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Kumaon Diaries: Kolkata to Jim Corbett National Park in Crysta & Tiguan

9th September 2024, 10:45 by Kanad Kalasur

Frequent glimpses of the distant hills and the Kosi river flowing at one side and the dense forest slope on the other side while travelling on an open top Jeep was an awesome feeling.

BHPian haisaikat recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Note: This is Part 1 of our Kumaon journey covering Kolkata to Corbett. Subsequent episodes of this travel will be published as separate threads as and when I get time to compile and author them. Till then, Happy reading !!

Background
The summer of '24 was nearing and so was vacation time. Unlike our last summer's Meghalaya roadtrip where we planned everything only a few months before the travel, this time we wanted to visit Kumaon and planning started all the way back in December of '23. A visit to this region has been long overdue after witnessing so many folks on this forum and outside in known circles venturing in and around this region. However, planning was not easy and Kumaon being full of exotic locations with each place having its own unique offerings, it was hard to exclude one in comparison to others.

Itinerary and Planning
After careful consideration of our vacation schedule - family / travel constraints - seasonal preferences, we decided to drop the Pithoragarh - Dharchula from the itinerary as it was hard to fit into our schedule based on available leaves. We decided to keep the Pithoragarh route reserved in favor of a future spiritual trip to Lipulekh pass for witnessing the sacred Kailash Parvat. Also our previous trip to Jaldapara and Hollong had made us fans of experiencing wildlife by staying within the core area of forest reserves. The worldwide acclaim of Jim Corbett National Park in offering probably one of the best wildlife touring experiences with core area stays compelled us to include Dhikala into our itinerary but it came at the cost of dropping some other prominent areas of Kumaon region.

Our final itinerary stood like this:
Day 0/1: Kolkata -> Lucknow
Day 2: Lucknow -> Ramnagar
Day 3: Ramnagar -> Corbett / Dhikala
Day 4: Dhikala
Day 5: Dhikala -> Kausani (via Ranikhet)
Day 6: Kausani -> Munsiyari (via Chaukori)
Day 7: Munsiyari
Day 8: Munsiyari -> Dhaulchina
Day 9: Dhaulchina -> Binsar
Day 10: Binsar -> Sattal
Thereafter Sattal -> Lucknow and Lucknow -> Kolkata

The above plan leaves out a lot of other places like Muktheshwar, Nainital, Bhimtal and offbeat places like Sheetlakhet, Peora and even does not do justice with places like Ranikhet, Kausani, Almora, Chaukori, etc. Thanks to BHPian Sayakc and BHPian Dgoyle for the information around offbeat places, road conditions and recommended routes and thanks to all the BHPians who have ventured into this route before and have inspired many like me to venture on this journey.

If someone does not wish to cover Munsiyari, they can make Almora as base and cover many of the places effectively in day trips, but of course if someone wants to see the sunrise and sunset on himalayan peaks exclusive to some of these places then nights stays are required. Just adding Munsiyari extends the itinerary by 2-3 nights including 1 additional night stay at Munsiyari.

Misty Mountain at Jhaltola (a popular interim halt for BHPians enroute Munsiyari) was fully booked on our planned return day from Munsiyari since it was a Saturday so we decided to make the night stay at Dhaulchina situated in the buffer area of Binsar forest. The advantage would be the proximity to Jageshwar Dham and also would allow entering Binsar within daytime. We skipped the plan of going to Binsar directly from Munsiyari since the entry gate closes by 630 pm. It would have been risky to assume that we would be reaching Binsar by that time given the practicalities involved in travelling with families who would need a comfortable start from Munsiyari.

For our final destination in Kumaon, where we may have to do some remote office work, we dropped the idea of staying at Nainital since it would be June - July peak tourist season with crowds and congestion. I also learnt that during this period in order to check traffic congestion, local police may randomly deny entry of Self -Driven vehicles into Nainital at a check post 10 KM away if they find out that the tourist has reserved hotel that does not have in-premise parking. The tourists would then be compelled to either turn back or leave their own car at a parking lot next to the check post and take a rented cab instead.

