Ramgarh - The mountains are calling and I must GO!!!

I have been to Ramgarh a couple of times earlier and everytime I go, the love for the place deepens. There's nothing much to do in Ramgarh except for the long beautiful walks. We stayed in Neemrana's Ramgarh Bungalows. 

I somehow love their properties. They call their properties "NON HOTEL HOTELS". There are no T.Vs in the rooms and no telephones either. For us, this is a perfect recipe for a peaceful holiday. 

Ashok Vatika, Neemrana Ramgarh Bunglows

Ramgarh is a small beautiful hill station ahead of Nainital on way to Mukteshwar. The air is fresh, the weather is lovely, the crowd is less and you get unobstructed view of the snow-capped ranges of the Himalayas. 

          Green structure is AshokVatika

The map shows you the location of Ramgparh. Ramgarh is around 360 Kms fromP Gurgaon and if you leave early around 4 am, you should reach your destination by lunch. 

Breakfast With A View

We love eating out in the sun and with views like this who would want to sit indoors!!!

Blue Room

Our room had a huge bed and beautiful setting. Ashok Vatika has four room:-
1. Blue
2  Green
3. Yellow
4. Pink

We advise you to book either Blue or Green rooms as they have beautiful views of the mountains and the valleys. We had booked Yellow room but upgraded ourselves to Blue as it was available and much nicer.   

We clicked the above photo while one of our beautiful walks.

Sitout Area

The property has some beautiful sitout points which are ideal if you love to read. 

Out for a short drive

It rained quite a bit and we decided to head out for a small drive in the mountains. There were clouds all around as we drove half way upto Mukteshwar.

He invited himself for the drive!!!

As mentioned earlier there are few beautiful walks around the property which are worth exploring. You walk thru the villages and fruit orchids. 

Other properties in Ramgarh are:-

1. Welcome Heritage Taradale Cottage 

2. Seclude Ramgarh 

3. Cedar Lodge

Tirthan Valley - A Paradise in Himachal

I am a person of the mountains and of open blue skies. I know I cannot stay away from them too long. Mountains have always left me feeling renewed, content and more positive. I found one such place in Tirthan Valley, Himachal Pradesh. Tirthan is gateway to The Great Himalayan National Park and is blessed with immense beauty. It's still not crowded, you can sit alone in the lap of nature and talk to yourself with no one disturbing you. Tirthan Valley borrow its name from Tirthan River, a tributary of Beas river which originates from the Himalayas.

I went there in start of June 2013. Green was the prime colour of the valley with clouds flirting with the mountains.

Round trip from Gurgaon to Tirthan is close to 1200 kms if you take the more secnic route from Shimla side and then crossing over Jalori Pass to enrter into Kullu.



Route taken was-

Gurgaon- Ambala- Dharampur- Kumarhatti- Chail- Narkanda- Ani- Jalori Pass- Jibhi- Nagini(Tirthan Valley)- Aut- Mandi- Ropar- Chandigarh- Gurgaon


For the less adventurous or if you want to avoid Jalori Pass you can take the following Route -


Gurgaon- Ambala- Ropar- Mandi- Larji - Nagini(Thirthan Valley)- Larji- Mandi- Ambala - Gurgaon



Started  from Gurgaon to reach Dharampur by evening. After a good sleep I started the journey ahead to reach Tirthan but nature had its own plans!!! As I reached Narkanda, the rain started to pour heavily. I decided to stay in Narkanda as climbing Jalori pass becomes very difficult when its raining.

Tented accommodation in Himachal Tourism Hotel Hatu

 They have many rooms but just one tent and its beautiful. The tent is big and is neat and clean. You will not find it on their website and hence will not be able to make on-line booking. The only way is to get there and hope its not occupied.

After settling my stuff in the tent I ventured out on a small trek around the hotel. It turned out to be a rewarding decision. I got some beautiful views of the snow capped Himalayas.

I did nothing but rested, enjoyed the surroundings as someone has written beautifully , "Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time"

Got stuck on way for more than an hour due to landslide.

Jalori Pass is closed in winters and can be crossed over only in summers. It usually opens in Mid March and closed in December. The road going up to Jalori pass is tightly hair-pinned and has many sharp and blind curves. As many of you may agree, we men like curves and this is no exceptional case :) The views that you get from these curves makes up for what your car has to go thru crossing the treacherous road.

There are few restaurants or Dhabbas as we call them at Jalori Pass. They serve simple, basic but tasty food.

You can very well see the road condition in these two shots. It was still raining. I would strongly advice to be extremely careful while driving down and drive down on low gears specially is its raining.

Finally I reached small village named Nagini in Tirthan Valley which had to be my home for next 4 days. The shot above that you see is an evening shot taken from the rooftop of Khem Bharti Homestay called Hotel Trout Valley. Hotel Trout valley gets its name from the Trout fish found in adundance in Tirthan river which flows only at stone throw distance. It is said that during the british rule, the britishers found Tirthan River water so clear and thus suitable for Trout fish that they bought best seeds of fish from Scandinavian countries.

View From The Lobby

Isn't it Beautiful???

This was my room and what a view it had!!!! I had thought of hiking around but when I found my corner, It felt so complete.

Tirthan River

I loved Tirthan Valley more than I ever thought I would. The place is still not commercialised and acts as a base camp for some of the beautiful treks in the region. There are 2 beautiful waterfalls which can accessed by foot. I visited Tirthan around 2 years ago and never managed to finish the blog until one of my readers asked for a suggestion for a offbeat summer destination. Thanks Reader!!!

Places to Stay-

1. Khem Bharti Home Stay a.k.a Hotel Trout Valley - http://www.troutvalley.co.in/
    Mobile no - +91-9459101113

2. Raju Guest House, Gushaini.
    Mobile no- +91- 9418149808

Kuari Pass Trek- Not All That Wander Are Lost!!!

