I have been to Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, but it was first time I was going to see the beauty of Kumaon. Filled with the excitement of exploring the new place, I with my wifey and our friend Rahul started from Gurgaon on friday night for a 430km drive to Kausani.
Summers had knocked the doors as it was March month, hoping for a cool getaway, we carried a light jacket with us. But the weather had planned something else for us. 2 hours into the driving, it started blazing and drizzling. We were at Bazpur at the first light, we stopped at a small chai ka thela and had good morning tea with Parle-G.
After 1.5 hour or so, we reached Nainital around 8. By that time it started raining heavily. We stopped at LakeView Cafe for breakfast, it is a beautiful cafe on side of Naini Lake serving delicious food and snacks. To our surprise the temperature had dropped huge and it was one hell of a chilly morning. The cafe provide us with the blanket, wrapped in the blanket we ate to our fill on some delicious aloo parantha, poha, eggs and toasts.
After breakfast, we immediately started for Kausani, it was a 4 hour journey adding to that was the rains. The drive from Nainital to Almora was very beautiful. The roads were covered on both side with Pine and Cedar trees adding to this beauty were the clouds and drizzles.
The roads from Almora to Kausani were even more beautiful. Lush green rice terrace fields, clouds coming all the way down touching the peaks of mountains and a small stream of water flowing by side of the roads.
The scene was no less than a thrill for the road trip lovers like us. Could not take more pictures as it was continuously raining and honestly did not feel taking any and felt like enjoying the drive.
We reached Kausani at around 3 by that time rains has stopped. We had booked our stay in Chevron Mountain Villa which is ideally located for an unparalleled view of the Himalayas.
The first sight however was nowhere near to that as there were clouds all around covering what was before us.
By this time the temperature had dropped to single digit and our jackets were not able to provide any relief. We heated the room and took some rest.
Kausani is a very quiet village of Kumaon, few places to eat and in March specially there were very few tourists around. We went to explore some nearby restaurant and ate food in one of them. By the time we were back, it was dark. We sat in our room, played some board games, had a light dinner and called it a night. We were keeping our hopes high to witness for what we had come for.
We woke up at around 6 in the morning and immediately went to the balcony. The chill in the breeze was intense but the sight in front of us was not allowing us to go back inside the warmer room.
As far as we could see there was a sea of cloud in front of us and behind that were the majestic peaks of Himalayas. It was a dreamy sight and it seemed as if those peaks are arising from an ocean. The cloud bed was so magical, and from a corner the golden sun rays were taking over the scene.
The sky, the cloud bed and the mountains were all painted in different hues of orange, red, and purple. See it for yourself.
We enjoyed a good breakfast with that view behind us and got ready for exploring around.
It was time of Holi and here people celebrate it for a 3 days period. We roamed around the village and clicked a lot of pictures.
The streets and temples were filled with people playing with colors and lined up outside the booze shop.
We went on to explore nearby Baijnath Temple. It is temple of Lord Shiva and is an archeological site. It is situated on the bank of lake formed of Baijnath Dam.
By evening we came back from our short trip and took some rest. We went to Anasakti Ashram, Gandhiji spent 14 days here. It is just another spot to see sunrise and sunset. The sunset is spectacular, the sun sets on the opposite side hence the mountain in front turn golden and then golden red.
It was a full moon night and we sat by the bonfire listening to some music and snacking on some good Kumaon food.
It was time to pack our bags and leave for the long journey ahead. Return journeys are always hard to make, you feel that you have left a beautiful time back there and carrying a bundle of memories to cherish on forever.
On the way back , we stopped at Cafe Chica. It is a very beautiful cafe and highly recommended for their organic and tasty food.
Well that's a wrap and since then we are stuck in Lockdown and are reminiscing the good old days. By the way you can clearly see Mt. Trishul, Mt. Nanda Devi, Mt. Nanda Kot, Panchachuli Group from Kausani.
Don't pack your bags and leave. #Stayhome #staysafe