Finally based on several recommendations, zeroed in on Sattal. It promised tranquility apart from being scenic and a major birding destination, but most importantly have good network connectivity in hotels to suit our remote working needs.

The only aspect we missed to account was the heat. More on this later.

The Team
This time it was two BHPians and families in their respective cars.

The usual myself, wife Tania and our little one Pupu accompanied by our dearest friend Baisakhi together riding in our beloved Toyota Innova Crysta

BHPian S_scorpion (Sandipan) with his wife Debasree and daughter Mithi riding in his dashing new Volkswagen Tiguan

An interesting fact about this combination is that there are 4 Pointers and 3 STCETians travelling together in this mix (those who know they know what these mean )

Booking process
A lot depended on the successful booking of Dhikala Forest Rest House, an oasis within the wilderness of the core area of Jim Corbett National Park and 31 Km from the entry gates to the jungle. My sincere thanks to BHPian Ramnath_77 for his extensive thread explaining the booking process and tips and tricks which was our guiding light. Also thanks to our friend Baisakhi whose relentless persuasion and support to our entire group culminated in the form of this booking finally taking shape.

I have a few minor things to add on top of what Ramnath_77 has already mentioned:-
1. There is immense effort put by the website authority in cancelling bookings made using auto complete tools, they put them back up for rebooking on the subsequent Mondays.
2. There is an OTP system that comes to the Whatsapp during the initial phase of the booking after selecting the FRH and room type for the designated dates. This OTP is aimed at locking the slot and allows more time to make the payment. The important thing to note here is that OTP does not come instantly and can get delayed up to 1 minute after clicking the Generate OTP button. It is advisable to refrain from clicking multiple times as that may interfere / freeze the screen navigation midway in the process.
3. We used PAN card as ID for the booking as it has shorter length than Aadhar
4. Every family focused on booking for themselves which saved time in form filling and increased chances for getting a confirmed slot (note that this will end up allotting dedicated jeeps for everyone, but we made great use of the 3rd jeep, more on this later). The risk of any one family not getting the booking did come to our mind but it was a risk worth taking.
4. Also there is more rush for slots on weekends than weekdays.

Other hotels were booked directly without using any booking aggregator websites.

The Journey
Prior to the travel we got our car thoroughly checked and serviced including the new Tiguan. We also carried the usual roadside emergency tools like Tow cable with shackles, Jumper cable, tubeless puncture repair kit, tyre inflator, car inverter, torch, swiss knife, mini folding shovel and duly got our cars checked at the service centers prior to the trip.

Day 0-1 / Friday-Saturday / Kolkata to Lucknow
We had an ambitious target to start by 9 pm, but those critical last minute inclusions to the packing after wrapping up a full day office delayed us. While Sandipan started around 11pm we started after half an hour and picked up Baisakhi in another half an hour from Tollygunj and headed for NH-19. There was sporadic congestion of trucks and cars at regular intervals along with diversions due to the ongoing road widening work which slowed us down so much so that we took 4+ hours to cross Durgapur. Meanwhile through continuous location sharing we finally caught up after crossing Bardhhaman and followed each other henceforth.

We made an early morning halt around 5am at the Jubilee Petrol Pump, Gobindapur, Asansol, West Bengal for refueling and biobreaks

The moment we entered the state of Jharkhand, we noticed heighted security since the day was marked for the Indian General Elections 2024 in the state. We were stopped twice in security checkpoints along the NH-19 where we had to share contact number and allow the car to be searched, along with answering predefined questions like if we are carrying cash beyond threshold limit or carrying weapons or explosives. The process was quick and the security personnel were absolutely polite in handling the situation, probably more so on seeing we were travelling with families.

We enjoyed the smooth tarmac of the Jharkhand roads but not without the diversions due to road widening work continued at few places, even in Bihar thereafter.

