The land of gods stands tall with its majestic and regal aura in the north. These mountains have been recounted as a place to achieve divine peace and enlightenment. As I have now witnessed this beauty, I’m a believer. The Himalayas is not a destination, it’s a journey!
After lots of planning, this memorable journey of ours started with all the rigorous packing of clothes, boots, jackets, mufflers, shawls, as well as caps, goggles, and of course food…We had loaded our car with about half a dozen bags. So, we were three families who were going to drive our way to a paradise called Himachal Pradesh…
As decided we left our homes on 16th May 2016 at bramhamuhurta which is to say before the sunrise at 5 in the morning. The first transit halt was going to be Chittorgarh.
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| Pune-Chittorgarh |
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| In
car Selfie!
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| Our Gang |
In this trip we experienced all seasons with blistering colds, scotching desserts along with stormy rains. Ratlam was sizzling with 46 degree Celsius...
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| Ratlam at 46 |
The next day halt was going to be Rohtak, Haryana. This again was a transit halt.
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| Chittorgarh-Rohtak |
The next day was going to be an exciting for all of us and believe me, it was. Today, we were going to enter the great Himachal.
After having a cup of tea we started our travel towards HP.
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| Mom and Dad having Tea |
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| Good bye Rohtak |
"A strong friendship doesn't need daily conversation or being together. As long as the
relationship lives in heart, true friends never part...."
On the way we were going to meet dad's old friends Mukesh uncle and Ruchi aunty at Chandigarh. We had a wonderful time with them.
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| With Mukesh and family! |
As we left Chandigarh we caught the first glimpse of the mighty Himalayas.
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| Entering HP |
Today, we were planning Chail, a hill station ahead of Shimla. And that's where our true journey began. The landscapes were so awesome that they could not be expressed in words. The roads were so scenic that I bet heaven wouldn't be much different.
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| Welcome to HP |
We also had the most scenic tea, dipping our legs in the SadhuPul river...And the sunset we saw from there was incredible. We reached our hotel in the evening. The hotel was flawless. We had quite a long sleep because we were going to tour Chail and were not under any time frame.
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| At Sadhupul River Bank |
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| Playing in chill waters |
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| Sunset as we reach Chail |
The next morning we were woken up by Red billed blue magpies, one of the most stunning birds of Himachal. A pair of them was knocking our windows with their scarlet beaks...We did a lot of bird watching at the hotel itself. We saw Great Barbets, Verditer Flycatchers, Russet Sparrows, Slaty headed Parakeets and Himalayan Woodpeckers. Me and dad spent an awesome time pursuing our favourite hobby...
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| Great Barbet |
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| Russet's Sparrow |
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| Bar Tailed Treecreeper |
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Slaty headed Parakeet
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| Pied Thrush |
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| Red Billed Blue Magpie |
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| Red Billed Blue Magpie |
We were going to visit Kufri, a famous hill station. On the way we had a sighting!! A snake with a kill.
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| Collered black headed snake (sibynophis collaris) |
On the way , we could get to see a pine jungle. The trees were so tall that we could not capture the height in our camera..
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| Kufri |
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| Kufri jungle |
The rest of our day was good. Kufri, being a typical hill station was infiltrated by humans. Garbage, litter and dust..We took a horse ride to reach a place which was like Laxmi road. Crowds coming and going.. It was a mess...
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| Horse ride! |
But we did feast on the scarlet, sweet and juicy cherries.....
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| Red ripped cherries! |
On top we could see a variety of beautiful flowers
Daisies...
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| A butterfly as well |
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| Lavender beauty! |
We were all exhausted by our tour. While returning from Kufri an animal crossed our car. We could not identify but it was surely fascinating. May be some kind of Marten it was...It made us feel that everything we were traversing through was a complete wild terrain. On return path we could get glimpse of serene Sunset. The colours we saw there were like never before..
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| Sunset |
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| Sunset |
We hit the pillows quite early and geared ourselves for Rampur, the village situated on the banks of the mighty Satluj and the home of Asia's largest hydro power project....
From Rampur we started our journey through the Kinnaur valley. The legend has it that Kinnaur with all its charms fell from the heavens as a gift from the gods. This place is cris-crossed with several rivers and the Satluj being the main.
The journey was fabulous. Once in a while we could see snow peaks glancing at us. Kinnaur sure was a gift of heaven.
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| Beautiful roads |
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| Himalayan griffon |
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| Eurasian blackbird |
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| Id? |
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| Joyful jumping |
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| Landscapes |
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| Green apples |
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| Road to Rampur |
The next destination was Kalpa. We were going to visit a temple at Sarahan. This temple is dedicated to goddess Bhimakali. She was the presiding deity of that region. This town is also known as the gateway to Kinnaur....
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| Bhimakali temple |
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| Bhimakali temple |
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| Bhimakali temple |
On the way to Kalpa, the roads were really awesome. And some rocks were cut like these for making roads...
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| Carved trails |
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| Carved trails |
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| Awesome roads |
Then began the most terrifying road drive in Himachal. The road which lead us to Kalpa had experienced a landslide that day and so we had to change our route twice. The road was terrible. We could see boulders and stones dropping down on the left side of the road. The Satluj was dividing the two passes. We all were terribly scared that day.
Steep valley, Snowy peaks, small dirt track around the walls of Himalayas and the small and big waterfalls making its way across the roads to meet the guzzling water of Satlaj rivers were really a treat to the eyes.
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| The Satluj |
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| Waterfalls |
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| Snowy peaks |
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| Are we taller than the Mountains? |
Kalpa indeed was a beauty. The temperatures had already dropped to single digits. The frightening road experience was truly fruitful and will always be preserved in our memories.
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| Live young..Live free |
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| Objects in the mirror are more close to HEART than they appear!! |
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| Hotel view!! |
And with Kalpa ended half of our flawless journey. Because above all "Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations"......
Part 2
