Uttarakhand Soujourn

Traditonally, the norm is to put up the group pic at the end of the post. Let me do things a little differently here and start with it. The reason being that the people you share your journey with, have a significant impact on how the whole trip pans out, in terms of comfort and experience. I am sure you would agree.

When that group you travel with are your amazing set of friends and to add that you have an equally amazing guide accompanying you, the trip is bound to be blissful and memorable.

Sandeep (3rd from the left) was our guide, highly knowledgeable of the places and the wildlife around. Mohit (1st from the right) is his friend and also a fellow guide who was leading another group there. These people are really good.

TLDR;
They all run the Himalaya Birding Tours
I would highly recommend them. Book a trip with Sandeep and enjoy birding in Uttarakhand. They travel to many other places too. Fantastic set of people.

Now, back to my travelogue. There is a lot to cover. I recommend that you grab a cup of your favourite beverage and read on…

Our journey began with a flight to Delhi followed by an overnight cab ride to Bhimtal ( a ride which was kind of forced upon by a select few among the group, to the anguish of one particular traveller among us 😃 )

A quick stop-over at Rajaji Dhabha for dinner. Though it was quite late in the night, I couldn’t hold myself back and had my full of the sumptuous menu.

We finished it off with a cup of hot tea.

Reached our lovely homestay in Bhimtal at around 4 AM. Coming directly from Delhi airport and unprepared, the chillness in the air hit me, making my teeth chatter. The weather was indeed cold. Jumped into the bed to catchup on at least a couple of hours of sleep before we went out into the field for birding.

The place of stay was quaint and lovely with a beautiful view of the hills.

Some Rhododendron sharbet to add to the flavour while enjoying the view wouldn’t be so bad either 😃

Good day of briding ensued around the hills, valleys and rivers that Uttarkhand is full of. The day was spent around the Bhimtal area.

We all got our camera gears warmed up.

Back to the homestay in the evening for some hot tea and snacks. The temperature was dipping and we sat by the fire soaking in the warmth and chatting away. The dusk over the hills was beautiful too.

Just before dinner, Sandeep called us out to photograph the Mountain Scops Owl. Was an amazing experience and we all made some great images of this beautiful little bird.

(Screenshot from the laptop, yet unprocessed)

The next day birding was about covering more ground in Bhimtal and also around Kathgodham. Each one of us accumulated some amazing species and images. I would say that the Slaty-blue flycatcher and the Striated prinia were the highlights.

(Screenshots from the laptop, yet unprocessed).

Following morning, we bid bye to Bhimtal and were off towards Ranikhet. The targets were the pheasants, the Koklass and the Cheer.

Amidst the thick pine forests, we were lucky (owing to the persistence of Sandeep’s efforts) to sight and immerse ourselves in the mesmerizing beauty of these two pheasants.

Both the species gave us some amazing image making opportunites. Just to observe and enjoy their presence was fantastic.

(Screenshots from laptop, yet unprocessed)

Post that wonderful session, we stopped over for breakfast at a nice, little dhabha with a great view of the Himalayas, our first glimpse of the majestic mountain range.

After the sumptuous breakfast we headed towards Mandal, a small village at the foothills of Chopta. Was a long, long drive through serpentine roads, sometimes climbing up and at times climbing down! It just kept on going.

Finally, by late evening we were at Mandal. This place was going to be our home for the next few days. I breathed a sigh of relief, no more long drives on never-ending serpentine roads 😃

Mandal was more of a one-street village with all the lodging, eateries, shops and most activities lined up along this road. Got to know that Mandal is like a stop-over place for people doing the Chardham yatra. The hotel we stayed in was lovely and cosy. Clean, big rooms, lovely hospitable people and great food.

First morning in Mandal was exploring the beautiful nursery area nearby and the adjoining forested patches for those beautiful higher elevation birds. Great sightings of the brilliantly colored Scarlet finches among many others.

(Screenshot from the laptop, yet unprocessed)

Post breakfast we walked down to a stream close to our hotel looking for what else, birds 😃

Little forktail was the highlight. All of us got some great images of this beauty.

