The Vagabond Hiker

Hiking, trekking, and climbing the world

Walks and Wildlife in Rajasthan

Rajasthan, in northwest India (see map below), is a land of opulent palaces, magnificent forts and deep cultural traditions. There is an incredible diversity of landscape here, including jungle, mountains and desert. On a two-week walking holiday, our group explored this landscape and some of its communities on a collection of treks and heritage trails. We also visited Ranthambore National Park for two game drives. This post will highlight the walks and wildlife, leaving the cultural aspects for the reader to discover on her own. . .

This map (from Encyclopedia Britannica), shows where Rajasthan is located in India.

New Delhi – Lodi Gardens

In my humble opinion, smog-choked, massively congested New Delhi has little to recommend it. However, anyone traveling to Northern India will most likely begin and end their journey in this capital city. I can heartily recommend two things: a portable air purifier for your hotel room, and a visit to the 90-acre Lodi Gardens as a decompression from the stresses induced by this teeming metropolis.

A temple in Lodi Gardens
A common Kingfisher in Lodi Gardens

Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary

The Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary is a popular tourist attraction located in the Rajsamand district of Rajasthan. Encompassing more than 600 km2 across the Aravalli ranges, this sanctuary offers a variety of landscapes, plants, and animals. It surrounds the historic Kumbhalgarh Fort, also known as the “Great Wall of India,” a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We spent two days walking in this sanctuary, the hiking highlight of the trip for me.

A small Hindu temple near the start of our first day’s trek
Hayricks
Ladies, here seen carrying hay, seem to do most of the work
A vista on day 1 of the trek
A tribal village seen near the end of our first day’s trek. December is in the dry season.
Laundry day
Path-side bougainvillea
Our local guide demonstrating a water wheel on day 2 of the trek. These are used primarily for the cows, but benefit all wildlife.
A cool stream in Kumbhalgarh
Lake view with crocodilians (not clear in this photo) and birds near the end of the 2nd day of the trek in Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary

Aravalli Hills

This day walk between two tribal villages, although located not far from the Kumbhalgarth Wildlife Sanctuary, had an entirely different feel to it. A wonderful break from all the cities, nonetheless.

Some of our group on the Aravalli Hills walk, Udaipur
Ubiquitous cows
A well-made dry stone wall with steps
A local kid
A lush Aravalli hills vista

Ratnagiri Hill, Pushkar

An overnight stay in the city of Pushkar gave us the opportunity for a dawn climb – up 890 steps – to the Hindu temple of Savitri.

Pushkar city lights
A Langur monkey awaiting sunrise on the summit of Ratnagiri hill . . .
. . . and posing for her photo. I did apologize to her afterwards for the flash.

Ranthambore National Park

This national park is best known as a tiger sanctuary. Also located in Rajasthan, it covers a total area of 1,330 km2. It is named after the historic Ranthambore Fort which lies within the park. Our group went on two game drives, the first in the afternoon until sunset in a couple of small 4×4’s, and the second one early the next morning in a gargantuan truck-type 4×4. I strongly recommend only going on safari in small vehicles.

Driving in Ranthambore on the afternoon safari
Two Chital, or spotted deer
A tiger paw print. Some of the group were able to spot a tiger the next day, but I had sot settle for this print.
A Sambar deer, listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List
A Sloth Bear (perhaps the worst photo of one ever taken). Also listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, mainly because of habitat loss and degradation.
A panoramic view of Ranthambore in the early morning
A red-wattled lapwing
A rufous treepie
A female painted sand-grouse landing on our vehicle. Not being fortunate enough to see a tiger, the birds were the highlight of the morning safari for me.
Ranthambore morning: lake, island, and peacock. My favorite photo of this post.

Of course, throughout these two weeks we also enjoyed much of the local culture, from forts and palaces to a home cooking demo. And temples. Tons of temples. And a mosque or two. The complete itinerary can be seen on KE Adventure’s Heritage Trails of Rajasthan web page. There was even one city that I found enjoyable to visit: Udaipur. It has much to recommend it, as far as cities go – large lakes, the City Palace museum, Jagmandir Island Palace, fine restaurants and hotels, and a noticeably slower vibe than other northern Indian cities.

I will leave you with only one photo from all these cultural journeys. Sadly, unlike all of the previous photos, it was not taken by me, but by another client.

The Taj Mahal in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, framed by the Great Entry Arch

Currently, I am in St. George, Utah, preparing for extended* overseas travel, which I promise will include many more hikes and treks in new destinations, as well as some of my favorites in England and Italy. The calendar on the home page of this blog has been updated to reflect my planned travels through September.

In the mean time, I am working on my next blog post, Trekking in Oman. Stay tuned.

The Vagabond Hiker

* – measured in years, rather than months

P.S. In case any of my readers were curious about the air quality in New Delhi, most of the time I was in the city the AQI was above 250, and often above 400, with both pm2.5 and pm10 particles the culprits. See the photo below, taken from my airport hotel in the middle of December.

