Vrindavan to Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary

We started on our trip on 8 June 2016 at 3:30 am and zipped to Noida on the Yamuna Expressway.  Breakfast was at MacDonalds Gajraula. It was smooth sailing till Moradabad. Here we turned off on to the Kashipur Road. It was infested with sand and brick laden bullock carts. Then there was a bottle-neck (in the strict sense of the word): an extremely narrow bridge - almost like a sclerosed coronary artery. Kashipur was chaotic, with bedlam ruling the roads but Ramnagar was worse. There was anarchy and unruliness on the congested and cramped main road. Wriggling out miserable town saw the once desolate road crowded on both sides with dhabas, resorts, hotels and sundry shops. Almost all had the prefix or suffix of Corbett or Tiger, even one photocopy shack!

After गर्जिया we drove off the road to see the hoary old Forest Rest House at मोहान. It was deserted and peaceful but its quaintness was marred by dish antennae.

मोहान Forest Rest House

Snowflake in front of Corbett Park

The once gushing Kosi River across the road had now deteriorated into a disconsolate rivulet. The melancholy atmosphere worsened as we ascended. The hills were barren and devoid of any trees or vegetation.

Denuded hillsides

Kosi valley

The narrow road took its serpentine course up and down the cheerless hills. I reminisced the lush drive this used to be back in the sixties and seventies. At the tri-junction from चौखुटिया and भिकियासैण there used to be tea-stall that has now matured into a township called भतरौंजखान . The drive onto ताड़ीखेत was amidst cypress and chir trees recuperating after the devastating forest fire.

The usual pandemonium prevailed in the erstwhile idyllic cantonment of रानीखेत . Mercifully the road to अल्मोड़ा  was spiffy after मजखाली . Encountered the Kosi river once again and on ascending, bypassed the unholy mess of buildings proliferating like pathogenic fungi all over the hillside - Almora! 

Finally, after a scenic drive via काफरखान we arrived in the serene environs of the Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary.

My odometer read 585 kms (the discrepancy of 10 kms according to Google Maps can be attributed to the distance from GLA to Vrindavan).