Yup !!! Here begins the much awaited road trip with bunch of my best buddies. We hired a Scorpio from zoomcar for 5 days for price of 13000/- INR.
The places and route we followed are as follows
Chandigarh-Dalhousie 313km(7-8 hrs)
Dalhousie-Khajjiar 22km(1-1.5km)
Khajjiar- Mcleodganj. 123km(4-5 hrs)
Mcleodganj-Dharamshala 10km (0.5 hr)
Dharamshala-Bir billing via 65km (2-3 hrs)
Bir-Chandigarh. 285km (6-7 hrs)
we started our roadtrip early in the morning from chandigarh to Khajjiar via Dalhousie and we reached Dalhousie in the evening as it was winters so it was so snowy all over the Dalhousie and we booked our hotel at Khajjiar and one heartbreaking thing we came to know that we cannot reach Khajjiar as there is heavy snowfall and roads are blocked for Khajjiar so we stayed at Dalhousie and enjoyed the snow in the Dalhousie and visited local places.
In Dalhousie and Khajjiar must checkout places are :-
-Dainkund Peak- Highest peak of Dalhousie, it's trek of 2.5km which is worth doing as it provides us with surreal view of mountains.
-Khajjiar lake
-Panchpula
-Satdhara falls
-Bakrota hills
-Sach pass
-Ganji pahari
-Kalatop-Its generally a wildlife sanctuary which great place to trek for beginners on the way to Khajjiar. Starting point of this trek is LakkarMandi which is 4km from kalatop you can choose to stay overnight at the rest house.
On the next morning we headed to Mcleodganj and it takes 5 hrs aprox to reach out destination and had our lunch on our way as we planned to stay at triund top so we started our triund trek it was easy trek yet so enthralling the view at the top is breathtaking you can witness the Dhauladhar range on one side and Kangra Valley on other side. It is perfect trek for beginners to embrace the experience of trek.Total trek distance of 9 kilometres takes 4-6 hours and takes you to maximum altitude of 2,875 meters, starting of trek is easy going but last one kilometre of the ascent is a little steep and requires some effort. As we say best view comes after hardest climb same applies here as you can enjoy spectacular views of snow clad mountains, grassy meadows, never ending love of cloud with mountains and these things are enough to rejuvenate our soul. We stayed at night and believe me it was one of best night I ever had what a time we had while I am writing this everything reminisced about the trip.
On next morning at around 7:00 AM we had breakfast at the scenic Triund Hilltop campsite and trek back to Mcleodganj and it's time for some local sightseeing which includes Bhagsunag temple, Bhagsu waterfall and Dal lake these are the main attractions. You can also take bath in chilly swimming pool at Bhagsunag temple. On the same day at around 1 PM we headed to Dharamshala we reached directly to Cricket Stadium and spend sometime at stadium and view wise it was best stadium I had ever seen and most spectacular view of mighty Himalaya at the backdrop of stadium gives perfect match experience for the spectators.
Then we headed for Bir Billing from Dharamshala it takes around 2.5 hrs to reach bir through our journey we witnessed breathtaking view of Himalayas. Clouds,trees and mountains are merged together to give us for what we had come for and thunderous sound of river striking the rocks makes us feel gold. After reaching Bir first thing we did was booked for the most awaited adventure i.e. paragliding for next day morning at Rs-2200(GoPro video included) with some negotiation and our paragliding agency provide us the room for 6 people at mere price of 800 and to our surprise it's well maintained with good service and food.
So it's last day of our journey but most awaited part of trip Paragliding,our paraglider takes us to billing which is 14kms up in the hills with their vehicle which is included in the cost of paragliding it's chilly morning as we started going up the hill density of snow at the roads increase and at the top everything is covered with snow and view from billing is pleasing and the height gives us adrenaline rush, Paragliding duration is for 15-20 mins depends on direction and speed of wind adding to more adventure paraglider did some stunt which makes Paragliding more adventurous but experience of Paragliding is worth doing it's gets you blood racing and heart beating but at the end everything is worth it .
We had lunch at the Bir then we headed back to Chandigarh.
So that's the end of amazing trip and this trip is perfect amalgamation of Road trip, Natural beauty, Trekking and Paragliding and I suggest everyone to do this trip and for any query feel free to contact me .