The bus stopped at a location where Garwahli handloom and handcrafts were for sale. We purchased a few sarees and so did almost every other family on the bus. We then stopped at Hotel Khanna Palace for lunch. A short distance away from Haridwar is Rajaji National Park. We drove by along the highway without actually entering it but the forest cover gave ample evidence of what area constituted the park. The halt for afternoon tea was at a small restaurant by the road side in a small village. Just as we were done, a storm approached out of no where. Dust was blown around wildly and very soon it started raining rather heavily. The bus driver had not completely rectified the problem with the wipers. With fog on the inside and rain pounding on the front windshield the driver drove forward maintaining a short distance away from the other bus that was a part of the same tour. The blinkers and tail lights of the bus ahead were the only guidelines of the road for our bus driver as the head lights of our bus were rather ineffective. Fallen trees could be seen at short distances along the road. It was rather strange to see the amount of water flowing along and beside the road within such a small duration of time. At a certain point both buses came to a halt. The rain had stopped and soon it was noticed that a huge tree had fallen, that spanned right across the road. Villagers quickly came forward and cut down trees for fire wood. This one was huge and resulted in traffic queuing up on both sides of the blockage. It was evident it would take a long time for the road to be cleared and traffic flow to resume to normal. Bus drivers found a road as a detour. The conditions on the dirt road had worsened due to the rain. The road went through the fields and went close to mango trees hanging just by the windows of the passing bus.
Soon, the skies cleared and the darkness reduced. There was quite some distance to get to Jim Corbett National Park. We reached just after dark and checked into Hotel Wood Castle Resort located inside the park but close to the park entrance.
The dinner menu at Hotel Wood Castle was abundant and the food seemed much better than what we had at Haridwar. Hotel Wood Castle had the best ambience among all the hotels we had stayed in so far. The rooms gave an impression of luxury with the upholstery and the furniture being on the better side. The hotel was situated by a river, had a swimming pool, a game area with ping-pong table, carrom etc. The lawns were lush green and expansive. We were looking forward to the Jeep Safari scheduled to leave early in the morning at 6 am. Nihar in particular was excited to get an opportunity to get a view of tigers and other wild animals that the National Park was known to provide shelter to. We also had plans to get onto the Elephant Safari to make it to areas the jeep would not go to, thereby increasing our chances to get a view of the tigers in the park.
No comments:
Post a Comment