Our cottage at Mahindra Corbett was right on the banks of the river Kosi. This year's severe monsoon has made the river Kosi gushing with water in its full glory. The Kosi or Koshi is a transboundary river which flows through China, Nepal and India. It drains the northern slopes of the Himalayas in Tibet and the southern slopes in Nepal. From a major confluence of tributaries north of the Chatra Gorge onwards, the Kosi River is also known as Saptakoshi. In Hindu mythology, there are several stories about this rive. One of the most popular stories is that Kosi was the daughter of Lord Shiv and was extremely beautiful. A demon fell in love with her and proposed to marry Kosi. Unable to say no, because that would infuriate the demon, Kosi told the demon if he could contain her within the Himalayas for one night, she would marry him. The Demon started working furiously and by midnight, sensing that the Demon would complete his work by dawn, River Kosi went to her father Shiv and requested him to help. Lord Shiv disguised him as a cock and in the middle of the night started crowing where Demon was working. Hearing this the Demon became nervous and ran away to save his life. Well, that was just the story but we enjoyed sitting on the glorious full-of-life river Kosi. The sun rises behind the mountains full of greenery, the sunshine falling on the lowing river and making it shine like Gold was an extremely amazing experience.

Lovely experience hiking through the forest to the Kosi river. Saw tiger paw prints on the way and lots of birds. Takes 1 to 1.5 hours, so recommend doing this before checking out from Corbett Machaan.

It is a must do if you're visiting the Jim Corbett National Park. The only drawback is the approachability and the facilities that may be provided by the Government. The water bed is very rocky but the water is extremely clean and makes you feel like staying there forever