Mountains are Calling - Part6

30th October 2021 - 13th November 2021

Prologue:

It had been more than 2 years since we had gone on a trip to the mountains. Hence we planned this trip to the mountains. Read about how we planned the Trip here.
Reaching Noida, from where we had to start our journey to the hills, became an ordeal in. itself. Later on 30th October we started our journey and reached Haldwani. We enjoyed our journey to Haldwani. Enjoying the way and various stoppages in between was really fun. Read here.
On 31st we started our journey to Pithoragarh, it being my maiden driving experience in the hills we travelled via Hills and Valleys and enjoyed every bit of it. We travelled via Bhimtal, Padampuri, Paharpani, Saharphatak, Lamgara (Read here), Suakhan, Danya, Panar Bridge, Ghat, Gurna Mata Temple, Igyar Devi, Pithoragarh to finally reach Wadda (Read here). As we reached Wadda saw Ramayan being enacted even after Dussehra, read more about this tradition and more about people in the hills here.

Wadda - Living the Mountain Village Life:

Wadda is a small settlement on the outskirts of Pithoragarh. It is around 8 km from Pithoragarh. It still has the feel of the Mountain Village. Surrounded by many smaller mountain villages and settlements, Wadda serves the local market for these villages. It has an Inter College, a Post Office and small primary health care facilities. It has a small market area having shops for grocery, hardware, sweets, and other day to day miscellaneous items. It has a small section which has shops of Goldsmiths.

You get really Good Sweets here. Saun Sweets shop and other neighboring sweets shops sell some very fresh and delicious sweets. I found the Sweets very nominally priced as compared to big sweet shops in the metros. There is a small Jalebi shop round the corner which serves finger licking Jalebis (a deeply coiled batter dipped in Sugar Syrup). People queue in to purchase hot Jalebis.

I saw a trend at Wadda, people are engaged in their family businesses. Say the Goldsmiths or the Sweet merchants are engaged in the same business for generations.

Panoramic View from Bhavani Dhana-Wadda-Pithoragarh

The houses here have concrete structures now. But still you would see traditional houses. Our relative's house also had both the flavors. One of section (the older section) in their house was traditionally built and the other section (the newer section) was newly built. So we kind of enjoyed best of both the worlds. Traditionally the houses had wooden/stone walls with wooden floors. The roofs were made of stones, typical of mountain houses. The newer section in our relative's house still had wooden floors. The ground floor and the first floor, other than being linked via concrete staircase outside the rooms were also linked from inside the rooms via small wooden staircases. These staircases were used in extreme winter days so to avoid contact of the harsh winter weather outside while commuting from one floor to the other floor.
The house had a small room to store grains again linked internally via wooden staircases with the Kitchen. The house also had a room for the cow.

People here are early risers. They normally sleep early and get up soon in the morning. People are also fond of morning walks as well.
While our stay at Wadda we also explored places in our morning walks. One of the places that we explored during our morning walks was Hudkana. While on our morning walks we also explored the local coniferous vegetation and brightly colored floors growing all round. One of the local flowers that took my attention was a red, bright flower growing on the wet ground. this was a kind of flower which I had never seen earlier.

Hudkana, Wadda:

Hudkana is a place where there is a perennial water source. Water emerges out of pipes. This water source never dries up even in the hottest summers. Traditionally people from Wadda used to come to this water source to collect water for drinking and other household activities.

Locals suggest that this water has medicinal and disease curing abilities. People say that someone who drinks water from this source never falls ill.
You would still see long queues of people lined up to collect water in bottles and utensils. Even local commuters stop by to collect drinking water.

Originally this was a small water source which was later turned into a small Temple area with the water flowing beneath it.
It is said that a local resident had a dream where GOD directed him to renovate the water source. Hence the resident built a small Temple and renovated the water source. These days you would see a nicely built Temple over the water source.

Hudkana-Wadda-Pithoragarh

Bhavani Dhana, Wadda:

Bhavani Dhana is a place where there is a Temple of Goddess Bhavani. The Temple is on a hill top and is around half an hour - 40 minutes Trek away from Wadda. We explored Bhavani Dhana during a small stroll in the evening.

This is a small beautiful trek passing through small water streams and mountain farms. On the way one would come across many small terrace Farms. One the way one would cross the big ground cut out of the hill. This is a ground carved out cutting the hill and is part of the Sports College Facilities. The Sports College is nearby on another small hilltop.

As you reach the upper sections of the trek you are surrounded by coniferous trees and you would get a panoramic view of the all the surrounding villages. The trek is so refreshing, as it kind of infuses the feeling of being in lap of the Goddess and Mother Nature. The air here is so fresh. Such a serene environment is something which the city dwellers crave for.

We spend sometime in the Temple seeking blessings from the Goddess. The small canopy of coniferous trees near the Temple was also very soul refreshing. We spent some time here as well.
We took some excellent snaps which gave a panoramic view of the surrounding villages and other mountain settlements.
It was getting dark and chilly; hence we preferred to trek down to Wadda. We wanted to be back at our relative's place before it was dark. But whenever I am reminded of the trek it still gives me such a good feeling that probably could be described in words.

Continue Reading : Mountains are Calling - Part7...

9) Mountains are Calling - Part9

Bhavani Dhana-Wadda-Pithoragarh

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