After a quick early morning walk through Almora's mostly empty bazaar (with lots of trash being swept up), I left Almora about 9 on the 11th in a share jeep bound for Ranikhet. We arrived a little less than two hours later after traveling through pine-covered mountains. Ranikhet is a "cantonment," a military base and home of the Kumaon and Naga Regiments, or so the signs said. It is also a resort and hill station. At about 6000 feet elevation, it is about 500 feet higher than Almora and so a little cooler. It is on a ridge with great views of the Himalayas to the north, the same snow-covered mountains I had seen from Kausani and from Kasar Devi just north of Almora, although they area little farther away from Ranikhet. Despite the greater distance, the view of 7800 meter (25,600 foot) Nanga Devi is better because you can see more of it above the snow-covered ridge in front of it. In the early afternoon I walked on a path through the forest for about two hours and that was about it. The military museum was closed and there didn't seem to be much else to do but enjoy the mountain air and gaze at the mountains. (There are some interesting old colonial military buildings.) Nanda Devi is a little less than 60 miles from Ranikhet and Trishul (7100 meters, 23,000+ feet) is a little less than 50. (From Kausani Nanda Devi was a bit more than 40 miles away, and mostly hidden by the intervening ridge. Trishul was a little more than 30 miles away.) Just before sunset some of the haze and clouds had dissipated and the views were better than at midday when I arrived.
The next morning the views were splendid, with the air very clear and cloudless. I watched the mountains light up in the early morning and after breakfast spent more than an hour watching them from the restaurant terrace. At about 11:30 I left on a bus for Nainital, another trip, this one of about three hours, through the pine-covered mountains, descending to about 3500 feet before rising to Nainital at about 6500 feet. Nainital is a town on a lake, also called Nainital. "Naini" means "eye" and "tal" means "lake" and this is where Sati's eye is believed to have landed when her body parts fell all over creation, or at least all over India. The crescent shaped lake is wedged between steep forest-covered mountains and we approached it from its outlet end, with the haze-covered hills and plains further to the south. A big resort town and hill station has grown up along the lake and the town was full of Indian tourists on that Saturday. I walked along the lake and got a room for 700 rupees ($16), the most I've paid in India. After a late lunch I walked around a bit, past the "Flats" at the north end of the lake, site of a landslide in 1880 that killed 150. The area was subsequently leveled. A mosque, a Sikh gurudwara and a Hindu temple are in this area. The Hindu temple is supposed to be on the exact spot where Sati's eye landed. One side of the lake is lined with the town's buildings while the other has just a path and a few temples against the steep mountainside. I walked along the latter side (about a mile), reaching the southern end about dark, and then took a cyclo rickshaw along the town side of the lake.
The next morning I walked up north of the lake to find a bus stand for the next day's bus, and then visited the nearby Church of St. John's in the Wilderness, built in the 1840's. The overgrown and garbage-strewn graveyard had at least one gravestone from the 1840's and some from the 1860's. Most were hidden by scraggly vegetation. About 9:30 I took a gondola that traveled up to Snowview, a spot on the ridge on the town side of the lake, facing north. It is about 1000 feet above the lake with good views not only of the lake below but of the peaks to the north. Again I could see Trishul, Nanda Devi, Nanda Kot and other snow-covered peaks. The air was clear and cloudless. Nainital is south of Ranikhet so the view is even further away from the peaks, more than 70 miles from Nanda Devi and more than 60 from Trishul. I spent about an hour an a half up there. There were a lot of noisy Indian tourists crowded onto the best spot for viewing. I came down, had lunch and then rested for a while before taking a walk around the lake in the later afternoon and then visiting the Hindu temple, one altar of which was invaded by a monkey that stole some of the offerings. No one shooed him away or seemed to care.
