A Temple on a cliff and a Dhaba Camp

Adventures and experiences just happen on a long bicycling tour and they manifest themselves in many forms especially in a richly endowed natural environment, religious places and the most interesting stories. The day we pedalled from Pithoragarh towards Dharchula, 90 kms away, we knew that we would need to camp enroute. On our riding GPS map we could see a dhaba called Dhami Bhojanalaya with a nice clearing behind it amongst the trees about 35 kms away.

We cycled past many cliff hanger roads and enroute we came across an old Shiva temple that had been cut and created within the mountain. The dhaba owner who makes incredibly delicious ‘jalebis’ said that when the BRO was blasting the rocks for the road, they found an ancient shivling embedded in the mountain. The temple was built by them in 2007 to appease the gods.

The terrain was a mix of lovely roads winding past fertile lands and villages growing mustard and wheat and precarious cliff hanger roads with landslide areas and serious rock fall sections – which had us nervously looking up as we walked past below them. ( we always dismount in such sections as it’s not possible to ride and look up at the same time due to the rocky condition of the road. As always we carry fresh fruit which we get on the way and if we are lucky to get our favourite food – sweet potatoes – we boil and eat!! The best superfood ever.

We reached Dhami in the evening and the owner Kishan ji showed us a new tin shed which he had made to store water tanks, a place where we could pitch a tent. He said that a rogue leopard was roaming the village below and we should not pitch outside… plus the winds made the temperature drop sharply. Protected by the wind, warmed by the fire we made with the plentiful wood available we slept soundly to the rattling of the tin roof due to the winds that picked up at night. This place makes excellent dhaba food and is very clean.