The Hilly Solitude - Day 3

I woke up to a very excited chirpy noise from the birds. Sparrows, black birds, blue magpies, etc. are in abundance near my little room overlooking the beautiful Dehradun valley. It’s Day 3 and a working Monday for me. Nevertheless, I still got 3 hours till my office started. I picked up the stick (which Rajesh - the caretaker in this BnB had got me yesterday) and set off on foot. Everything looks and feels thousand times better when Mr. Sun is up and about. And with the first light of the dawn, the mountain feels soft and crisp.

Good Morning from the cottage :)

I walked down the mall road and turned to the right en route to the Camel back road. You may have already guessed why the Camel back road is called so - because of the rocks on the mountains resembling a camel’s hump. It was a short serene walk shaded by long cypress and cedars on either side. I chanced upon the old cemetery where ‘pahari’ Wilson had been buried with his wife ‘Gulabi’ along with quite a few other well-known people. I first read about ‘Pahari’ Wilson in Ruskin Bond’s books and then I heard about him from my different visits in the Garhwal region of India. Just yesterday, my guide, Rohit, was also mentioning him on the Top Tibba trek. It’s so interesting - how an English boy visited India in his teenage years and then stayed back, spending his entire life here, gelling so well with the people that he was dearly called ‘pahari’ (belonging to the mountains) by the locals; a worthy title indeed.

Hawa Mahal - View point

As I continued my walk, my heart leaped up as I suddenly saw the white snowy peaks at the far end. I ran a little further up and came to a spot, called Hawa Mahal. From here, a wide range of the snowy peaks was visible. I could only identify Swargarohini and Bandarpunch whilst the rest of the peaks shined in equal glory in the morning sun. I stopped there to soak in the view for a while. But clock doesn't stop and office-o-hour was about to start soon. I gathered myself and continued along the twisty and turny path. A green parakeet flew over my head and several sparrows chirped away. A bunch of street dogs chased each other playfully (though I must say I am always scared of street dogs and hence, felt much safer having the stick in my hand) The Camel’s back road brought me to the Picture Palace on the other side of the Mall road and from there I walked all the way back to my room. Work awaits now, after all it’s a working Monday. Ugh.

Work from Terrace today... Something good about this Monday indeed!

The Hilly Solitude - Day 2

Making way through the mountains..

When I told my host I’m thinking of going for Top Tibba day hike, she seemed quite baffled. ‘You mean Lal Tibba?’ - she asked. Top Tibba is one of the less known hidden gems around Mussoorie. About 12Kms from the main Mall road, the trail to the Top Tibba starts Suakholi Market on Dhanaulti Road. If you are one of those who is always running away from crowds and concrete, then this is the perfect wilderness. Rohit (Rohit singh Nayak aka Mr Perry) was my guide for the hike and he was amazing.

Top Tibba

We set off on a scooter from the Mall road and in about 30mins, was walking up a narrow bouldery ascent. Two dogs - Jackie and an unnamed young one immediately offered their friendship. The unnamed one (lets call her Lucky - don’t ask me why!) was crazily happy. He was leaping all around, bumping against my stick, licking my shoes and trousers. ‘At this rate, either he will fall off the slope or I will.’ - I told Rohit while trying to balance on a boulder after Lucky suddenly decided to give me a happy bump. Jackie was more reserved, I must say.

Lucky being crazy

The route was not laid out. You basically make your own way through the ascent. (though there are a couple of other routes as well) As we ascended to the top, a very strong pungent smell of a wild animal became more and more prominent. Rohit started telling me all about wild bears and leopards and what to do and what not to do if we encounter them. Well, there was not much to do really, except pushing your luck! We discovered quite a few bear poop on the way but we both came to a conclusion, the smell was of a leopard. It kept coming and going as we got closer and closer to the top. It’s quite thrilling to imagine that a leopard was lurking in the jungle and keeping an eye on us the whole time. 

Jackie's retrospection!

We sat at the top of the hill (at an altitude of about 8500ft; the hike gained around 2500 ft to the top) and had a cuppa each. As I sipped my tea, a large number of vultures circled all around. There was a vulture wall (which we saw during the descent) at the other side and apparently, a huge bunch of them live there in the crevices. One griffon and another bearded one swooped right by my side! That was just uber cool! The view of the valley and the far reaching ranges from here was amazing. 

Hailstones on the path

The sunny, windy, at times cloudy walk suddenly brought us to a huge carpet of soft white snow as we started to descend from the other side of the mountain. The snow on the side of the path was more like crystalline globules of hailstones. But now we had arrived at a proper sea of snow. What more can you ask! After slipping and squishing in the snow for a while, the route carried on through long pine and cypress forest before it circled back to the start of our trail.

Making way towards the deeper snow field.

A perfect little hike, I must say - bouldery path, snowy carpet, wild griffons, leopard smell, friendly dogs, green pines and conifers, not to forget the bright red rhododendrons playing peek-a-boo while scooting back to Mussoorie.

Trees with long legs :D

Oh and in case you get hungry after all this walking, do not miss the authentic Garhwali thali on the way back towards Landour, at a little cafe called - Hills-e-Ishq. Trust me, the name may make you laugh but the food is just suuppeeerb!

Garhwali Thali; with special shout out to the Kulath ka Soup and the thick roti!

And with a happy burp after the food, I got off the scooter at the clock tower and lazily started strolling by the Mall road. Still thinking of that leopard smell and the griffon flight and the bear poop. They all make life so much more worthy :)

The Hilly Solitude - Day 1

As my Uber wheeled across the AJC Bose Flyover, I peeked out of the car window and I found myself grinning foolishly on my own. The street below the flyover - all along Nandan, Victoria, Maidan - has burst into a bright red flame - as if the rouge plumage of palaash just wished me luck on this venture.

I had been toying with this idea of doing a solo unplanned trip for ages now. After a lot of dilly dally and taking a lot of deep breaths, I finally set off. So, here I am. At last, in Mussoorie - one of the pretty hillstations in India. After two flights and a long drive, I am safely tucked into a little cottage bed - feeling warm & cosy. The flights were curiously interesting. I met a very chatty, enthusiastic police inspector as my companion on the first flight. 2.5 hours went in a jiffy at the end of which, I was wiser by 2 chocolate cake slices and a mango juice. The second flight was pretty turbulent, a group of guys broke into a loud applause at the surprising event of landing alive.

From the Mussoorie cottage...

The flight at Dehradun landed on a just rain washed runaway. As I got off the plane, a bright rainbow smiled from the corner of the mountain. Ah! I have missed mountains. You know the feeling of missing someone or something so bad that you miss them physically, like - the touch, the smell, the hold…I have missed all of that so much so long. But now I’m here with my chicken heart and lion dreams! Let’s see what tomorrow’s unplanned untravel unravels…