phone calls and sms.. they really give you what you want sometimes…

i got one sms last week.. i guess on thursday.. here is what i it said…

going to jim corbett.. kharcha approx 2400 bucks… leaving saturday…

and my reply which never went out of my cell.. i hate to type sms… was OK… however i made a call later and confirmed my presence for the trip…

the plan was to leave delhi on saturday early morning.. and be back by sunday evening.. it was going to be a quick getaway.. but then with the kinda guy i am.. anything outside this concrete jungle is fine with me… so i happily agreed.. even though i am running very very tight on cash… and Aro has helped me by letting me pay only 2000 bucks as of now.. and pay the rest when i want to… he will take care of my share as of now..

could not pack my stuff on friday because of a photo shoot late night… so came back around 0100 hrs.. and slept… i was really too tired to go ahead and pack my clothes.. thought will do it in the morning only…
Saturday… 0630 hours..

the murga on my cell phone starts screaming.. and i without wasting any time get up to get ready for my first visit to the well known JIM Corbett National Park !!!

i just fill my bag with one t-shirt, a pair of tracks.. one jacket and a shawl… that looked good enough… oh.. and not to forget my camera… 4 rolls.. and the tripod !!!!

left house at 0745 hrs to meet up the guys at Akshardham Flyover around 0800.. these guys were late and managed to pik me up at 0830 hrs only…. it was one of those cute Tempo Travellers that Aro had hired for this trip.. had seen a lot of them on my way to the Valley of Flowers.. guess a lot of sardars travel in these.. and call it coincidence… our driver was a Sardarji too… so a quick Sat Sri Akal… a brief round of into with Aro’s team… i only knew Ruchi and Sanjit… and had heard about Indranil… rest were new to me.. and i was new to them… lemme recall their names.. i was too caught up with myself in the next two days to remember any names… i think we had Shilpi, Priya, Adeesha and Ruchi with Sunny, IG, Harshit, Sanjit Aro…. i am missing out on one name here… and i think i do not remember one or two names correctly as well… anyway… so the bus.. or the tempo kept moving slowly towards our desitnation…

i was already bored because of the slow speed.. this was the same road that let me drive at a constant 90 kmph..and i was sitting right behind the driver causing more irritation when he was driving at 70 kmph… bigger vehicles seem to be running slowly then they really are as well..

we took the morabadab bypass and crossed it before we turned left towards the corbett which was still 95 kms away !!!

the road so far was just fine.. and from now it was going to get bad to worse.. kashipur had a diversion.. and it took us atleast an hour to get out of that town… we finally reached ramnagar… and asked for our resort which was the Corbett Nature Camp… about 10 kms from RamNagar we reached the camp around 1600 hrs… nice camp with cottages trying to look like huts… amongst the thick mango trees.. gave it a different look.. however i personally do not like places where they have to make a cottage look like a village… i have stayed in such huts real ones.. and i know how different it is from the artificial ones !!!

anyway… we kept our stuff in our respective cottages.. and what do i hear next… some loud music… phew… where the hell was that coming from.. and i soon found out that the kids there brought a speaker set complete with a sub-woofer with them !!! phew.. kids i tell you… i was out there looking for peace.. and it looked like i was not going to get it.. but then these were sensible kids and did not have the music very loud…

i was carrying only one extra pair of clothes.. so i just washed my face.. or maybe i did not.. and just grabbed the camera and went to the river side… there is this charm of being next to a river… lovely 1!! same feeling that i get near ganges in rishikesh.. just that this river was kinda small in comparison.. very small infact…

took some fotos… checked out the place around… decided that we have to cross the river on foot tmrw… and came back…had some snacks.. and just walked around… soon it was time for the bon fire… enjoyed it big time.. with antakshri being played between the girl and the boy teams…

i was given the task of capturing that on tape… with a handycam coz i was not singing… lovely competition… and some realy good moments.. such things make trips memorable…

had a nice dinner around 2030 hours and rushed to sleep….
our camp guy told us that we better be ready by 0430 hours if we wanted to enter the jungle at all… there was a huge rush of visitors thanks tothe weekend… i was not really taking the seriously but then getting up early was not a problem.. in anycase i prefer to sleep a li’il less on my trips… so after some talks with aro.. i slept… to wake up early morning !!!