We halted for a short tea break around 730am at Sakrej, Jharkhand immediately after crossing the toll plaza

In about an hour we halted for breakfast at a rather unexpected find, CM Mithaiwala in Chouparan, did not expect such a nice place amidst the crowd of Khirmohan selling shops. We got excellent hot Puri Sabji here. The owner was immensely cordial, we came to know from him that this family-owned business primary ran on supplying milk from his Dairy Farm having 400+ cows. However during COVID when supply lines were hampered, they switched to manufacturing milk products and resorted to this shop model which picked up pace gradually.

We initially had considered taking the NH-19 -> Banaras Outer Ring Road -> NH-731 -> Sultanpur / NH-330 -> Purvanchal Expressway -> Lucknow but Sandipan was not highly apprehensive of this approach since this would allow him only 100 KM of runway on the Purvanchal Expressway in order to stretch the legs of his new Tiguan. So we stuck to the diversion from NH-19 around Durganti and took the narrow NH-24 all the way to Mardah before merging into Purvanchal Expressway, this would give around 270 KM of Purvanchal Expressway to drive upon. But reaching to Durganti was not smooth as several traffic jams and diversions on opposite lanes throughout NH-19 slowed us down primarily in Bihar. In few congestions we came out to check the situation but hurried back inside our cars soon after as the soaring heat waves were untolerable being above 45 C. Our co-passengers compared our driving with that of slow test cricket batters

We finally reached Durganti past 3 pm. the initial entry to this road from the Durganti diversion was tricky and full of bad patches but we eventually managed to take that, google maps had got confused. The next 60 KM on NH-24 until we reached Mardah took us 2 hrs, primarily due to narrow lanes, frequent bumpers and slow moving goods carriers, thankfully afternoon hours helped keeping pedestrians away. We crossed the Ganga river around Ghazipur.

We had skipped a formal lunch courtesy to some on the go snacks. After some google map search we located one food stop in Mardah named Chat Adda just next to the highway and headed inside. It was past 5pm, the temperature had started dropping but the humidity was still nasty. The food joint, although Non AC, had some good chai and hot chats and tikkis which we finished fast and after an hour's halt here by 6 pm we resumed our journey and soon entered the Purvanchal Expressway.

Daylight was reducing and with the sun setting in the backdrop, the Tiguan set ablaze the tarmac and vanished ahead of us in no time

The evening drive through Purvanchal was steady for next few hours, leveraged cruise control to the fullest. Our two cars met again after few hours. The last one hour on the Purvanchal Expressway was spent on discussing and finalizing the hotel for our stay at Lucknow. Initially we had thought of staying at hotel Maple Leaf in Kaisarbagh at the heart of Lucknow from where all notable eateries are at stone's throw but looking at the watch we decided to head for Gomtinagar where we eventually booked hotel Nestway Inn in the Gomtinagar area.

Sandipan headed for the hotel directly and planning to opt for in-room dinning after the long drive. However with proven foodies on board the Crysta, it was a no brainer, we called the nearby Dastarkhwan and learnt they close entry at 10-30 pm. We hurried to the restaurant without even checking in to our hotel. Parking was ample and inspite of the Saturday evening rush we were lucky to get a seat fast. We tasted their famous biriyani, galaouti kabab with awadhi paratha, kadai chicken and to sum up the evening with their signature shahi tukra. Facing severe protests from daughter Mithi on finding out our hotel serves vegeterian food only, team Tiguan opted for Dastarkhwan too. It was almost 11 pm yet the folks accommodated one last order and we carried along that food back to the hotel. Our hotel was merely less than a KM drive from there and we reached in no time.

We checked in and went to our rooms and crashed soon after. Our room was next to the roads and the moon lit up parts of our room. Fell asleep gradually, staring at the moon, thinking about the last 23+ hours we have been on the move driving 1000+ KM from our home to this hotel, probably next time will improve this timing

Day 2 / Sunday / Lucknow to Ramnagar
We had a filling breakfast at the hotel, their room service was good, and checked out by 9-30 am

We picked up some essentials from the neighboring LDA market of Vibhav Khand and headed for Ramnagar taking the Sitapur -> Rudrapur route with very good tarmac for the most part and scenic surroundings.

