Bedni Bugyal - Part 12

there was no jeep at wan, so i had to wait for one. we tried to call lohajung by the wireless phone, but it was very difficult to get any reception. there was another thing that had excited the villagers. some nepali migrant labourers had stabbed the manager of a rural bank (in some village next to the pindar river). then they had run off with rs. 1.5 lakhs and were hiding in some caves in the hills. the villagers had surrounded the entrance to the caves and they were flinging stones at each other. they were waiting for the police to coem and take some action. as u can see in the pic above, they were all gathered around the phone in this shop and were ringing up other villages to get a latest view of the situation.

i waited till around 6:30 pm (i had some paranthas and omelette in that time). finally, a jeep came with some passengers, but the driver refused to take me back to lohajung. the porter then told me that another jeep from lohajung will be coming (by a guy named yashpal). he is a decent chap and will take me back. the plan was to catch the 4 am bus from lohajung (it will drop me to rishikesh by 3 pm in the afternoon).

so i decided to take a small nap in one of the waiting rooms.

finally, the jeep came (with yashpal and jaspal, the two brothers) at around 8:15 am. it was raining heavily. there was no electricity, and hardly a road (most of it had been washed away). still, the brothers agreed to take me back to lohajung (for 500 bucks - i had to book the entire jeep). we also phoned lohajung and told the ppl in the panwari lodge that i wopuld be coming, so prepare dinner for me. it would take approx 1 hr from wan to lohajung (the distance is 12 kms, but the route is very very tough - u cannot even see the river that flows in the gorge below during the night. u can just hear the water flowing).

now, the big incident happened. we were driving along with the help of our headlights. it was raining and was pitch dark all around. suddenly a big cat, A LEOPARD JUMPED OUT OF THE BUSHES INTO THE ROAD IN FRONT OF US. OH MY GOD!!!!! IT MUST HAVE BEEN HUNTING IN THE NIGHT WHEN OUR JEEP MUST HAVE appeared out of nowhere. i guess it was as shocked as we were. :-O

it ran for some time in front of the jeep and then jumped down from the road and disappeared in the darkness. it was my first encounter with a big cat in the open jungle (i have seen them in zoos only). also, this was not an elephant safari in a national park without nay protective guides. still, it was an amazing experience - soemthing which i will never forget. i guess u r very lucky (nowadays), if u can spot a big cat in the wild!!!!!


the next day was the last day of the trip. i had to reach haridwar in time to catch a bus to delhi.

there were roadblocks. so we lifted a broken tree (from the stem) and threw it below to clear the path. at another place, where the broken tree was too big, i crossed over to the other side and caught a jeep.

the remaining pics r taken from various places - towns n villages, as i travelled from lohajung to rishikesh. that is how i spent my independence day. phew, it was an exhausting trip.

































enjoying his sunday afternoon














karnaprayag taxi stop



phew....completed this blog :-)