RSS FeedA dip in River Kosi & short visit to Nainital
Dec 9, 2008 Binsar, Mountains, North India, Uttarakhand
It’s not easy to attain or reach good things in life. And so is to reach Binsar. As I’ve said before to reach Binsar one has to travel six to seven hours by road from Kathgodam. Between the two towns – Almora and Bhawali flows two rivers Kosi & Ramgarh parallel to the road. Down the line river Ramgarh joins Kosi & the bigger Kosi in south forms the eastern boundary of Corbett National Park. The water level was low, shallow & inviting. On our return journey we stopped for lunch at a hotel where river Kosi flows just behind. It wasn’t easy to sit by rverside ordering for lunch & not taking a dip. We had plenty of time to reach Kathgodam to catch the train back to Delhi. And we jumped into the river. It was sheer fun swimming after a long time. Swimming in a river is more fun than in still water. Unfortunately I haven’t done this many times.
The signboard at Bhawali which said “Nainital – 10KMs” made us take an impromptu decision & we decided to pay a short visit. At the very first sight itself, Nainital, the place of Goddess Nainadevi didn’t impress me. My first impression and thoughts were not to visit the place again. With lakebed completely crowded and polluted with concrete buildings and no question of scenic beauty in the tourist town. We stood there on the edge of the lake looking at the sorry state.
Light was diminishing, so were my chances of visiting Nainital in future and our journey home resumed. An overnight journey, delay of four hours in Delhi airport and usual traffic jams in Bangalore, I was back to the routine after an wonderful vacation at the Kumaon mountains.
Other published articles on Binsar:
Zero Point at Binsar
Dec 3, 2008 Binsar, Mountains, North India, Uttarakhand
The most recommended place in the Binsar area is Zero point which is located inside the Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary. The view point gives a glimpse of 300 KMs of the mighty Himalayan range. We were in time to see the mountains before clouds blocked the view for us. One need to walk inside the sanctuary for a kilometer & half to reach the point.
Though we didn’t get to see any wild animals, we heard a leopard’s roar couple of times somewhere from deep inside the sanctuary. The wildlife sanctuary is situated around 25KMs north of Almora.
That night we planned to go camping in the mountains. The place zeroed in was couple of kilometers from the resort. Camping in the wild is not new to me as I’ve gone camping few times before. But this time it was different & completely sophisticated. When we reached the camp site, the tents were ready, and so was the camp fire. We sat around the fire on that cold night talking away late in the night with discussion varying from topic to topic. It was pretty cold in the mountains and we had to warm our front and back sides after every few miniutes. After finishing off the dinner & some more talking, we surrendered to the sleep.
Other published articles on Binsar:
Temples of Jageshwar and Dandeshwar
Nov 23, 2008 Binsar, Mountains, North India, Pilgrimage, Uttarakhand
After the short trek in the morning we visited Jageshwar later in the day. Jageshwar is a Hindu pilgrim dedicated to Lord Shiva & is at a distance of 35KMs from Almora. Nestled between tall Deodar trees lies this small town where more than 100 small temples are grouped in one premise. Constructed in ‘Nagara’ architecture (temple shikhars in the shape of bee hive), the temples date back to eight and ninth centuries.
Inside the Jageshwar temple premises, smaller temples are dedicated to other gods & goddesses – Vishnu, Hanuman, Lakshmi and more. A light (akhanda jyoti) burns continuously 24/7 in one of the temples & I was told that it’s burning since ages & is still maintained. And a small stream which flows beside the premise adds serenity to the place.
Couple of kilometers from Jageshwar is Dandeshwar temple, another shrine of Lord Shiva. This premise is smaller in size and four-five temples are there along with the main Dandeshwar temple. Both the premises are maintained by ASI (Archaeological Survey of India).
One peculiar sign we observed on almost all the temples was the three faced sculpture on the temple shikharas in both Jageshwar & Dandeshwar. When we enquired about the same with the priests we didn’t get any appropriate answer. And along with this one irritating issue we came across in the temple were the priests. They are no less than any of dacoits in extorting money from the tourists and devotees.
Other published articles on Binsar:
Binsar: Rock Climbing & A Morning Walk
Nov 10, 2008 Adventure, Binsar, Mountains, North India, Uttarakhand
By the time we reached the resort in Binsar it was post noon. Only negative point about Binsar is the amount of time needed to reach the place. It took 20 hours to reach the place which included 6 hours journey by taxi. We were warned before about the journey time & I thought day one at the resort would be spent getting some rest from the journey. On the contrary, there was no sign of tiredness at all (blame the mountain air ;)
Hours after we reached our destination, we were out on the mountain roads for rock climbing in the evening. Though so many events happen around Bangalore on rock climbing, I never got a chance before to try my hand. It looked so-damn-easy when we saw the demo by the experts. With Sun setting down behind mountain ridge, one by one went up & came down, sweating out. And we had spectators too.
The mountain weather during day time at Binsar reminded me of our good old Bangalore in winter mornings. A pinch of chilly when in shadow & a soothing prickle by the Sun when in open, with nights being much colder.
Next morning we decided to go on a morning walk/trek to catch the glimpse of first rays & view of Trishul parvat (a Himalayan peak visible at certain places in Binsar valley). We went on an adventurous trek/walk before returning to the resorts. We took our own route through the pine trees to reach Manipur villa where a second Club Mahindra resort is coming up. While returning we reached the resorts as if like an arrow is shot, in straight line, crossing all the hurdles which came in between which made the trek back more adventurous.
Other published articles on Binsar:
Prashanth M