Some experimentation with the phone camera as we were sitting on the boulders along the stream waiting for the Little forktail. Never a lull moment while out in the field 😉

Post the stream walk, we were back to the hotel for lunch and some rest. Sumptuous lunch it was. Second half of the day was a short trek, sort of a precursor to the tougher one that awaited us in a couple of days. All, very well planned by Sandeep 😀

The next morning in Mandal, we headed towards Chopta, the place from where the trek to Tungnath began. Our trek was slated to be on the following day though. This was more about getting introduced to the place, to get acclimatised to the cold and understand how best to prepare 😃

We also got our relatively, closer glimpse of the snow covered peaks. Beautiful indeed!

Birding along the way was always on the agenda.

We came by another Koklass pheasant individual who was super co-operative and gave us some amazing images. We also got good sightings of the smaller birds, varieties of warblers and tits. Am not going to bore you with their convoluted names - black-throated bush tit, black-crested tit etc. etc., you get the drift 😃

Back to a nice eatery near Chopta for hot, hot Parathas and Chole.

With our stomachs full, we continued our birding journey. Many a time, we stopped over at beautiful spots. The sunlight streaming through the canopy created some mesmerizing photography opportunities.

A quaint little hut by a chai shop where we stopped over in the evening as we were heading back.

After a tiring day we got back to our rooms for some good, hot dinner followed by much needed rest. We needed all the rest we could garner before we ventured out on our trek to Tungnath the following day.

It was very early in the morning, still quite dark outside and damn cold. We were all geared up and ready to head to Chopta to begin our trek up to Tungnath and Chandrashila.

Our drive up from the Mandal valley to Chopta was quite eventful too. A leopard cat crossed our paths and so did a procupine. Not a bad beginning after all.

We reached Chopta, laboriously offloaded ourselves from the vehicles and headed to the entrance of trekking path.

We gathered together for some final instructions from Sandeep and we were off. It was still dark. We had to use our flashlights to see our way forward. The wind was chill and it was piercing cold. Though I was all layered up, I could feel the chill reach my skin!!

However, as we started climbing and our bodies started warming up, things got a bit better. The catch though was that we were gathering elevation and the temperature kept dipping. All of us were praying for the sun to come up soon 😃

Slowly, dawn started to break and as the low light of the early morning began revealing the vistas around, I was spellbound to say the least.

The snow capped peaks felt so close. It was as if I could reach out and grab hold of them in my palm. The gradual reveal was astonishing. I forgot all about the cold, all about the breathless climb and the weariness. Something about the place that gave me new vigor and egged me along.

Looking for birds everywhere 😀

We got some great sightings of the Himalayan monal, Snow partridges, the Alpine and the Altai accentors among others. We were lucky to be able to get some wonderful image making opportunties too.

(Screenshots from the laptop, yet unprocessed)

With such beauty around, I had to take a pause every now then to click some photos of the wonderful landscape and the play of light with my phone. I have to acknowledge that these efforts to capture them all, were in vain. No photo could truly showcase or justify the sheer beauty of the place.

The layers created by the morning sun were truly awe inspiring. I just couldn’t help myself, had to stop to capture some images 😀

Finally, we were at the Tungnath shrine, though, the trek wasn’t done yet.

A bit more of the climb was left to reach Chandrashila.

A view of the Tungnath shrine as we climbed higher up…

The mesmerizing view from the top…

It was indeed a very statisfying and fulfilling achievement for me. Totally reinvigorating and relieving.

Final view from the Tungnath shrine as we started our descent back.

The climb down is always tougher than the climb up. It took a bit of time. Finally we were there. Bought some souvenirs and drove straight to the Paratha place. We were famished 😃

Got back to our rooms, showered up and enjoyed a well deserved and much needed rest.

The morning of our final day at Mandal was spent around the nursery area that we had visited on our first morning there. We bettered our images of the Scarlet finches, Yellow-breasted green finches and a few other species. It was totally worth the time.

With this we had come to the end of our birding sojourn. However our trip wasn’t compelete yet. We were headed to the Rajaji National Park next for a few safaris before flying back home from Dehradun. That would be a post for later.