“It’s just here. Step out of our gate, walk for around five minutes and you’ll see a chhota road, take that and keep walking. It’s easy. In just one hour, you’ll reach.”
This was the goodbye message from our manager at Three Chimneys at Gethia, our halt for two nights near Nainital. The road suggested by her was a short cut from Gethia to Nainital. As my husband and I enjoy treks especially along local routes, we took on the challenge. We set off with a bottle of water, camera and our wits. Not even ten minutes later, we were panting heavily. Should we turn back? I wondered. High above and in the distance, the clumps of trees cleared to show the distant town, we were walking towards.
High above us a solitary eagle circled, gliding with grace and enviable ease while we plodded heavily like humans who have grown distant from nature thanks to years of urban living. The route was a gracious introduction to the real side of this hill station.
We bumped into farmers, chatted with villagers, eavesdropped on children at their school assembly and even got chased by a dog guarding a house.
Slowly we rose, climbing higher with the hills. Sometimes we felt we were right on top of them. Sometimes we felt, we were making our way through them. The gradual incline making us oblivious to anything but the next step, the next stop. A few hours later, we arrived in Nainital; tired and happy. I suddenly thought of the eagle… And I looked up – almost as if to tell her that we’d reached. But all I saw was an empty sky. After a few futile moments, I looked down into the valley and there she was… circling infinity. We hadn’t even realised just how much we’d climbed. We were now the ones soaring!
Bhavani is a traveler by choice, photographer by interest and writer by desire. She crafts tours at Audiocompass.In and blogs at merrytogoaround.com.