Travel Tales #1 | Tirthan Valley Sojourn
The Prologue
Anytime time I feel like finding solace or peace or an urge to spend some quality time with my family, it is the Himalayas that comes to my mind. Tirthan Valley, nestled in Himachal Pradesh Kullu region, is one such place that I keep visiting again and again in such times. Summers had just started in North India and there no better excuse to chill out beside the refreshing Tirthan river. I called up Varun at Raju Bharti Guest House in Tirthan Valley and to my luck, there were a couple of cancelations that he offered us. I could not believe my luck but as the great author, Paulo Coehlo said: "When you want something, the whole universe conspires to make it happen." 😁 😁
Let me take you to Tirthan Valley with me in this Travel Tale of my three day trip to this offbeat location in Himachal Pradesh.
Day 1 | Delhi – Una – Bhota – Jahu – Mandi – Tirthan Valley
Like me, my son is also fond of mountains and he was very excited for this trip. I asked a couple of my school friends with families and they also agreed to join us for this long weekend trip. It was like a mini school reunion 😀 ... We were three couples with two small kids less than three-year-old in two cars. We left at 1 AM from Delhi for Tirthan Valley. As the usual route from Delhi - Chandigarh - Bilaspur - Mandi is full of potholes and maddening truck traffic, I decided to take the longer route but excellent route via Una - Bhota - Jahu - Mandi. It proved to be an excellent decision. We stopped at Karnal for a cup of tea and some paranthas and moved on towards Una - Bhota.
The route was in excellent condition and offered some panoramic views of Gobind Sagar Lake Reservoir. After having food at Bhota, we kept moving towards Mandi but my friend Deepak started to feel quite sick with nausea and gastric issues badly. He started throwing out everything he took in and then was scared to death of losing his life 😥 ... He was so scared of throwing up that he locked himself in one dhabha room from inside and asked us to leave him there only. I asked my other friend Neeraj to take everyone else in the other car and stayed back with Deepak. I convinced him to open the door and got him injected at a medical pharmacy at Mandi. He slept afterward as I drove the last 2.5 hrs to Tirthan Valley.
Finally, we reached Raju Bharti Guest House at Tirthan Valley where Varun served helped us a lot and served some warm food at the odd hour too. Not at every place you get such nice hospitable people in this world 🙂 🙂 … Finally, Deepak was feeling good after few hours of sleep. We had fun at the bonfire and dozed off after few drinks and an amazing dinner served to us.
Day 2 | Tirthan Valley & Around
It was a day to relax in Tirthan Valley, hike to a nearby waterfall and spread some smiles on children faces with our DoW Causes which we executed before the start of waterfall hike (more details at DoW Causes | GYAAN 500 in action at Tirthan Valley, Himachal). The hike to the waterfall was about 40 minutes and well my kiddo kept giving up in between so had to carry him as well in the lap. I was thinking there was no rucksack but then he became one 😀 ... The hike was slippery at places but we finally reached slowly. The water was damn freezing cold as Neeraj pulled me into it forcefully. Deepak and Bhawana did not join us and relaxed back at Raju’s Cottage as their kid was much younger and did not want to risk the trek with him.
We had some good time up there at the waterfall, clicked some great pictures and reached back to the guest house about lunch time. Afterwards, my kiddo spent time nearby the Tirthan river throwing pebbles in it. While, Deepak, Neeraj and I enjoyed some chilled beers in the evening as it started to drizzle.
The whole feeling from the afternoon till the night was as if the time has stopped and we were at complete peace amidst raw nature. As the rain stopped, Varun lit up the bonfire and some other folks in the cottage also joined us. Soon we started talking about how the came to know about Tirthan Valley and they spoke of one blog by the name Devil On Wheels where they read the travel guide and lots of other articles 😀😀 ... Neeraj and Deepak mocked and started pulling my leg. Then, I told them it was my blog only, the world indeed is a small place. They were happy to meet me in person and I was more than happy to see the real value of the blog in life 🙂 ... It was a very relaxing day and dinner was super delicious to end it for us.
Day 3 | Tirthan Valley – Mandi – Bilaspur – Kiratpur – Delhi
It was raining in the morning, so I gave up on the idea of driving through the Jalori Pass owing to slush and decided to take the pothole filled route to Delhi via Bilaspur 😉 ... It kept drizzling till 12 PM and that's when we decided to start back home as it appeared that rain won't stop. We offered our gratitude to Varun who took extreme care of us in the last couple of days and being extremely hospitable & homely.
While getting out of the parking, not sure why but Neeraj decided to reverse it all the way up to the road 😆 😆 ... However, there was smoke all over from the bonnet and foul smell of clutch burnt may be 🙁 🙁 ... We let it cool down for half an hour or so and started the drive back home. The road was quite bad from Sunder Nagar to Swarghat / Kiratpur though traffic was a bit light.
After crossing Kiratpur, I just handed over the wheel to Neeraj and well, as soon as I closed my eyes, he drove over a big rock lying right in the middle 😀 😀 ... By the sound of it, I was pretty sure that something terrible like engine sump is blown out. However, it was sheer luck that everything in underbelly of the car was intact even crashing that large stone in it. There was a silence in the car for some time but then everyone was relaxed as we reached Chandigarh to stop for dinner.
After dinner at Chandigarh, we left for the final stretch to home and now it was my turn to ring the chaos bell 😂 😂. As we were bypassing Panipat, I dozed off while driving which resulted in a big skiddy brake 😱😱 ... All thanks to the God, that everyone was safe and sound. It was the last day when I drove in the night since that ugly incident. Neeraj took the wheel from me and drove us home where we reached at 1.30 AM after a good 12-13 hrs.
In the end
This concluded yet another sojourn in Tirthan Valley for me. It was equally wonderful as other experiences we had in Tirthan Valley in the past, though a bit more eventful 😜 😜 ... Soon I will share my other travel experiences from the Himalayas in my Travel Tales series here on Steemit. If you are going to plan a trip to this offbeat place in Himachal, you can always check my blog on Tirthan Valley Travel Guide
I hope you loved this tale from the Himalayas. Do stay tuned to my account on Steemit for more of such lovely travel tales from the Himalayas by this twisted Devil !!
About Me
A travel blogger by heart, a lover of the Himalayas by soul and a software engineer by profession. You can find me spreading smiles in the Himalayas through my travel blog & community forums where I write about traveling and promoting responsible travel in the Himalayas. Here, on Steemit, you can get to know more about me by reading introduction post at the link An intro of a twisted DEVIL :-) ...
Do you also love traveling to the Himalayas?
Wonderful write-up Dheeraj. Hope more and more stories from your experience find their way to Steemit :)
Thank you, Tarun. That's the idea now to blog on Steemit more often than blogging anywhere else :) ... So, there is a lot to write and share in this whole 2018 year. Likewise Travel Tales Series soon I will be starting the Travel Help Series too on Steemit
Beautiful as always. Good to find you here Dheeraj
Thank you Sanchit bhai and it is wonderful to connect here too. I just joined a couple of weeks back. Already thrilled to see some many of wonderful people doing wonders here.
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Updating it on the Steemit World Map. [//]:# (!steemitworldmap 31.639942 lat 77.416846 long A travel tale of Tirthan Valley - An offbeat place in Himachal Pradesh d3scr)