Day 2 (Part 2): Tiuni - Hanol - Mori - Purola - Naugaon:
Tiuni is a small town on the confluence of Pabbar and Tons rivers. I was now moving forward on the road leading to Hanol that runs parallel to Tons river. This road connects Tiuni with Mori village on Purola - Sankri route. The road condition on this route was better than I expected. In fact, there was nothing to complain about.
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The scenery is entirely different in the Tons valley with a lot of open space along the river, and sparsely populated villages.
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Kedarkantha peak was visible from Tons valley. I remember climbing this peak with my wife in the winter of 2015. It is an easy peak to climb and is a hot favorite among the trekkers these days.
I reached Hanol at 2:40 PM. Hanol is famous for Mahasu Devta Temple on the river bank. It is a beautiful temple with wooden architecture.
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The road goes to Hanol village and further to Mori and Purola. Looking at the good road condition and this signboard saying 60 kms of Purola, I could not resist travelling further on it. So the decision was taken. Instead of going back to Tiuni and then to Chakrata, I decided to ride ahead on this road and explore the Tons valley.
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Mahasu Devta temple with Kedarkantha peak in the backdrop.
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Mahasu Devta temple
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It is explicitly written outside the temple that people of all religions, castes, and gender are welcome to visit the temple. Mahasu Devta ki Jai!
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A signboard saying Harkidun valley is only 69 km from here. I did Harkidun trek with my wife in December 2015. It was a beautiful trek but I remember that December was pretty cold for it.
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The road to Mori descends down to the woods along the river. With non-existent traffic, this was a pretty beautiful stretch all the way till Mori.
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Road to Mori along Tons river
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Tons river
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Mori village. I remember that in 2015, while coming back from the Kedarkantha trek, we pitched our tent around this very area.
I was riding really slow on this road to soak up the view and natural environment. I reached Mori at 4:20 PM and now was the time to look for a shelter for the day. I decided to ride to Purola and find a hotel there to stay in.
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After crossing Mori, I was on the Purola-Sankri road. Although this was my first time on the Tiuni-Mori road, this was my 5th visit to this road. Sankri area and Govind Pashu National Park hosts many beautiful treks. I have also done quite a few treks in this area including Ruinsara Gad, Kedarkantha peak, Rupin Pass, and Harkidun Valley. And I am definitely in for more in the future!
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The road from Mori to Purola climbs up to a place called Jarmola Dhar before it descends down to Purola. It was 4:50 PM and I was really tired by this point. Whenever we travel to Sankri, we usually stop here for tea. This time also, I stopped at Jarmola Dhar for some tea and pakora.
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The hills are covered with the tall deodar trees
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The road descends for Purola after Jarmola Dhar and the valley opens up again.
I reached Purola at 5:45 PM and started looking for a hotel to stay. But just then, a thought flashed into my mind. After such a long ride today, it will be really difficult to ride from Purola to Delhi the next day. So, I decided to skip Purola and ride till around 7:00 PM and stay wherever I reach by then. I was pretty familiar with this route and understood that if I continue to ride now, I could reach Naugaon before dark which was less than 20 km from Purola. My entire body was aching but I continued to ride to make things easier for the next day. I reached Naugaon before 7:00 PM and started looking for a hotel to stay for the night. Naugaon is a tri-junction on this route. One road leads to Purola and Sankri (I was coming from this one), another going up to Janki Chatti, and then turning into a trek to Yamunotri, and the third one going towards Mussourie and Dehradun. Since the Yatra season was off in the winters, I could easily find a good hotel for Rs 1000. Suddenly, I was not tired anymore and went for a little walk across the town. It was offseason, so I could not find a place to eat and ordered dinner from the hotel where I was staying.
Stay for the night:
Hotel Oak Cedar,
Barkot Road, Naugaon
Watch this space for more....
Gaurav Talan
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