A Camping trip to “Kanatal”

-Deepak Uppal

It was a very ecstatic moment in each one of our lives when the much visualized camping excursion was finalized. Everybody was elated by the fact that it would be their first camping experience. Initially we planned to taste the feeling of being in the middle of speedy downstream Ganges with river rafting, however we ended visiting “Kanatal” at an altitude of 8300 ft above see level.
Unlike “Shimla” & “Manali”, “Kanatal” is an unexploited and virgin lush green array of hills in “Uttarakhand” near “Chamba”. We started rolling towards “Kanatal” on 10th May 2008, Friday 10:30 pm. We had only a weekend to experience some respite from the hot and dust laden environment of Delhi just 8 hours continuous drive away. We had our first halt to flush out the harmful alcoholic toxins, next was a tea break at a midnight terrorized place, “Muzaffarnagar”. After covering 5 hours of journey, we had a gossiping round on the holy shores of Ganges at 4 am in “Hrishikesh”. The phush phush sound of flowing water and the early morning view from “Ram Jhula” was mesmerizing. As we started moving away from Ganges in a short while we were in the lap of hills, verdant valley spread out below, cool breeze started tickling us and we could still spot Ganges flowing.
It was a sleepless night, still there wasn’t any lethargic feeling within us. Just couple of hours drive before destination we discovered an eating joint connected to a beautiful waterfall amidst vertical cliffs on either side. We hopped from one stone to another in the waterfall with a shivering feet and later suppressed our appetite with hot "aloo paranthas" and "masala tea". In a short while we reached our destination by around 11 am on 11th May.
Camps were pitched on beautifully terraced hills and our camps were at the top. Though we were allotted 3 camps with attached bathrooms, one of them was very spacious to accommodate seven of us. We relaxed in our camp for a while and quickly geared up for the activities offered there, Rappelling was the first one. Though the instructor said that site of activity is nearby, it took us quite a while as we headed downhill through a dense forest. As the instructor demonstrated rappelling he climbed down the nearly straight cliff with a rope in a flash. Few of us managed to perform the activity without any fear while others had their heart in their mouth as they climbed down even though full security measures were appointed.
After this little tiring first adventurous experience, we got the opportunity to relish delicious cuisine which nullified our tiredness. Here came the spoilsport, and it started drizzling. Even though we feared that rain might spoil our evening, the moment we lied to ease our nerves which were active since past 36 hours, we were in dreams. It was an amazing feeling being under layers of blankets as a chill shiver rippled over our skin. As we woke up after couple of hours, we were as fresh as if we had an eight hour long sleep. It was snacks time and again the variety of snacks was mouth watering.
DJ party was cancelled due to heavy rain, we had nothing to do apart from official and personal gossips, I would say it was only official. To pass time, we managed to arrange playing cards along with beverages which were cold in while with the help of chill in the environment. It continued to rain whole night along with continuous thunders. Third time in a row we were impressed by the food quality and variety served in the dinner.
Just above our camp was a flat surface from where one could have a 360 degree view of the valley, perfect place to witness a sunrise. Few of the photography lovers got up early to capture the rarely seen sunrise. We left early from there as we planned a sight of Asia’s largest water reservoir and multipurpose river valley project, “Tehri Dam” and then rolled back to Delhi.
The visitors to “Kanatal” included Aditya, Ankur, Mayur, Raman, Roshan, Vikas and me from the RMS team. Few things we all enjoyed in the trip to “Kanatal” Camp were the togetherness, knowing each other, gossips and mimicry skills.