Enchanting
Himachal – Visiting Khajjiar & Dalhousie
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| Panoramic view of Khajjiar |
Having visited Chowari
Jot, we traversed back upto Gete village and here from we took the diversion
towards Khajjiar. Khajjiar is at a
distance of about 10 Kms. from Gete and about 37 Kms. from Chamba. As we had started early in the morning from
Chamba, we were able to reach Khajjiar by 10.30 A.M. in the morning and the
tourist rush had not built up by this time.
Therefore, we had a little breathing space, though we too were pestered
by the local Poni wallahs et al.
Khajjiar is a beautiful destination, but the over exploitation of the
place for commercial use is slowly having its affect on its ecological balance
and if not checked in time, it shall be an irreversible action. Khajjiar at a first glance appears as a
saucer shaped meadow, with a pleasing view of green grass, with a backdrop of
Deodar trees and blue sky from one side and the backdrop of the Dhauladhar Ranges from the other side of the
meadow. There is said to be a small lake
in the middle of the meadow, but it was non-existent when we visited. Khajjiar is perched at an altitude of 6400
feet above sea level, thus, enjoys a salubrious climate all year round, except
for the few winter months, when snowfall blocks the way to this destination. The picturesque backdrop of the place has
earned it the epitaph of being the ‘Switzerland of India’. Apart from a plethora of vendors selling all
kinds of wares & food items, there is a group of locals who carry alongwith
them a wicker basket containing artificial flowers and a pair of Rabbits,
offering them to the visitors to photograph with @ Rs.10/- per shot per
person. My wife & daughter too
participated in this ritual and had their photographs clicked by me. However, the kids were most thrilled when
they found that the adventure sport of ‘Zorbing’, rolling down inside a
inflated transparent plastic ball, which was first tried in Russia in 1970s,
but introduced as a regular sport in New Zealand in 1994 (from Wikipedia) was
being offered in Khajjiar. The rates for
a 10 minute ride, including time to mount and dismount @ Rs.150/- per person,
with two persons boarding one Zorbing ball at one time, is reasonable, looking
at the kind of thrill it provides to the kids.
Having spent some quality time at
Khajjiar, we headed towards Dalhousie.
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| Posing for a photograph with Rabbits in Khajjiar |
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| Panoramic view of Khajjiar from the other end |
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| Kids being prepared for the Zorbing experience |
The
road from Khajjiar to Dalhousie is through a narrow road, with points where it
is difficult for two vehicles to pass each other and ascends all the way upto
Lakkar Mandi. The distance from Khajjiar
to Dalhousie is 29 Kms., but it took more than a hour for us to reach
Dalhousie, as the rush from Dalhousie towards Khajjiar had started at the right
earnest. There were foolhardy drivers
from places like Haryana, who had driven in their own vehicles and were afraid to
drive their cars to the sides for allowing the other cars to pass by, thereby
causing a minor jam on the road. When
the other drivers started shouting at them, they said in their local dialect –
“Daar laage hai”, meaning that we are
feeling afraid. This is one of the
numerous examples of types of drivers who drive into the hills, without knowing
the basics of hill driving. We ascended
for about 18 Kms. till be reached the trifurcation of the road at Lakkar Mandi,
wherefrom one road comes in from Khajjiar and the other two lead to Kalatop
Sanctuary and Dian Kund respectively.
Thereafter, the road descends for another 11 Kms. up to Dalhousie, till
one reaches Gandhi Chowk.
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| As the weather deteriorated in Dalhousie shortly after our arrival |
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| View of Subhash Chowk in Dalhousie |
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| As the Sun sets across the horizon - view from Dalhousie |
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| The author enjoys the view of Sunset from Dalhousie |
Dalhousie as is its name indicates has been named
after its founder, the then Viceroy Lord Dalhousie. Perched at an altitude of 2039
meters in the outer slopes of Dhauladhar range, with the backdrop of its
natural beauty and quiet surroundings, it is one of the beautiful hill towns of
Himachal Pradesh. It comprises of five Hills namely Balun, Kathlog, Potreyn,
Tehra and Bakrota with heights ranging between 1525 mts. to 2378 meters. It has
many level and interesting walks amongst dense forests. Two major points in Dalhousie are the Gandhi
Chowk and Subhash Chowk, which are within walking distance of each other. Dalhousie is a place for walking, as there
are numerous trekking routes within the town itself. The roads have been designated to be one way;
however, the locals flout it with impunity.
We headed for hotel Geetanjali, which is located on the road from Gandhi
Chowk to Subhash Chowk. However, the
hotel did not have the facility on parking the vehicle and is housed in an
archaic old building and room allocated to us reminded me of my residence, a
British era bungalow in Kasauli, where I had spent my childhood.
