The drive to Sattal (or Sat Tal) isn’t a particularly long one, about three hours in total. Three quarters of the route is a main road that skirts the foothills in an easterly direction. Upon turning north, the ground changes quickly and we find ourselves climbing one of the most twisty roads I’ve ever been on. In just a few kilometres we climb about 1000m (3300ft) back into the high mountains.

Our destination is the hopefully entitled “Birder’s Den”, which promises more for Fred and Chris than it does for me. Still, I’m far from averse to a few nice pictures of exotic birds and mostly happy to tag along. We’re quite late for lunch and, by the time we are finishing up, the staff are getting ready to put the food out at the hide that makes this little lodge such a popular stop.

We walk up a short path to the hide and see the various seeds, fruit and even some chicken being put out on strategically placed. There are just enough seats for us, a group of keen bird-watchers from Taiwan and several more from India. The staff finish their preparations, making a good attempt at hiding the very obvious bait, and the show is ready to begin.

For the next two hours or so, the birds come so thick and fast that it’s difficult to keep up with it all. If you concentrate on something spectacular on one perch, you’re sure to miss something equally wonderful on another one. JP, sitting behind the three of us, manages to keep us focussed on the new birds as they arrive and, like everyone present, I snap away happily, oblivious to battery usage or storage capacity.

By five in the afternoon, the light is fading sufficiently that I’m having to contemplate increasing the maximum ISO level the camera will float to. That means it is definitely time to stop and leave the few birds left to their own devices. A very long download and backup from the camera’s memory card reveals that more than 1200 frames have been shot in that couple of hours. As everyone keeps suggesting, I don’t know what I’m going to do with them, but storage is cheap.

We have a full day in Sattal, but I decide to skip the morning bird-hunt and see if I can catch up on some writing and also have a better look at the photos I have taken on the first afternoon. Fred and Chris head off with JP after breakfast and seem to enjoy their time out, coming back with a handful of new species to add to the ever-growing list. I manage to finally figure out why my manuscript – not this one – isn’t saving properly. Well, I don’t figure out why exactly, but I do get it transferred to a new document where things seem to work better.

For the afternoon, we all opt to stay on site and spend another couple of hours in the hide. This is a cue for another 1000-frame shoot-out, caused mostly this time by the arrival of the Yellow-fronted martens. They’re big, much bigger than any pole-cat or even a pine marten, but we see them jumping and racing about after food and even rapidly climbing the trees in the distance.

It all makes for another very good day at Sattal. I’m sure I would enjoy the place much more if I were a keener bird-watcher, but even so it is an enjoyable place to spend a couple of days. The food is pretty good, even if it is standard fare for the region, and the rooms are spacious and clean. Not perhaps a place that needs more than the couple of nights that we gave it, but well worth the visit, even if only for the crazy drive to get here.

Not so good for being woken up twice in the night during the second night there. Once for a tremendous thunderstorm – pelting a tin roof has to be heard to be believed. Such storms aren’t exactly new to me, but it did disturb me enough to keep me restless for the rest of the night.

Woken again some time later by something apparently landing on my pillow beside my head. Too dark to see, so I instinctively swatted whatever it was away and went back to sleep. Woke up in the morning to find that it was a very exhausted little bat that was now very slowly crawling across the floor trying to get out. Must have been trapped in the empty room for a while and simply run out of energy. Couldn’t do much more than pick it up on a sheet of paper and lay it outside. Not going to actually handle one as, first I don’t know how and second, it might have rabies. Hopefully, it will survive.