Explore Great Himalayan National Park - Day 2

Myself ,Ghanshyam and Captain Chatterjee decided to go for the morning birding trail early in the morning. The sky was cloudy but the weather was pleasant. Around our cottages itself there was a pretty good number of birds were seen, verditer flycatchers,himalayan woodpeckers,flycatchers etc.

We went for around two km of walk from the main gate on the road.

The droplets of mist was afresh on the leaves

The valley was looking picture perfect!

We returned back to Mother's Lap for our breakfast.

After our sumptuous breakfast, we began our 6 km steep trail to Chaini Village .The weather kept worrying us from being clear to cloudy and a bit rainy. All of us enjoyed the trail. 

The bird life along the way was awesome

It was a tough trail, but both Mohan and Captain Chatterjee , both of whom I was worried ,managed it well.

The villagers on the way were curious about us and were peeping from the windows. I saw a kid busy doingher homework and curiously gazing at us

.

Captain of course kept resting his feet as often as he can !

Someone was enjoying her school holiday by just relaxing in the sun !! How lucky!

We were told that the villagers are also famous for their wood craftsmanship, which can be seen from these beautiful wooden houses on our way to Chaini

Small shrines are built in wooden structures can also be seen all over the place

The mountain hawk eagle soared high up in the sky!

And at last we could get a glimpse of the set of temple towers in the distance

We also passed by a small temple revered by the locals.

Enjoying our walk and the shoot..:-)

Finally reached our destination!

The structures were huge and intimidating. We were disappointed for not allowed to enter the interiors as a safety precaution

Visitors are also not allowed to enter this temple dedicated to Krishna.

Murali got interested in buying the locally woven shawls when we were passing by the village.

Their beautiful daughter happily posed with all of us 

Everyone was curious about us!

The hardship faced by the mountain people in their daily life, shatters the myth of living happily in the mountains.

And when we reached back Mother's Lap, we had a lifer for a sighting. Eurasian Hobby perched right at the entrance on a dry tree.

And as with many of my tours, this dog decided to escort us back to the guest house

I loved the view one got just lying on the bed and rested well till the evening

Enjoyed a nice bonfire 

Explore Great Himalayan National Park - Day 1

I landed at Delhi airport at around 9.30 pm. My plan was to take the taxi and goto New Delhi Station and spend the night at the waiting room and take the morning Shatabdi to Kalka from where our tour was to begin.

I changed my decision and instead opted out to stay in a hotel booked through via.com. Hotel Ashiana is anything but an Ashiana. AC box was all broken, fortunately working. Bathroom had just an exhaust fan, which had no fan, no window.Bathroom was not clean, and worst the Keyhole was so big, that I kept a cloth hanging in front of it. The night was spent with cockroaches crawling all over the place. Not worth the Rs.1300/- I spent there to spend the night!

I met our guide Ghanshyam and other guests at Kalka Station. I had a very pleasant company in Annie and David, who were travelling with a group as part of their Indian Railway Tour.Our train reached on time and our tempo traveler too was waiting for us .

Though we were given to understand that the journey will be around 5 hours, it us almost 11 hours to reach the place, taking into account all the stoppages we made,

We could not resist but stop and enjoy the bhuttas.

Stopped for lunch at Ghiani's restaurant

Caught in the traffic jam for almost one hour.

 And finally reached the camp site, Mother's Lap at Banjaar Valley,Himachal Pradesh to retire in our cozy cottages after a simple home made dinner.