Travel Times once more- Chakrata

Life had suddenly picked up speed at a pace which left even me stunned. Wedding in the family, trip to Amritsar, house shifting and then a program to the Himalayas within a day of shifting drew major flak from one and all. But once a commitment has been made, it had to be adhered to. 
So early morning we started off for Chakrata in district Dehra Doon .Instead of taking the tried and tested route of Roorkie, Dehra Doon, we decided to take the Haryana route of Yamuna Nagar, Ponta Sahib, Herbertpur, Vikasnagar, Kalsi and then Chakrata. Taking the Haryana route was a conscious decision as the roads of that state are decidedly superior and we could make good time. Stopping at Murthal for the famed yummy piping hot stuffed paranthas and then driving non stop to our destination gave us advantage of time. We only stopped to buy luscious peaches straight from the farm near Yamuna Nagar.
Chakrata is a sensitive zone as far as our internal security is concerned, as it houses the training grounds for our defense forces. Hence foreigners are not permitted in this hilly cantonment town. It is rumored that a lot of our sensitive operations were rehearsed here before the actual assault. We were stopped at the entrance of this cantonment town and our antecedents were verified. Once the armed forces were convinced that every member in the vehicle was an Indian, were we allowed to pass. There is a beautiful small temple at the checkpost with a priest who won our hearts by running towards us just to bless us for a safe journey onwards expecting no rewards.
Chakrata reminds me of Lansdowne, only less populated and higher. We found our hotel-Hotel Snow View fairly easy. The hotels claim to fame is that it’s the oldest building of the town, built in 1864. Typical colonial style bungalow hotel amidst dense coniferous forests, the first glimpse made me look heavenward and offer a silent thanks to the one above. The selection was mine and if it was poor, I would have been in trouble. We slept off our exhaustion through the afternoon and evening.

View from the hotel

Rhododendron flowers

By the morning next day, we were ready for adventure.
So we hit the trail straight after breakfast – and trail indeed it was. The forest department levied a tax of Rs 20 per head and Rs.70 for the car for issuing a permit to enter the forest zone. After traveling a couple of kilometres through the rhododendron forests(most of the trees were in full bloom), we came across a sign saying guerrilla country painted on the rocks. 

The excitement started building as we could hear people making war cries somewhere in the distance. Another sign with a big Spider drawn saying Spider Academy and we hit upon a commando training camp. The instructors were dressed in blue while the people being trained were in army fatigues. We spent some time watching them handling cliff climbing, free falling from heights- from a distance. The fingers were itching to get the camera out and shoot, but photography is strictly prohibited and the commandos were watching us as intensely as we were watching them. It was like one was like living out a war movie as an observer.
We continued our journey upward towards Deoban which houses the oldest deodar trees of Asia. On the way we had to bodily remove boulders to pave way for the car to pass.

Dense jungles, with a wide spectrum of flora, most of them unknown to us but very interesting. We even sat in the middle of the road- the isolation was so great.. Suddenly we were at the top. Amazing vistas, great meadows, the absolute solution to tired souls. In the still unpolluted air, the chirping of birds made merry melody- one just had to be one with nature here. No alternative to that.

My Denkali

Our next stop was tiger falls- same kind of roads- a 14 km drive took over 1 hour with the car moving at no more than 10- 20km an hour and almost at the first gear.
To reach Tiger falls the car had to be parked at a point and one had to trek almost 1km down. The trek down had its moment with a few skid and thuds, but it’s a mild trek so one was injured –this was the first time I thanked god for my ample posterior- the cushioning made sure that the skids and thuds were painless. One could hear the waterfall but no view- we were wondering if the whole thing was a big hoax or not, because all that one could see is small rivers, with big stones and chilled water. Not people to give up, we explored, walked up the boulders on the rivers and suddenly we were there. A big waterfall, falling from a height of almost 100 metres with a decent volume of water even in this dry season, so well hidden from the human eye.The entire setting reminded me of phantoms denkali, this waterfall even had its own cave.

We splashed around for sometime, our senses extremely alive and satiated. Life was good and we were lucky to have made it there. After a cup of tea at the makeshift shack run by an old man, we made our way up to the car, huffing and puffing.I might mention here that my daily regime of cross-trainer made sure that there was no pain in the body.

wild horses- a rare sighting

We came back to the hotel well after 8pm- hungry tired and happy ready for the next day.
Last day of our holiday started well after breakfast. We hit for a place called Kanasar, 25kms from our hotel. The hotel staff warned us that there would be no food available at the destination and offered to pack us a lunch hamper comprising of jeera aloo and paranthas.
There was absolutely nothing called a road throughout the journey. The vista was slightly different from the previous day’s trip- the deep forests were replaced with sharp and jagged cliffs which looked every inch majestic as the day before dense jungles, despite the barrenness. The bleak look had its pockets of huge daisy fields and apple orchards in full bloom. Understandably there was virtually no traffic or people to be seen. The occasional goatherd or the farmer would stop whatever he/she would be doing and look at our car with great curiosity.

sitting in the middle of a road with no worries about getting run over

 Kanasar has deodar forests and we came across IFS (Indian Forest Services) people working hard at gauging the age of the tree. Striking up a conversation with them revealed that the oldest deodar tree there was over 200 years old with a circumference of 6.35mts.

 

if only this 200 year old Deodar could speak

daisy carpet in the apple orchard
The rocky road and the slow speed of the vehicle at 20kms an hour at the 2nd gear, made us feel like we were on a perpetual roller coaster ride. All the food we had on our picnic lunch got digested almost straight after eating it and we were hungry again. Maybe the crisp mountain air helped. And then we had the same problem that every mountain trip of ours face, we were low on fuel. Even though we had tanked up before getting into the cantonment area, the lack of roads took its toll. We got diesel at Chakrata market at pretty steep rates but desperate times need desperate measures.

the little mermaid

Mahindra and Mahindra should start sponsoring our trips

We decided that the next day we would hit the homeward stretch on the same route that we took on the way up. Enroute we would stop at Kalsi to see the Ashokan rock edict at Kalsi dated at 450 BC. The edict reminded me of an obelix and the dry bed of the Yamuna river didn’t impress me much but I was sure that it would be an interesting journey for the history student. It is well maintained and there is a steady stream of visitors.

The worthwhile mention on the way back was the sight of 18 Harleys hurtling on their way back from Leh and stopping for a cuppa at the same place we had stopped to stretch ourselves.