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Sudden Trip to Jim Corbett

Jim Corbett- A Tiger Reserve

I have always been a regular traveler, covering most of North India. Ranging from Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir, Punjab to Uttarakhand, have been visiting these places every year. Sitting in my office, I suddenly thought of taking a break from my busy work life and put pen to paper. While I’ve explored all these beautiful sojourns, I wish to take my readers on a visual ride that’s no less than a treat in itself. With a group of friends, I decided to embark on a trip to the Jim Corbett, that has been nuisance-ly undermined for not catering tigers to its visitors. The forest, I assure you, sure goes beyond.

{NOTE: This National park is a wildlife sanctuary in Uttarakhand. It's known for tigers, leopard, deer and many other wild animals that inhabit the wildlife.}

The Journey:

A pack of eight, five of them from the Delhi-NCR, a couple from Panchkula, and one was from Najibabad started the journey. The five of us started our journey from Noida at around 4 AM. After driving for 20 kms, we reached the National Highway-24 and took the route via Bareilly. Upstream about 80-90 km, we reached a restaurant named Moga Punjabi Tadka (near Gajraula).

It's an economy class restaurant with nice cuisine. The best thing about the restaurant is that it has clean washrooms and calm interiors, key aspects for a tired traveler.

(Note: there is a last CNG station (Siti Energy limited) in Moradabad so fill yourself well.) Going forward after a little meal, we took a left turn from Moradabad towards Ramnagar. The roads from here are not of highest order, so your average speed here could be between 60-80 km/hr. After a 7-hour arduous journey, we finally reached our resort- the Bagheera Jungle Retreat.

A well-known resort enlisted on Google Maps, the Bagheera has been a

common joint for tourists for some time now..

The check-in time is usually 12 noon, but we had already informed the manager

about our early check-in and thus, there were no feathers ruffled.

The others reached the resort half an hour after us.

We finally entered our air conditioned rooms.

The rooms were well designed with fabulous paintings on

the wall which made us more relaxed and allowed the moods to divert itself from city-lives and all the travelling. After resting for an hour, we went to the swimming pool to beat the heat.

Well, it was a good time to wet ourselves, quite literally.

We spent an hour or two in the pool and had a very good time. There are water games available, and thus, the sporty ones needn’t get bored at all.   Some of us then moved on to play badminton and volleyball, while some remained in the pool.

We returned to our resort to change and came for lunch.

The resort provides the buffet system.

There were 5-6 different dishes along with a sweet dish.

The food was really delicious, coupled with the beautified surroundings. We rested after lunch for a while. Recharging batteries are a key element in any trip.

In the evening, we got a call from the reception that there will be a short movie on wildlife at 8pm. We reached the area before and took our seat. A half an hour movie was projected, which showed us the jungle safari and explained some of the important rules and safety measures that everyone should take inside the forest.

Post that, a live guitarist performed, helping us enjoy our drinks and food.

It was the 1st anniversary of one of our couples, and thus, we arranged for the DJ near the swimming pool (chargeable). Songs, dance, drinks... It was the best moment of the trip. We then took our dinner and went to our beds, as we were supposed to get a Safari early next morning. Next morning, at around 6.30 am, we left for the jungle safari.

We went through a open jeep and it took us 30 mins to reach the Jim Corbett national park.

All of us were excited and some were mildly scared before entering the jungle.

Roaming for over two hours, we were lucky to catch a glimpse of the Bengal tiger.

Yes, we finally saw the wildest animal on earth.

The whole Jungle was quite scary, yet adventurous.

The safari continued for four hours and we got the best experience one could ever get.

We then came back to the resort, packed our bags and had our breakfasts. After checking-out at around 11.30am, we then planned to visit the Girija Mata mandir.

which is a 45-min drive from our resort. Girija Mata Mandir is well-known temple

and is situated up on the mountain which itself has a miracle story. Down the mountain there is the Holy river, Ganga.

We spent an hour there, clicked some beautiful photos and left the place.

In between our retreat, we stopped our cars to a local market

and bought some accessories.

Finally we exited the the area at around 3pm.