Photo-blogging!: March 2012

Hello everyone!

I went for a road trip to D'shala over the weekend (18th-19th Feb) with 4 other nomads, namely, Vedant aka Dactar, Kaustabh aka Monster, Abhay aka Micky and Amit aka Nannu :p..

Would like to share my travelogue with you! :)

Actually I don't have much to write a travelogue, but will share some pics and give a couple of updates about the area!

Basically, we were on a free run.. touched 5 districts of Himachal over 630 kms in 2 days!

The planning was done as randomly as the ride. At 0600 hours on Saturday morning, we cranked up the engines while ACDC welcomed us with "highway to hell ..." instantly.

The Rides

The idea was to drive uninterrupted till Dharamshala. Kiratpur was foggy as usual.

A sleepy toll bridge

Fog? Mist? Clouds?

We took the Una-Amb-Kangra route which, barring a patch of road near Amb, was pretty decent.

The real adrenaline rush came when we turned away from Chintpurni and were welcomed by the majestic wall of Snow - The Dhauladhars!

First Views of the Mighty Dhauladhars!

We reached Mcleodganj by 1130 hours (breakfast break included).

We instantly decided to trek to Triund!

Triund, at a height of 2975 mts ASL, is a ridge which offering 'in-your-face' views of the Dhauladhars, sitting right at the base of the Indrahar Pass. February saw a lot of snow in and around Triund. As a matter of fact, not a single locale or trekker approved us of taking up this trek!

But we did!

Bad decision, eh?

Not really! We knew the perils, what could have happened, what should have been done.. et ol! We were not trying to prove a point. We wanted to walk for a while and not on 'The Mall' for a change!

Anyway, interesting update about Triund!

When we trekked to Triund in 2010, we parked our cars at Dharamkot (3kms from Mcleodganj) and walked all the way to the top, which was ~7kms! Now, there's a road (rough and rocky, but who's complaining?) till 'Rest-a-While' Cafe, which essentially saves you the trouble of walking the most monotonous 3 kms of the trek!

We did drive on that road but stopped about a km away from the Cafe!

Nonetheless, we started the climb at 1400 hours.

But it took us less than 15 mins to realize why they advise you against going into the Dhauladhars in the month of February.

For anyone looking to do so, it is very very risky and at all circumstances, should be avoided!

We trekked for about a km crossing 4 scary snow patches but realized its too risky to venture ahead! The trail had knee deep snow for over 50ft in sight!

Have a look!

But but but.. all wasn't lost! We were suitably rewarded with some breadth-taking views of the valley for the risk taken!

Check out some!

We started trekking at ~1400 hours and were back to Dharamkot by 1700 hours. The Dharamkot - Triund Base road didn't look scary anymore!

We did not have a plan now, so decided to lurk around Bhagsu Falls!

While it looks barren and dull at this time of the year, it looked captivating during monsoons!

The smaller trail visible in the upper left of the pic takes one to Shiva's Cafe.

I personally love the placement and ambiance of the cafe! One has to trek a rather steep cemented track for about half a km to reach the cafe and the top of the falls! But its a different experience altogether.

Another very enthralling sight at the Cafe is --------->

A friend of mine, who is born and brought up in Himachal gave a very interesting caption to this image..
which goes as follows:

Kal ki Maut wo mare.. jo kaam kare Chandaal ka...
Kal bhi uska kya kare.. jo Bhakt hai Mahakal ka...

But the irony of the situation was, back in Aug '10, we climbed Triund and came down the same day and yet had the energy to trek upto Shiva's Cafe the same evening!
This time around we did not even trek half the distance and still were too wasted to even walk up to the base of the falls!

So we looked around for a hotel. Hotel Vikrant, right in front of the parking at Bhagsunag, was finalized for 600 per night per room, for 2 rooms! More on the hotel later!

We freshened up and moved to the Mcleodganj town center!

We had a quick bite at Pastang Cafe on the Monastery Road and some local souvenir shopping!

I also got the 'Prayer Flags' for my car which I was looking for quite sometime now, for merely 30!

Round the year, Mcleo roads are full of petite young tibetian girls, firangs, mostly Isreali and a handful of Indian tourists, which, apart from the latter, is something you don't find anywhere else! (Ladakh maybe? I've not been there)

We spent the evening at a Hukka Bar, where a group of Israeli were wasted and dancing.

