Dhanachuli

Where were you lost on the weekend Medha! I smiled and answered back to my friend and said “ Dhanachuli”. My friend smiled and said “ Oh you mean Dhanaulti”.

And I grinned again and said “ No my dear its Dhanachuli, and I think you would be the 27th person I am explaining this!” With a lopsided smile my friend countered my statement and asked, so where exactly is your “Dhanachuli”?
Well, its an abandoned hamlet in the Kumaon Himalayas in Uttarakhand, about 30 & 15 kms from its more famous kins Bhimtal and Mukteswar respectively. Legend has it, that in the times gone by, the inmates of this sleepy village hid their “Dhan” (Money) in the “Chulhas” (Mud stoves)…. Thus the name Dhanachuli.But then some tough winters drove away the villagers, and they abandoned this town, and settled in what is now called the Dhanachuli bend…..

Who was I with and why was I there…. I was with a bunch of 5 more people who like me call themselves travelographers….and we were going to stay in a place called Te Aroha - The Mountain of Love in the Maori language…. It sure is an abode of love on the mountains of Kumaon… the love child of Sumant Batra, whose signature you find in every nook and corner of this quaint resting place…. I wouldn’t like to call it a Hotel!

But before we got to Te Aroha, we were greeted on our journey with a most amazing Sunrise….. and the Sun as if to answer the prayers of the enthusiastic travel photographers chose a perfect time to show up…. When we were passing through an almost mystic forest……and our shutters went clickty clack a few 100 times :-)

Bindu Jindagi Ka.... Our first stop

We then stopped again at Bhimtal, for a few moments…. Where we began to see a glimpse of the snow clad peaks….. I can no longer say, I haven’t been to snow clad places….. but there is something about that white colour on mountain tops that never fails to be an enthralling sight….. and I am particularly in love with the first rays of the Sun on a snow clad peak…. I looked forward to the wait of the next 18 hours or so, when I can see that sight again….. it always envelops me in the memories of the first time I ever saw that sight in the company of some of my closest friends… and the warmth of that morning some 14 years back brings a smile to my heart and a tear in my eye… oh.. I am getting distracted… back to Te Aroha!

And finally after another stop where we got a clearer view of the snow clad peaks, we reached Te Aroha, after roughly 14 hours…. Oh.. the journey is not that long really, but for the many pit stops in a travel photographer’s life!In a landscape where the browns and greens dominate, Te Aroha stands out with its predominant yellow as a colour on its slanting roofs, on the staircase and in other corners…we were welcomed with a hot towel and a refreshing litchi drink…. This was just a pre-cursor to how warm and caring and courteous the staff is…. We soon made our way to the rooms … they had a stunning view of the peaks…, a private balcony and sit-out area, and then went to check out The Attic, one of the suites in the place…. and it really was straight out of the child hood stories where the Attic was the place you planned your life!

The first glimpse of Te Aroha.. and that Bright Yellow!

After freshening up, we were treated with the awesome brunch of Aloo pooris , Aloo paranthas , water melon juice and masala chai and we surely over ate basking in the warmth of the Sun in that nippy March afternoon. We then armed ourselves again with our cameras and followed Vinod Bhai, one of Te Aroha’s staffers to the abandoned hamlet of Dhanachuli…… the descent to the town was not tough, and presented many photo ops… with some of the cutest village kids following us, the light on the terraced hill slopes was truly beautiful, and we finally reached that abandoned township, making some interesting images on the way……. 

The cute school girl

Coming back to our tempo traveller was another story though, we soon knew what uphill means, and why the villagers chose to abandon the village… it really was a tough climb! But while I was climbing, I did not forget to negotiate with Vinod Bhai to take us to the Sunset point, so we hurried a bit, not to miss another of my favourite sights, and so we reached just in time to watch the Sun colour the sky in the most vibrant shades of Orange, the stresses of our everyday work lives were left far behind and we celebrated being in that moment but not without the Clickty clacks of course!

I may have lost my youth... but I still want to touch the Sky.. (with some support!) @the Sunset point

Back to base, we enjoyed the bon-fire on our terrace, had a home style dinner, with some Angithis (coal heaters) near us to keep us warm, it was beginning to get chilly. And some of us also clicked the star trails, not one into astro photography, I gave it a miss and just rested…Post dinner we chatted with Shahid Sir a bit, and Parul and I learnt a little bit more about making photos… thank you!

Meanwhile, the hotel staff knocked on the door, wondering what it could be about, I opened the door to find a Hot water bottle in his hand… oh.. what a thoughtful gesture, we sure were happy to get it. And I tried to sleep with some creaking muscles thinking about the morning ahead.

We got ready by 6.30am, but soon realized we were actually late for the Sun rise, the peaks were already a golden yellow, so while a couple of us decided to make a time lapse from there itself, 4 of us, still wanted to know where the sunrise point is and started another climb….. and reached some relatively flat land on the mountain, where Shahid Sir inspired us to fly, the wish to touch those snow clad peaks nudged a little more and we made those interesting fly like a bird shots. 

Learning to Fly

Had tea and biscuits and made our way down….. started packing with a heavy heart, checked out the time lapse and sat down for another heavy breakfast of chola bhaturas, jam toast, juice and chai! And while we were at it, we came to know of another place to check out before we leave… Café Flashback…. Here Sumant has created a place where Time stops…. It’s a blast from the past, lux adverts, old calendars, piano, chairs, a Vijai Super scooter, camera…. It was a treasure chest where we hunted for all things interesting….

Not yet done, I cajoled the group into having a dekko at Mukteswar, so up we went….. we stopped on the way, where the villagers pointed out to a peak as Mt. Everest, not sure about what it was… but what the heck, the tree lined drive to the circuit house at Mukteswar was enchanting and we soon found the clearest view of those peaks in the trip! And then we soon realized, we needed to make our way back to what we call civilization… and drove back….only to catch the Sunset hidden in that mystic forest. Reached back home past midnight.. a bit exhausted but happy having explored another part of the mighty Himalayas.

The breathtaking view of the Kumaon Himalayan range...

 For more photos you could check 

Dhanachuli@ FB