I visited the sacred temple of Sri Badarinath some 10 years back. That was my
first experience with the hill roads of Uttarakhand and I had decided that it would
be the last. I loved the place. The steep cliff on one side, the deep gorge on the
other side with the rushing river at the bottom and the view of the snow capped
hills. But I hated the roads. Winding narrow roads battered by landslides and
feeling like they were made entirely of loose mud and gravel. You keep moving
with difficulty fearing a landslide or loose boulders falling from the top. You witness
vehicles ahead of you getting crushed/pushed into the gorge by falling boulders.
And there is no chance to turn back ! We managed to complete our trip without
disasters and I decided not to go there again.
But my family zeroed upon Uttarakhand for a short holiday and my son assured
me that it involves just about two hours of road travel. And that this terrain was
not as threatening as the ‘Chardham’ roads. We were to take a flight to Delhi
and then travel by train to a small city named Khatgodam. From there, the village
Satoli, where we were expected to stay, was about two hours by road - if you
knew the exact location of your hotel. Add half an hour if you were depending
entirely on Google. Because, google urges you to take some interior road which
is barely 5-6 feet wide and you have to (as I did) get down and walk ahead to
confirm that it leads somewhere and that there is a provision to turn back,
if required.
Anyway, the flight to Delhi and the journey by Shatabdhi express to Khatgodam
were fine, if you overlooked our stupidity of getting into compartment C1 instead
of E1 and the struggle of getting out of C1 when others were trying to get in !
Our destination ‘Wood house farm’ in satoli village was a cosy cottage of four
rooms, out of which we occupied three and one remained empty. We spent two
days there and shifted to the Neemrana Hotel at Ramgarh for the next two days.
An old British bungalow having four rooms, located on top of a hillock. No sight
seeing trips, no shopping and no other activity. Weather was splendid, surroundings
beautiful and service good. Best suited for lazing and reading and that is what we
did. As is my practice, I am maintaining an account of our trip on my blog through
It is a pain to arrange pictures in order while posting on the blog and hence I have
left them in the random order that they appeared. I liked the shape of pine trees
and their effect on the landscape and hence there are a lot of pictures. Kindly bear.
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| Difficult to find level land in the hilly terrain. One such place, a clearing, next to my walking path at Satoli. |
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| The cottage at Satoli had a wonderful selection of books. Many, to my liking. Found, started and finished a book by one of my favourite authors Ruskin Bond. |
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| Our group at Khatgodam station. |
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| Sitting and breakfast area - front of cottage at Ramgarh |
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| Example of the Interior roads |
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| Entrance to the cottage at Ramgarh |
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| The looping road, photographed from a higher point during my walk. |
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| The common space at Wood house cottage |
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| My favourite corner for reading. One of my best reading experiences. |
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| The Cottage at Satoli |
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| One of the many 'hill view' pictures |
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| Took pictures of anything that looked good to me. Pine trees on a slope. |
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| One of the many more ! |
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| Caption not required |
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| Ramgarh. The building with green roof was the place where we stayed. |
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| Warm morning sun and my chair, facing the Himalayas at a distance. |
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| The Himalayan Range, as seen from the cottage at Satoli |
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| Picture taken from a height. Gives an idea of the terrain in general, at Ramgarh |
