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Travelogues

India Travelogues: Travel diaries, journals, personal travel experiences & impressions of people and places that bring India alive

Home > Travelogues > Nainital, ranikhet, karnaprayag, Rishikesh > Chasing the Rain - part 2

Chasing the Rain - part 2

Travelogue on Nainital, ranikhet, karnaprayag, Rishikesh, Delhi

By:MatadorV1 | Read more Travelogues by this Member
Posted on: Oct 21, 2008
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MatadorV1

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Welcome back....

We had a place to stay in Karnaprayag, as i said in part 1 of this story. Vishal’s in-laws’ place had excellent arrangements. A lovely room to stay and great view from the balcony. The house, as i could see, was built on a small hill along the bank of a small mountain river. The river might have been small but it was full and roaring owing to the amount of rain that was falling. Vishal had been there before so i was the one really excited. I love villages as i myself hail from one. I often feel suffocated in an indifferent city like delhi. The moment i saw Karnaprayag, I decided that I’d revisit that place and spend some time there. that time I’d definitely go prepared to fish in that river. That’s a hobby I am not able to pursue too often.

We got a warm welcome in that household. Tea and snacks arrived soon and so did a bunch of small kids. They definitely found our gears and us interesting. I did play with them a bit as well. nice and relaxed, we climbed on the rooftop. it was dark by then and we could just hear the river flowing. the surroundings almost seemed indifferent to our presence. not a soul could be heard at 8 in the evening, it was just so quiet. we stood there in the dark and discussed our plans for the next day. we were at a place 400 kms away and had to make it back to delhi by the next day. sunday was my wife nisha’s birthday and i wanted to be with her in person on that special day. it was more special because it was the first such occasion since nisha and i met and got married and i had promised her my presence on that day. it meant that we had to ride for long hours on saturday and it would be night before we reached delhi. we had to start early. an early dinner was served and we hit the bed by eleven.

we woke up at 5-30 sharp next morning. the beauty of that misty morning in that mountain village can’t be explained in words. the river was covered in mist all the way. and there was dark clouds hanging over the mountains. after a few nice photographs we packed our luggage and loaded the bikes. we left karnaprayag very early. and we thanked god that we did. the road condition was horrible for 12 kms or so and it took us almost an hour to pass that stretch. after that we breathed a sigh of relief as the road conditions improved. we stopped for breakfast and wondered what lay ahead of us in terms of road conditions. the mood was entirely different from what it was in the previous two days. that morning we were not comfortable with our target. delhi from that place was still 388 kms adrift and the weather didn’t look promising. but that feeling of doubt and pessimism wasn’t likely to last with us for too long. we soon got down to what we did best - ride. the road condition up to rudraprayag was average. i had planned to stop at rudraprayag to click some photos at the famous spot where the legendary jim corbett shot the “man-eating leopard of rudrapryag”. but the rain god had other ideas.

a steady drizzle gave way to a torrential downpour and it was just not possible to take the cameras out. we kept riding in the rain and it was very dampening to be honest. but the saving grace was the highway. if the road to ranikhet was a dream, that road beyond rudraprayag was an improvement on that. it was a pleasant surprise to see such a wide and flawless road so high on the mountains and for such a long stretch. that highway made sure we rode without much trouble despite the heavy rain. our ride otherwise was very uneventful, no stops, no photos, and no striking natural beauty either. at around 12-30, we stopped for lunch at a decent dhaba a few kms from devprayag. there was no point putting on dry clothes, as the rain wasn’t likely to stop. so, we just lunched on some steaming hot daal, rotis, and a very spicy bhindi ki sabzi. we were cold and the hot food tasted all the more better for that. we both ate our fill, as it was rishikesh non-stop from there. the rain too took a break as we stopped but resumed the moment we started the bikes again. by then we had got used to playing hide-n-seek with the rain god, so we just smiled and rode on. soon we reached devprayag. the sangam of the two rivers bhagirathi and alaknanda looked so frighteningly beautiful that we had to stop to admire. we spent a few minutes there on top of a mountain overlooking the sangam and then moved on. the road condition was still good but the traffic got heavier the closer we got to rishikesh. but we negotiated that pretty well. a bulldozer cleaning up the debris from a landslide delayed us for a while, otherwise, it was a smooth ride up to rishikesh.

in rishikesh we got caught in a mighty traffic jam and took a while to come out of that. it was already 4 pm on a cloudy day and that meant not too many hours of daylight left. we had to get the headlight of

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Travelogue on Nainital, ranikhet, karnaprayag, Rishikesh , Delhi

By Manisha Kothari | Fri , Nov 07, 2008
awesome read...good style..

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By zapsachin | Wed , Oct 22, 2008
very engrossing and makes me want to take to the road immediately.

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By Mukesh Miyan | Wed , Oct 22, 2008
This completes the stroy buddy...loved reading it to the core..you can't imagine how...all the very best. Would like to see more of you here...

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