Binsar, Kumaon - A sanctuary known for walks and bird watching around ...

Arriving Binsar

We had a good night sleep. I woke up early morning, peeked outside through the glass windows. It was still dark. After few minutes the Sun would rise. High time to prepare some hot water for darjeeling tea. 

I always carry a Tea Kit consisting of a small immersion of a glass size, two small containers for Darjeeling tea (TGFOP-my favourite brand) and sugar, a steel glass, a spoon and a coaster.

After setup, water started boiling in the glass in few minutes. Few pinches of tea leaves and covered with coaster. When all leaves were soaked and drowned, the tea was ready. The aroma of flavoured Darjeeling tea filled up the room. Two cups of tea was ready. Still it was dark outside.

Outside it was bit cold in balcony. We donned jackets, gloves & caps and then came down to the lawn in front of Dak Bungalows. Being Diwali time there was no moonlight, we had to use mobile torch. The Dak Bungalows stood like a haunted house in the dark.

Sun was about to rise.

Gradually the eastern side was glowing and the skyline of Himalaya was silhouetted against the glowing sky. It was worth visit.

Sunshine on the Himalaya made us happy...

The day breaks gradually in the valley down below. Back in the TRH the breakfast was ready. We came back to our room, took hot water bath, packed our belongings and loaded them in the boot. We were not sure about the hot water availability at Binsar KMVN as there is no power connection.

We relished buffet breakfast with stuffed parathas & curd - the staple food at western Himalaya. It was time to move on. I enquired about any alternate route to Almora at the reception. There is one through the forest road-no extra charges but only to register the details at the entry & the exit of the reserved forest.

We bade goodbye to Mukteshwar KMVN and made a stopover at IVRI gate to withdraw some cash. There was no card payment systems at KMVN TRHs. The same case should be there at Binsar. Hence some precaution.

In front of IVRI gate

After few minutes (a kilometer) we saw a Forest check post at our left and a sharp left turn to a non-regular road. The guard told me that after 8-9 km, I would get main road to Almora. There was no traffic at all in that road.  At the end of the Forest road, the guard recorder our exit. He was playing on road with the local kids. We reached Sitla.

We were on a good tarred road. Todays travel is around 85km. It was a relaxed driving with occasional stoppage for photography. We reached Khwarab bridge at 11:15am after 31km from KMVN.

Bridge at Khwarab

We took Almora route. After around 15 minutes of uphill driving the roadside sweet shops started to appear. Basically two main sweets are there - Bal mithai and Chocolate sweets. Both are "so sweet", one cannot have either whole at a time. A strict No-no for diabetes patients. Bal mithai is made of hard cocked "khowa" with a layer of sugar balls (similar to homeopathic sugar pellets). We bought some of both varieties. 

We reached Almora and entered the Mall road. It is one way as the road is narrow and through the market. One can take bypass road on the right side while entering Almora. That road goes to Pithoragarh as well. There is another bypass on the left if somebody wants to go to Kausani or Someshwar.

After the market we took the right diversion road towards Bageswar (around 5km after entry) while the main road goes towards Someshwar. 800mts, another diversion - both side goes to Bageswar; at Kapakhan both roads meet.  We took the right again and then left. The straight road meets with the Bypass road and also goes to Pithoragarh.

Dinapani Tourist Rest House KMVN

After right-right-left we reached few levels above Almora town and a few kilometer more we left outer periphery of Almora. On the way to Kaparkhan we crossed Kasardevi, Dinapani.

And few kilometer more (4 from Kapakhan) along the Bageswar road, we reached the entry check post of Binsar sanctuary. 

Check post at Binsar Sanctuary.

Here the visitor has to pay for the entry pass for the vehicle and passenger. Entry fees for driver is free.

Entry gate Binsar Sanctuary - Fees details.

Binsar - it was during Durga Puja of 1990 at Ranipur Haridwar. A team of bikers of BHEL - the Kawa team, returned from Kumaon trip. They shared that how hard it was to drive upto Binsar KMVN after a long drive from Munsiyari. The road was very steep and broken; No electricity at TRH (Tourist Rest House) et al.

Now this was in front of me. After 26 years. The road was narrow, broken at some points, not suitable for two lane traffic. So it requires a careful driving till we reach KMVN. Last 500mtrs were broken to the hilt. Low floor sedans would have a tough time negotiating the middle ridge of the road full of loose stones.

We reached KMVN during lunch time. Without delay we ordered the lunch and was told that buffet was already on. There was no electricity as heard earlier. The supply is from stand-by generator from 6pm to 9pm only. Here we would stay for 2 nights and prepared we were.

Binsar KMVN

We kept our bag in a room of the old building. From the windows, we could see Himalaya partially. There are candles on the stands here and there telling us the electric supply is for limited hours only. The old building is an annexe to the main building. On the roof, there is the viewing platform. Everybody has to come over it to view the Himalaya from sunrise to sunset.

Me at Lunch

The dining hall is quite a big to host the guests. Seeing the cars at the parking, it seemed that the Rest House was full. The buffet was good and enough with a variety of vegetarian (paneer/ cottage cheese curry) and non-veg (egg curry) and other dishes, salads, deserts etc. Hot fulkas (hand made tawa rotis) raised the appetite of ours.😃

Now we have enough time to explore the surroundings. There were lots of butterflies in the lawn, it looked beautiful, the sky was blue and the horizon was bit cloudy. 

We sat on the porch for few hours enjoying the ambience, the cloud formation over the Himalaya, and occasional peeping of the peaks beyond the clouds.

Cloud play over Himalaya

We came out of the campus, a trail beyond leads to Zero Point - the highest point of the Binsar Sanctuary and a dirt road goes to Sunset Point.

UN set point - 500mtrs

After tea, we strolled down for (S)unset point along the dirt road. At the end, there is a Forest Rest House built by the pre-independence Britishers.

Forest Rest house at the Land's End

The house might have been built a centuries ago, when Britishers explored the region. 

Setting Sun from the Forest Rest House Binsar

Being inside the sanctuary the road was also not maintained as there is a chance of accidental fires from the tar melting. Forest fires played havoc in Uttarakhand in recent years.

Sunset at Land's End

We followed the dirt road back to TRH. A dilapidated mile stones bears the signature of old road to Kaparkhan built by the then Public Works Department (PWD).

Kaparkhan 14 km milestone at the Land's End.

At the nightfall the forest was full of sounds. Scurrying squirrels searched for food under bristles of wispy moss. Monkeys were on their own business of howling at each other preparing for night sleep. We treaded cautiously holding my camera and the purse. The forest’s smell was fresh and organic. We could hear the orchestra of birdsong. It was soul soothing. We found the reasons of coming here out from a city life.

We came back to Rest House. Generator supply started at 6:00pm. We rested for a while, had some quick tea using my tea kit. 

We came out on the roof. Below the horizon beyond the Saryu valley the lights of the houses sparkled yellow with some fire works of Diwali festivals here and there. The sky was clear, the evening stars peeped down at us like silver asters, glinting and shimmering. The stars were coming out like lucid snowflakes of silver as they sprinkled the night sky above. 

Dinner was ready.. 

Buffet Dinner

It was cold, dark outside. We did not want to inhale candle flame with no ventilation of the room. So its better to go to sleep at the earliest - better before the lights off. So we went....

continued...