1,740
Metres above sea levelHigh enough for frost, well below the altitude-sickness threshold.
Pithoragarh district · Kumaon
A ridge town
named after a snake.
Beri-nag. The Nag Devta — the serpent deity — has been worshipped on this hill for longer than anyone has written down, and the town took the god's name. It sits at 1,740 metres on the road between Almora and Munsiyari, which means almost everyone drives through it and almost nobody stops.
Orientation
The essential facts
Everything below is verifiable and, where sources disagree, we have given the figure that matches the survey marker outside the tehsil office.
262531
Postal codeBerinag tehsil, Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand.
29.78° N
LatitudeRoughly the same line as Kathmandu, Cairo and New Orleans.
160 km
To the nearest railheadKathgodam. Six to seven hours by mountain road.
History
The tea that went to London, and the estate that stayed behind.
In the 1860s the colonial administration was planting tea across the Kumaon hills — Kausani, Chaukori, Berinag — in an attempt to break Chinese supply. Berinag's gardens went in on the south-facing slopes below the ridge, where the drainage is sharp and the morning fog burns off by nine. The leaf was processed locally, carried down by mule, and shipped from Calcutta.
Berinag tea developed a small reputation in London — a thin, high-grown, slightly astringent leaf that some buyers preferred to Darjeeling for a morning cup. Then the estates changed hands, the mule routes were replaced by roads that went somewhere else, and by the 1950s most of the bushes had been left to themselves.
They are still there. Leggy, un-pruned, seventy years past their commercial best, and picked by four families who sell the leaf at the Thursday market. It is not an efficient operation. It is, if you walk into it at seven in the morning with the fog still lying in the rows, one of the most beautiful places in Kumaon.
Faith
Nag Devta, and the temples on the ridge
The serpent cult of Kumaon predates almost everything else in the hills. There are Nag temples scattered across Pithoragarh district — Dhaulinag, Feninag, Kalinag, Berinag — and each has its own festival, its own clan of hereditary priests and its own set of rules about what may be brought inside.
- Nag Devta MandirOne kilometre from the house. Stone shrine, deodar grove, brass bells.
- Morning aartiAround 6.30. You may attend; remove shoes and leather at the gate.
- The August festivalNag Panchami brings the whole valley. Ask before photographing.
- The groveUncut for two centuries because it is temple land. The oldest trees on this ridge.
What you can see
The line of peaks, named
On a clear morning from the ridge above the tea garden, this is what is standing on the northern horizon, left to right. All are in India; the Nepal border runs roughly forty kilometres east of here.
Panchachuli I–V · 6,904 m
The five peaks that give the group its name — the 'five chulhas', or cooking hearths, of the Pandavas. Directly north-east, about ninety kilometres away, and the dominant feature of every clear morning here.
- Best viewed 6.15–7.00 am, Oct–Dec
- Turns pink roughly eleven minutes before valley sunrise
- Closest road access is Munsiyari, 100 km
Nanda Devi · 7,816 m
India's highest peak entirely within its own borders, and the goddess of the whole Kumaon region. Visible to the north-west on the clearest mornings as a distinct twin-summited block.
- Sanctuary closed to trekkers since 1983
- Nanda Devi East, 7,434 m, is the visible eastern summit
- Clearest Nov–Feb
Nandakot · 6,861 m
The 'fortress of Nanda'. Squarer and closer than Panchachuli, and often the first peak people learn to identify because of its shape.
- Visible from the courtyard on very clear days
- Ridge walk gives the cleanest line
- Good subject for a 200 mm lens
Chhiplakot ridge · 4,000 m
Not a Himalayan giant but the nearer wall that separates this valley from the Gori Ganga. Snow-covered December to March and much more present in daily life than the famous peaks behind it.
- Two-day trek from Berinag side
- Bugyal meadows above 3,200 m
- Bear country — go with a guide
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Panchachuli II The highest of the five, roughly 90 km north-east0
Tea planted Colonial estates on the south-facing slopes0
Chaukori The classic viewpoint, twelve and a half kilometres away0
Clear mornings October to December, from the ridge above the tea gardenAround it
Everything within two hours
Real road distances, not straight lines. Assume twenty-five kilometres an hour as an average and you will not be disappointed.
Chaukori
At 2,010 m, the classic Kumaon viewpoint. On a clear morning the Panchachuli massif and Nanda Devi stand up along the entire northern horizon. Thirty minutes by car; we go before breakfast and are back by ten.
30 min driveOct–Dec clearest
Patal Bhuvaneshwar
A limestone cave temple reached down a narrow, wet, chain-assisted descent into the hillside. Not for the claustrophobic. Genuinely extraordinary for everyone else. Allow three hours including the drive.
1 hr driveGuide provided at site
Gangolihat & Hat Kalika
One of the Shakti Peethas, set in a deodar grove so dense the light goes green. The temple is looked after by the Kumaon Regiment. Combine it with Patal Bhuvaneshwar in one day.
1 hr 20 driveDeodar grove
Thal & the Ramganga
A river town at 1,000 m where the East Ramganga runs green over white boulders. Warmer than here by six degrees. Good for a swim in April and May, unwise in monsoon.
40 min driveSwim Mar–Jun
Didihat
A ridge town with a fort ruin above it and a long, uninterrupted line of peaks to the north. Less visited than Chaukori and, in our opinion, the better view.
1 hr 15 drivePanchachuli panorama
Munsiyari
The end of the road, at 2,200 m, directly beneath the five peaks of Panchachuli. Three and a half hours each way — we recommend an overnight rather than a day trip, and we will help you arrange it.
3 hr 30 driveStay overnight
Local knowledge
Things it takes a season to learn
The fog has a schedule
It fills the valley from about 9 pm, sits below the house overnight, and burns off between eight and nine. If you wake at six and see nothing, wait an hour before giving up.
Thursday is the day
The bazaar market. Everything closes on Sunday afternoon. If you need cash, do it before Saturday because the ATM runs dry over the weekend.
Kafal in May
A small red hill berry that appears for about three weeks and is sold by children beside the road. Do not buy the ones in plastic boxes.
Do not walk the forest track after dark alone
Not because of people. Because of the leopard that uses it, and because the drop on the north side is unfenced.
Nobody is being rude
Kumaoni conversation is direct and unadorned. 'Where are you going' is a greeting, not an interrogation.
The road closes
Two or three times a winter, and after any serious monsoon night. Build a spare day into any itinerary with a flight at the end of it.
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See it rather than read about it
The valley photographs badly and describes worse. Three nights is enough to understand why people move here.