About Lansdowne, the cute little hill station Part 4, A few steps more

The more you stay in Lansdowne, more you are bewitched by its beauty. At one point of time, I coyly whispered in my wife’s ear- could we plan a retirement out here. And to think that we were barely in our late twenties.

I could have seen all the places in Lansdowne all over again, but chose not to- for it was my last day over here and there were a few excursions left to be embarked upon.

On early next morning, we trekked to a place called Deoharikhal, this is a tiny hamlet of twenty odd houses on Kotdwar –Lansdowne road, but it can also be reached by a trek of about 2 hours through the surrounding jungles. The route to Deoharikhal is out of some fairy tale, you keep on stumbling upon small vantage points throughout the route, and the trek itself is least strenuous- allowing you to enjoy rather than sweat.

You start from a place called snow-view point, from where in winters you can see snow capped Himalayas. There is this rock bang adjacent to the point, which has space enough to accommodate two people- we named it lovers point. Earlier two days ago, we discovered another rock near Bhulla Lake, which has a shape of a burger; we named it Burger point- so Lansdowne is one place where you can also play a Christopher Columbus for a while.

From snow-view point the trek forks into two routes- one leading to Jaiharikhal and other to Deoharikhal. Jaiharikhal is a small market, which we stumbled upon later in the day while on our way to Bhairavgarhi. Actually, the word ‘khal’, it seems, is a generic term to denote a village. Therefore, you will encounter lots of ‘khal’ while on excursion in and around the place .

On the way to Deoharikhal, you will come across one Rathi Point, Army golf course and army warfare training ground. Nevertheless, more beautiful than all of them is the trek itself, which meanders inside the jungles and makes you enchanted and afraid at the same time. Once in Deoharikhal we savoured the delight of a hot cup of tea prepared by a roadside vendor.

A piece of advice, do carry a few parathas for breakfast, having breakfast while sitting on a roadside bench, fascinated us beyond words.

Incidentally, Deoharikhal is the same place where the toll collection station of the Cantonment Board is located, so you can get taxis to get back to Lansdowne from here, very easily.

After getting back to Lansdowne, we rested for a while and decided that we will cover Bhairavgarhi before departing from the place. We were tired; nevertheless, we just could not say no for a place, which many say, is the most beautiful excursion nearby Lansdowne. (I deliberately qualify it as nearby, because three hours away from Lansdowne is this place called Tarkeshwar, which according to everybody I consulted, is the most beautiful place in the region. Though we couldn’t go there because during monsoons, road conditions are bad and you have to hire an entire vehicle with a daring driver to get there and this would have costed us more than a thousand bucks) .

Bhairavgarhi is actually a temple on a hillock, from the foothill it is a seven to eight kilometer trek. The landscape throughout the trek is amazingly beautiful with beautiful vantages of Himalayas. Though reaching the foothill of Bhairavgarhi is a bit difficult. You have to change two vehicles to reach there.

However, I would advice that one should alight a couple of kilometers ahead of the place to see the only degree college in the area, which is located amidst of a pine tree forest. You will just fall in love with the place. And after falling in love, you can just walk down a couple of kilometers to reach the foothill of Bhairavgarhi.

The trek to the temple is a bit arduous, so ideally, it should be done in an early morning, but getting here early morning is a difficult task. Carry a lot of water and some quick bite as this is unlike any other temple trek, which are full of vendors selling tea and biscuits. All along the trek, you will find only one place that sell tea & biscuits and that too right close to the summit. However, relish the entire trek because such a beautiful trek might not be possible in this area without so little a toil.By the time we came back to the rest house, we were exhausted it was the most tiring day for us but most fulfilling also.

The next day, we said goodbye to this place and set out towards Rishikesh through an off the beaten path route. The route that took us to small Himalayan villages with a lot of innocence and charm.