Trip to Jim Corbett National Park

For most of us oversleeping and missing breakfast had become a norm during the last few weeks of Term I.  To shake off the End Term examination blues, few of us decided to head to Jim Corbett National Park.

As the Park is about 230 Km from our campus, hence we decided to take an early start. We woke up in the wee hours to pack our stuff and kick off for our weekend adventure trip.



Day One

"A day should start with breakfast", and we were left wondering about this phrase  as we were left wandering around dhabas around 6 in the morning in search of a wholesome meal. Finally after an hour of search we found out a place which served us delicious aloo and gobi paranthas.



En route of the Jim Corbett park, we took in the few glimpses of the life in the smaller towns in India, such as a "Dhoodhwala (milkman) riding a motor bike with at least 100 liters of milk", a perfect example of over utilization of the Operational capacity.



It was pleasure driving on the newly built flyovers on NH 24, however like most good things the metaled road didn't lasted long. The NH 121 towards Moradabad kept us on the edge of our seats, I enjoyed it but not my co-passenger sitting in the rear of the car.

As we left the morning grind of the cities behind us, we were welcomed by the sight of lush green orchards and at one such orchard we stopped and bought a handful of juicy and mouth-watering litchis and mangoes. Somebody who has traveled to this part of Uttar Pradesh or Uttarakhand in summers would definitely know that the journey would be incomplete if one doesn’t gets to taste these fruits.



We arrived at our destination around noon and checked in to the guest house and were pleasantly surprised with the size and relative opulence of the room. However the best part was the panoramic view that the terrace of the guest house provided, one would simply want to stay there and never come back.



After a short rest at the guest house we decided to make our way on foot to the Gargajia temple, which is a small temple on a huge rock in the midst of river Kosi. On our way we got doused by rain which provided immediate relief from the soaring temperatures of the last few days. Our next stop was a pristine waterfall but to our dismay we found out that the water had become muddy due to the rain.

Exhausted from our day of sightseeing  we finally came back to our guesthouse and enjoyed the evening with some sumptuous food.



Day Two

This day was all about the Jungle Safari and a glimpse of the Tiger so yet another early morning start for us and we all headed for the safari in an open Jeep to watch a splendid landscape and diverse wildlife.

We managed to spot a langur feeding on leaves and knowing that we were not the only ones hungry in the jungle didn't made me feel safe. We also spotted a few Deers, Kingfisher (bird not beer), Peacock and a huge Elephant but did not get a glimpse of the "Tiger".

Tigers hunt mostly during the night, so assuming that the Tigers in this area were well fed, I am sure that they must be dozing off, at our expense.

"Imagine in a Tiger Reserve we don't get to see a Tiger"



Our next three hours were spent searching for the elusive king of the jungle but to no avail. Tired from our morning excursion we finally made a stop at a Chai Wala (tea hawker) outside the park entrance and saw our first tiger and gobbled it up with glee. The "Tiger" Biscuit thus became the closest we could come to getting a glimpse of the giant beast in the wilderness. The old man operating the tea stall, was kind enough to trust us with the number of biscuits we ate.

This is something I really missed in my road trips in Japan, where we had to stick with Starbucks coffee or coffee cans bought at convenience stores.



Our trip to Jim Corbett would have been incomplete without the customary halts at the museums and thanks to Amit, he made sure that we visited the remotest of the museums in the area.

To to our surprise about a 100 meters from a museum we found a river and we enjoyed our "brief splashing in the water moment"

Soon though the rain started pouring in buckets and we had to leave the park behind fearing the road blockages due to water clogging.

Thus ended our trip and as we headed back to civilization and I for my part headed back to my normal routine of “missing breakfasts”.

-Saurav

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