And so began the Tanhau experience.
It was a fairly motorable road and we reached our new home, only to be welcomed by 3 full grown pets - Mojo, Neo and Wolfie. The other fellow, Bolt, was leashed, thanks to his eccentric ways with guests.
We were bowled over the minute we reached our room. The views were amazing to say the least.
Majestic views of the Himalayan mountains were definitely worth it.
After freshening up, the day was ours to decide. With absolutely nothing pre-planned in our head, we checked with Sunando, also a wildlife photographer and environmentalist, to suggest what we could explore. He invited us to his "Drive At Dusk".
After a sumptuous lunch and afternoon nap, we joined Sunando in his jeep. Since we were in the mountains, it was already getting dark at 5 pm and cold too. As we started our journey, we were embracing the huge Himalayan mountains. It felt like a dream come true; something I can never describe in words.
Sunando kept us intrigued with his stories of spotting the big cat and other wild animals. I, of course, kept wondering about his inspiration to buy land here, away from the madness of everything. The jungle had an eerie silence when we came across our first sighting - of the big Sambar, that wanted to cross the road. The light had fallen and the sky was dark blue. We could see its huge form and those big ears and its upright position on spotting 'hoomans'!
As we moved past, we also got lucky seeing a hare and its continuous jumping and moving forward, in front of our car, on the only one-way dusty road. Sunando showed us spots from where tigers usually approach the roadside and those spots, where he puts up his special camera gear to capture wildlife movement. It felt surreal, exciting and interesting.
Day 2 at Tanhau
We woke up to a gush of wind and it had started raining. Ahmed had mentioned the earlier night about readying ourselves for a bird watching tour. Clearly, nature had another plan. The vibes at Tanhau were already so comforting that we were cool with just chilling out and watching the clouds move by.
Just then, our daughter squealed as she saw her first real rainbow right in front of her eyes! It had been really long since we saw one, too.
The pets ran towards us to greet us and after a while, Panchhi (the cook) came huffing & puffing to ask for our binoculars.
"Kya hua", my husband asked.
Panchhi had spotted the Himalayan Serow, an endangered and rarely-sighted goat-antelope. We quickly had its darshan and thanked our stars to let us experience a rare sighting from the comfort of our home at Tanhau.
After breakfast, as the sky cleared, we left for bird watching followed by lunch by the river side!
Thanks to our binoculars, and Ahmed's expertise, we could spot almost more than 20 birds throughout our morning drive. Some of them were Rufous Treepie, Jungle Babler, Red Vented Bulbul, Grey Hooded Warbler, Russet Sparrow, Streaked Laughingthrush, Grey Bushchat and more.
As we stepped on the unwinding roads and walked further, it felt like the mountains held so many secrets and was waiting to reveal them all, slowly, one moment at a time...
It was only good vibes that nature was giving us back.
As we came back to Tanhau, we took some rest before heading to the Ramganga river at Marchula. Let the pictures do the talking now.
The Ramganga river is known to tourists but we of course found hardly anyone around except for a family far away from where we had paused, to have lunch.
Tanhau promises a lot more nature walks and their signature one is the The Man Eater of Mohan trail - the path that was used by the legendary Jim Corbett (Carpet Sahib), to track and hunt the Mohan, the maneater. Of course due to our child being under 5 years and a pair of shoes that gave way on the very first day of our trip, we couldn't use this opportunity well.
Finally, it was time to say Good Bye to Tanhau, Sunando, Ahmed, Chaitali and the pets who had become ours now!
The beginning of our Safari Experiences!
During the trip planning stage, and due to the time shortage, we had decided to give a chance to a local tour planner, to guide us with the stay options and safaris. Out of four, we chose Pagoda Manu Maharani for our 2 nights' stay.
Jim Corbett has many safari zones, out of which Dhikala and Bijrani are most popular. Dhikala of course needs prior booking, as early as 2 months. Ours was in the Jhirna and the newly opened Garjiya zones.
Unsolicited opinion: DO NOT go with the expectation of sighting a "tiger". The wildlife is much more than that.
The safari experiences are unmatchable. The very idea of being in the deep jungle can be thrilling. Here; we were fighting less than 5 degree temperatures early morning to soak in the magic of nature.
Our safari in the Jhirna zone was also promising. We spotted the Sambar, lots of deer, langurs, common monitor lizard, the Great Indian Hornbill, Grey Hawk Eagle and more.
There were news of people in the previous trips spotting a tigress and her cubs. We of course kept our eyes and ears open to everything that we could experience.
Our safari guide spotted wild elephants and their calves breaking a twig or two; and we couldn't help but just look at the beautiful manner in which the animals went about their routine in the jungle.
Our trump card was the Sitabani zone! During one of the evenings, we had chosen to visit the Dhangarhi Gate and Museum and a chance meeting happened with one of the staff members there.
We had some extra time to do 1 more safari in the morning and he suggested the Sitabani zone. TripAdvisor reviews weren't impressive but "the husband" wanted to give it a shot. And boy was he right!
For the first time in our lifetime, we experienced the magic of looking at birds up close, through our binocs!
The scarlet minivets were plentiful and it was a sheer joy looking at them, flying around with their bright red wings. The female one sported a bright yellow color. The Common Green Magpie transported us into another world altogether! Woodpeckers were aplenty and the sounds of the Whitecrested Laughingthrush left us mesmerised forever.