The next morning I trudged up to the bus stand for Ramnagar to catch the 11 am bus, but there was no bus. I waited around until 12:30 and then gave up. I walked down to the lake, having a quick lunch on the way, and then took a cyclo rickshaw along the lake and caught a bus at its southern end bound for Haldwani on the plains below. We left about 1:30 heading down the twisting road that wrapped around the mountains below Nainital, with views back towards the cleft in the mountains, where Nainital is located, from 2000 feet below. We left the hills and pines and reached the flatlands where Haldwani is located, at about 1800 feet, about 3 o'clock. I caught a 4 pm bus that headed west to Ramnagar with the front range of the Himalayas to the north. It got hilly again as we approached Ramnagar, arriving about 5:30, just before dark. Ramnagar is at about 1600 feet and it felt good to be able to walk around in the dark without a jacket. The air was cool, though.
The next morning I arranged for a trip to Corbett National Park, India's first national park, established in 1936. It is named after a famous tiger hunter turned conservationist, who lived from 1875 to 1955 and is the author of several books about his exploits killing man-eating tigers and jaguars. The entry fees are about four and half times as expensive for foreigners as for Indians and cost me about $60, plus about the same for the jeep and driver hire for two days. I would have like to have gone for three days, but they could only accommodate me for one night in the dormitory. The main part of the park, the Dhikala area, had just opened the day before. It is open from November 15 to June 15 each year.
We left Ramnagar about 10 and reached the park entrance, about 10 miles north, about 10:30. From there it was a rough 20 mile road west to Dhikala through beautiful sal (a type of jungle tree) forest, with much of the way along the Ramganga River. It took us about three hours, with many stops. We saw deer and monkeys along the way. Once there, we had lunch and then drove to a rickety watch tower maybe 40 feet high. We didn't see much wildlife but the views were nice, including the blue reservoir of the dammed Ramganga. About 3 we drove to the area beyond Dhikala looking for tigers and other wildlife. There are reputed to be something like 160 tigers in the park and one had been spotted that morning nearby. We didn't see a tiger, but we did see wild elephants, cheetal (spotted) deer, the larger sambar deer, langur monkeys and beautiful forest. The jeep, called a "gypsy," had an open back, so I could stand up in the back and then sit down when I wanted. It was ideal for viewing. There were quite a few of these vehicles with other tourists, so it was not a solitary wildlife experience. But it was quite enjoyable.
We got back to Dhikala about 5:30, just before dark. There must have been 20 or more gypsies and other vehicles and well over a hundred, maybe 200, tourists, more than 90% of them Indian. The area is surrounded with an electrified fence to keep out the tigers and other dangerous wildlife. I had a very good dinner there and went to bed in the somewhat comfortable dormitory of 12 beds. The problem was there was one incredibly loud, and relentless, snorer, so it was not a good night's sleep. I got up at 2 am and fog had descended. Macaques were sleeping in the trees next to the dormitory and a big quill-filled porcupine walked by in the moonlight. Dhikala is at about 1600 feet, so it wasn't too cold despite the fog.
I got up the next morning at 6 (the macaques were dropping out of their trees and several invaded our dormitory when someone left the door open) for a 6:30 safari, but the driver was late and we didn't leave until 7. We spent a little more than two hours driving around, first in the morning fog and later in the sunshine. We had good views of elephants and deer, not only cheetal and sambar, but also barking deer, small, brown and solitary. No tigers, though. Someone saw a leopard. We did see some wild peacocks and a wild boar. The driver was very good at spotting wildlife and interpreting the jungle sounds. At first, it was a little chilly in the fog, but it soon warmed up. Back at Dhikala I had an excellent breakfast and tried to see if I could stay another night. I couldn't, so about noon we headed back to Ramnagar, arriving about 3 after a lovely trip through the hilly jungle. Again we saw lots of deer and monkeys, and two very large and fluffy fish owls asleep, or trying to sleep, high up in a tree. Back in Ramagar, I went to the train station to buy a ticket for Delhi, my time in the Himalalyas over for the time being.
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