Ayodhya Hills Trek, Purulia.

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!