Long weekend break in Bhimtal ( Uttarakhand, India) ~ Losing myself in nature

“Life is so simple& fulfilling” - These words echoed many times inside my head & heart during my stay at Bhimtal in Uttarakhand(India). Located at an altitude of 1370 meters, this small hill town is lesser known but far more  prettier cousin of the popular hill station of North India - Nainital. I opted to visit Bhimtal on a long weekend break out of Delhi Last month, because I wanted to lose the crowds (especially the Delhi crowd which goes all over the popular hill stations in Uttarakhand during such long weekends).

Bhimtal turned out to a good decision as I relaxed & rejuvenated among green hills, blue skies, clouds, thunder and rains - all within 3 days!!

We chose to stay at a small village called Jungaliyagaon, in the interiors of Bhimtal in a homestay. It was my first time choosing a homestay as an accommodation option and Emerald Trail cottage turned out to be pretty & homely experience!!

The cottage was an old colonial one, with lots of open area, growing their own vegetables and having their own cows!! I fell in love instantly with the cottage and clicked a lot of pics on arrival. 

I fell in love with the rustic swing and tried it out many times during the stay.

Since, it was a long & stressful drive from Delhi to Bhimtal, we slept off after a heavy & delicious lunch. We woke up after sunset and spent rest of the evening having wine & chatting about life on the porch. The star studded sky & view of the blinking lights of the town was perfect accompaniment.

The next day, we decided to go for a walk in the surrounding forest and the manager of the cottage kindly offered to accompany us (which we took up promptly!!). The walk was awesome, we passed through a pine forest, remote fields & huts, ridges and dense silver oak forest. There were lot of wow moments and we completely lost the track of time. 

Thankfully, we completed the walk by noon and came back to the cottage to a wonderfully delicious home cooked lunch. Since the husband was dead tired with all that walk, he slept off immediately after lunch. Me and the brother relaxed on the porch and then we heard rumble; clouds were gathering and soon it was all grey sky. Feeling tired and chilly, we slept off the rest of the afternoon.

It was raining & chilly when we woke up; feeling thrilled at the change of weather (after all it was HOT back in Delhi), we sat down in the porch again enjoying another round of wine before dinner. As the thunder & rains continued, we all felt cozy& warm tucked inside the blanket with a book. Day 2 had been real good!!!

The next day, we had to drive back to Delhi, in the afternoon. We decided to visit Bhimtal Lake on our way back to Delhi and started off after a late breakfast. Driving from Jungaliyagaon to the Lake, one gets a fine view of another lake in the district – Naukutchiyatal. 

view of Naukutchiyatal

Driving down the hilly roads, I was already missing Emerald Trail and that awesome childhood memories invoking swing!! Anyways, we got down to Bhimtallake, it is big, but not crowded. A sense of peace pervades the lake and it was nice time clicking shots, though we skipped the boat ride.

After our time at Bhimtal Lake, it was again back to the hectic drive back home Delhi.

The time I spent in Bhimtal taught me the importance of losing one self from crowds & urban environment at regular intervals!! After all, I am hopelessly in love with Travel & off the Map traveller for life J

Delhi to Bhimtal (Uttarakhand) ~ The Road Trip experience

In the month of April, we (me, husband and brother) took a much needed break from our busy schedules (after all we had not traveled at all in the 1st quarter of 2013) and went for an extended weekend holiday to Bhimtal in Uttarakhand. The road trip from Delhi (where we live) to Bhimtal was as exciting as our stay. So, as I sat down to pen my experience of the Bhimtal Holiday, I felt I really had to share the exciting, back breaking (literally) and adventurous road trip from Delhi to Bhimtal.

We started off early in the morning, trying to avoid the long weekend traveler rush; not successful as we encountered a jam going out of  Delhi Border. However, the road ahead became relatively free of traffic.

The Delhi to Bhimtal route is via National Highway  24 and 87 in Uttar Pradesh. While National Highway 24 is in relatively fine shape, the other highway (NH 87) in Uttar Pradesh is in bad shape; full of cracks & potholes and it was a bumpy ride as soon as we hit NH 87. 

Our 1st pit stop was at Gajraula, where we stopped to refill air in our car tires, have breakfast & a loo break. 

