Mountains are Calling:

30th October 2021 - 13th November 2021

It had been more than 2 years since we had gone on a trip to the mountains. The last trip to the mountains was the trip to Badrinath, Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib in August 2019 (Read about the Trip here: The 1200+ Km Bike Trip, Biking the Himalayas).

By now Covid had struck. We had been smitten by Covid for a long time. We had been through a bad time which had confined us to our homes for an extended period of time. We had refrained from moving out of homes as we wanted to avoid any infection of Covid. We had been hearing news of friends and family being infected by Covid. We had also heard of distant relatives losing their lives due to Covid. The environment was gloomy.

We wanted to come out of the gloominess and rejuvenate our spirits. An environment of peace and tranquility was desperately needed. An atmosphere which was free from fear, where we could find solace and indulge in a bit of soul searching.

This is where we planned for a trip to the mountains. The mountains had been calling for a long time now and we had to go. Probably the quote from John Muir sums it all "The Mountains are calling and I must go".

I grew up in Dehradun, India and I am fond of the mountains. I would not miss any opportunity to be in the mountains. The plan was to visit a remote place in the mountains which had heavenly serenity and was away from the maddening crowd. We intended to go for an extended stay so as to live and enjoy the mountain life for some time. This is where we planned to go to Wadda, a small settlement near Pithoragarh (Uttarakhand, India). This was the place where we had relatives and was an ideal place for the stay.

Mountains are Calling

The Plan was to spend around two weeks at Wadda. In dearth of an extended vacation due to my official engagements, we had decided that the first week I would work from Wadda and will be on leave the subsequent week. The first week when I would be working from Wadda was a Diwali week, what it meant was the work load will also be less so after completing the official engagements we could roam around followed by complete cut off from work and enjoy the stay.

We were two families who had decided to visit the place. It would be my first driving experience on my car to the mountains. During all these years I had visited many places in the mountains, driven my bike many times on the mountains but had never driven a car. I was not afraid but was skeptical and wanted some bit positive enforcement for driving almost 12 hours in the mountains in one go. But I was in good hands. I was accompanied by expert driver, a distant relative, who had driven in the mountains many times.

We had planned the visit much in advance so that we could iron out any issues and work on the finer details of the Trip. The Plan was to start our journey on 30th October in two cars and move towards Pithoragarh. We would do a night halt at Tanakpur or Champawat and on 31st October move towards Pithoragarh. This route was a bit long and was not the shortest but on this route the distance on the hills was the least. Also the road condition was pretty good.

But just before our trip there was excessive rain in Uttarakhand, which swept away a lot of rod sections and disconnect the outer regions of the mountains. We heard that even the route via Tanakpur has also been severely damaged. There was a time when we were skeptical. We were still not sure whether we could venture for the Trip.

Slowly and gradually as our date of journey approached things started to improve. We were told that the traffic had started towards Pithoragarh via another route. Actually there are three routes to reach Pithoragarh one being the Tanakpur route, the other two were via Haldwani, one via Almora and other via Pahar Pani. We had been enquiring with drivers who ply to Pithoragarh about the route conditions and things were looking positive. The Tanakpur route was ruled out as we were told that the route was in pretty bad shape as the rains had swept away the road at some points. We had to go via the Haldwani route, which route to take, the Almora route or the Pahar Pani route, was still not decided.

It was decided that we would go to Haldwani and then again check with the locals there to decide on the further route. It was decided that if we go via the Pahar Pani route from Haldwani then we would leave one of the cars in Haldwani (at a distant relative's place) and go to Pithoragarh in a single car as the Pahar Pani route was the most difficult route as it was quite narrow with a lot of blind turns and it was not preferable for me to drive on the Pahar Pani route.

By the time of our trip third family joined us till Haldwani. Now the final plan was to gather at Noida and start towards Haldwani on 30th October 2021. We would reach Noida on 29th, stay there for the night at our distant relative's place. The third family would arrive at Noida early morning on 30th and then we all would move towards Haldwani. Haldwani was the third family's hometown so we could leave our car at their place if needed and then move towards Pithoragarh. In our return journey we would come back from Pithoragarh to Haldwani in a car, pick the second car from Haldwani and return to our respective homes. We never knew by then that God had in stored different plans for our journey.

Continue Reading: Mountains are Calling - Part2...

Quick Links:

1) Mountains are Calling
2) Mountains are Calling - Part2
3) Mountains are Calling - Part3
4) Mountains are Calling - Part4
5) Mountains are Calling - Part5
6) Mountains are Calling - Part6
7) Mountains are Calling - Part7
8) Mountains are Calling - Part8

9) Mountains are Calling - Part9

Mountains are Calling