Udiyari Band -- a little slice of paradise

 

"I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” - John Muir

View from Udiyari,  those mountains are Maiktoli, Nanda Devi, Nanda Khot

Udiyari Band is actually a transit point -- people going on to Munsiyari or elsewhere stop here for the night and move on in the morning. Little realising that this place has a lot to offer...

The sun rises on Maiktoli peak

To begin at the beginning.... I reached Udiyari Band (actually it is Bend) after a four hour drive from Binsar WLS (see my blog at Binsar WLS -- Traipsing Around the Mountains ).  It is a tiny fork in the road with one side going to Udiyari and the other going to Chaukori. 

A lady gets lassi from her hut.

 I stayed at Aagan Homestay which has good rooms and average food. The owner, Saurabh, is very helpful and assisted me a lot particularly in getting around. He took me on his bike and in his car to places where I wouldn't have dreamt of going.

Clouds over the mountains.  Every afternoon it would get cloudy
and by evening it be dark due to the clouds

I saw a very different view of the same Himalayan peaks, the main ones being Nanda Devi and Maiktoli. Though I could see the peaks from my room or the helipad (right next to the homestay), the view was much, much better from a open ground at Chaukori. But again I  am getting ahead of myself.

The leafless tree with a bird on it.  This was the view from my room
each morning and I could not get enough of it.

Sunrise was truly spectacular from the homestay, each day offering a different view. There was a leafless tree (dry?) on the other side of the helipad (the only homestay with a helipad) and the branches beseeched the heavens for a colourful sunrise.

Close-up of a waterfall.  These waterfalls were worth seeing and photographing.

Rainbow over Chaukori. Once we were treated to this colourful
display for awhile 
.

The sun rises

So I fell into my familiar routine of walk for three days and rest for one, and there were many places nearby to walk. My favourite walk was along the ridge and back, quiet, unsullied and untrammeled. I did try hiking from Chaukori to Udiyari Band once but it was along a steep hillside and I didn't have much fun so I did not do it again.

The entrance to Kotna Devi Mandir

Trishul at the Mandir

Just outside Chaukori was  the Jai Maa Kotna Devi  temple, which I am told is quite crowded of festival days, but today I was the only one going up.  There was no one there, absolutely no one, not even a Pujari (priest).  The views from here were spectacular as the quote goes 'The best view comes after the hardest climb.' 

Bakali viewed through the trees.  A leopard had just killed a goat nearby,
reminding me of our frailty.

The Kumaoni Lady of the Bakali.  As modernisation catches up in the hills
as it will, the old and new must exist together. 

I walked to many places, Hanging Rock which I overshot, walked back and found it very close to where I had started; Chaukori Village, Saurabh's shop in the Village, Musk Deer Farm, Sarla Ashram, the falls and a village with bakalis ( like a haveli, a mansion,) painted a vivid blue and white. And of course many, many walks along the ridge.

“Up in the mountains even our greatest cities, highways, and monuments to ourselves are nothing compared to the vast awesome beauty of a big mountain range.” - Unknown

Off the beaten path at Hogenakkal Falls

Hogenakkal Falls
About180 km from Bangalore, the falls are a attractive tourist draw. Though the falls are not spectacular in themselves,  they have spawned an entire tourist industry around.  Of course as we are always wont to believe, the waters are holy, hence a dip in the falls is mandatory to cleanse one of accumulated sin.  Though a sceptic like me prefers sin to disease that the garbage in the water is likely to spread. The waters of the Cauvery, flow through two sets of falls here, a smaller one close to the touristy places and this gorge a little way in.

The Upper Falls
These falls are closer to Hogenakkal, here there is a complete tourist/religious township. The railing on the right is where religious are to wash off their sins.  Are those sins I see festooned on the railings?

The Coracle
This is the main form of water transport here.  A frame of split bamboo/cane covered by blue plastic and coated in black tar. Steered by a single oar it is also the only means of propulsion. Our boatman, very deftly rowed and steered up current, no mean feat. The coracle, about 7 feet in diameter, can carry 8 or 10 people; we went in this one to the lower falls in the gorge. 

Cooking al-fresco
Old coracles are re-purposed by using them as roofs of huts and outdoor cooking shelters.  Apart from the myriad tourist industries that such places have over here the Falls have engendered coracle boatmen, massage-men, fisher folk and fruit sellers.   Here a group of men and women cook a quick lunch while others carry on with the business of the day.

Fish Seller
There is a bustling fish market here,the speciality being fish fried in a masala unique to this place. Many people buy, the often live, fish and have it cleaned and marinated to take home.  From the variety and size of fish, it is obvious that the fish is not all from this river and much of it comes from elsewhere. The fact that the fish are fresh is evident from the many live fish,like the one here held by the seller.

Fried Fish
Some people buy fresh fish and take it home, and some like eating it hot and fried here itself. A couple doing brisk business selling various varieties of fresh fried fish.  Some of the fish are bony and some are not, the bony fish appear to be tastier but more difficult to eat.

Ladies Selling Cut Fruit and Pickled Mangoes
 All business activity is quite a social affair, as we see from the two friends here running a chat while selling cut fruit. Markets in India are actually very social affairs, where selling, bargaining and buying are part of an elaborate ritual  

Cut Fruit by the Glass A brisk business here, cut seasonal fruit are sold by the glass.Here is  a closer view of the cut fruit, pineapples, watermelons and mangoes. The mangoes appear to be pickled in a manner that they can be eaten as fruit rather than a condiment. 

Water pots by the village tap
Though a common sight, over here the traditional brass  has given way to bright coloured plastic as seen by these neon coloured pots by the village tap.

Aayenaar
These Aayenaars are said to be the  the guardians of the village, in some villages they are simple but in many, such as the one in Pennagaram here, they are huge, colourful and complex.  At one end of a cement platform, the entire Aayenaar has, for good measure a representative of many forces. Apart from the stern and martial deity in the centre, there are effigies of policemen, horses, a tribal male and not mistaking the graphic anatomy, a tribal female.

Rajarajeshwar  Temple
A huge edifice in Bangalore, the colourful temple towers over much of the surrounding trees and houses.  As with all temples here, it has elaborate and colourful  figures adorning the walls, very painstakingly made.