Episode 230 : The Devbhoomi Experience- Part 3

Day 5: October 4, 2008

The agenda for the morning was simple.

Get up at 3.30am, get ready, hop into a Gypsy to go to Jim Corbett Park.

The first surprise in the morning was a very wet outdoors. It rained heavily in the night and we did not know a thing.

Except Zim. He had left his luggage strapped to his bike more out of laziness than anything else in spite of being warned about rain in the nights.

He woke up just as heavy rain began and ran out to save his stuff. But he was drenched to the skin by the time he finished and caught a cold.

'I will sleep through the morning and get rid of this cold' he told us.

There were hushed whispers that Zim was more interested in his beauty sleep than the beauty of a wildlife park, but how was I know about Zim's true intentions...?

At the office in Ramnagar, where they hand out only 30 forms to visitors, I volunteered to stand in line. It pays to be altruistic- I almost broke my camera and would have lost a couple of kilos in the jostling that happened before the office actually opened! It was then that I realised the truth about my Timex Lextra watch.

'Time kya hua?'

'Chaar bajne waala hai' I said and wondered how slowly time passed in a place like this.

'Aapka watch slow hai, abhi paanch hone waala hai!'

And so it was. The watch had begun to run slow due to the early morning dampness. I wondered if I should listen to Cynic and introduce the watch to Mr. Hammer...

At the crack of dawn we set off with a guide to the park. The trail at Dikhuli was the first to be opened after monsoon and would take us only through the periphery of the park.

Initial apprehension disappeared as we realised that we would see only jungle fowl and deer. Plenty of photo opportunities were there, but I am not good at low-light photography especially in a moving vehicle.

It was past ten when we returned. A quick breakfast and we were on our way to Nainital. It was my first foray into the mountains and I think I did a good job of keeping my excitement under control!

Enroute to Nainital, we stopped at Jim Corbett's house in Choti Haldwani. I recalled reading about his expeditions to rid the area of man-eating tigers. The name Muktesar was uppermost in my mind. I resolved to re-read his books after returning to Bangalore.

We began ascending shortly after 1 in the afternoon.

I had never seen such tall trees, imposing mountains, soft clouds or quietude before. I was so lost in savouring what was around me, that I let others go ahead and kept stopping every few kilometres to take photographs.

It was half past five in the evening when we stopped at the Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam tourist home near the Nainital lake. The lake opened out in front of us and the evening mist promised a cold night ahead.

I was looking forward to wearing my woollens!

I liked Nainital. I kept telling it to myself very often, realising it had become one of the two places where I would happily spend my "retirement" days.

Nainital, Uttarakhand @ 59614km