Uttarakhand : My first encounter with Himalayan life

Last year, yeah.. exactly a complete year from now… the same month June, it was a miraculous experience. Not only as a mountain lover, but this time in the Himalayas I was a butterfly chaser and a novice bird watcher also!

In 2017, when I somehow managed my 2 solo wanderings in Uttarakhand Himalayas, I had not the slightest of idea of settling down at any village and get a deeper look around.

In fact, those 2 solo trips of mine was just an experiment to break free the bondage of fear of being alone at some unknown places, especially a difficult place like that of Himalayan region where whims of nature dictates every bit of human life.

Those were short travels, 15 days each with a gap of 7 months- very first in May’2017 and the next in December’2017. Just as a going around trip, each of those was only like a quick sampling of places of different altitudes. I was traveling with the simplest of cameras and lenses-D5100 and 18-55 lens. so to get some walk around photos of everything that I came across.

But, even this simple thing was quite difficult to me, as I had motion sickness, especially because of those narrow mountain roads of the endless jolting turns and the tightly packed sitting postures of shared jeeps with smell of diesel and exhaust fume. I was there alone either busy vomiting or in the trans-like state after swallowing anti-vomit pills! So, almost no chances to use my camera on move.

Ok, in 2018 things changed dramatically. In April 2018, Sumit, my brother proposed for a trip to Uttarakhand and I readily accepted. The same way this time too- first, a train to Delhi and then by buses and shared Jeeps! This time my motion sickness was the worst of its kind. Even 5 kilometers of the stretch was not possible without the churning stomach or having the pills and getting dumb and dull with eyes closed.

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However, Sumit had an unusual plan. He suggested to rent a room in some remote village and settle down for a full month. As this time I was not to travel alone so I took with me my bigger and heavier gears- D500, a telephoto and a macro lenses with tripod etc. that cost me 8 extra kgs, but no problem I was not alone.

We chose Kumaun region of Uttarakhand and after wandering and trying different places and Ashramas for a couple of weeks, finally got a place to live for monthly rent. The village was Kharakiya in the dist. of Almora, the heartland of Kumaun. There, we stayed not for just one but for many months enjoying the raw experiences of Himalayan village life. Later we shifted to village Dwarson some 15 km apart.

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This is only during this semi-permanent stay that I came into contact with the local community and there living conditions, and more importantly for me the natural flora and fauna of higher altitudes.

Those many wonderful birds I once used to see in pictures on internet and social media, were now very much real to me. I could now watch and photograph them and also identify them with the help of Google or the field guides on birds. So was with those beautiful butterflies which I was obliged to see for the very first time.

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