Dhanaulti and Mussorie (9th -11th July 2011)

The view that made the 2 days worth it

 Its been a long time since I have been planning a trip with Rajat and something or the other used to come between us going out. Finally everyone agreed to go on the 9^th after attending Sumit’s marriage and the plan was set. Romit had to pull out at the last minute due to fever and the trip was almost cancelled cause of my throat infection, but it was now or never for me, so I said the plan stands the way it is.

We all met at Sumit’s wedding, reaching at 8:30 for me and Aman was not a good idea, where Nipun was the last to reach at 11:15 PM. It was a fun night but the question now was that we have to leave at 4 and its 12 already, do we sleep or not. Reached home around 1 and the great news was that there was no electricity and the invertor was almost bout to die when I reached home, I packed somehow and all the confusions as to if I should sleep were all gone, there was no way I could. Got up at 4 and found out that the driver was late and it was by 6 that everyone was picked up (already 2 hours late).

So finally Me, Aman, Rajat, Nipun and Shyam were the ones to start, Rajat and Aman had already been to Dhanaulti and they had talked us into going, well I was game for any place so dhanulati it was. As its said that Journey is more important than the destination, we had a lot of fun, there are a lot of new roads and by passes, so before we knew it, it was all traffic less makkhan roads till Roorkee, my earlier experience going to Rishikesh had been quite bad and this was quite a welcome change. We had breakfast at moolchand near Muzzafarnagar, it was on the design of Cheetal the most famous place on this road J.

We kept moving through the traffic in Dehradun and decided not to stop in Mussorie as well, the plan was to reach Dhanaulti, the views after dehradun had started getting better and better. The clouds covered the roads and the views and it was getting colder by the minute. I was thinking whether I was prepared for this cold or not, but it was too late to think bout that. We stopped at the entrance of Dhanaulti, where a policeman stopped the taxi and we decide to enjoy the view while the driver sorts it out. I had trekking on my mind and I was rearing to go. There seemed to be a trail among the woods and it was quite tempting, but as the matter was sorted I had to wait a lil longer.

We went a little further to look for a hotel which seemed to be a priced possession, a nice 3 star hotel was costing us Rs. 3500 per room and we decided to take the cheapest option at Rs. 2000 for the 5 of us. It was decided to have a quick lunch and go on a trek for some time to inhale the exotic views. First time in my life I had been to a place where I was standing among the clouds. I have travelled a lot but this was the first time for me among the clouds.

There was an Eco park to begin with, we entered the park and the first thing we see is a ladder made up of bungee cords and hanging, as soon as I tried to go up it was shaking like hell and the third step was just too much for any of us to climb, the first time in my life I could understand how difficult it would be to climb up a ladder hanging from a helicopter, we gave up and moved on to a trail. The park was filled with manmade trails but I prefer to take a natural one. And I made others follow me :P …there were clouds all around and nothing much was visible but sometimes some parts would clear and the views were too gud. Now the only problem was that we couldn’t njoi the views. So I decided to move on to the trails.

Between Aman had said that the last time he was on a trek here, he had encountered a snake and that had scared the rest. I am too influenced by NGC and am fully confident that the snake is not gonna attack until it feels threatened and I get excited on the idea of being face to face with snakes. Anyways I was looking for the difficult and longer treks and I wasn’t getting much, but still it was njoiable. And we were having a lot of fun among ourselves. We found a lone gate at one of the places and everyone wanted to get a click there. Climbing up Rajat was the first one to slip and it was amusing, Nippu and shyam followed the feat and it was the laughing session of the day. Finally everyone made it up and we had some nice shots with the villain Rajat wanting to kill everyone with the swiss knife :P .

Scenery at the end of the trail-- mesmerizing

We followed the trail and it was leading us outside the park it was almost 6 and we decided to call it a day, suddenly Rajat remembered that there is an adjacent trail which comes out at a beautiful view, no one was willing but then WTH all joined in, the trail seemed to go on and on and now we weren’t really sure whether Rajat was really telling the truth, but then not the time to give up and we kept moving. The trail actually ended in a mesmerizing view and it all seemed worth it J. The photography session started and took a while. I wanted to take a mental picture of the view and decide to sit by the side and remember it as it is. Wow it looked amazing.

Myself and Aman got bored with the picture taking and decide to move on and Rajat joined as, and as soon as we moved there were  clouds all around and Nippu and Shyam had to join us as well. Rajat met some of his old Haryanwi friends drinking and dancing by the side of the road, who wanted Rajat to join in but Rajat didn’t do I single step. That wud have broken their heart :P …

We decided to have some maggi and then get back to the hotel, the wind had really picked up as we were sitting on the roof of a open restaurant, and it had worsened a bit of my throat. We reached the hotel and straightaway got to work, ordered some boiled eggs and egg bhurji, we had already got other ingredients like scotch and vodka :D .. the night turned out to be amazing we had a lot of fun talking about what guys usually talk bout. After 2 rounds Nipun gave me a lot of healthy advice on marriage and then got more interested in the phone than us. We had a bit of argument on what to do tomorrow but the only think I could think of was trekking J.