A little about our stay at Pagoda Manu Maharani Resorts
Our stay here at this popular (read touristy) hotel was lovely. Due to the pandemic, there were only a handful of travelers. The food is fngerlicking good and if we go back to Manu Maharani ever again, it will be mainly because of the variety and exceptional quality of food.
The view of Kosi river from the restaurant is just about nice.
Pros - Food of course. The rooms were also maintained well and the staff followed all COVID guidelines.
The resort also arranged a Karaoke night, which can be a little off in such an amazing place like this, but with families around, it created a very different atmosphere for people who would otherwise feel homesick in a short pan of time.
Cons - The premises is home to pre wedding photographers and you will instantly realise that the sight of wild animals is far better than wannabe brides and grooms.
The open grounds at the resort and an Activity Centre can be a good attraction for kids while staying here.
The resort doubles up as a wedding venue too. We were simply lucky to not have witnessed one during our stay!
Saying Hello to Kanatal
The idea of choosing Kanatal was backed by the fact that Mussoorie seemed crowded. We didn't know we would cross UP en route too. During lunch time, we stopped by at a "Shuddh Shakahari dhaba" and we had to slightly let go of our inhibitions.
The meal was amazing - just like most dhabas and I happened to ask the paan wala, "Yeh konsi jagah hain?"
"Aap Najibabad mein ho. Uttar Pradesh", he was prompt to say.
Wow.
The journey towards Kanatal started with ganne ke khet (Sugarcane farms) on both the sides and as we inched closer, we were already in the lap of the Himalayas, crossing Haridwar and Rishikesh. The melodious Namo Namo Shankara from Kedarnath movie gave us goosebumps, as we set our eyes on the majestic mountains, albeit for a short while. It was getting dark and I got a message on my phone.
"Come towards Jadipani", Saurabh who manages The Phullari Homestay, messaged.
Jadipani, Sakalana Range.
I was freaking out, as it was almost 6 pm and dark, and we had set our maps to Phullari Homestay.
We later realised that the area was called Jadipani and we had to trek down on foot to reach the homestay. We had read about the small trek in the reviews.
We were now experiencing almost 5 degree temperature. Saurabh and Saraang welcomed us to Phullari. It was too dark already and we retired for the day after a homely meal.
We discovered Phullari on Google and Instagram, only to fall in love with the simplicity and exclusivity of the place. Saurabh helped put our worries to rest with transparent information about everything related to our stay. Found the stay to be exactly what he promised - away from the madding crowd.
The rooms are cozy, views are fab and food is amazing! Our little one had fun playing with Noorie and Bhoorie (pets) and Sita the cat! Also met a like minded family who were staying on the same days we had chosen. Very good chances that you will meet non fussy people because Phullari doesn't promise luxurious stuff. Carry your own toiletries and leave the place with great memories.
If travelling in winter, pls pack in all winter clothes.
Great stay for learning the art of nothing. Sit back and soak in the views, listen to music or read a book.
Very important to remember - You will be parking your car away from the homestay, so pls dump all non essential items in the car because reaching Phullari requires a small trek. We were tiredness while climbing back to our parked car since we made the mistake of carrying our suitcases.
Also don't forget to buy the local Raajma if you can. It's fresh and amazing!
Travelling Back Home
Our travel back home was with SpiceJet and this time and it went smooth. The only problem was that Delhi airport was too crowded and maintaing social distance can be really tricky. There was news about Mumbai banning incoming Delhi flights, so we kept an eye on the news. We had also spent on travel insurance before the trip.
Itinerary at a glance
Travel from Mumbai to Delhi by flight
Delhi to Jim Corbett by road
Stay at Jim Corbett for 4 nights
Jim Corbett to Kanatal by road
Stay at Kanatal for 2 nights
Kanatal to Dehradun airport by road
Dehradun - Delhi - Mumbai by flight
We stayed at Delhi for 1N due to some work but you can book direct, non-stop flights from Dehradun.
Must Haves
Travel Insurance
Warm clothes
Medicines
Sanitisers, Masks and Steam Dispenser (take steam after every sight seeing trip).
GOOD SHOES (lessons learnt!)
If travelling with kids, take some ready to eat packed food and a tiffin box to pack meals
Always pack light. We had 1 suitcase per person and only 2 carry ons (1 for winter clothes and camera gear and the other for sightseeing / safari rides. This sack is essential because you will be carrying gloves, masks, water bottle, lip balm or biscuits, etc.)
Safaris in the jungle are completely safe but train children not to shout. Also, since the safaris are almost 3 hours long, carry some dry food for them.
Important Phone Nos.
Suri Tours (for road travel): Rahul 09711248135
Tanhau Tales: Sunando Sen 09650479996
Manu Maharani Resort & Corbett Safari Bookings: Shikhar Chauhan 918006669218
The Phullari Homestay (Saurabh Trivedi): 08860488709
DISCLAIMER: No part of our trip was sponsored by any of the properties. These are our unbiased reviews.
Please undertake safe travel and stay updated with changing trends and travel restrictions applicable in the cities you are visiting. It is impossible to stay 100% unexposed to the possibility of the virus during travel - please keep that in mind.