A magical weekend

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• On Sunday morning, I took the ropeway to the top of Gun Hill at Mussorie. It was a nice view from telescope point. I ordered for a cup of tea. It started getting foggy and chilly as if Mother Nature was conspiring something. I took my cup and stood at the edge of the hill top. Then it happened, one of nature's most timely gift to me. A fine drizzle. How good it feels to sip a hot cup of tea at a hilltop in a drizzle of rain that bothers no one but leaves you with goosebumps!!!
• I had ample time with me so I went to see the Bhatta Falls. It is 8 km down from Mussoorie and has all the fantastic features of Kempty Falls minus the crowd. It is also a double fall i.e. one fall of 25 meters is followed by another one of 100 meters. I just wanted to see this rare work of nature. However when I stood in front of the fall, the sprinkles of water were tempting enough to break my resistance. I took off my clothes and jumped in like a child. The warm sun and cold water were a perfect combination. It was sheer pleasure.
• Patal Bhubaneshwar was spectacular by any standards...an evidence of what Mother Nature is capable of. There is a slit-shaped cave enough in size to let inside a middle-aged person. Inside the cave was well lit but alarmingly tortuous stone steps downwards. It takes some body-bending and sweating to reach the bottom of cave which is at around 60 feets. The cave opens up at the bottom. Some intricately shaped structures of limestone are visible. There is a series of caves inside, one after another, almost 100 meters in all. The penultimate cave has something I can never forget in my life. Hundreds of tiny strands of rocks, grey and white in colour, combine to create a giant long haired head. Water is trickling down these strands and the entire structure is shimmering in the low lights of cave. We came out with a more credulous mindset.
• En route to Almora from Pithoragarh, the tyres of our vehicle got punctured. We were not happy with the development. I now feel quite the opposite. The spot was superb. Down the cliff, the clouds were gathering up. We sat at the rocks on the edge of the cliff and started chatting. It started to rain and we continued to chat. We took photographs in turn and appreciated the fact that our parents wouldn't have allowed us to chat near a cliff some hundreds of meters high while it was raining all the time!!!