After my regular hikes every weekend for the last 4 years, I
was starting to develop itchy feet. I needed an adrenaline rush and was
browsing the Indiahikes site (https://indiahikes.com/documented-trek/ayodhya-hills-trek/) when it caught my eye. Ayodhya Hills
Trek in Puruliya - a weekend trek close to home. That was perfect!
I set out with two of my friends on a long drive to the
district of Puruliya. Long drives generally start with chitchats, excitement, snacking,
tea stops and then moves on to loud music ultimately toning down with everybody feeling hungry and tired. This was no exception. We took the highway via Arambagh but unfortunately couldn’t find a single place to have lunch. So, with a
starving tummy, we reached Baghmundi at around 4o clock in the evening.
We were staying in the Sonar Tari Hotel. The hotel room was
decent, nothing fancy but suited our purpose. We could see the entire Ayodhya Hill range from the terrace in the hotel. I was dying for my cup of tea
after the long journey. The friendly cook asked us to wait for 10mins for the
tea but our afternoon cuppas finally arrived at 8 in
the evening after a wait of 2 long hours and on top of that there was no milk. This felt like a norm here. Food or drinks never arrived on time but I must say,
when they did arrive, they were hot, fresh and extremely tasty. So, after the
much needed drink and a large homely meal that evening, we went to bed early
because a good night’s sleep is good idea before a big hike.
And I couldn’t sleep. Not for a second that night. Partly
because of my friends’ persistent snoring and partly because of my sleepless
stupidly busy mind.
We had our local guide, Mr. Sudarshan waiting for us at 7o
clock in the morning and we were ready to go on time. The path started from right behind the hotel we were in. We tweaked our trail a bit from the one
in Indiahikes as we wanted to do a single day hike instead of 2 days. Sudarshan
lead the way. We started with a very rocky path that climbed up along the Turga
falls. This path was full of boulders and the most challenging part of the
entire trail. I loved it. There was one particular part where one would have to
pull their entire body up by hanging on to a side of the rock with your
hands. That was fun with all of us pulling our weight up in the most
unconventional ways. My panda-loving friend climbed/rolled herself up here just like a
panda would. Next, we continued to climb our way through Sal forest. This part of the forest didn’t have any path to follow. We just had to follow the direction we were
heading in which ran alongside a stream. We arrived at the top of Bamni falls.
From here, you had to take about 100 rocky steps down to the base of the falls and get a full view of the cascading waterfall. This was nice. We sat at the bottom of the falls and had a few
snacks from our backpacks. After spending some time here, we climbed up to the
top of the falls again and had some eggs and ice cream before continuing our walk. The hills
here were approximately 600m high and had interesting features. It was rocky
and foresty, at places it was a little difficult but more or less an easy hike
route. 
We then entered into another forest full of Sal trees. The forest didn’t
seem as dense as we had expected and our guide mentioned that this was due to the
local people cutting down trees as a means for their survival. People use the
leaves of these trees to make plates and fuel for their cooking and also to get
some warmth during the winter days. The forest opened up to an empty
undulating area. This would have been a nice view but the amount of
garbage that had been thrown out in the open was shocking. These were the two things that
bothered us the most on this hike – 1. what seemed like random cutting down of trees and 2. unbelievable
amounts of garbage left on the hill top. We hoped, the government would do
something about this. People here were extremely poor, the place had an arid and dry
climate but at the same time, it had got its own beauty. So, with a
little more effort on educating the locals and providing them with necessary means for disposal of waste as well as cleaning up the environment, this place could be so much more
appealing. As we progressed, we went through some villages and farmlands. The lush green and
yellow mustard fields were an instant delight. We also saw 'mohua' trees and surprisingly, a big area of pine trees – quite odd in this sort of climate. We
reached the Ayodhya hill top where we found nothing but a few lodges and hotels and places to eat. We had some hot rice, daal, veggies and fish and
rested our legs for a while. Next we walked up to the Upper dam where there is
a big lake and the dam generates electricity for the district. A few
kilometers down from the Upper Dam is the Lower dam. By this time, our legs were pretty tired
and we called our driver to pick us up.
In the evening we went to a local fair near Khoirabera
falls. When I say, we went there, I mean, we tried to go to the fair but didn't succeed. It was quite
late and my friend’s knees were hurting. We still kept our enthusiasm up and started
marching down the narrow path by the fields that lead to the fair ground.
Possibly we timed it badly but there was a huge rush of people coming out of
the fair from the opposite direction. We were literally lost in what felt like
a sea of people coming at us. In that crowd and chaos,
one of our friends got separated and we couldn’t find her. We waited on a side lane. By this time, the other friend of mine had her knees all swollen up. We didn't have our phones or torch with us. Scared and worried, we decided to go back to the car where we also met with our other friend whom we lost earlier.
With the plan of having a bonfire that night, we came back to
the hotel. After hiking for almost 20KM on a variety of terrain and with very few stops, we felt completely drained. The moment we slouched on the bed, the plan of having a bonfire seemed like a distant fantasy. We got some local drink
called ‘mohua’, the smell of which was so overpowering, we couldn’t bring ourselves to drink it.
So, we just stayed in bed chatting, drinking tea and Biskfarm chatpata masala
biscuits! It was around 11o clock at night that we had our meal of
tasty chicken and roti and rice and instantly felt our bodies slipping into a
deep slumber.
The next day we woke up to the noise made by the over-excited
boarders in the other room. We checked out of the hotel and stopped to have tea in a nearby
stall. The person who was selling tea here was possibly the kindest person we
met on this short trip. He was very soft spoken and smiley and didn't charge us for an extra cup of tea that we had. We exchanged a few words, bid him goodbye and set off
on our long drive back home. This time, we took the highway via Durgapur and
ensured our paunches were happy by topping them up with bread-omlette for breakfast
and tarka-roti for lunch. The short hiking trip came to an end but
definitely marked the beginning for many future hikes! 