I couldn’t sleep much and the first time I woke up was at 5 and it was raining outside. Then I woke up at 6 and then I couldn’t sleep anymore, it was still raining. By 7 I woke up everyone else as well and the rain gods didn’t wanna stop. The laziness and the rains continued, which was intervened by Rajat saying the weather might be better in Surkanda devi and we ought to move out and give it a try.

Rajat and Me trying some off road trails

View From Surkanda Devi Temple

We were all set to go by 11 (we had planned to go by 9 and everyone had woken up as well, and plans never work out on time). We reached Surkanda devi which was like 10Km from the place we stayed and it was drizzling there as well, we decided to climb with umbrellas, WTH since we had come so far we had to see the temple which was hiding in the clouds. The climb was bad, really bad the inclination would be 40 degrees plus and walking was tough. Myself and rajat tried to be more adventurous and took some treks off the main trail which actually gave us some real lovely views. On reaching the top we found that the temple was under renovation and a small temple has been created next to it. Lately I have started liking going to temples, not because I have become more holy but because most temples test human endurance and they are made at places which are difficult to reach, letting everyone know there is no easy way to find anything, and if you want something you need to work hard for it, and I love the working hard part of it.

The views from up there were amazing, I wished I had my camera but then there were 3 more J. The funniest thing is that the clouds cover the landscape and then they would vanish for a second making everything visible and so beautiful and then cover it up again. It was like clouds playing hide and seek and I loved the time spent there. Time to move on J.

The view from Surkanda Devi, Notice the vehicles, thats the place we started the trek

Jakal : Great find

We reached down and decided to have lunch and then think whether we want to do the Tapovan trek or not.  On the way back the driver suddenly stopped the car and we saw a pair of Jakals on the road .. wow … first time I had seen a carnivore in the wild and believe me I get more scared then being afraid ( maybe cause I was in the car, and I didn’t need to be scared). The lunch at Dhanaulti was exact opposite to the one we had a day before, the food was horrible.

We asked people about tapovan and no one in dhanaulti seem to know and we moved out, Aman had done the trek before and remembered the location a little, in the middle of the road somewhere theres a trek going uphill to Tapovan and we had found it. So we decided that we try it for half an hour and if we don’t reach anywhere we head back. Aman has said he had seen a snake on this trek last time and I was hoping to spot one as well, rajat wanted the exact opposite, Nipun and shyam decided to skip it.

Glimpse from Tapovan

The trek was quite pleasant and we were cruising along and as soon as I said that, the climb became difficult but not for long we were at the top in about half an hour and there was a grassland uptop the view was amazing, as we approached further the views kept getting better, we could see the snow capped peaks from here, which seemed to be on a lower altitude but then they were so far I wont believe myself on that :P.

Snow Covered peaks visible from Tapovan

The views had kept getting better on the day and I was really happy that we decided to come to Tapovan and for that matter even to Dhanaulti. It was paradise, I have been to a lot of places now and when I say that people should go and visit this place, I mean it J. Aman described the place as getting his INNER PEACE. For me it was a wow experience. Since we had a deadline and I am really crazy bout them, I forced the rest to climb down and reach the car so that we can move on otherwise the rest might feel bad. Sometimes I feel I could just stop thinking and njoi the moment, anhow I got everyone down L

We moved on to Mussorie, after a lot of discussion the next stop was Kempty fall, I had seen it on the way to Sankri in my December trek and wasn’t really interested. The trolley was an excitement for few but I had done enough of em so not interested. When we reached down the trolley ticket was valid for another 10 minutes and we had to come back by then. We went along and as soon as I saw the waterfall the desire to take a shower beneath it strengthened, but since we didn’t have time and my cough was bad everyone convinced me not to, and we came back up.

We found a hotel which was quite nice for Rs. 1800 for 2 rooms. We freshened up and took a walk at the mall road, which seemed a bit too small. We had dinner at a south Indian place and somehow I got a switch off ( mood swings are not specifically for women). It took me a while to recover but with vodka going in I was back to my crazy self again, enjoying another night of endless laughters. After that we went for a walk to the mall road again and off to bed J.

Next morning I got up late and so did everyone else except Aman who woke us up. And we moved out at 9, the “PLAN” was to go at 7. I guess no one really did want to leave. The way back from a terrific trip is really cruel, suddenly the sun is all bright and you think that everyone is playing games with you, making you realize that you cant always have fun and you have to return to the traffic and the pollution. Well at least I was out there for 2 days, with the people I like and I njoied every minute of it.