From EPICS…
Deoria Tal is the lake related with a story from Mahabharat. It is located in Garhwal region of Himalayas at an altitude of 8000 ft from sea level. When Padavas were hiking in this high altitude Himalayan range, they felt thirsty and then saw this lake. They were warned by Yaksha asking them not to drink water unless they answer his questions. Except Yudhishtira, all brothers went dead after drinking water from the lake. So, Yudhishtira entertained Yaksha and answered to his queries successfully and gave life to his brothers.
This lake is surrounded by plain land and and lush green forest with Himalayas at the back. The view turns so mesmerizing when reflection of Chaukhambha peak falls straight on the water of lake. Apart from the reflection, you can see bunch of clouds circling around the snow covered peaks. These kind of views are just awesome.
How we started
Well, talking about the trekking distance is short i.e around 2.5 kms only, but don’t underestimate the difficulty as the trail is very steep. The trek starts from Sari village which is 12 kms from Ukhimath. This place does not have much options to buy trekking stuff. So, its good to carry on your own. Overall, its a good trek for beginners which is doable in short time and can experience camping as well.
It was end of December, by default we packed our self with woolen stuff expecting the same kind of chilled climate as in Tungnath which we trekked just a day before. But this place cheated on us as it was totally opposite to Tungnath. The sun was burning and the trail was damn steep. We had to stop after every few minutes for break. The best part of this trek is, you will get many opened shops where you can buy water from.
Break time
After hiking only for half an hour, we saw a cafe and decided to have some snacks over there. The cafe was beautifully made with wood having great Himalayan view from its window. The hall had good music playing in background and a shelf full of books. After having tea, we requested the guy to keep our jackets and other stuff along with them as we were pretty sure after sweating a lot that woolen stuff would no longer be required.
We resumed our trekking in the lush green forest. This time we saw lot of school kids going up with their teachers, probably it was their picnic time. This is how these mountain kids gain stamina on daily basis unlike us who explicitly take out time to travel and trek in mountains.
Finally at lake
We reached up at our destination in about 2 hours and got to see the small and pretty lake. If the weather is clear, you can see clear reflections of Chaukhamba peak but we were not lucky enough. People go there and setup their tents to stay overnight under millions of stars. That must be an amazing experience you spend whole night like this.
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After taking few pictures, we had tea and snacks and then decided to go down. It was so steep, initially I was taking baby steps. One has to be bit careful while descending. Then my friend Mukesh and I locked our hands and got down easily.
We almost reached downhill, then we saw Omkareshwar temple. It was located at a very peaceful place. This cow was near the temple and she was so friendly that I could actually hug her. After spending 15-20 minutes here, we went down and this is how we completed the Deoria Tal trek.
Recommendations
One thing I would recommend to carry your own trekking stuff and plan to stay overnight near lake. You will get many local shops when you reach near lake, where in you can ask for tents. The night with full of stars and early morning view are the coolest part of this trek which we perhaps missed it. But next time, I am gonna do this for sure.
Credits:
The featured image is taken from http://www.himalayanrovers.com/
Again, thanks to Ankit, a very cool trek partner and the only photographer in our group 🙂 Please have a look at his gallery, I’m sure you will love his love for photography of nature and wildlife.
https://www.instagram.com/anktsukla/