We had our share of fun nonetheless!

We decided to have dinner back at the hotel, which turned out to be a idea!

The food and service was A-1, and when compared to the cost, it just couldn't get better!

We enjoyed the meal, cracked some dirty jokes and laughed over them while Raghu bashed some poor loser on Roadies Auditions!

Anyway, next morning was Sunday!

We woke up to a rather misty morning! I wanted to capture the sunrise over Dhauladhars but .... I overslept!

So we huddle up and decide the next course of action!

Bottom line: Monday is NOT a holiday, so we need to be back home tonight!

One idea was to drive to Khajjiar and Chamba, and since I've been there recently, I know that the drive itself is more beautiful than doing anything in that part of the state!

But the locals disturbed us with the "oh-so-bad" roads!

Fair enough! We will take the National Highway to Mandi and visit Bir-Billing on our way!

Note on the drive: The moment one leaves the town of Dharamshala towards Palampur, the road is surrounded by tea estates on both sides, overlooking the snow covered Dhauladhars, with density of population near to zero. The road is butter smooth, zig zagging in the valley!

I think the above ingredients were enough to declare that this road was the most beautiful road I've ever drove on!

I was immediately reminded of the Swiss Alps, and I felt nothing short of it for those exceptional 7-8 kms!

Reminds me of GNR's Paradise City! :)

Soon we reached Baijnath and stopped to visit the "Pracheen Shiv Mandir".

FYI - This was where Pixar took the Holy Dip in Jalebi ki Chashni :D

Baijnath offers some awe-inspiring views of the hills and the valley!

About 10 kms from Baijnath towards Joginder Nagar, one takes an exit on the left for Bir/ Billing!

Further after a km or so, one reaches Village - Chaughan, from where a left turn will take you to Bir Landing Site!

Next up we climbed "1000 mts Vertically" just to fall down like a twig of leaf from India's highest commercial Paragliding Site!

I had already talked to a tour operator on Saturday and he followed up with us all throughout the morning! He even came to escort us from the diversion on the National Highway!

Some info about Bir-Billing:

Bir, the landing site is situated at a height of 1400 mts ASL while Billing, the take off site is at 2450 mts ASL, making it one of the highest 'commercial' paragliding spot in Asia and among the best in the world.

Best time to glide in this part of the country is March-April or as late as September-October when thermals are conductive enough to take you atop Dhauladhars as well! Also, October is the time when Bir-Billing hosts International Level Contests for Paragliding!

Charges for paragliding vary from season to season! February being an off-season, the operator quoted us 1,800 per person. Flying time was promised to be 30-60 mins, depending upon thermals and wind direction!

The operator also provides a car which carries the client, the pilot and the equipment to the top, all 14 kms of which is traveled through a narrow unpaved road!

February saw a lot of snow on the road which meant we have to trek the last couple of kms!

Our driver boasted of plying on the Manali-Leh route for 14 years, so got us through this patch as well!

We pushed and pulled the car through that stretch. Was a scary experience though!

But not until another patch where he also gave up!

It meant we got to walk on snow again! yayyy! We were getting more for our money!

The trek meant climbing the mountain at a 70 degree angle.

Sounds easier than it looks! Within 10mins we were sweating and panting, while the pilots, who besides their body weight, carried the glider weighting anything between 60-80 kgs and walked past us merrily chit chatting!

Anyway, it took us 1 hour 30 mins to reach to the top!

Views from far above:

PS: all pics clicked from a Sony Cybershot, I did not carry the DSLR up there!

Another peculiar thing about Billing's Gliding was the Take-Off point!

If you have done this is in Solang, you would recollect that there's a small flat table top where the glider runs and takes off! Incase the take off is successful, you roll down a couple of feet below before the Pilot manages to stop the fall and re-attempt! Also you could see where you will stop, if you fall.

Here, it was scary! The run-way was rather an uneven slope. I ridiculed the operators for making us climb so much for this? It still remains a mystery to me why the take off point needs to be this awkward when there were better options available!

Also, the edge of the slope looks like a free-fall in the valley!

Have a look!

Nonetheless, we trusted our pilots and gave it a shot!

A lot can be read on the net about how to launch into air with a paraglider.. but there's just one rule - RUN ..
you just need to outrun your pilot! and once you're done with that, this happens------>