Kumaon Diaries of Crysta and Tiguan: Travels of 2 BHPians & families

We are two BHPians and our families driving our respective cars. This is Part 2 of our Kumaon journey covering Kausani, Munsyari, Dhaulchhina and Binsar.

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Note: This is Part 2 of our Kumaon journey covering Kausani, Munsyari, Dhaulchhina and Binsar.

Here is a quick peek into this episode

Earlier to this we had driven to Jim Corbett from Kolkata and witnessed the rich wildlife of the region.

We are two BHPians and our families driving our respective cars.

The usual myself, wife Tania and our little one Pupu driving our beloved Toyota Innova Crysta

BHPian s_scorpion (Sandipan) with his wife Debasree and daughter Mithi driving their dashing new Volkswagen Tiguan

To read the Part 1 of the travelog, head over to here

A quick look at our overall itinerary for reference:-

Covered in previous episode Part 1
Day 0/1: Kolkata -> Lucknow
Day 2: Lucknow -> Ramnagar
Day 3: Ramnagar -> Corbett / Dhikala
Day 4: Corbett / Dhikala
Day 5: Corbett / Dhikala checkout

Covered in this episode (Part 2)
Day 5: Dhikala -> Kausani (via Ranikhet)
Day 6: Kausani -> Munsyari (via Chaukori)
Day 7: Munsyari
Day 8: Munsyari -> Dhaulchina (via Berinag and Seraghat)
Day 9: Dhaulchina -> Binsar (via Chitai route)
Day 10: Binsar morning birding and checkout for Sattal

Will be covered in the final episode (Part 3)
Day 10: Binsar to Sattal
Day 11 onwards at Sattal, thereafter return to Kolkata

The final part of this travel will be published as separate thread. Till then, Happy reading !!

Day 5 / Wednesday (continued) - Corbett to Kausani
After a wonderful jungle safari at Jim Corbett, we came out of Dhangarhi gate and headed for our hotel Le Reserve Corbett in our safari jeeps. Arko at the reception proved to be an excellent host who looked after our cars and ensured the Crysta is washed and ready on time. The Tiguan with all round PPF was exempt from such hassles. By 1 pm, bidding goodbye to our driver Mehra ji we headed out for Kausani. Tiguan had a head start since Sandipan wanted to have some light brunch keeping in mind the long journey ahead.

We caught up with one another after some time as we drove along the Ramnagar Road, the heat outside was still in the extreme range. Within an hour we finally started climbing the signature winding roads with tall tree lines all around, a scenic drive all together .

Some of the hairpins seemed to have been constructed with sole objective of making a stop with wider shoulders to aid pulling over and scenic slopes to behold

Sandipan wanted to test the cornering capability of his new Tiguan on this stretch that had numerous curvy bends, he zoomed ahead. While me with the BOF, and passengers with history of motion sickness, decided to go steady but thoroughly enjoyed the drive as we navigated through the light and shadows of the hilly forest with gradually falling light of sun.

Jamar 443

The frequent appearance of scooties indicated we were approaching locality, Ranikhet

Handling a little confusion on Google Maps, by 530 pm we arrived at the Ranikhet Golf Ground. As reviews indicated, it continued to remain closed for outsiders. There were several army establishments nearby. Sandipan and Tiguan wanted to reach Kausani sooner as his daughter was not feeling well so he went ahead without halting. Initially we had planned to skip the morning safari at Dhikala to arrive here by breakfast or lunch, but Dhikala hypnotized us. For those who plan to pass over Ranikhet earlier in the day we had found good reviews of Dolia Pahadi The Roof Top Cafe and Regards - The Family Restaurant, do try them out.

Not wasting much time here, we left Ranikhet taking the marginally shorter Almora road and advanced. There was a lot of road repair work on going around the short single way bridge over the Gagas River. The crawling traffic congestion slowed us down. Driving past around a kilometre or two after this bridge suddenly I noticed an unusual harsh sound coming from left side of our Crysta. I halted and found the rear passenger side tyre is completely flat due to an inch long side wall cut, the menace seemed to have been caused by any repair material since we had to drive over the shoulders for quite some time in order to allow movement of both sides traffic on an otherwise narrow hilly road. However the bigger problem was uncovered when I realized the spare wheel is stuck and is its chain-pulley was not unwinding properly. Two nearby gentleman came forward to our rescue, one Mr Kailash from Delhi who has visited hometown here, he sent home his wife and child only to help us. Another ex-Army officer My Adhikary who is settled locally joined hands too. Sandipan was around 30 mins ahead of us, but due to local help availability I turned down his wish to return back and help us.

