priya_garg's Journal

Jim corbett is a fundoo place..
back from a very refreshing trip to Jim Corbett National Park. We left on the 31st evening and spent the new year sipping "chai" at gyani dhaba en route to moradabad!! After spending the night at some hotel in moradabad, we left for ramnagar and reached our campsite around noon. Camp Kyari is a very luxurious camp-very comfy huts, good food, loads of activities and good loos.. (thankfully, there was no need of going for jungle-paani!)The weather was awesome..bright and sunny and 180 degrees opposite to that in delhi.
On the first day, we went for a short trek and came rappelling down a rock face about 60 feet or so.. i was really scared for the first few jumps but after getting the hang of it, it was good fun..We had to cross the river to get back to the camp..imagine wading in the river in january(but that's the catch.. the water wasn't cold surprisingly!) It was already dark by the time we returned to the camp and then we sat around the camp fire playing "antakshari".There is no electricity so we had to do with lanterns and torches..
The next morning, we went trekking to a small temple on top a hill and came back around noon. We had to go "lunch hunting" that day. In groups of 2-3, we were given clues about the house or the person in the village where we would be served lunch. I paired up with Aditya (one of our group member) it took us almost 20 minutes to reach our house "jalagam samiti sachiv ke bade bhai" because it was at the other end of the village. They had prepared rice, daal, rotis and palak ki subzi which was very tasty.. more so after the long walk! and it was another 15-20 min. walk back to the camp..phew!
Next we went for safari(open jeep) to the national park. That place really is a beautiful jungle. Unfortunately, couldn't spot any tigers but saw loads of deers, sambhars, monkeys and peacocks and other safari jeeps.
The next morning was packing time as we prepared to leave for delhi. 6 of us decided to go for a 8km long trek upstream to an ashram called sitamani. we had to cross the stream, locally called "khitchari nadi", some 35-40 times! Beautiful scenery and we saw only some 4-5 locals on the way. The river water was so clean that you could count the no. of stones/ pebbles underneath.. there were dense forests on either side..it was so awesome..The remaining people (who were in no state to trek) had come in the qualis to that ashram along with the cook who prepared hot lunch for us there!! Around 3 we started back for delhi. The road to ramnagar from the ashram was under construction so we had to go on the katcha road and the ride was so bumpy that a camel back ride is hardly exciting! It is a miracle that we were not stranded in the jungle. "Jai Qualis"is all I say.
Finally reached home around 0100 hrs on sunday. It's so boring coming back to such a cold delhi.. awww.. wish i had a few more days to spend there.. but i guess...all good things have to come to an end sooner or later...

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