Its Sattal Gateway Jungle Camps. This time, I was organizing the trip from our office and we had in the end I think around 40 people coming for the trip including I think around 10+ families with kids ranging from 6 months to 10 yrs. It looked like going to a fantastic trip over the May 10-11 2008 weekend.
The route is fantastic, with the initial leg from Delhi to Kathgodam being covered by train. This time, I was one of the people to organize it, so what we did was, we got train tickets booked for all of us in Tatkal, as there were no reservations available. So, Del-Kathgodam was by train, then Kathgodam to Sat-tal lake it was cabs ( sumo, qualis, travera, etc) Whoosh, the hill drivers, how they drive , GOD only save us. And they are so deft maneuvering the cabs on those cheeky turns and mountain roads. There after its a 15 min boat ride to the other side of the lake and further half hour trek to the camp site. I can't tell you how that half hour was, but its just that with me, carrying the maximum luggage on this trip, it was almost like 2 hrs of trekking. And, we had all duffel bags for this trip, while we should have carried back packs and ruck sacks. Bad mistake.
So, soon we reached our campsite, this is how it looked like. From the looks, it is fantastic and the tents were pitched in some order with a slight height gradient. People ran to the tents and got hold of one for each family or so. We were the last ones to reach along with the tour co-coordinator. And the fellow, he was also carrying one of our bags. I couldn't with Nanna also on me.So, we also looked for the remaining tests and chose one out of them. Neha is also along with us, so Nanna is also very happy. And I hope Neha also likes this place, cos we have been here once and did like it much. So looks fine and likes the place in general. We all had a fantastic train journey last night. The train is right on time and so are we in reaching the camp site. All see the camp site lay out and start getting ready. Some how, people get hold of the volley ball, so they start playing and so do I. It is fun , exhausting yourself early in the morning before 9, this time we are not even up from bed on week ends.
Now, started getting ready, Neha and Shikha are already ready, and so off I go, get ready, use a little Luke warm water. Last time I had used pitch cold water directly to bathe, while it was in March and this time even in May, am using warm water, I guess its age.
So, after breakfast, it was time for the adventurous activities. There were two, just like the last time, although the places were a little different, but still all the more fun included. They had rappelling and river crossing. And so almost all of us did that barring a few. And the best part, Shikha and Neha also did it. She is thrilled to have done that. She couldn't do the river crossing, cos it was already over when she got down and it was time for lunch, Nanna hasn't had anything since morning. That always happens, as soon as we are out, she stops eating anything, and we wlso are able to spend less time on her, so. Still she was spending more time with Neha also. This one the right side is our tent. We spent some time basking in the sun rays filtered by the dense cover of trees and had tea sitting over there.
The activities were to start now, we saw the warm up, tying of ropes to trees etc, sitting on top of the tree which was being used for river crossing activities. Nanna enjoyed a little atop the tree but was soon back mingling with the rest of the people. She spent a lot of time sportingly with many people , while me, Shikha and Neha went ahead with Rappelling. They were time consuming activities. Still, they were fun to do and are one of the 'it' things we have done till now.So, all in all the activities started well and almost all enjoyed , everybody along with wives did all the adventure activities, although there were a couple of people hurt a little, but nothing to dampen the spirits and fun over there.
Back at the campsite, had lunch and many people went ahead to sleep. ut some of the people are not meant for it, and so we people still started playing volleyball. Then after some time, flying disc, some other small games. Evening, we had cool time, sipping tea in front of our tent.
Evening, we had some usual and some unusual games, some rassa-kashi, some water bucket games, and all the girls amongst us enjoyed them well.
Some gala night with usual refreshments and drinks, the camp staff served us well, I hope all were happy. This is my maiden attempt in organizing anything. Some people would always be nagging, am happy to see that but I hope rest of them enjoyed on this trip. It was still substantial money which we had to spend on this.
Next day was roaming around in Nainital and then going to Kathgodam to catch the return train to Delhi. The route was fantastic. The weather turned suddenly, as is the typical of hills, and it started raining, it became cold suddenly. We had clothes, but Nanna was still feeling shivers, so we immediately bought a lower and jacket for her. It was amazing, the weather and drizzle there.
The route from Nainital back to Kathgodam had surprise for us, we had a flat tyre, but the driver fast so fast we could not imagine. He changed the tyre so fast, we just took a breeze out and it was done.So, the journey back home was un event ful. Enjoyed that as well, as we had some time to talk to each other, spend time with new people, know them more. How true it is, if you want to know someone, travel with them,. I recently heard this on TV as well, it is so very true.
All in all a fantastic outing.
