Kausani: so enchanting a place!This article is a shorter version of an article written by Palas for an Indian newspaper one year back. Many thanks indeed, Palas.
Kausani: enchanting mountains!
When we visited Kausani this summer, we didn’t know how profound an impact this small hill station will have on us. So, without waiting to tell what all you can see there, let me give an advice to you, if you love nature and hills, is to visit Kausani as early as you can.
Frankly, our journey from Kolkata to Delhi and up to Kathgodam (the last railway station this side) was not much to write about. In fact, we had quite a few irritants including an unfriendly encounter with fellow passengers before alighting the first train at Nizamuddin railway station in Delhi. We took another train from Delhi to Kathgodam, which was a further mistake and it added long hours to our journey. (Mind it, we are frequent travelers and not rich, so we can’t afford air journey.)
If you don’t know anything about Kausani, read this: It is a hill station about 1900 metre above sea level in Uttarakhand. It is about 140 km from Kathgodam, the nearest railway terminal. From there, you can book a taxi or take a bus to Kausani (Better is to get off at Haldwani, 7 km before Kathgodam, and book taxi or bus from there because more options are available, Haldwani being the bigger of the twin towns.) If you are coming from Lucknow, you have to get down at Lal Kuan, 10 km further away from Haldwani and take a taxi to Haldwani. Road journey in the hills can be tiring and nauseating, so be cautioned: take proper food, take a vomit preventing medicine beforehand, break journey often.
You can see a range of snow covered peaks, about 300 km in length. You can watch these peaks and the low ranges in between change hues through the day. Nanda Devi, Trishul and Panchchuli are among the tall Himalayan peaks you can see from high points at Kausani.
Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, spent 12 days in 1929 at Kausani and wrote commentary on Gita. Renowned Hindi poet, Sumitra Nandan Pant belonged to Kausaini.
Kausani is pleasantly cool to very cold, and summer months [April-June] are the best; however you need to book hotel in advance. There are a good number of hotels in Kausani, and they cater to all pockets.
Let me now tell a bit about my impression of the place.
This place is a small hill resort, unlike unmanageable hill towns. Its air is always fresh, cool, filling the lungs with divine freshness and peace. If it rains, you can watch play of clouds around you and in far-off hills. We stayed there for four days and came back greatly satisfied with the natural beauty that we soaked in our mind and body. It rained on the day of departure, and so we were able to enjoy that too, but it suddenly became very cold. One of our friends suggested that we start our journey in rain so that we do not get late for Binsar, an enchanting hill-site and sanctuary. We stopped some three miles from Kausani towards Someshwar, next to a tea shop.
The hill people, I have noticed everywhere, are very simple folks. Probably the small businessmen among them, such as the tea shop owner, try to act smart at times and that makes them funny. We asked the tea shop guy to get us five cups of tea and five biscuits [we had taken breakfast early but had been delayed due to rains]. He charged us thrice the going rate just because we had asked for freshly made tea! No arguments, he said, I know my job better than you. We laughed behind him, not to annoy him, and walked on the slope. Small herbs were still smarting from rain drops falling from pine trees above, though the rain had stopped. Springs were oozing water every few feet. We went further away from the tea shop and drank water flowing out from under a tree, hesitatingly, but found that we had never tasted such sweet water.
We came back after seeing many other places in Kumaon region, where Kausani is located and some places were as beautiful, but no place gave as much peace and oneness with nature as Kausani. It is superb!
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