“Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains…”
Diane Ackerman
My third & last account of our trip into the hills. Since we stayed in a remote little heritage cottage, far removed from the hustle & bustle of urban life, much of our time was spent exploring the hills around. It was easy to set off in any direction, & we would find man made foot trodden paths winding along hillsides for miles to end. On & off we’d come across small cottages, made of mud & wood, self-sufficient in their own little ways, with vegetable patches on the outside – their source of food. One thing common across all the hill people we met, were BIG smiles. The people of this region are pleasant & courteous beyond words, honest & helpful to the core. It’s a revelation to find such unselfish & satisfied people. Unbelievably, they have little access to the outside world. No telephones in houses, no cable TV, no system of organised transport. They walk miles to get to main roads to catch buses & are never in a hurry. It’s as if time waits for them! We took treks deep into the forest to explore the region. Unlike the West, the forested areas are completely unmarked & wild. There are paths that lead deep into the forest as the hills are dotted by the odd thatched house here & there. In the picture above, our starting point was at the arrow you might be able to see in the centre right on top. I almost expired when I saw the distance we had covered…phew! The hub is very good with logistics & planning. He planned the trek after gathering enough information that the climb wasn’t very steep… …primarily because we had my 70 year old Mum with us on the trip (I think he had me in mind too, LOL, coz I told him I wasn’t doing a steep uphill walk). We were told to walk until she could, & then we would turn & return whenever she didn’t feel good enough. He made her walk first to set the pace for the Brady bunch…so we followed her. She did well (& me too), & we completed the entire charted out route, an hour to get there, & another to get back!!
The kids would walk ahead at times, but within safe distance as the place was totally uninhabited, with not a soul in sight. I t was hilarious when at one point, deep in the forest, we heard sounds in the trees & my mum declared it could be a leopard. White faces of 2 very scared kids clutched their Dad. They never strayed away thereafter. I was then made front runner because I’m not scared of animals…in any case, the sound turned out to be from a large bunch of black faced monkeys, wildly jumping through the trees. My not so brave, hysterical kids didn’t let me stop to take pictures! Sigh!
The Brigadier & his son, the folks who own the cottage we stayed at, were very hospitable & made our stay very worthwhile. They helped us plan our few days there, & guided us to explore sites like the abandoned house that Rabindranath Tagore lived in. Many writers and thinkers make their trip to rejuvenate their thinking and ideas. It is commemorated that some of the compositions of Rabindranath Tagore was compiled while he stayed here. Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel laureate Bengali poet, short-story writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, painter and philosopher stayed in a bungalow perched way up in the hills.
The peace & tranquillity of this place inspired the likes of Rabindranath Tagore who penned parts of his famous Gitanjali here. It was an hour long unmarked trek into the deep forest, with biodiversity beyond belief, which finally took us to the old house, which is unfortunately in a state of abject neglect. Unfortunately, even though the bungalow is owned by the government, it is in a ramshackle & dilapidated state, every last thing stripped from the house, except for a few latches which were firmly attached. It’s a government owned property, but has been completely run-down & is ghost-like.
MahadeviVerma, one of the luminaries of Hindi literature, a prose & poetry writer, built an abode here too, which is now a national museum. She not only wrote poems here but also worked for the development of Ramgarh. She worked for the welfare of villagers and women, & wanted to create awareness among the people of Ramgarh, and was a social activist.
While we were in the kumaon hills, we also visited a few local ‘hot-spots’ like Naukuchiatal, a picturesque lake situated at an altitude of 1,219 m. It has nine corners and hence the name, ‘nau means 9 in hindi’. Naukuchiatal attracts migratory birds, which makes it a ‘bird watchers paradise’, and is a haven for fishing enthusiasts.
Both yachts and paddle-boats are available and this is a favourite spot for anglers. There are facilities for para gliding as well. We had a just a little time that day, so we did a little boating on the lake, & then the kids enjoyed some like horse riding. Silly pleasures, but a great deal of fun!
Next we drove on to Saatal, an emerald green lake, situated at a distance of 23kms from Nainital. Saatal is a unique, unforgettable spot which has a cluster of lakes placed amidst the oak forest.
A tranquil & calm lake, surrounded by hills housing old bungalows & beautiful sights. Our final stop that day was at Nainital, a small town in the hills of Kumaon, which is a popular hill station surrounded by mountains on three sides. Once this area had many lakes and it was called the City of 60 lakes, but most lakes have disappeared now.