We hit the road again and post Gajraula (in the road stretch from Rampur to Rudrapur in Uttar Pradesh) the road became worse, there were so many bumps that I (who was sitting in the backseat) got a backache. However, there were some interesting photo opportunities too and I clicked what I could riding the bumpy road. 

This milk truck must have been a regular on this route as it knew all the potholes and slowed down at the appropriate places. After a while, we started following it to avoid the potholes :)

The scenery on both sides of the road was interesting and we passed through large fields, canals and a river.

The google map says that it takes  5-6 hours to reach Bhimtal from Delhi, however, in reality, due to the bad road condition, it takes around 9-10 hours. We reached Kathgodam, which marks the beginning of the hilly road section of the trip, around noon. We were really hungry as our original guess was that we would reach Bhimtal by lunch!!

We had a light lunch at Udupiwala, which turned out to popular pit stop for travelers on this route of  Uttarakhand. The food is good and hygienic, I particularly loved the coconut Uttapam.

Driving past Kathgodam, we soon saw the sign board which told us that Bhimtal was only 17 km away. We were happy!!!

The hills roads to Bhimtal were green and enchanting as they always are. The drive had turned pleasurable.

Soon we came to Bhimtal lake, which is the most popular attraction of Bhimtal. We stopped for a few minutes here and then drove the road higher above, as our accommodation for the holiday was located at a remote place and we still had another hour of drive.

As we drove to higher altitude, the views got prettier and prettier :)

We finally reached our destination in Bhimtal around late noon and were ready to crash. however, the beautiful views kept us awake for some longer time.
The road trip from Delhi to Bhimtal taught us the importance of not taking the time lines in google maps not seriously!! However, it was also another adventurous experience in our now increasing list of road trips to Uttarakhand.

How was our stay at Bhimtal?? That's coming in the next post :)


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Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary ~ A walk into the Wild side of Delhi

Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary ~ A verdant green protected area in southern most part of Delhi is one of the most excellent examples of natural regeneration of land. Once an overly exploited mining area, it is now  a green forest filled with many wild animals & natural flora of Delhi Ridge.

I first got interested in this Sanctuary many years ago, when I wrote a Thesis case study in my Masters and since then have been wanting to visit it. The chance came only this year, when I along with the husband and some fellow nature lovers visited the Asola Bhatti Sanctuary on a early morning walk.

Sharing with you the beautiful moments & experience of the nature walk at Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary:-

We reached quite early in the morning ( 7 a.m.) but were energized to see a group of army personnel all ready up and about doing their run on the periphery road to the Sanctuary. 

Inspired, we began our walk briskly!!

We spotted trees in full bloom and from far, sometimes it looked like a carpet of bright orange.  

We came across this huge & ancient looking banyan tree 10 minutes into our walk and it was gorgeous sight.

The Asola Bhatti Sanctuary has a number of lakes/reservoirs, which were basically deep mined areas, now filled out with water. We spotted the 1st one pretty quick into our walk.

Around this lake, there were a number of rhesus monkeys playing around and they were very curious to see us. They were not aggressive at all, however, it was best that both of our groups kept a good distance (which we did). I managed to get some candid shots of them though!!

We proceeded to our walk and after spotting a number of interesting trees on the way, we came to our 2nd lake/reservoir.

Walking ahead, we came to a sand hill and it fun getting up and down this one!! :)

Walking ahead and spotting a fleeting glimpse of Nilgai (blue deer), which is generic to Delhi/NCR, I got all excited!! for me, it was THE moment of the walk!!

Finally, we reached the 3rd reservoir and decided to head back from there, as it was almost 1 hour into our walk. This lake was one of the largest out of the three and we were all gobsmacked by the quiet & rugged nature in front of us!!

We walked down to the lake, and spent a considerable amount of time enjoying the beauty around us, the quiet yet pleasant sound of nature and most of all the clear & cool water of the lake!! The kids in the group & the dog just went water crazy swimming & splashing!!

Energized & refreshed, we walked back to the urban Delhi, with lots of good memories. 

I would definitely do a nature walk again in Asola Bhatti Sanctuary and if you are in this city, do make time for it too, trust me , it would be an out of the box experience!!

P.S.  - It is best to venture into Asola Bhatti in a group; though the area is protected and nearby the urban resential area, it is remote inside the sanctuary. Also, there are number of wild animals like monkeys, scorpions and nilgais in addition to the rugged terrain & thorny bushes.