Day 1 ( 12th August, 2006) : Delhi to Lohajung

Day Zero (11th August 2006 : Delhi – Haldwani, Overnight

I quickly to finalised my report in office and rushed to boss to say Goodbye. Around 6.15 pm and drove back home. I reached home at around 7.30 and thus had only 15 – 20 minutes to complete my packing.
I was carrying two rucksacks to Nanitaal ( one for myself and another for Nitin, my companion for the trek to Roopkund ) I reached Anand Vihar station at 9.15 to find out that the last direct bus (Del – Almora) for Bhowali had left 5 minutes back! Anyways, I was raring to go, so promptly took the 9.30 bus for Haldwani. It seemed as if the driver was also in a hurry like me to reach the destination. So, after halts at Mela dabha (gajraula), Rudrapur and then finally reached Haldwani at 5.00 am.

Day one
Having reached Haldwani at 5.00 am, I felt a chill of cold air reminding me promptly that I had reached the land of Himalayas, the dev bhoomi . and I was ready to kiss the hills ! I took a bus for Bhowali and reached there by 6.30. We had little time on hand, hence got into the act of repacking our rucksacks. I had a luxurious breakfast of aaloo key parathans (I cant say no to aaloo key paranthas from my mausi which are so yummy). The whether in Bhowali was kind of chilly which set me thinking about the whether in the Himalayas.

We had little time on hand, hence got into the act of repacking our rucksacks.


I then called and informed my guide Mr. Jawahar Singh Bisht at Gwaldam about my plan to reach Gwaldam by 3-4 pm.
We took the cheap way of picking up the jeeps as we are comfortable about the places (I had been to Kausani – Baijnath last month). We changed 3 jeeps/ bus at Almora/ Kausani and Garur and finally reached Gwaldam.
It was rather hot till Garur, but then as we set out in bus to Gwaldam, the air got little chilly with the ascent and it was a continuous ascent of 25 kms till Gwaldam. I was amazed at the beauty enroute Garur to Gwaldam, we were enjoying being with the mother nature, the green trees and the hills were just awesome. We saw at the hills on the right/ other of the Pindar river and were counting/ imagining the hills that we had to conquer to reach Roopkund !!!


We reached Gwaldam at 4.30 pm. My guide promptly recognized me at the bus station. I was surprised to see Prashant Joshi at the restaurant near the station. He had also reached from Chennai via Haldwani and Almora, the same route I took !! We immediately negotiated a jeep for Lohajung for Rs 1,600 which did seem rather steep, but then we thot it better to reach as much closer the base camp as quickly as possible and planned to set out. But, there was a problem with my guide, he had all his equipment of tent/ utensils/ etc. at his house and he did not have keys to the house. We waited for him to arrange stuff for 1.5 hours and then as it was getting dark, so finally we set out to our last road base camp Lohajung without the guide thinking that we cud manage that tomorrow.



Gwaldum was a beautiful small hill contonment town which is famous for the regional headquarters of SSB ( Secret Service beureu ).



I am told that on clear day, gwaldam has clear views of Trishul and handaghunti , but today was cloudy day we had to be satisfied with the greenary only !!




We were driving along the Pindar river ( whihc originates from Pindari glaceir in Kumaon)
The ride to Lohajung was good and we could feel the difference in altitude / temperature as we were constantly gaining height from Tharali. We reached Lohajung around 8pm, were too tired after a long day (and previous night) of travel and retired at Zila Parishad guest house. The room was nice and cozy with attached loos!! Food seemed gud due to hunger and we slept peacefully fully aware that such luxury may not be available in coming days. The caretaker Mr. Rana seemed nice person who quickly arranged the dinner to be served in our room only.