The beautiful Binsar

The third day began with another round of boating, and by coincidence, the same boatman offered his services to row the boat.

We then started our journey to Binsar. We passed Bowali and Almora en-route to Binsar forest area. The forest entry check-post at Binsar forest area charges about Rs. 150 per person for entry. The car is charged Rs. 250. In my opinion, it is pretty steep.

But, all that was forgotten once we entered the Binsar forest area. Those huge oak and pine trees were omnipresent. We could see them pretty much everywhere. One more thing we noticed there was there were lots of forest fires. It came to our notice that this area was declared protected somewhere in the mid-eighties, and since then, lot of people who were at that time residing in the forest were moved out by the Govt. The people who got impacted were not happy about that, since they were enjoying the rich forest bounty, and that ceased immediately. That is one reason why they are not too co-operative with the forest department. Guides over there mentioned that some forest fires could actually be ignited by these people too.

Anyway, we reached KMVN rest house at Binsar. This is one of the only two rest houses in that area. There is another forest rest house, about half a kilometer away from KMVN rest house. The forest rest house is the place where they have a sunset point.

After lunch, we hired a guide, who took us to a 2 km one way trek inside the forest. The guide was good enough to explain us the vegetation around that area. That is vastly different from what we see in South India. Forests in south are denser than that in Binsar. Binsar is about 1700m above sea level, and as mentioned, there are huge oaks and pines, with deodars here and there. Animals that live here are different from what we see in South too. Barking deer lives here. Leopard thrives in this environment. In fact, we were also shown a Leopard footprint. It was more like the Leopard had marked its territory. It seems like Leopard needs 5 sq km of area for its existence, on an average. Also, the terrain is so steep that only animals who are nimble can stay here. For example, you will not find a tiger here.

Our guide also explained various plants and trees, and how each one of them helps the other. For example, there are some algae which grow on oaks and pines, which actually help maintain the moisture level on the tree. Nature at its best!

We reached a view point called Zero Point. This is a small shelter which is situated at a strategic point from where you can see a very beautiful view of the mountains and the vegetation around.

We came back from the trek, only to go to another place for a sunset. This is the sunset point, and it is a part of the forest rest house I was referring to. This is about half a kilometer from KMVN rest house.


We did this distance in our cab. We were all decked to take some photographs, when we met a couple from Bangalore. They live about a km or two from where we live. It is like going all the way to California and meeting Indians :-). They had come from Jim Corbett National park, and they had sighted the big striped cat, the one we would consider lucky to sight. I saw those photos in his Nikon something, and I loved them. After drooling at the sight of the big one, we got ready to take some photos of the sunset. He setup his Nikon expensive something on his expensive tripod, and she had another Nikon expensive something else. I had my Canon S3IS, and the moment the sun started setting down, all of us started clicking our cameras. Please pardon my photography skills, and trust me, the places are much better than what my camera says they are. Here are some shots of the sunset taken from the sunset point.

Some shots later, the sun set, and we retired for the day. The rest house has a terrace from where we can watch sunrise. So, I got up early in the morning to see if we can get a good view of the Himalayas. Unfortunately, it was cloudy that day, and there was no view of the Himalayas. But, we spotted two barking deer, and a bunch of monkeys.

We then started our journey to Kausani, via Almora again.

Uttaranchal trip - Day 1

15th of May 2010 was when it all started. Meru cab reached our home at 3:30 am, dot on time. We were pretty much ready by then. Little Smriti (will turn 5 by July end) was very exited too, as it would be her longest flight.

By the time we stacked ourselves at the end of the long Kingfisher Airlines check-in queue, it was about 4:30 am. Luckily, around that time, Smriti felt a little sleepy and she asked us to lift her up. A Kingfisher staff noticed this, and he short-circuited our wait. We were asked to cut the queue, and we landed up right in front of the check-in counter immediately, much to the dismay of all the waiting passengers.

With all the formalities done, we had enough time, thanks to our waiting time being cut short. We had some coffee, and waited for the boarding announcement. We finally were seated, with the little one taking the window.

The flight took off on time (5:55 am), and soon, Smriti started enjoying "Tom and Jerry" on that little LCD. About 2 and a half hours later, we were at New Delhi.

We met our cab guy, albeit with a little drama. There was a guy holding a placard bearing my first name. We identified him, and soon, he started walking off with our luggage. We followed him for about 50 m, when we realized that there was another placard which bore my full name. We were wondering why they were holding two of them just for me. Just out of curiosity, we asked the second guy whether he knew the first one. He mentioned that he had come all alone. We had to run behind the first one and get our luggage back.

Once we got out of the airport, we were put into the actual cab, which would be our chief mode of transport for the next week. That turned out to be a Tata Indica, a bruised and a battered one. This had about a lakh and a 20 thousand km (120,000) on its odo, and it did not need a horn. Every part in the car would scream at the top of its voice. Luckily, the rear suspension was good as ever, and so was the leg room. And the AC was working. Otherwise, Delhi heat could have given us some scare.

At about 11:30 am, we started our journey from New Delhi to Nainital. We took the following route - New Delhi Indira Gandhi International airport - New Delhi city - NOIDA extension - Gaziabad - Moradabad - Haldwani - Nainital.

The road conditions were pretty nice, except the traffic. There is some construction going on between Gaziabad and Moradabad, and it is quite a drain on our time and patience; approximately 30 km of such bad road. The rest seemed to be pretty motorable. Special mention should be made of roads in Uttaranchal. The roads in the hills were pretty good.

By the time we reached our Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN) Sarovar guest house, we saw the clock show 6 pm.

Our balcony overlooked Naini lake, and is in an area called Tallital. Naini lake and Naini temple are the reasons why Nainital is so called.

All this beautiful view can be had right from your room balcony, provided you climb those umpteen steps. From the lake, you climb a steep inclination, and reach the place where the steps begin. I bet there could have been around 100 steps before we found our room. Did I mention that the restaurant is way below, and there were no elevators?

Well, by the time we settled down in our room, it was about 7 pm. So, nothing much to do that day, except idle down on the balcony, enjoying the beautiful view. Good thing about North India is that the sun sets pretty late in the night, between 7 to 7:30 pm during summer. And, it rises at about 5:15 am. So, you have a long day.

Someone is actually canoing in the lake, at about 7 pm.

BTW, throughout our journey, we stayed at KMVN rest houses, except at Kausani and Jim Corbett. Thanks to Shweta for review on the guest houses, and also for the books on Uttaranchal. All these helped us a lot.

KMVN accommodation can be booked from kmvn.gov.in. There is a PRO at Gandhinagar, Bangalore. But fortunately for us, GMVN (Gadhwal) has an office pretty close to our office, and GMVN PRO Mr. Anurag helped me by co-ordinating with KMVN for all the bookings.

Also, prior to making this trip, both I and my wife read the famous book, "Man eaters of Kumaon" by Jim Corbett, just to get an idea of the geography and culture of the area we would visit.

Just to give you an idea, Uttaranchal or Uttarakhand is a newly carved state out of Uttar Pradesh. Uttaranchal is divided into two regions, Ga[rd]hwal, and Kumaon. Jim Corbett national park separates the two regions. The one north-west of the park is Gadhwal, and the one south-east is Kumaon. We toured Kumaon region and the national park.

For more information, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttarakhand

We did nothing much on day 1. Went down to the restaurant, had our dinner, and climbed up those stairs again, and signed the day off.