Cool Kausani

We almost reached Kausani, when our driver figured out that the fuel in the car is in its last few litres. Luckily, we found a gas station, but, unfortunately, there was no power there, and his generator had gone kaput. The gas station owner mentioned that there was no possibility of power till 4 pm, and it was barely noon at that time. Our driver mentioned that there was enough fuel to drop us to our hotel and get back to the same station for refueling. So, off we went. We reached a place from where we could see Kausani. Kausani is an enchanting little hamlet, which could be crossed on foot within half an hour, and is devoid of any commercialization whatsoever. No one accepts a credit card, no hawks around to show you the place. All that later on, once we manage to reach there. We almost reach Kausani, when on an upward climb, the car flutters, and gives up. Cranking it up does not really crank it up. Then our driver says that it could be due to the upward climb, as the fuel mark has gone pretty low, and it does not reach the fuel pipe and the fuel pump anymore. So, the car does not crank. The driver rolls it backward, just enough where he could find a relatively flat surface, and then makes another attempt at cranking the engine. He is successful.

This happens a couple of times, and we finally make it to the place. A little bit of asking around points us to our hotel. This is not a confusing town where you could loose your way anyways. This is one place where we could not find a KMVN guest house, because it was full, and we had to book a private accommodation. So was the case with Jim Corbett National park (Dhikuli).

The moment we arrived at Kausani, the rains arrived too. There was a thunderous roar everywhere, which kept on echoing around us, thanks to the generous spread of mountains all around. All you need to do is to close your eyes, and listen to the roar. You can feel it in all possible directions, akin to you listening to this on some Bose or Harman Kardon surround system.

It rained, and stopped, and rained again. And stopped. Then, this happened.
It has been quite some time since I saw a hail storm. Those little pebbles of ice were all over the garden opposite to our room, and I and my daughter had a good time collecting them, and devouring some of them too.



We went to a place nearby to check if we can see sunset there, but clouds played spoilsport. But, on the other hand, clouds now would be great, since the rain could clear out all the smog due to forest fire, and we have a better chance of seeing Himalayas from there.

There is a Gandhi Ashram, which is about a kilometre from our hotel. This is supposedly the place where Gandhi had advocated a particular yoga called Anasakti Yoga, or something to that affect. Anyway, that did not interest me. What interested me is the place itself, which is located at the best location to watch the sunrise and sunset, and on a clear day, we can see some Himalayan peaks. Unfortunately, that day was not it, so was the next morning.

The next day, we decided to travel to two nearby places called Bageshwar and Baijnath. Little did we know that we would get much more than what we had thought.