A tranquil getaway

Have you ever longed to escape to a place that would take you far away from the maddening crowd, the hustle and bustle of your city life? Then The Goat Village in Tehri, Uttarakhand ought to be on your travel bucket list!

Believed to be the seat of ‘Nag Devta’ or the Hindu Snake God, the Serpent’s Peak or Nag Tibba – in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand - as it is called, is home to a shrine to the god.

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The Nag Tibba Trek is today one of the most popular treks in the Garhwal region of the Himalayas and is fast catching on as the ideal weekend trek from Delhi due to the fact that it is only 57 kms from Mussorie and also, of course, for the thrill of scaling the highest peak of the lesser Himalayas. Half way up this trek is The Goat Village

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With one of the nearby villages as a base, the scenic trek through the Himalayan forest to this temple can be done in a day or two, depending on the route one takes. Once you reach the peak, you are treated to sight of the entire Bandarpoonch Range of the Greater Himalayas from that height of 9915 feet.

The popular route starts from Devalsari as a base, where one can stay at the Forest Guest House and it is recommended to complete the trek via this route in two days with a camping break in between, as this trek of 13 kms is a little more challenging than the shorter one from Pantwari.

Of moderate difficulty, the trek from the village of Pantwari follows a clearly marked trail of 8 kms and can be completed in a day. Now, imagine a little village of wooden cottages nestled in the Himalayas, where to touch the clouds all you have to do is extend your hand and where there is no electricity or WiFi that you end up doing anything but checking your phone every few minutes for updates!

That is ‘The Goat Village’ for you, a farm retreat along the trek from Pantwari to Nag Tibba. One can stop here after a trek of two hours, at this initiative by the Green People working towards the reverse migration of farmers in the abandoned villages of Uttarakhand.

Stay a while, live alongside the local farmers and herders living in their “chaanis”, eat organically grown vegetables, go mushroom hunting in the forest, camp under the starry sky and go on to complete the trek first thing the next morning, only to come back and do nothing.

For, it is the perfect place to do nothing, to simply watch the sunrise and the moonrise from your temporary abode in the clouds. So, if off beat places call to you and you are someone who wants a bit of adventure in your holiday, the trek to Nag Tibba with a stopover at ‘The Goat Village’ would be perfect.

For not only can you plan your itinerary in a way such that if one day you are getting lost in the forest only to come across some naughty children of the mountains then the next day you are only soaking up the sun in the poly house cum cafeteria drinking strong tea flavoured to wild mint.

Fact File
The nearest airport is the Jolly Grant Airport at Dehradun from where Pantwari is a six-hour drive. One can either go straight to Pantwari or choose to first spend a day or two at the beautiful mist hidden hill station of Mussorie and then drive on to Pantwari, which would then take around four hours