Bhimtal

Bhimtal is one of the 4-5 "Tal"s dotting the map in Uttaranchal, the most prominent of them being Nainital. I remember one of my friends mentioning about the forest camp she went to every alternate year near Bhimtal, and how exciting it was.

We reached Bhimtal in the afternoon around two pm. The journey from Corbett was mostly characterised by typical farms and then hills on either side, nothing to be unusually excited about. Our resort at Bhimtal was nothing to be excited about either, quite a mish-mash of all kinds of decor, the ambience was uninteresting at best. There were two huge real trees in the lobby though, something that is not a common sight in hotel lobbies and made it unique.

After freshening up, we decided to see where the road in front of the hotel led and trodded along it for a long way. Walking past the houses with berry shrubs, beautiful white flower-laden trees, and simple architecture to provide fodder to our discussion, both of us talked to each other about each and every thing as usual.

As the sun set behind the hills magnificiently, I gulped in as much of the fresh mountain air greedily, a luxury for our kind, used to inhaling dust and smoke as the bigger portion of the air in metros. There were the various evergreen conifers up on the cliff and way down into the valley, stretching all the way up the adjacent mountain and beyond... usual sights of the mountains, ever so refreshing and unique everywhere.

Staying indoor throughout the night, we rose up early and had a hearty breakfast. Then we headed to the lakeside. Bhimtal was quite splendid in its view, and there were surprisingly low number of tourists. We attributed this to the fact that most tourists make a beeline for the more popular Nainital, and the ones who do stay in the resorts here, have little drive left in them after a saturday night of heavy partying, drinking and sex, to come visit the lake at ten in the morning!

We decided against going on a boatride into the lake as we would have been the only boat in it (shy guys we are...) and we may not have had the liberty of behaving as we wanted with the boatman with us for company.

So we walked along the lake, we did the whole circumference in about an hour and a half, resting for a while midway, sitting beside the clean water under some trees watching the typical lake in mountain valley setting in full glory.

Peaceful and quiet, we were glad that we were here rather than in Nainital or some other commercial hill station.

Lazing around a while longer, we headed back to the resort and a couple of hours later, it was time to head back to Delhi, bidding a silent goodbye to the place, which along with Corbett, made our lil escape truly worth remembering.

Travelogue - Corbett

So, here goes the description of an extended weekend holiday taken by two lovebirds. An escape from the bustling capital to the peace and quiet of the forest and the hills.
I reached Delhi airport at night, and we were off towards Corbett right away. Corbett National Park - famous for the tiger, the most popular of the Indian wild cats. The journey at night was made pain-stakingly slow by the thick blanket of fog that descended on us when we were not more than a hundred km out of Delhi. But the fog rather increased the adventure spirit of the journey than be a dampner. Not being able to gather where we were headed and what kind of an area we were passing through, and the mist falling on the windshield was so much like an old black-and-white classic mystery movie. With us cuddled up under a blanket on the back seat of the car in the chilly nite as the driver struggled bravely through utterly poor visibility, it was a most exciting beginning to the holiday...
Reaching Corbett in the morning, we took up our Cottage at the resort where we were booked. The resort was a nice small one on the river Ramganga's edge, dotted with cottages, nicely landscaped lawns, pool n spa, activity centre and restaurant et all.
After breakfast, we immediately decided to go take a walk upto the river. The little river had lovely clear water and we could see huge fishes right from the vantage point we stood on looking down at the water and the entire landscape. Deciding to be adventurous, we trekked down right to the water's edge, where it appeared ever so tempting to wade into and have a refreshing dip. Deciding against that, we just sat at the edge and hummed, as we watched some local boys fish with their lines thrown into the river at many places.
Getting back, we decided on taking the Tiger Safari before dawn next day. So, we whiled away the subsequent hours snuggled up in our room, sleeping off the last day's tiredness.
In the evening, I decided to take the "nature" walk that the guide at the reception had mentioned, all by myself. Walking on the dusty road parallel to the river, I keenly looked at the few houses that existed in the area and the people who appeared to reside in them. Living inside a forest, how would that be like? Quite different I am sure that the urban jungle we are used to! Little children played within fenced areas, often running upto the riverside, seemingly unconcerned about any sort of danger there might be in being too adventurous.
I reached an old creaky bridge and crossed over to a path that lead to a temple in some distance. There was absolutely no human now anywhere in sight, although quite clearly it was an often used route by the locals, but somehow I felt quite isoltaed. I looked at the trees and other vegetation around, hearing the chirping of the birds and rustling of leaves interrupted sometimes by sounds of a distant truck on the road across the river. There was a small cliff rising on to the other side, and I suddenly got a feeling that the Tiger could easily be watching from the top of the cliff and I wouldn't know! How much time would it take for the wild beast to come charging and grab my neck... not much for sure. All these thoughts were of-course interspersed with the realization that I was just at the periphery of the forest and there were not more than 200 odd tigers in all of the huge expanse!
On my way back I sat at the riverside for a while, and as the mountain river sparkled in the setting sun's rays, I imagined the resemblance of the setting to Brokeback mountain, that I had just watched a while ago.
In the evening we watched a wildlife film, played some tabletennis and wrapped it up with a nice musical event with the hotel guests gathered around a bonfire.
We set off on the wild safari before sunrise, and by the time dawn set in we were well within the main forest area. The first observation: Corbett is full of spotted deer! There were all sizes and kinds of them, merrily jumping around, not really afraid of our jeep, ratherly looking curious if anything else. Apart from spotted ones, the other deer we bumped into were Sambhar and the little barking deer. There were also wild boars, wild fowl and langurs to be seen.
Of course, the main attraction for me was the forest itself. Vividly colourful apart from the omnipresent green and a variety of terrain... We found ourselves driven through shrubbery, tall grass glistening golden in the first rays of the sun, the mountain river in the middle of the forest, small hillocks and open grassland with hundreds of deer grazing merrily. The forest is so alive, even when you do not sight a single animal, there is a sense of them being there, watching you curiously at first, then getting back to their life with boredom of having seen it before.
Highlights of the safari included a deer alarm call, when a tiger was supposedly very near and our driver tried frantically to facilitate a sighting. We also saw fresh paw marks made on top of tyre marks that were not more than an hour or so old, but the shy beast remained elusively our of sight. We did manage to get a good dekko at some wild tuskers though. That it was a big group of elephants gathered near the river's edge, was evident because of the rustling and shaking of trees till quite a distance.
Heading back, I found myself not a trifle disappointed at not being able to actually see a tiger, the forest was enough to make its presence felt.
And so, the first part of our weekend ended as we boarded our car and headed off towards a quiet lake destination, Bhimtal.