Jul 11, 2011 12:26 PM
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I used to read blogs of persons, who trekked in Uttranchal and always dreamt of doing same. I have been to Uttranchal many times and visited the places like Badrinath, Kedarnath, Triyugi Narayan, Gangotri & Yamnotri. But all these times we stayed at hotels. Last year we went for camping experience at Kanatal and did small treks.
This year we planned for a trip to Chopta region. Chopta is called Switzerland of India. I have not been to Switzerland but I find this region as the most beautiful one. It comes under Kedar wild life sanctuary and more than 500 species of animals and birds are found here.
I started searching for place to stay for 21 persons and came to know that there are no good hotels in Chopta. One will find small hotel like guest house. Duggalbeeta is around 3 km. from Chopta and has accommodations like Mayadeep Guest house and Magpie resorts. We finalized Magpie resort as our destination.
We started from Delhi on 22nd June at 11 pm. 21 persons were accommodated in 3 innova cars. At UP check post we were informed that 2 of our drivers were not feeling well, hence I and one of my colleague took charge of driving. We drove till Rishikesh and reached there at 4.30 AM. I was ahead and had to wait for others as they were not aware of GMVN rest house Bharat Bhoomi. I had made arrangements for shower and breakfast at Bharat Bhoomi guest house on Tehri road.
Second car reached at 5.00 am and crossed Shyampur post in wrong direction. We asked him to take U turn and meet us on Tehri road. We were standing and gossiping. It is a Y junction. Driver of other car came back and hit the police barrier to come on Tehri road. There was a loud bang and when he attempted to take reverse, barrier moved along with car as it was stuck under the bumper. Somehow we managed to remove it and there was not much damage to car.
We all reached GMVN guest house at 5.30 am and the courteous staff under instructions from manager Mr. Negi opened two nos. 7 bedded dormitories. They also served tea immediately and asked us to come for breakfast after freshening up. I had fixed up the Aloo Parantha breakfast from Delhi only but was not happy with quality.
Now the exercise of getting hill driving license for Delhi driver started and took long enough. With our intervention matter was solved and RTO issued the licenses. We wasted precious 2.30 hrs in this process. We started uphill journey from Rishikesh via Devprayag – Devprayag is a small town and is at confluence of River Bhagirathi and Alaknanda. Bhagirathi from Gangotri and Alaknanda from Badrinath meet here and from this place only Ganga comes in existence. From Devprayag road leads to Rudra prayag.
Rudraprayag- is the town associated with famous hunter Jim Corbett, who killed a man eating leopard. This male leopard claimed to have killed more than 250 people. Rudraprayag is another confluence of River Alaknanda and Mandakini. There are five prayag in Uttranchal named Dev prayag, Rudra prayag, Nand prayag, Karna prayag and Vishnu prayag. We could see two of these during our journey. Then we proceeded via Augastyamuni and Kund to Magpie resorts, Duggalbeeta. During this journey we had lunch break at GMVN Rudraprayag and a tea break near Chopta.
Though it was quite hot till Kund but after that it started changing. As we climbed up towards Chopta one could feel the sudden change in climate. Now it was very pleasant and drivers were saved of repeated requests of switching on A.C.
We saw the board of Magpie resort, which one can easily miss and stopped there. With our luggage we marched towards camps. It’s around 250 meters walk through forest path. It was pleasing experience to see the location of camp. Tents are pitched on a grassy meadow with slopes and steeps. There are total 7 number big tents with attached toilets and 4 nos. small tents. Buffalos and cows were grazing and one could hear different sounds of birds.
Magpie resort is managed by team of 3 young entrepreneurs Mr. Manoj, Mr. Sanjay and Mr. Bharat. Entire team and staff are very friendly and cooperative. Mr. Sanjay is trekking expert. Mr. Dinesh was to be our guide for next two treks. By the time we settled in our tents, hot tea and pakoras were served in dining area.
We just relaxed for while and took a small walk towards forest. Our team assembled for dinner and then retired for night. Since Magpie resort is in forest area, there is no electricity here. They use solar power and a 3W CFL in each tent is in use till 10 pm and then it is total dark till next sunrise. During our 3 night stay here, our team members spotted foxes in camp area and one of the camp employee spotted a leopard around 100 meters from camp. Our drivers claimed to see bears during their morning visits to jungle.
