Archive for April, 2010
Deoria Tal
The Garwhal ranges of Himalayas posses so many treasures of nature, which are bestowed with unparalleled beauty. Deoria Tal is one among such vista’s that captivates any body with its charismatic appeal.
Deoria Tal was a part of my trip to Garhwal: Khirsu-Ukimath-Auli-Haridwar. But without a separate trip report for Deoria Tal, it would be sheer injustice to the beauty of the place.
The Garwhal ranges of Himalayas posses so many treasures of nature, which are bestowed with unparalleled beauty. Deoria Tal is one among such vista’s that captivates any body with its charismatic appeal. At a height of 3200 meters, Deoria Tal’s crystalline water offers a spell bound images of its beautiful surroundings.
Deoriatal
It is believed that it was the place from where the mighty Pandavas were asked queries by Yaksha. The lake is surrounded in a soothingly inclined field bounded by a deep wood cover. Set majestically in the lap of the magnificent mountain peaks, Deoria Tal is a popular destination to the nature lovers.
We left for Sari village from Ukimath at around 8 AM in the morning. Sari is 10Km from Ukimath and takes around 35 mins by car. Reaching Sari, the first task was to locate Lakhpat Singh, with whom I had conversed quite a few times over the phone. His house was just at the entrance of Sari, with a big sign board written in Bengali regarding availability of all arrangements for stay at Deoria Tal and Sari.
Contrary to the impression of a well-built and hefty person that I had pictured in my mind from the name, Lakhpat Singh turned out to be a thin, lanky person. I chatted with him for some time while breakfast was ordered in another shop. Sari is occupied primarily by Negis. Chairs were laid out in the sun where breakfast was served. By this time, two horses had been hired at Rs 400 each for the trip. Our female team members were to take the horses in the steep uphill journey.
On the way to Deoria Tal
Breakfast over, we moved on. The rock wall that we had to walk over looked imposing. It was a almost near vertical wall, may be inclined at around seventy degrees. However, the trails were not very difficult to traverse and the 2 Km uphill journey was completed in around 1 hour 30 minutes. Aheli walked for the first 1.5 Km, but later on mounted a horse as she was tired. As soon as we reached the top, the surroundings were suddenly transformed, if a magician by a sweep of a magic wand has transferred us to a magical place. A small lake, Deoria Tal, was in front of us. And lined up behind Deoria Tal stood the majestic peaks of Chaukhamba, Kedarnath and many other snow capped white peaks.
The next couple of hours was spent sitting on the banks of Deoria Tal. There were no other visitors to the lake that day. Occasionally village women passed by with loads of dry firewood bundled on their backs. After a while a person collected the entry fee to Deoria Tal of Rs 40 per person (as it falls in the Nanda Devi Reserve Forest area). There was a small shop at one side of the tal. Two boys cooked some rice, dal and vegetable for lunch. It was great!!
We left a couple of hours later at 3:00 PM. Ideally, all of us wanted to stay back and spend the night in the tents. But without proper arrangements, we decided to come back later once again some time later. Hopefully, soon we will be at Deoria Tal once again.