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| Front view of Hotel Geetanjali, a HPTDC run hotel |
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| Enjoying snacks in hotel Geetanjali |
Having checked into the Hotel at around 3.00 P.M. we
proceeded to take a short break and decided take a short tour of township later
in the evening. However, I had a bout of
nausea while coming from Khajjiar alongwith my daughter and I had assumed that it
was because of the morning B’fast.
However, the bouts continued intermittently and finally I had to take
some medicine to get some relief. It was
my daughter who pointed out to the right reason for our sudden illness, as the
two of us had partaken ‘Nimbu Soda’ (a
kind of local soft drink with the bottle having a marble, pressed up due to
pressure of Carbon dioxide present, on its neck) at the Chowgan in Chamba, the
previous evening and despite instructing the seller not to put ice in the
drink, he had proceeded with it. Sensing
that we had contacted some sort of water borne infection, I immediately took
some anti-biotics and that did the trick for us. Being a wee bit tired and in the salubrious
& cool environs of Dalhousie, all of us fell asleep, only to be woken up by
noise being generated by howling winds outside.
I stepped outside and found that the weather a taken a turn for the
better ?? (in such circumstances) and the bright sunshine and heat of the day
had given way to cloudy skies and strong winds and it started raining also,
albeit only light showers to start with intermittently. We ordered Coffee and Pakoras to enjoy the
weather to its hilt.
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| Statute of Mahatma Gandhi at Gandhi Chowk in Dalhousie |
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| Church at Gandhi Chowk in Dalhousie |
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| Inside view of the Church at Gandhi Chowk in Dalhousie |
As it appeared that the weather had improved a wee bit, we
started for a short tour of the Dalhousie town.
We had hardly gone about 100-150 meters from the Hotel, that it started
raining again and luckily for us the vehicle was parked nearby and we boarded
it in a hurry. After waiting for a few
minutes, as we could feel that the weather was again improving, we moved in
towards Subhash Chown and as it was still raining we decided to go upto Gandhi
Chowk instead, hoping that the weather would improve by then. Being designated as an one way traffic, we
drove down to the Bus stand and therefrom again headed upwards for Gandhi
Chowk. Being Friday evening, hordes to
tourists had started arriving in Dalhousie, even in big buses, causing traffic
jams all along the road. However, as we
reached Gandhi chowk after about 40 odd minutes, we found that it was raining
heavily and therefore, we turned back towards Subhash Chowk. Now luck seemed to favour us and as we neared
our hotel, the rains gave way to clear skies and after disembarking from the
vehicle, we walked down to Subhash Chowk.
Having watched the Television serial ‘Chakh Le India – Kaache Raste’ anchor & host Mr. Aditya Bal
savoring local Buns with boiled Chick
peas, my wife wanted to taste it and except for me & my daughter, who were
suffering from pangs of having tasted ‘Nimbu soda’ in Chamba, everyone else
enjoyed the treat. They also tasted
other delicacies like Momos etc. and cup of coffee from the shop nearby,
whereas I had a cold drink with my daughter.
Having enjoyed the views from Subhash Chowk and after witnessing the
grand sun-set we proceeded back to the Hotel.
After having freshly cooked and good food, I and my daughter had puffed
rice that we were carrying, we retired for the night.
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| View of distant Manimahesh peak from Dalhousie |
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| View of a Buddhist Monastery in Dalhousie |
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| Panoramic view of the cantonment area of Dalhousie |
Next day, my better half got up early in the morning, as
she was apprehensive, as to whether I would be physically fit to embark upon
the strenuous trek in the Kalatop Sanctuary as planned and having assured her
about my fitness, after partaking a quick B’fast, we proceeded towards the
Kalatop Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is
perched atop the hill overlooking Dalhouse and one has to retrace one’s steps
back up to Lakkar Mandi (literal meaning Wood trading place) at a distance of
11 Kms. from Dalhousie. We reached the
Sanctuary Gate, but we did not want to drive inside the Sanctuary area and
hired a guide for Rs.400/- for facilitating a guided tour, on foot, inside the
Sanctuary. Initially the trek route
gradually ascends upwards, meandering towards the top, passing amidst the
Deodar trees and scattering of Daisies all around and whiffs of sweet
fragrances floating in the air from the flowers and trees, some of whose leaves
smell like Primrose. One can hear
occasional chirping of birds high up on the forest canopy, but the sudden sound
of vehicles roaring in towards the Forest Rest House scares them away. Inside the Sanctuary, we found Cattle grazing
rampantly as well as the herders & their children making a cacophony of
noises. However, we were able to spot a
few Minivets, Parrots and other smaller Warblers, but were unable to capture
many in our Cameras, as they were higher up on the canopy. As most of the visitors do not trek through
the forest, the guide too lost the way on our way back and he had to make some
frantic efforts to find out the correct route and we in turn had to make way
and descend through heavy undergrowth, which we negotiated skillfully. However, this debacle made us loose some
precious time and the trek was almost 6 Kms., as against 4 Kms. as many sites
had suggested, thus, by the time we reached back the hotel, it was almost 1.00
P.M. As we had promised to be back by
11.30 A.M, the old ladies were a harried lot, as the mobile phones had no
connectivity inside the Sanctuary and thus, they had no idea about our
whereabouts. We decided to have lunch
immediately and move out of the hotel at around 4.00 P.M for visiting other
destinations in Dalhousie.
