The Kumaon Diaries - Day 3 (Phase 1, Sitarganj to Nainital)

 Day 3 - Sitarganj - Nainital

We're up early - again woken up by Ranjan who is the first to get up every day. There's tea or coffee ordered and I had a nice cup of tea before peering out into a snowy white fog. This was worse than the fog yesterday and we stepped out on to the terrace to experience the fog.

Me, Ranjan and the Fog at Sitarganj

Vardha an I were scheduled to start at 7 am but the fog did not look like it would allow us. So we sat around, had our chai, breakfast and set out at about 8 am.

Vardha, Mr Naidu and me - just before take off into THE FOG!

 

Divan was there after a long journey yesterday and the Creta took off enthusiastically towards Nainital.

Going up the hills to Nainital

The fog continued and we were amazed at how people set out to work in that. The queue of trucks was there as yesterday and a sardar policeman was regulating the traffic. On and on we went and suddenly in one moment, the fog lifted. That's it - one moment it was there and one moment it was not. That was good enough cue for Divan to hit the accelerator. We reached Katgodham after an hour and then started the climb up to Nainital. It was a steep, narrow, winding and rather busy road with blue skies and lots of pine and deodhar trees as we went up.

The road that leads into the town - the lake on the left

I was well and truly ensconced in my jackets etc and was hoping that my the signs of cold would not develop further, that my motion sickness would not develop. I popped a couple of homeo pills and just about held on. I could feel it coming on but I held out. At one point I felt very ill - feverish, hot, and took off my jacket, kept sipping water, hoping I would not puke, and then we hit Nainital.

The Naini tal - from the Boat House side

 I stepped out, saw brilliant blue skies, the lake, the mall road and then I saw a cricket match being played next to the lake and all my ill feeling disappeared. I just stood there watching and enjoying the game.

Cricket - Life saver!

In a while we walked towards the mall to get some breakfast. We went to the Nainital Boat Club which apparently gives temporary memberships for those who wish to partake of its hospitality (Suresh gave this info and egged us on to go to the club) but the man at the counter took one look at us and said that they only do that for families and not stags. Thankfully!

The Boat Club didn't let us in!

We walked up and found a decent looking hotel, ordered some breakfast (toast and omelette for me) and then stepped out. While Vardha went to get himself a pair of gloves I stepped into Sakley's the eatery that's foremost on eating joints in Nainital and got some pastries etc. It's a very quaint place with some pictures about the history of Nayneetal! 

View from the hotel where we ate breakfast

We discouraged the many who wanted to take us for a boat ride, peered over the lake edge to see hundreds of healthy fish swimming about, and decided that we had had enough of Nainital.

Sakley's!

Inside Sakley's!

 I am sure that as with any hill station it would have been lovely to explore the place by foot but we had to meet Ranjan and the others at some predestined place so we decided we had enough.

Don taking pictures of the cricket match!

The pics inside Sakely's of Nayneetal!

Lots of tourists here though and a definite character to it. We decided against Kilbury, against Sherwood College and headed off towards Kainchi village, where the Neem Karoli Baba ashram was - the place where we were all set to meet. But we had time on our hands and Divan said we could use it well by visiting the temple pf Golu Devata and so we went up into the hills, past a Sainik School from where one could see Bhim Tal at a distance, and stopped. It was about 1130 am perhaps!