Sunday 0345 hrs….

the murga again started screaming.. and i got up.. got fresh… i was sleepy yes… and theni heard some noises… and guess was everyone was awake… strange… looks like everyone was excited about the safari.. very very interesting !!!

woko aro up… his phone’s alarm also rang.. some irritating alarm that is i tell you… we were all ready by 0430 to go to the safari…. the gypsys were already there… and when were moved towards the entrance that is when i realised how serious the camp coordinator was…
we overtook atleart 4 jeeps.. and were pushed behind by 3 of them… it was more of a race that these jeeps were involved in… why.. lemme tell you…

Ram-Nagar gate… only 30 jeeps allowed in the morning… 15 of them get the booking atleast a month in advance…the rest 15 get the numbers by standing atthe gate at 0100 hrs…
Jhirna… first 30 jeeps allowed inside the jungle… first come first serve basis… and this is the gate that we had to reach… our driver shakeel was good.. and we were the 4th jeep !!!

a wait of about 80 minutes… me realising that i was hungry… and that i had to take lotsa snaps…. and that i was at the gate of a great place…. the gates opened… the registration was done by the driver… so no hassles there… as soon as we entered we stood up on our seats so that we do not miss anything…

and were lucky… ya seriously…
just 10 minutes into the safari.. and we spot a huge deer… with biiiiiiiiig horns… and one of the girls in the jeep got too excited… and started shouting… deer deer deer.. i guess that frightened the hell out of that lovely fella.. and he ran back into the bushes…

and that is where our luck came to an end…
i do not actually mind that now.. coz i think there was some aura in that jungle that did not make me miss the animals much… i was spellbound by the beauty of the entire place….

hey but wait.. there was a tiger around…

Shakeel, our driver… suddenly stopped and said that he heard a call… stupid me.. i thought he was talking about a mating call of some deers… turned out that it was the alarm call of deers when they see a tiger…. we took a u turn.. and waiting silently and patiently around the place where the call was coming from… the noises kept getting louder… we heard the deers, the monkeys.. and birds… but did not see the tiger.. neva mind.. the excitement of getting to see one was good enough !!!

the safari continued for another 2.5 hours… and i enjoyed it big time… i love that jungle !!!

back to the camp around 1000 hrs… me and aro had a quick breakfast… and then we moved towards the river.. this time to cross it somehow… we had to walk about 800 metres upstream to find a suitable place to cross it… and when we were both in the middle of the river.. we noticed some village women crossing it from a few metres further upstream with ease.. while we were struggling to keep our balance in place with the camera and tripod with us.. and the shoes hanging over our necks !!! adding more to the embarrassment.. two kids crossed the river in 5 minutes flat when we were about to reach the other side.. and that too in water that was just knee deep… uff !!! what idiots we were…. waist deep in water… lost balance several times.. barely saved ourself from falling inside the water… or call it an adventure… whatever 😀

now we walked downstream again.. to reach the huge stone that aro wanted to sit on… and that meant walking through the water again.. though i was not too keen to do that… but thanks to Aro’s will i managed to cross half the river again.. and this time it was pretty easy… and reach that stone.. what a feeling.. accompalishment !!!!

we were Gods 😀

anyway… we stayed there on the stone.. for about 15 minutes… before we started back to the other side… walk up 800 metres… and this time cross the river in a better and more balanced way… and then walk 800 metres downstream and then climb up to reach the camp !!! done… back at the camp !!! smart guys with wet pants….

had lunch !!! and moved out of the camp around 1400 hrs… we headed straight to the corbett falls.. about 33 kms away… and then had to move to delhi via bajpur, rudrapur moradabad….. Corbett falls was beaituful.. nice li’il waterfall in the middle of nowhere !!!! loved that place… we moved out of there before it was stormed by a group of kids… from some school in ramnagar…

the journey back home started around 1730 hours… and i reached home at 0130 hrs.. we took two breaks in between.. one in bajpur… and one to have our dinner @ gajraula !!!

lovely trip this was…. i think i have covered mostof the exciting places around delhi with this trip of mine…. where do i go next !!!

Jodhpur? Lanesdown? Dharamshala? Mandi? Tehri?

lets see…. May God be with us !!!!