On strong public demand, we had to make up for arriving Lucknow late last night and inadvertently missing the opportunity to explore Lucknow's street food. We halted around noon near Lachimanpur (Sitapur) for some streetside aam panna, mint cooler and fresh lime soda along with aloo tikki chat and pani puri. This helped us skipping a formal lunch.

We set a target to reach Ramnagar before 530 pm and the good (if not excellent) tarmac of NH-30 and thereafter NH-309 allowed to maintain steady speeds for us to advance as desired.

Around 5 pm we passed this road sign indicating we were finally nearing our destination

We entered Ramnagar a little before 530 pm, crossed the bridge over the Kosi Barrage and entered into the market area. We could see people getting down on the dried river bed as there was some park down below adjacent to the bridge. If someone has to stay at a happening place in Ramnagar then staying closer to the market is advisable however many of the luxury resorts are far from here, closer to the forest entry gates along NH-309. Usually irrespective of where you stay in Ramnagar the safari jeeps will pick you up from the hotel for some extra pay.

We reached our pre-booked hotel Le Reserve Corbett well before 6 pm. It was around 10 Km from the Kosi Barrage, in the Dhikuli area of Ramnagar among the last 1 KM of hotels and resorts. The next 8-9 Km until the Dhangarhi gate of Jim Corbett National Park there are no Hotels on NH-309. If someone wants to stay even closer to the Dhangarhi gate then Muhan can be an alternative which is around 3 Km after crossing ahead of the Dhangarhi Gate.

We were up north from our usual latitude of Bengal, here days being longer, blue hour comes past 7pm in the summer, so it was still bright day. We liked being welcomed with Buransh juice, a first time for us and we instantly fell in love with it.

Even though the Kosi river during this pre monsoon time has a severely reduced water flow, we had initially thought to visit the nearby Kosi Deck restaurant of Riverview Resort just next door to us. It offers a river view dinning experience. But the hotel turned us down stating outside guests were not allowed.

We made the best of our time sitting together in the open pool view garden of our hotel over some lipsmacking snacks and coffee

Our little ones got along really well

The hotel lit up in the evening with . . .

. . the stage set for the live music and singing event. Throughout the evening one after another yesteryear Bollywood gems continued charming us while our little ones enjoyed a playful evening. We had our dinner thereafter and called it a day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b1-L6g7hDM

We drove a total of 400 KM for the day.

Day 3 / Monday / Ramnagar to Dhikala FRH
It was a leisurely morning, our jeep drivers had called to inform that they would picking us up from the hotel past 11 am and it will take around 3 hours to reach the Dhikala FRH with still having around 1 hour gap to settle down before the afternoon safari starts around 3 pm. The breakfast tables at the restaurant offers nice view of the garden and the pool.

After a filling breakfast we came back to our rooms to packup and get ready. The rooms had a retro decor in forest bungalow theme.

While we waited at the reception for our jeeps, someone was busy exploring the tourism magazines. In the meantime parking of our cars were sorted at the hotel for the next 2 days.

Jeeps arrived but not at the same time, so we departed accordingly, Sandipan and family had a head start while Baisakhi came along in our jeep and asked her own jeep to meet at the Dhangarhi gates. The drivers had also coordinated among themselves. We were surprised to see the additional luggage carrier at the back of the jeep that does not compromise with the seating space.

The NH-309 hereafter was scenic and frequent glimpses of the distant hills and the Kosi river flowing at one side and the dense forest slope on the other side while travelling on an open top Jeep was an awesome feeling. We started to feel for the first time the heat outside in an open jeep but did not realize the effect as the cool breeze was compensating it to some extent.

We went past the Girija devi temple at a distance

https://youtu.be/VzuiDdjUikc

By 12:30 pm we arrived at the Dhangarhi gate of Jim Corbett forest, the entry point for Dhikala zone. Just close to the gate there is ample parking space but these are open parking spaces as our driver had told us before. Hence we had decided to keep our cars in the hotel. The downside being on the day of our checkout we have to retract 8 km and come back again to head towards Kausani (via Ranikhet).