Cannot resist taking Gilbert Trail(had gone down it for a short distance the last time I was in Kasauli about 5 years back) at Kasauli after the early morning rain on 17th june 07 despite knowing that my morning walk will become a walked half marathon by the time I reach back.
The trail, parallel to the Upper Mall, is broad & skirts the western? side of the rocky hill on which Kasauli is built but becomes narrow at a few points. Brits might have ridden horses on it during their rule but only a brave rider would ride on it now. The path leading to the point from where thwarted lovers on horseback are said to have jumped off (see below for details) is littered with beer bottle caps and cigarette butts. Intoxication produced by the natural beauty is obviously not enough for some. Spot a small deer(called khakkur by locals?) that runs off on seeing me and find no trace of it when I reach the edge.
The late Shama Futehally did a better job in capturing the beauty and danger of the place- “…..a dramatically narrow cliff path which is called, I think, Gilbert Walk, and is rather touchingly maintained as a ‘Nature Trail’ by the much-maligned Forest Department. Mercifully the stark beauty of the walk has not been interfered with. It is too stark, in fact – although the views are breath-taking the ravines are fearsome, and their fearsomeness contributes something to Kasauli’s Raj lore. At one particularly unnerving bend in the path, two English lovers are meant to have jumped their horses off the cliff and gone to their deaths, because they were not allowed to marry. The spot has now been domesticated with a clearing and a bench, and given the unexceptionable name of Lovers’ Point, but it still gives rise to gooseflesh.”
A pile of recently disintegrated blackblue soft rock covers a narrow stretch whereas an embankment along another stretch is losing stones from the middle, leading to a 2-3 feet gap that is going to widen and cut short the trail. Both of these are near the (back of the) Air Force complex at Manki Pt. Go up to the area behind the microwave station and lose hope of finding a way to the Lower mall after the end of the cliff face and the trail becoming many red-brown pine needle covered paths going down.
The trail, parallel to the Upper Mall, is broad & skirts the western? side of the rocky hill on which Kasauli is built but becomes narrow at a few points. Brits might have ridden horses on it during their rule but only a brave rider would ride on it now. The path leading to the point from where thwarted lovers on horseback are said to have jumped off (see below for details) is littered with beer bottle caps and cigarette butts. Intoxication produced by the natural beauty is obviously not enough for some. Spot a small deer(called khakkur by locals?) that runs off on seeing me and find no trace of it when I reach the edge.
The late Shama Futehally did a better job in capturing the beauty and danger of the place- “…..a dramatically narrow cliff path which is called, I think, Gilbert Walk, and is rather touchingly maintained as a ‘Nature Trail’ by the much-maligned Forest Department. Mercifully the stark beauty of the walk has not been interfered with. It is too stark, in fact – although the views are breath-taking the ravines are fearsome, and their fearsomeness contributes something to Kasauli’s Raj lore. At one particularly unnerving bend in the path, two English lovers are meant to have jumped their horses off the cliff and gone to their deaths, because they were not allowed to marry. The spot has now been domesticated with a clearing and a bench, and given the unexceptionable name of Lovers’ Point, but it still gives rise to gooseflesh.”
A pile of recently disintegrated blackblue soft rock covers a narrow stretch whereas an embankment along another stretch is losing stones from the middle, leading to a 2-3 feet gap that is going to widen and cut short the trail. Both of these are near the (back of the) Air Force complex at Manki Pt. Go up to the area behind the microwave station and lose hope of finding a way to the Lower mall after the end of the cliff face and the trail becoming many red-brown pine needle covered paths going down.
posted by cosmonja at
6:43 PM
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