We spent a short while wandering around, did a round of boating on the lake on the kids insistence, had an early lunch, which was nothing to write home about, & left in a hurry as the place was teeming with holidayers. There were local fruit sellers selling an assortment of local fruit in leaf baskets, & then there were locals from bakeries selling colourfully iced butter cream pastries in trunks…
The next morning, we had an early breakfast in beautiful dining room at the cottage & drove back home to Gurgaon, next to New Delhi! Home sweet home!!
“Thought is the blossom,language the bud,action the fruit behind.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Here’s a little more about our recent trip into the hills, the adventurous beginning of which you can read about in my first post here. This second post is a bit of a fruity one; well mostly anyway. Ramgarh is a serene hill station in the Himalayas, perched at an altitude of about 1800 m above the sea level. It is quite the idyllic place for offbeat leisurely holidays in peace and tranquility, & is known for its fruit orchards and wonderful views of the Himalayas. On clear days you can see the snow-capped ranges of the Himalayas from the windows of the cottage we stayed at. Unfortunately for us, it was quite cloudy & misty the few days we were there for, so we didn’t quite get to see the snow-capped ranges. What we did get to do loads of was enjoy the fruit hanging heavy from the boughs in the orchards surrounding Taradale.
An invigorating & exciting experience. The kids enjoyed it the most, & by the end of our trip, the lad knew which peach was going to be sweet & rightly ripe, & which wasn’t. He literally ate truckloads of peaches. Eventually, I had to stalk him to make sure he didn’t overeat fruit, & fall sick. At any given time, you could find him with a peach in his dirty little hands, the juice flowing down his arms. SIGH!I could visualise the poor birds fighting my lad for ripe fruit…LOL. We would wake up to an orchestra of bird songs every morning, thanks to these fruit laden boughs. The owner of the cottage told us that he’s spotted over 230 species of birds in Ramgarh.Ramgarh is known for orchards of a variety of Himalayan fruits like apples, apricots, and peaches, & this region of the Himalayas is often referred to as ‘the fruit basket of India’.
Around the cottage, the trees were laden with ripe peaches. Plums & apricots were still tart, but yummy if you didn’t mind the sour taste. I certainly didn’t! Pears & apple were still in blossom & young fruit stage. We dug into the peaches big time, & carried some back too. I also brought back a rosemary & a lavendar plant that I luckily tripped across at quite a nondescript little nursery tucked into the hillside. I found the nursery while talking to some sweet local kids, who were being taught by their grandfather, & were ready to go to school. They insisted I sing & dance for them, which I didn’t because my kids looked at me in absolute horror, wondering if I was going to oblige. I fooled around with the naughty mites for a bit & then they set off for school. Schools in the district begin at 10am … why so late one might wonder?…Well, because there is no school transportation available. Little huts dot the countryside for miles, & are very far apart, often in complete wilderness, with no roads, just dirt tracks. It’s quite a revelation to see all the kids go to school, safely walking the distance for hours, even the littlest of them! They seem quite happy with this way of life, & it takes them about an hour, on an average, to get to school. You can see them setting off 9am onwards, & while trekking one morning, we came across students in uniforms all over the hills!
On to the jam now… I made some Peach-Rosemary jam on my return as I was keen to preserve a few peaches, & some memories with them! The son polished off most the the remaining peaches! The daughter prefers mango.
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PEACH-ROSEMARY JAM adapted fromMartha Stewart Try this jam with yogurt or toast topped with fresh ricotta cheese. Ingredients 4 pounds yellow peaches, peeled 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice 2 cups sugar 4 large sprigs fresh rosemary Method:
Halve and pit peaches, then cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges. Transfer to a large bowl. Add lemon juice; toss. Add sugar and rosemary; toss. Cover; let stand, tossing every hour, for 4 hours (sugar should be completely dissolved).
Put peach mixture into a large, wide pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook until liquid is syrupy, 12 to 13 minutes. (I cooked it for almost 30 minutes).
Crush lightly with a potato masher, leaving one-quarter of the wedges intact. Skim foam from surface. Discard rosemary sprigs.
Note: Refer to the recipe @ Martha’s website for sterilising, sealing & processing guidelines.
More later on the beautiful biodiversity of the hills, a bit about trekking, about the people & the place …
“I’ve been staying at their lodge in the Himalayas for years, … They have this beautiful lodge. You look out and there’s Ama Dablam. Oh man, it’s like heaven.” Pete Shelley
It was something we’ve wanted to do for long, but somehow it never materialised. Though we’ve been into the hills before, the Himalayas hadn’t ever been explored by self-drive. Luckily for us in the plains of North India, there are a number of Himalayan hill stations that are accessible by road, & summer is the best time to escape the heat of the plains. For once, things seemed to fall into place, & we managed to take our dream trip into the Himalayas. There were 6 of us, the hub, the 2 kids, my mother, my sis-in-law, & me. On our to-do list was something off-beat, something relaxing, sans the hustle-bustle, & surrounded by nature. We managed all this & much more, lived beyond our dreams, & experienced the beauty of nature, often untouched by man. The kids were ‘detoxified’ due to the absence of computers, TV, electricity too at times … & the presence of fresh mountain air & fruit laden trees! They had a whale of a time!The Himalayas are exciting, invigorating & offer the unexpected around every bend, as every road trip in India promises. Not always for the faint-hearted, as Indian roads can often be ‘adventurous’, but rest assured, a very liberating experience.This was a break away from the ‘mismatched discipline‘ of the urban India … roads jammed with trucks & tractors, cattle weaving through, people for whom time has stood still, no one in a hurry, missing road signs, treacherous curves in the hills, stop where you feel like hill roads, broken bridges, honest-to-goodness people of the Kumaon region ... truly incredible! We drove off into sun-rise, having left home at an unearthly 4am, with a 7-8 hour drive in mind. Roads in India come laden with surprises, & life-time experiences. Where else would you get caught in a religious procession across a bridge full of ‘sadhus’ or holy-men?… or be stuck in a traffic jam for hours in complete chaos, with tractors doing ‘wheelies‘ on non-existent roads, surrounded by motorcycle bound milk-men, drive through village spice markets, see roadside ‘chai‘ stalls with ‘m & m‘ print lined tables… … roads reduced to rubble, traffic jams which force you to drive off the road for hours to end, toll booths that charge Rs 5 per entry ($1 = Rs 45), colourful tractors loaded with people, monkeys on the sidewalks, straw huts dotting the country-side … This was the beginning of our drive. Then we ran into a massive traffic jam due to a political rally or something, which held us up for an hour. Nothing budged! Out of the blue came a very helpful rickshaw-puller who told us he would lead us to an alternative route. We drove through the narrowest of lanes, touching the sides of houses, through paths I was ready to bail out at every second, over culverts, & after many near misses, we finally scraped through. The helpful fellow waved goodbye & rode off before we could even catch our breath!Once we were into the hill climb, we stopped to see the Corbett Museum, as it was only a short diversion away. Reminiscent of times gone by, it’s a small unassuming building, but steeped in history. Located at Kaladhungi, Corbett Museum is in a heritage bungalow of Jim Corbett, the renowned environmentalist, hunter as well as a front runner in the tiger conservation. This magnificent museum brings to the forefront of memory the life and activities of the spectacular and distinguished personality. The museum show cases some memorabilia connected to Jim Corbett, which include some great valued personal belongings, letters written by him as well as his friends and well wishers, antiques and rare photographs.Unexpectedly it began to pour, followed by a hailstorm, & even more unexpectedly there was a landslide, just about 30-40kms before our destination. Predictably enough, as we’ve been stuck in one for hours many years ago near Kalimpong, we remained stuck in the middle of nowhere for 3-4 hours. No vehicle could get through – trucks, buses & cars, nothing! We each took our chances & got caught in the landslide quicksand, only to be pushed back by the locals who were extremely helpful! Then some ‘labour’ (local manpower with picks & shovels) sauntered in, & patiently, manually shovelled the slush off. We reached our destination 4 hours late, much to the kids relief.
We chose to stay at a beautiful cottage, a Welcomgroup ‘Heritage’ hotel, known as Taradale Cottage, situated at above 6500 ft sea level. Situated in a picturesque hamlet tucked away in the hills, the cottage owned by retired Brigadier AS Bal, is surrounded by fruit orchards.
‘Taradale Cottage’ is 325 Kms from Delhi, in the north-eastern part of the Kumaon region of the Himalayas. This relatively undiscovered destination is often termed as the fruit basket of the picturesque Uttarakhand state because of its sprawling peach, plum, apricot, apple & pear orchards. The beauty of Ramgarh and its surrounding majestic mountains, pristine Oak & Rhododendron forests, crisp cool air and vast clear skies attracted several industrial & royal houses to set up their estates here.Overflowing with interesting bric-a-brac, & the interiors have been tastefully done up by the Brigadier’s wife, with each room displaying its own individual character.
The cottage is in a fairly secluded spot overlooking tree covered slopes and a verdant green valley or ‘Dale’ from which it derives the latter half of its name. A three minutes easy downhill walk from the road leads you to the property which is reminiscent of the summer houses built during the British Raj .