Trekking India’s Kumaon Himalaya

The little-known region of Kumaon, comprising the eastern portion of the Indian state of  Uttarakhand, is arguably the centerpiece of the Indian Himalaya, dominated by the awe-inspiring Nanda Devi and Nanda Devi East. Often overlooked by trekkers, it offers wild unspoiled landscapes far removed from the pilgrimage hordes and most mechanized traffic. The trekking route we took is located close to the border of western Nepal and Tibet, following an ancient trade route to the latter in a remote corner of Kumaon.

Starting in the village of Munsyari, our Exodus Travels group of 12 clients, two guides, three camp support staff, and four muleteers  trekked through small settlements and pristine forests following the Gori Ganga River to the historic settlement of Milam. Milam was a thriving village trading with Tibet before the war with China in 1962. We then trekked up to the Pachu Glacier with its spectacular views of Nanda Devi and Nanda Devi East.  At 7,816 meters, the former is the highest mountain completely within India (Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world, is on the border with Nepal).  Enjoy the photos I took on this remote and spectacular 11 day trek.

Day 1. Munsyari hotel view of the Kamaon Himalaya (also referred to as the Eastern Gharwal Himalaya). This town, 1.5 days driving from the Kathgodam railhead, was the starting point of our 11 day trek.

Day 1. At these lower elevations, though it was late in the season, goats were still to be seen.

Day 1. An orchid which I have not attempted to identify.

Day 1.  A Kashmir Rock Agama. We saw quite a few of these 6-8 inch long lizards at the lower elevations (under 3000 meters).

Day 1. Some of our donkeys crossing a stream. We had around 15 donkeys to carry much of our personal equipment, our food, tents, etc. Early on the muleteers were drunk and lazy, which led to delays in setting up camp several nights.

Day 1. A rather bold Neptis hylas (unknown subspecies) seen at our lunch break.

Day 1. A partial rainbow at Lilam camp where we stayed on the first night. At only 1850 meters, it was still warm in this cramped hillside camp.

Day 2. The Gori Ganga. We would follow this river, sometimes hundreds of feet above its deep gorge, for much of the trek.

Day 3. A white-capped water red-start (Phoenicurus leucocephalus). I thought at first it was a wagtail because of its behavior.

Day 3. A side stream into the Gori Ganga. Numerous side streams and waterfalls punctuated our journey.

Day 3. A spectacular waterfall into the Gori Ganga with four Exodus clients.

Day 3. The Gori Ganga valley at a point where it had opened up somewhat. The trail (actually a jeep track here) is clearly visible on the left hand side above the valley.

Day 3. Some of our group crossing a side stream of the Gori Ganga.

Day 3. A scree descent. Numerous landslides during the last monsoon created some challenging footing on the trek.

Day 4. The Gori Ganga valley above Railkot. Absolutely spectacular.

Day 5. The Milam glacier overlook. This day was an aberration from the generally good post-monsoon weather. This was the first of three optional day hikes where we stayed at the same camp for two consecutive nights.  A great chance to catch up on laundry!

Day 5. The outskirts of Milam, the furthest north village towards Tibet. The red shrubs are barberry. Trading has historically made the inhabitants relatively wealthy, but that all changed in 1962 after the Chinese attacked an unprepared India. The passes beyond Milam have been closed since ever since.

Day 6. Part of the Milam border post with a view towards Tibet. Photography was forbidden, but I sneaked a couple of pics anyway.

Day 6. Our Milam campsite. The clients had eight tents (the yellow ones were shared, the green ones for single travelers) and, importantly, two lavatory tents.  There was also a cook tent and a smallish mess tent that we crammed into for breakfast and dinner.

Day 6. Tirsuli (r) and Hardeol (l), two 7000 meter peaks to the North.

Day 6. Some flowers in deserted Pachu village. The villages we past were mostly abandoned, though a few locals still farm and have summer grazing pastures.

Day 6. Our first view of Nanda Devi East. The trees are birches, already changing color at this elevation (about 3400 meters).

Day 6. One of our donkeys with Nanda Devi behind in clouds.

Day 7. Morning alpenglow on Nanda Devi (r) and Nanda Devi East (l). The ridge connecting them is about 2 kilometers long. I took an untold number of photos of these two mountains during the several days they were in view.

Day 7. The Vagabond Hiker at Pachu Glacier with Nanda Devi  (in clouds) and Nanda Devi East behind.

Day 7. Here I was at the high point (est. 4500 m) above Pachu Glacier. Nanda Devi is in clouds this late in the day. Only one other client made this snow ascent during our lunch stop on this optional day hike.

Day 9. Trail side Himalayan gentians.

Day 9. The Shalang Valley towards Nanda Kot (6861 meters, far right in the background). Because of a new bridge, we were able to condense two days and gain an optional day hike around Martoli Peak.  Even our guide Rajeev, had not been this far before.

Day 9. “Elephant Peak” to our SE (zoom) from the northern flanks of Martoli Peak.

Day 10. The Gori Ganga, here at river level.

Day 11. A beautiful gorge along the Gori Ganga.

Day 11. On our final day trekking back to the road-head.  Munsyari is highlighted in the distance on this rainy day. We took a different, spectacular high level route back to our first river crossing.

I have been enjoying an autumn break in the UK this past week. Next week I will fly to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands.  During my month there I expect to fully explore the hiking opportunities on this volcanic island off the west coast of Morocco.  Until my next post, happy trails.

The Vagabond Hiker

 

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