As we all know, no one can get tired of Himachal, here I am sharing my one day trip to Dalhousie-Khajjiar-Chamba.
So it was a one day trip. We started at around 7 pm from Jalandhar, Punjab and reached Dalhousie by night 2 am. The roads were not so good once we crossed pathankot. Till pathankot highway was connected. But once we started entering himachal, roads were in not so good condition. Keeping aside this the vibes that you get in Himachal is one of next level. The cold breeze, pine trees around , narrow roads, mountain in either side of road and valley in other side, fresh air, and those pretty stars up in the sky can brighten up anyone's mood. We reached at 2 am in Dalhousie and stayed at a homestay, had a nice sleep. We woke up at morning by 8 am. As soon as I woke up the first thing that I did was opened the doors to see those beautiful Sundays falling upon mountains and it made my day. After that we had hot coffee, bread omlet, and maggi (that's what mostly available in hilly areas), though we have these food very often but it tastes more tasteful when in mountains because MOUNTAINS ARE LOVE. And holding a cup of hot coffee in one hand and gazing the clear sky and beautiful pine trees, mountains all around gives you immense pleasure. It's like getting high in nature. After finishing breakfast we visited the church I.e. St. Francis Catholic Church which was just opposite to our stay. After sitting for 10 minutes peacefully inside church we headed towards the Khajjiar. None of us knew the road but yeah we do have google maps. We started on our way to Khajjiar. The weather was super pleasant, sunny day, crystal clear blue sky what else do you need for a road trip to be more enjoyable. Now, a twist came in the road trip. We reached an airforce base and the guards present there stopped us from going further and we got to know we were in the wrong road. We had reached Dainkund. The road that takes to khajjiar we left behind 4 kms. So we took U-turn and were going back. While we were going down , we stopped there for clicking pictures as the scenery was marvellous but sadly we saw there the board written in it "Taking pictures is prohibited" as it was an airforce base area. We saw a old man having long white beard coming back from filling water in his tumble. We asked him how far is Khajjiar and he told us the same what police had said. But he added on and said that just before the barrier of airforce base there is a way to go up to the mountains , a temple is there of Lord Kali Maa, a view point from where you can see the 360° view and also as the sky was clear we will be able to see the Kailash Parwat. After getting to know about this we were stucked thinking whether to go up or not as it was getting late and we had to go to khajjiar also. But we made up our mind 'let's go up'. We went and after trekking for few minutes we felt like going back for few times . We kept on asking other visitors how far was the Temple. It was 2.5 km far and again we thought to go back. But don't want what kept us going forward and we reached the Temple. And it was such a mysterious temple in a mountain. It took my heart off. We went inside, prayed, took blessings and then we remembered it was Dussehra that day, we couldn't be more happy and thankful. Also we saw kailash parwat through telescope there. After this we headed to khajjiar and reached in one hour. People named it right "Mini Switzerland Of India". We were awestruck by its sceneric beauty. As we were hungry then, we had Rajma Rice and Momos and enjoyed the beauty of Khajjiar. A small lake was their in middle of it. Few houses were there around it just like the houses in Switzerland, few horses were roaming around and everything was mesmerizing,i t was already 6 pm by then.
A sudden plan came up to go to Chamba from there and without a second thought we headed towards it. Reached Chamba within 2 hours. Roads of chamba were stucked as it was Dusshera. We stopped our bikes there and went to the ground where dusshera was being celebrated. As in Hindu Ritual , Ravan's statue is burnt in dusshera, it was being done there and it was my first time witnessing it. We visited few stalls nearby it , had some fast foods and started back to Pathankot and from there back to Jalandhar.
Though our trip was very tiring as we covered in one day but it was amazing and those unplanned visits were so soulful.
#hills#roadtrips#backpacking#mountainlove
