Delhi to Tirthan & Kinnaur Valley | Adventurism – 6

Well sadly it’s gonna be the last installement of the trip being the last day. But, if you missed anything these here is what I have indexed you for rest of the parts right from the day we left…Don’t miss the Day-2 action if you have missed…

Day 5 – 27th April, 2010 | Tirthan Valley to Delhi

Well it was a lovely morning at Tirthan Valley and everyone was looking forward for the day in the lap of Great Himalayan National Park. Unfortunately, the call from office was about to fall on the plans. There was some seriously urgent work at office and I knew my manager would never insisted me if it wasn’t urgent, so I had to leave back home for the same to join office the very next day, even if it meant a continuous long drive. We had some disappointment 🙁 at last on not seeing the inner boundaries (at least the waterfall that were planned today) of Trithan Valley and may be it was a reason to dedicate a trip just to Tirthan Valley sometime ahead. A preview…

It was early morning and was time for some clicks of the Trithan River…I went to have walk around the rocks and almost got hypnotized by the calmness of the river and place. The music of flowing Tirthan River still trance me up. The early soothing morning sitting besides such river, it was quite a feeling. I captured some of the moments and here are they…

After very prolonged nature and solo photo shoots, we were called for breakfast. Well again the breakfast had a good taste especially the eggs. I feel it’s was with the quality of eggs apart from the preparations. After having it I called my manage once last time again just to make sure if it can be managed at office, may be I can come over a weekend and do the job. But, talking to him and understanding the situation I felt it cannot. He is probably the best guy I have worked with so far and won’t think anyone better in near future, hence I made a call to head for home. (The case if he was not my manager I won’t have listened to anyone else for taking such a pain of very long drive just to be present in office on an approved leave :D). Well as other prepared to leave, some had last round of volleyball and I was busy settling the bill and appreciating the conversation with Mr. Bhupinder Singh, the owner of River Side Resort. I must say that these guys have done a remarkable job for getting their act together to build such a place. Very near to civilization yet very near to mother nature, the place has got all that one ask for to make a perfect holiday point. Being residing in delhi and yet managing such property to serve better and even better to tourist at such reasonable rates is commendable in itself I just hope that as more and more people flood in to Tirthan Valley, the River Side Resort maintains it standards, policies like flexible rules of check-in/ check-out and remain flexible for number of people staying in one room, and the reasonable rates they offer. I really wish that reasonable/decent rates are not the publicity strategies.

Well after a nice cup of tea with Mr. Bhupinder Singh it was time for us to say Good Bye. This time the luggage would travel across the pulleys not humans being on the declined side and manually operated. After all heavy breakfast demanded a nice little walk in the woods towards beautiful parking. We asked everyone to wait for the cars after crossing the hanging bridge and we took the cars there.  From there we had to first pick the luggage from the front of the resort and came back to venture towards Aut Tunnel. It was exactly 12.00 PM that we started to move towards Delhi and keeping in mind that it would surely take 12 hours to reach home. This time the route was other way around i.e. Tirthan – Larji – Aut- Mandi – Bilaspur – Chandigarh – Ambala – Delhi and we knew that this highway is too good to relish.

As we were short of fuel so Larji, where the Petrol Pump of the region lies had to be the first stop. We got our tanks filled and bought some snacks along. There while cutting I didn’t see a big rock aside and got my car’s bottom frame beneath the door, dented :(… But not much damage done. One the way towards Aut tunnel some beautiful pictures…

We left from there and everyone insisted for a stop at HPMC juice bar near Thalot, where the Hanuman ji’s temple is present on the highway itself just before Pandoh, I beleive. We were already short of time and some more got wasted in the shopping. This meant a skip of lunch so we did it. Till sunder nagar highway was just in one gear mode and as soon as we reached Sunder Nagar the excellence of drive started faded with the presence of trucks. As we reached ahead they even created there presence more and more and once you reach Bilaspur their dominance pisses your journey. They drive like mad elephants with so much load on their back and not letting you pass by on each and every curve. Most of time it felt on each bend they plan to trouble the traffic behind and you are forced to drive behind them waiting for the road to give you clear picture. One should be very careful over taking these beasts as you never know the other side of the lane on a blind curve there would surely be one these beasts over taking the other. It was seen so many times that I just dropped slightest idea of over taking them until and unless I see the complete road (which I always follows, let’s be safe :)). We even found one the beast turned up side down and that happened not much before we reached there. The jam killed almost 30 minutes.

We all were hungry and finally just before Ropar we found a restaurant to stop for some tea/coffee and snacks break.  I must tell you that restaurant belonged to some Star group of hotels had pathetic quality of food/snacks/tea/coffee and even water. Never stop by it even though it looks quite decent but it’s only looks nothing else. The prices are rocket high and quality is very very poor graded. We quickly finished up the things and it was 7.30 PM. There we clicked the last pictures of the trip…

My wife forced me to leave the driving seat and relax for the final few hours of the entire trip. It was the first time I left the driver’s seat of my car in the entire trip after almost driving more than 1200 KMs. My cousin took over and somehow we were in shock state by one incident when one truck almost from the opposite lane tried to run come on to us or we managed to go into it 😆 …Anyhow that was gone we were short of money as I didn’t en-cashed from ATM. We almost run out of money even for the Toll but thankfully that was not too much, just 50 odd buck for both cars. After that we were empty but thankfully at Roop Nagar we spotted an ATM and withdraw the money. Then again change of drivers on some silly argument with a joke and as we were approaching Chandigarh an oil tanker gave us the pass and suddenly moved in the lane…we shouted so many words in just second but since the speed was not that high, brakes were managed in time. A wake up call and example of driving at safe speed. And of course I always drive dZire in safe limits as it has one of the worst brakes of all Indian lots (at least mine) and Maruti guys has no answer to that, very strange.

Our final stop was Neelkanth restaurant at Karnal where we had blasting dinner with lassi and after which everyone slept. The food tasted great, and finally my wife realizing the mistake agreed on me taking the driver seat. I kept driving for next few hours and just before Murthal as I was feeling too sleepy, I handed over the car to my cousin who was driving at limited speed. Thanks to my wife as she was always awake be it me or my cousin and ensured that driver don’t sleep by engulfing us in her chatter box (chit-chat) :D…Finally at 12.30 AM we reached District Center, Janak Puri, Delhi which was the assembling point for us. After exchanging the luggage, a good bye;  my friends went home from there and 7 of us adjusted in my dZire somehow to reach my home near Dwarka, Delhi at 1 A.M.. All had a sleep of a time that night but I had to be present in the office next morning :sad:…

This concluded one of the remarkable trips of my lifetime. The trip had everything nature had to offer rain, snow, sun, river, hills, plains, valleys, gorges, woods, etc…I hope it was pleasant reading and seeing for all of you. Of course what’s more better than jotting your lovely memories here and sharing with all of you.