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| Schematic map of Kalatop Reserve forest area |
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| The author trekking through the Kalatop forest with better half trailing behind |
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| View of the Pir Panjal Ranges from Kalatop forest |
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| A Scarlet Minivet inside Kalatop forest |
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| A house belonging to nomadic tribe just outside the Kalatop reserve |
In the evening we started off for visiting the remaining
destinations in Dalhousie. From Subhash
Chowk we again retraced our way back to Gandhi Chowk and therefrom headed
downwards towards the Panjpullah. On the
way a sign board indicated ‘Satdhara falls’, we got down only to see a trickle
of water coming down and were disappointed, as this placed paled in natural
beauty as against the waterfall we had visited beyond Hadsar and others on way
to Holi. We continued with our journey,
only to be more disappointed as ‘Panjpullah’ (literally meaning five bridges),
which was a man made mockery with nature, with five colorful little bridges
built across a dirty mountain rivulet???
The place was teeming with people and various eating joints and curio
shops around. On the main road just
across ‘Punjpullah’ stands a memorial erected in honor of Sardar Ajit Singh,
brother of famed patriot Sardar Bhagat Singh.
Adjoining the place is the ‘Subhash Baoli’ a small pond emanating from a
natural spring where people do some paddle boating and eating joints and curio
shops all around. This was a complete
disaster for any nature lover like me, but would be an enjoyable destination
for those who do not care for nature, but are merely interested in eating &
merry making. Ahead of Panjpullah lies
Jandhri Ghat, which houses the summer retreat of ernstwhile rulers of Chamba
Kingdom, but as we were thoroughly dejected with what we had seen so far, we
avoided this spot and returned back to Gandhi Chowk. My Mom & in-law decided to give Gandhi
Chowk a skip and headed back to the Hotel as there was no place of park the Car
due to heavy rush of traffic in Dalhousie, being a Saturday.
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| Panjpulla in Dalhousie |
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| View of Dalhousie township from Panjpullah |
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| Memorial of Sardar Ajit Singh at Panjpullah in Dalhousie |
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| Statute of Sardar Ajit Singh at the memorial in Panjpullah, Dalhousie |
My daughter was full of enthusiasm, as she had planned to
visit the local Tibetan Market, having heard about it from some place, but her
euphoria was short lived, as the local Tibetan Market was a total
disaster. There were no shops selling
anything ethnically or remotely associated with Tibetans, but were selling
cheap China
made slippers et al. Thoroughly
dejected, she decided to eat some Ice-cream instead and thus, we purchased some
and sat at the bus stand enjoying the Ice cream and the hustle bustle
around. I went to the Church situated at
the Gandhi Chowk known as St.
John’s Church
and shot a few photographs of the Church and that of the statue of Gandhiji
just outside its precincts of the Church.
Thereafter, we started walking towards Subhash Chowk through the ‘Garam Sadak’. Just at the juncture of Gandhi Chowk itself,
there are a plethora of shops selling all kinds of trinkets and my daughter was
thrilled to purchase some. We headed
further along the road and found the views of natural vistas from this road
were beautiful too, but this place too was plagued with the same malady that
has set in the rot of Dalhousie i.e. Hotels, which can be found in all shapes
and sizes akin to Shimla, growing like wild mushrooms during the rainy season, on
this road as well. This road is also infested
with monkeys, as they find food from the waste bins placed around by the
hotels. It is a moderate walk of about
two kilometers from Gandhi Chowk to Subhash Chowk along this road. As we reached Subhash Chowk, I went ahead to
photograph the famed St. Francis Church. Built in the year 1894, it still
retains its beautiful glass work and intricate stone work. Having had some Coffee from the vending
machine in the shop at Subhash Chowk, we walked back to the hotel and thus,
ended our summer sojourn for the year, as early next morning we headed back to
Pathankot via Banikhet – Nainikhud (where we shared a sumptuous lunch with a
local home made recipe of sweet Mango Kadhi, which was a real delicacy) with
the Mahajans before boarding train in
the night from Pathankot, where the other Mahajan brother was there to provide
us with some delectable home made dinner and after overnight journey back to
Delhi, which had received a sharp shower of rain the previous evening and was
overcast when we arrived, thus, we were saved from facing the harsh Delhi heat.
Here is the link to the video for the destination -
1) The Khajjiar experience -
2) In & around Dalhouie -
