mémoires of my travels..: Binsar: The jungle(e) fun...

Binsar, a quiet, peaceful wildlife sanctuary surrounded by the Kumaon hills which adorn a thick green forest cover.. A must do road trip for any tourer with those lovely smooth roads till Almora and the forest trials there onwards.. I had been wanting to go there for a long time and finally the chance came when people from my office wanted to go for a bike trip to the hills..
So the trip began on a saturday morning in April. I got ready as usual and as usual i had to wait for others to show up. Soon we were on our way. There were 4 of us: Antarpreet, Sunil, Kailash and me, all having contributed to Bajaj's sales. The NH24 wasn't much crowded and we were riding at a good speed. On the way the sky got cloudy and it also drizzled a bit, but luck was on our side and it dint rain much. Our first major stop was Garhmukteshwar for some tasty aloo-berhwi(even the thought makes my mouth water) and photography..
Sunlight bursting throught the clouds

After hogging aloo-berhwi

Ganga ka kinaara..

Whatte scene..

Then we moved on.. Crossed the Moradabad bypass and by mistake turned towards Rampur instead of Jim Corbett. Soon the road got bad but it was for very short patches and the pot holes weren't very big.. Some of the stretched of the road were wallpaper stuff..

The plains ended, the hills began. Now the fun was going to begin. The others were going very slow and i could not resist. So i left the others behind and started riding at my speed. 10 kms before Bhimtal i decided to stop and wait for others.
Some pics..

Soon Sunil and Antar came and told me that Kailash had got a puncture and was around 6-7kms behind me. We had no option but to go back. The nearest puncture repair shop was further 6kms away. So i went back to where Kailash was and then 6kms further ahead to get the mechanic. Finally till we got the puncture repaired and were ready to go, it was 5:30 in the evening.

We were very very late and had a lot of distance to cover. When we crossed Bhimtal, i realized i was riding at a speed of 80. The road was super-smooth and remained this way till almora. I dint even feel like stopping for any photographs. Just a few i clicked:
the Bhimtal lake

somewhere on the way..

I reached Almora by 7pm. It was already dark. Some local told me that Binsar was just 10kms from there and so i started towards it. It actually turned out to be 30kms. Even the road wasn't that good. Finally at around 8:30 i reached the gates of the Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary. The gaurd there wasn't ready to let us in. He said that there were a lot of leopards in the jungle and in the dark we could be attacked. We had already booked rooms in the KMVN Guest House, so had to reach there. Finally after a lot of discussion and our signing a statement that we ourselves will be responsible for any mishap, he let us in. The guard's warnings had really scared us and any movement in the trees made my heart jump to my mouth. We rode as fast as the road was allowing us to go and in no time reached the KMVN guest house. It was 9:30 in the night. After a quick dinner and some chat we went to sleep.

Next morning i got up at 5:30 to catch the sunrise. A few pics i took

After breakfast, we went to the Binsar Mahadev temple.
Greenary around the temple..

Shivling inside the temple

Outside the temple

"How can that tree be more interesting than me???"

Then we came back, had lunch and went for a trek in the forests to the Sat-Khol Temple.
The dense forests..

The temple was basically a stone Shivling which is said to have been carved by hand by a sage for worshipping Lord Shiva. The Shivling

While coming back Sunil and i decided to go straight up the hill. So this was how the way looked

It was fun trekking in the jungle with feet slipping in the dry leaves. The last stop for the day was the sunset point.
The lineup in front of the guest house

lineup at sunset point..

The sunset...

Reflection in the clouds..

The next day again i got up at 5:30 and the aim was to catch the sunrise at the Zero Point. This is the highest point on the hill. I felt like doing some off-roading and decided to go there on bike. The path was a dirt track going through the jungle and it was fun riding on it. Although we missed the sunrise till we reached the place but the journey was really enjoyable and that made up for it.
The Zero Point..

Jungle roads..

After breakfast we started on our way back and this time took the Nainital-Kaladhungi route. The roads were better and there was much less traffic.
Me showing off my countersteering..