SANDEEP JAJABOR: The Retreat- Jones estate September 19 to 22 2015

Mistima ( my paternal aunt aged 85 years) whose zest for life in general and love for travel in particular remains unabated even at this age, wanted to take a short holiday on her birthday (22nd September) and therefore, we were searching for some place especially suited to her taste and liking. She is a fastidious person particular when it comes to hygiene and food and therefore on the advice of my nephew Auntik and his wife Priyanka, I finally zeroed in for 'The Retreat'. Auntik's recommendation for 'The Retreat' appeared perfect for two reasons (i) it was away from the main city and situated in a forested area which I rightly guessed would provide ample opportunity to get birds and (ii) the food he said is out of the world. Both the recommendations, which came out absolutely true are the USPs of ' Retreat' .

morning tea after a successful birding session

black-throated sunbird.

We planned that we would all start on 19th from Delhi and come back on 22nd September. My problem, however, was that I had an exam on 22nd September. This meant that I had to come back a day earlier i.e on 21st and not with the group. Mistima and Anjana were disappointed and kept telling me that I should skip the exam and take it later but somehow I was reluctant to miss my exam. Hence I bought my return ticket for 21st September. Eventually, however, on the day of my scheduled return, after saying goodbye to all, just as I was about to board the taxi from Bhimtal to catch my train from Kathgodam, I realised that I had mistakenly bought a ticket of the another train which had already left from Kathgodam at 0800 hours that morning. Of course everyone except me was delighted at my plight. To be honest I was also feeling relieved.

On 19th September, we started from Delhi by train at 0615 hours from Anand Vihar Railway station. It takes about 5 hours to reach Kathgodam and we reached exactly at 1130 hours. From Kathgodam it took us 1.5 hours to reach the 'The Retreat'. The Retreat is a charming, family owned 19th Centruy colonial bungalow nestled in the lap of nature. All the three rooms are very big with attached toilets. Being a colonial structure the rooms have big windows facing either the wooded area on the back or the garden in the front.

Our stay all three days were very comfortable and full of fun. So far birding was concerned, it was very satisfying particularly the two lifers i.e. black-throated sunbird and the Himalayan wood owl.