The dream of going to Kuari Pass finally took shape when me and my trekking partner, Dr. Anil Agarwal agreed to do Kuari Pass over a pint of beer in DLF city club Gurgaon. Kuari Pass also known as Lord Curzon's trail is a beautiful trek in the Nanda Devi sanctuary The trek passes through alpine meadows and crosses several major streams. It will not be an exaggeration when I say that the view from Kuari pass can be described as one of the best in the Himalayas.  Kuari Pas trek offers beautiful views of Trisul (7,120m), Hathi Ghoda Peak, Kamet (7,756m) and  Nanda Devi (7,817m) which is the second highest mountain in India. After a weeks of preparation we started for this beautiful hill station called Auli, from where this trek starts. 

Delhi to Auli is 500 Kms by road. 

How to reach Auli from Delhi-  



We broke our journey at Srinagar(Uttrakhand), which is around 100 Kms ahead of Rishikesh. Next day we started early and reached Auli by afternoon. Auli is a popular ski destination in India and is at an altitude of around 2700mts above sea level.

View From Auli

Another Religon Of India

In India you can find people playing cricket in any place possible. Here you see them playing at an altitude of close to 3000 mts. 

Dr Anil at a Temple on the way to Gorson Meadows

DAY-1 - We started a bit late in the morning with our guide Vicky and our two porters because day one was an easy walk of around 5-6 Kms to Gorson Meadows. 

View From Gorson Meadows

GORSON MEADOWS

DAY-2 - As you can yourself see the beauty of the place that I don't have to write much about it but still the place was breathtakingly beautiful. 

Early Morning At Gorson Meadows

Views From Gorson 

Gorson Village

The walks around the village while it was raining were beautiful. These huts that you see are of Shepard's who come here with there sheep and mountain goats when the Grass Is Green!!!

To Gorson Peak

The peak that you see on the extreme left of the above photo is Gorson peak. The idea was to cross the peak before 2.00 pm because it usually gets cloudy and starts raining. 

Lammergeier or The Bearded Vulture

There's a lot of wild life that you encounter throughout your trek. While on our way to Gorson Peak, we spotted this might bird of prey, Lammergeier also known as the Bearded Vulture. It is a huge bird with wingspan between 7 to 9ft. It was a delightful sighting. 

Lammergeier In Flight

Pika

No, its not a Rat as you might be thinking. It's PIKA. He belongs to the family of Rabbits and Hares. Pika is a beautiful small mammal and is native to cold climates. 

Right On The Edge- Gorson Peak With Vicky, Our Guide 

The moment that you see in the picture above is one of those moments which you want to relive again and again. While sitting on the edge I recalled what Jonathan Waterman, a climber, photographer and a writer once said 

"...by bringing myself over the edge and back, I discovered a passion to live my days fully, a conviction that will sustain me like sweet water on the periodically barren plain of our short lives." 

The final climb to Gorson peak is a bit hard but it's worth every drop of sweat. The views from the Gorson peak are just awesome. It feels as if you are sitting in our own private place in Heavens and looking down at mother earth.  Some of the peaks visible from Gorson peak are Nilkanth (6596m), Narayan Parbat (5965m), Mana peak (7272m), Kamet (7756m), Abi Gamin (7355m), Nilgiri Parbat (6474m), Rataban (6166m), Hathi Gora Peak (6727m) and Dronagiri (7066m).

After Gorson there's a sudden descend and in no time you are in a thick forest. After clearing the forest line, we pitched our tents in Talli. It was a tough day and after early dinner and bonfire, we were off to sleep in our sleeping bags. 

View Of Hathi Ghoda Peak From The Tent

DAY-3 - I was sitting and praising the beauty of the place when Dr. Anil took this shot. Once you wake up to these views, it's very difficult to wake up to an alarm clock at home!!

Hathi Ghoda Peak 

Crossing A Ridge To Reach Khullara

Camp at Khullara

After walking the whole day we reached Khullara. It's a beautiful campsite. As soon as we reached and pitched our tents, it started to rain. But after some time the rain stopped and we started to search for dry firewood. By the time we collected the firewood, it was almost dark. Food was served and we tucked ourselves into our sleeping bags. 

View Of Valley From Kuari Pass

Day-4 - We started early morning for Kuari Pass which was a short climb from Khullara. The above photo shows the other side of the valley from Kuari Pass. There were clouds all around and it was extremely windy. 








The rest of the day was spent exploring the place around Kuari Pass and  Pangarchulla Peak. As the day progressed, the clouds gave way to mighty views of the snow clad Himalayas.





The our tents pitched at Khullara and the white lines seen are sheep and mountain goats.




Dr Anil enjoying The Argumentative Indian in the evening. 





Day 5-  This was the last day of the trek. We started early after the breakfast as it was a long walk but mostly downhill. We enjoyed every bit of it. We walked the whole day and reached Tapovan in the evening where our jeep was waiting to take us back to Auli.  Kuari Pass is an easy trek. I will recommend it to anyone who loves to walk and is reasonably fit. 

Trekking Company Used- I must say that I must have been in some kind of  luck when I contacted Vivek Kumar aka VICKY. He owns a adventure company in Auli http://www.xra.asia/  and is a local. He is a professional Skier and a Snow Boarder. He has represented India in various Countries. He accompanied us on the trip and knows every nook and corner of the area. Everything was perfect from day 1. I would strongly recommend him. He has also made few cottages in Auli which are at a beautiful location. 
Contact - XRA (Xtreme Real Adventures)  http://www.xra.asia/  Mobile no - +91 9412018299, +91 8126965636For Cottages- http://xracottage.com/

On way to Tapovan from Khullara