Honeymoon travels: Trekking in Nainital

We invited you to tell us the story of your honeymoon and share pictures from the memorable trip. Saugata and Preeti Das sent us their magical trip to Nainital.

Our story is out of the normal track. Both of us wanted an offbeat and adventurous trip, so we planned accordingly.

We went to Jilling Estate near Nainital (jilling.net), for our first half of honeymoon.

Jilling is spread over 120 acres of orchards and forested land with just 4 cottages. Our cottage was at 7000 feet above sea level.

Write in to us at getahead@rediff.co.in (subject line: 'My Honeymoon Travels'). Send in the story of your honeymoon, along with a few pics you took there and we'll publish the best entries right here on rediff.com!

We went to Jilling in the third week of December so it was snowing.

We had to trek for over an hour (about 2 kms) to reach our cottage from the road head.

Our cottage was called 'Dera' and had views of the Nanda Devi range in Kumaon Himalayas with leopards and deers in the forests around.

There was a fireplace in the cottage, which had bare minimum necessities.

The trek to the kitchen cottage for lunch/dinner was a trek through half a kilometre of forested land!

No wonder Jilling is also known as 'the last resort' and not for the fainthearted or those seeking comfort and luxury.

Our days were spent walking/trekking through the orchards, forests and ridges and nearby Kumaoni villages.

Nights were spent next to the fireplace.

We were able to see sunrise and sunset on Nanda Devi range right from our cottage window. Mornings there used to be snow all around with water getting frozen.

We spend five days there with a trip to Ramgarh, Muktheswar and Nainital.

For the second half of our trip, we trekked and camped in Deoriatal-Chopta-Tungnath trail with a trek to the Chandrshila top at 4000 meters.

Deoriatal is famous for the Yudhisthir-Yaksha incident of the Mahabharata.

The entire trek offers fabulous views of the Chaukhambha and other peaks. Chandrshila gives a 360-degree view of the Garhwal Himalayas.

In all it was a memorable trip to share with next generations.