The RSA guy asked me to show the problem under the chassis over a video call since it would take him 4+ hours to reach us physically and hence remote help would be best. He diagnosed instantly that the suspending chain of the stepney has got stuck in an undesirable way in a screw whole on the wheel rim and we need to somehow release that. After a lot of trials with me hand lifting the tyre under the chassis to loosen the chain while Kailash manually pulling out the stuck portion of the chain, this worked and finally the tyre came out and the stepney change took place.

Mr Kailash and Mr Adhikary told us that they did not want to leave us alone until we are back on our wheels since there can be wild animal attacks in the dark and in case problems persisted they would accompany us to their homes for spending the night or until professional assistance comes. The faulty tyre was wrapped in a blanket and placed on top of our luggage inside the boot, I did not want to take chances of putting it back under the chassis at that point since priority was to reach Kausani.

The clock had ticked past 730 pm when we were ready again to hit the roads. We thanked our saviours and left.

After several calls from our Kausani's prebooked hotel The Buransh over directions, we reached there around 9 pm only to find out the calls were from the owner Mr Threesh Kapoor who was waiting at the ground floor parking lot only to receive us. We checked in, met with Sandipan and family and headed for dinner. Dinner was excellent and all the restaurant staffs were on standby only to serve us as per instructions from Mr Kapoor and we were the only ones left before wrapping up dinner. Dinner buffet spread was excellent to say the least. Thereafter we finished the reception booking formalities at the reception and went back to our rooms to crash for the day.

One of the reasons we had booked The Buransh was for its superlative service reputation and most importantly morning and evening views of the Himalayas from every room and common area. Although we had missed that opportunity by arriving late, we received some consolation on learning that for last several days horizon has remained cloudy and peaks were not visible . Other hotels we had considered KMVN Tourist Rest House Trishul or there were multiple options closer to either the Kausani View Point, or Starscape Observatory or Anashakti Ashram which will provide some evening activities depending on what individual preferences are.

Weather was a lot better here at an elevation and we finally started to get the Uttarakhand feel.

The night view of Kausani from our room

We drove a total of 104 KM today.

Day 6 / Thursday / Kausani to Munsyari
Waking up early morning in a hope to see the himalayan peaks of the Nanda Devi range like Trishul, Chaukhamba, etc went in vain as they cloud continued playing spoil sport. This is the usual trend of this season anyway.

But we witnessed a grand unfolding of the morning right from our room as the sun rose gradually, even if playing hide and seek behind the clouds.

The building under construction at the front is a planned extension of The Buransh, more on this later.

Step farming at a nearby hill slope

The white smoke at this hour from a household meant traditional stove in action over some semi dried woods, indicating the commencement of daily chores.

We had a great breakfast at the restaurant, Mr Kapoor met us individually and inquired about our wellbeing.

Mr Kapoor explaining to Sandipan how that wide angle panorama shot was made by stitching 10+ individual shots together. During our brief interaction with him he also stated that his original plan was to portray Buransh as an art and exhibition gallery with accommodations but extended as a hotel later on. The entire facility is full of selected photos from his 50+ years of photographing Uttarakhand and the Himalayan region. The upcoming building at the front is planned to be set up as an art gallery with a rooftop cafe. Had we not arrived late yesterday we would have been able to catch the last evening's photography presentation.

After some photo sessions at the lobby, we came back to our rooms and got ready for checking out

Our cars were ready and luggage loaded, additional care was required in my case since we had to carefully accommodate the stepney

A picture of the Tiguan with one of Mr Kapoor's click

By 10 am we bid goodbye to Mr Kapoor and The Buransh and left for Munsyari, a long drive for the day lied ahead of us.

The sloping entry road leading to and from the Buransh connecting to the main road was quite steep, we felt it more while climbing up. Never thought that my RWD Crysta would have wheelspin and loss of traction on regular hilly inclines, but remembered the saying - there is always a first time. Sandipan's shoutout and guidance from behind helped me steer away and climb up eventually, for his AWD machine with new Tyres it was a cake walk.

. . continued in next post

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