It was just another non-descript place in Kumaon, on the foothills of the Himalayas, and we discovered it while poring over the map one evening.<br><br>
Kunjakharak, it said, at an altitude of over 2500 m and just 34 odd kilometers away from Nainital. That made the destination close enough to cover within a day and still have some time to unwind. <br><br>
Enquiries revealed little except that there was a lone forest rest house in the middle of the jungle, almost cut off from civilization – just the place we were looking for. A gentleman at the DFO’s office in Nainital told us to go there directly and that there’d be a chowkidar there. <br><br>
But the night before the journey threw up a new challenge. Streaks of lightning lit up the sky and thunder rumbled with a short spell of rain. The weather forecast was also not favourable for ride conditions with the Met Office predicting rain and hailstorms. We decided to take a call in the morning and hit the sack at around 1:30 am.<br><br>
Earlier, we had an unexpected visitor – Susanta, an old friend from Guwahati walked in at around 11:30 pm and on hearing about our plans, jumped at the prospect of a two-day ride.<br><br>
<b>Saturday, March 5, 2004:</b><br><br>
We got up at 6:30 am, and we were already behind schedule. But the good news was that the sky was clearing up.Soon, we started packing and getting ready when Praveen called saying he was coming over to see us off. We had just two sleeping bags and Rakesh decided to carry a light quilt for Susanta. Finally, after a last-minute check, we hit the road at around 7:52 am. By now, there were no signs of any clouds in the sky and we were greeted by a bright and sunny morning.<br><br>
The ride till Moradabad by-pass was pretty much smooth and we were cruising comfortably at around 80-90 kph. But after Bhojpur, on the way to Ramnagar, we had to slow down because of a huge line of vehicles stranded on the highway. Apparently a young man had died in police custody and the villagers were holding a protest meeting right in the middle of the highway, holding up vehicular traffic.<br><br>
One villager directed us to an alternate route which would take us across the protesters. Bu this route proved to be an exercise in dirt track biking – riding through paddy fields, a dusty village road, and through some mud and slush-filled open drains. But we managed to by-pass the protesters and were back on the road soon.<br><br>
At Ramnagar, Rakesh decided to get his rear brake checked as it wasn’t working properly. That took some time and finally we were off again, through beautiful villages and mustard fields to Kaladhungi. This stretch has to be one top-notch biking road in the region. The surface is smooth with gradual descents and ascents and the foothills peering at you from the left, dense jungle flanking the horizon as we passed several small villages. One small village called Baliparao has a quaint little forest rest house right on the road.<br><br>
We took an hour-long lunch break at Punian Restaurant. This was the same place where we had stopped for lunch during our visit to Mohaan a fortnight ago. The owner’s sone welcomed us and shared the prospects of a month-long ride he was planning with some friends to Maharashtra. We were on the road again and once after Kaladhungi, started climbing the hills. <br><br>
<b>The Mountain Trail</b>
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Spring has to be the best season to explore the Kumaon region. Lush forests, coloured with the various hues of the season welcomed us as we took on the curves of the mountains. The air started getting cooler and soon we reached the outskirts of Nainital. Kunjakharak was still 33 kilometres away and it was already past 5:00 pm. <br><br>
As we followed the narrow road snaking up through the pines overlooking Nainital, I was tempted to take a picture, but decided instead to move ahead. We entered the Naina Van forest area and after about five kilometers, we were negotiating a bend when the sight ahead just made us hit the brakes right then. An entire panorama of the Greater Himalayas lay before us, the snow-covered peaks glinting in the evening sunlight. <br><br>
There was a guy with a telescope and we took turns peering through it. After a cup of coffee and some quick photographs, we decided to move ahead. The guy with the telescope told us that it’d take a long time to reach Kunjakharak. He advised us to stay at the forest rest house in Kilbury instead, which was just five kilometers away. But we decided to move on.<br><br>
The road was narrow and the ascent was not as treacherous as we’d thought it to be, but daylight was fading fast and there was no traffic at all. We encountered just one jeep with some foreign tourists near Pangot and the road ahead was completely deserted. We still had about 23 kilometres to cover from Pangot and the surface just disappeared. It was all gravel and pebbles and it was getting difficult to control the motorcycles at the bends. <br><br>
The jungle around was dense and soon darkness enveloped us. The going was getting tough, more so because of our sore backsides and I stopped to take a break. With the darkness came the cold and the last hint of dusk disappeared from the sky. <br><br>
Up ahead, we encountered a fox, sauntering along the road, but suddenly took off as it saw the headlights approaching. Further ahead, the surface of the road became even more hostile. Instead of the gravel and pebbles, there were now rocks jutting out and boulders strewn across the trail at times. <br><br>
Across one bend, we saw a deer, it was a big one, probably a sambar and as soon as he saw heard the engines, ran up the mountainside, turning back to peer at us and then called out.<br><br>
<b>Call of the wild</b><br><br>
Finally, we saw a wooden gate with a familiar forest department sign next to it. We left the bikes at the gate and walked in. It was 7:20 pm and there was no sign of the caretaker. We hollered a few times but there was no response from anyone. There was no turning back and we decided to light a fire and then think about the next course of action. <br><br>
With the fire going, we pondered over the situation. We had food, half a loaf of bread and some ham. But we had a little less than a litre of water and we could not find any source of water in the rest house. After several trips we collected enough firewood to last us a few hours we settled down.<br><br>
On one side of the verandah, towards the side of the house was the fire, the bikes were out in the front to the east and we made a makeshift barrier with the bags towards the north. Those were our sleeping quarters for the night. After sitting by the fireside for a I few hours, I went out like a light soon after but was awakened by Susanta at around 1:30 am. <br><br>
There were sounds of wild animals all around us –barking deer and lots of other noises. Apparently, Susanta heard something like an alarm call of an animal very very close to where we were sleeping and the fire was slowly dying out. Rakesh managed to open one door of the cottage through a broken window pane and we settled in for the rest of the night on the wooden floor.<br><br>
<b>Sunday, March 6, 2004:</b><br><br>
I was woken up by Rakesh at 6:30 am. The door of the room towards my feet was open and I could see the sky through it, turning orange behind two mountains. We got up, collected our bags and left the rest house at around 7:00 am. After a few kilometers we encountered a herd of sheep, two shepherds with a couple of dogs herding them out to graze somewhere. The shepherd told us there were exactly 553 sheep in that herd.<br><br>
We saw a jeep climbing up the gravel road and the caretaker of the rest house was in it! He had gone off to his village and somebody told him about visitors to the rest house. <br><br>
At around 8:30, we stopped at Pangot for a cup of tea and headed towards Nainital. Once there, we ordered breakfast and washed up at a restaurant. The place had just opened for business and breakfast was a long affair. <br><br>
At around 10:45 am, we left Nainital for home. With several stops and breaks to rest our sore backsides, we reached Delhi at 7:00 pm. <br><br>
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