Allright, time to attend your earthly desires now, the lunch served in the KMVN rest house in Chaukori is decent. Spend the afternoon riding/driving around in the nearby hamlets of Kamridevi , its about 10kms from Chaukori. The roads go through some pine and oak forests, and are as desolate as ever. Stop in and about anywhere you like to uitilise that expensive digital camera of yours. After visiting the temple in Kamridevi, backtrack 20kms to Berinag. Ask anyone from the market area for the way to the temple, you have to do some steep uphill ride . If you are on a car, you must park the car a good 700 metres away from the temple, otherwise the underbelly would be scraped , bikers move right along till the temple gate. The temple is very clean, inside a pine forest on the top of a hill and almost always devoid of human beings. After your temple darshan and spiritual intakes are over dash off for Chaukori, you dont want to miss the golden mountains while the sun goes down.

The caretaker will wake you up just before sunrise next day if the weather is clear and from November to March, it should be clear. Enjoy a cup of garam chai, climb up the watchtower and enjoy the views. I wouldnot even attempt to explain how it feels, you simply got to be there to experience it!

After breakfast, leave Chaukori and head towards Bageshwar, a ride of 45odd kms through lonely pine forests and sleepy hamlets. The view of the Bageshwar valley is intimidating. Bageshwar is an old town situated on the banks of the Sarju river, the roads are conjested and if you need to tank up this is the place. After crossing Bageshwar, head for Baijnath, the road is newly laid and its a north of 6Krpm ride, tailor made isnt it ?

Visit the ancient temples of Baijnath, feed the fishes in the adjoining waterbody and head for Gwaldam. Gwaldam is a significant little place, its an important stopover if you are interested in visiting the holy Badrinath dham and from Gwaldam the Garhwal region starts. The road to Gwaldam is nothing talk about except the last 7kms which bisect extremely dense forest. Watch out for the odd jackal crossing the road while you are bursting out of a corner, he he! The Trishul parvat seems at a stone throw distance from Gwaldam, the place indeed offers spectacular views. Stop for lunch in one of the few little hotels and ride/drive back to Bageshwar. If you are interested in spending one more night, head towards Kaushani or move to Almora to end the vacation, I did the former.