Gopeshwar
An absolute hidden gem.
From Navdanya, I took two weeks to travel with a few friends before heading to Nepal.
Our first stop was Gopeshwar. We stumbled upon this little mountain town when searching for some good treks closer to the mountains and wanting to find somewhere less crowded than other cities we’d visited. We found a few beautiful hikes in one area then looked to see the closest town to them, found Gopeshwar, then found an adorable home stay on Airbnb and knew it was exactly what we were looking for.
Morning breakfast view from our homestay! It’s the Peaches & Pears homestay on Airbnb.
It was a long day bus ride to get there – and we were on the local bus. Luckily our AirBnB host was incredibly helpful. We couldn’t book bus tickets with international credit cards, and we wanted to make sure we had tickets as the buses fill up quicky AND we each had big bags that don’t fit in the storage spaces above the seats. So, our Airbnb host was wonderful enough to book the tickets for us (which we paid him back for when we arrived at his stay).
He even got the number of the bus driver to tell him we’re coming, got the exact location where the bus would be (because it doesn’t pull into the bus station, but on the road nearby in front of this specific tiny little fruit stand), and gave us the bus driver’s number so we could share our location with him to make sure we were at the right place at the right time to get the right bus!
The bus arrived right on time and the bus driver was waving to us with a big smile as he drove in :)
We ate some of the BEST food we’d had yet in India, hiked to an incredible waterfall, stumbled upon rainbows, met friendly faces in the nearby local villages, explored temples, and even had the opportunity to be served tea from a monk who has lived in a cave for 10 years. And all of the scenery was incredibly stunning.
Scenes from our waterfall hike:
Us having tea with a monk who has lived in a cave for 10 years! Also a good friend of our AirBnB host:
Another hike we found just down the road from our homestay:
We also hiked up to Tungnath Temple — one of the highest Shiva temples in the world at 12,000 feet. It was sunny on the journey up, snowy at the top, with hail showers & fairy forests on the way down:
