It’s been a long time since we went for outing and being my friend’s marriage at Palampur, we decided to give a call to Himachal Pradesh. The hills beckoned us and we planned to visit Palampur, Dharamshala, Mcleodganj, and nearby places.
On 7th of May 2011, we took our flight from Mumbai to Chandigarh. There were four of us including my wife and two children. At around 12:30 PM we took our cab from Chandigarh and reached Gopalpur after covering around 7 hrs of road journey. We took the route from Chandigarh to Palampur via Ropar-Kiratpur-Anandpur-Nangal-Una-Jassur-Nurpur-Kangra Bypass-Nagrota-Gopalpur. Believe it, Ropar route was disastrous as roads were damaged and a long stretch of Kiratpur section was totally in bad shape, traffic was heavy and it was really very much hot outside. It was only after Nangal we got some relief where road were in good condition and because of evening, the climate was becoming ease. If anyone is coming through this route, he must get through in early morning.
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| serene view from hotel |
Since my friend’s wedding was at Gopalpur situated at a distance of approx 13 KM from Palampur, we decided to make Gopalpur as our base for exploring nearby places. In evening we checked into our hotel Whispering Pines. Whispering Pines is located right on scenic location in Gopalpur and can be contacted for reservations @ 09418187788. The early morning we roused to find a spectacular view of snow capped Dhauladhar ranges from our hotel balcony.
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| work @ Andretta Pottery Society |
The day we spent exploring Sardar Sobha Singh’s Art Gallery and Andretta. Both places are around 12-15 KMS from Palampur. Sobha Singh’s Art gallery is famous for his paintings like Sohni Mahiwal, Kangari Dulhan, Gaddan, etc. Andretta is called the Artist’s Village. Andretta is famous for its Pottery Society and is really worth visiting.
On 9thmorning, after breakfast we headed towards our unforgettable destination. We went straight to Baijnath, one of the jyotirlings. A beautiful rock temple in beautiful surroundings, it is made in the traditional architecture style with rock stone. The temple has a nice lawn alongside. It gives great view of Dauladhar mountain range. Thereafter, we continued towards Bir & Billing, destination famous for Paragliding which is just 25 KMS from Palampur. We took some Coke and chips to refresh ourselves at Bir and proceeded 14kms towards billing just as we came near by the site; the view became more and more spectacular. One can see Para gliders hanging in the midway right from the route itself. The road to top of the paragliding site was one we can remember life time. Keeping our fingers crossed we took a call to go and found that though the road has some tough hairpin bends (pretty much par for the course!) is perfectly decent one for such a place. There was nothing on the way, no tea stalls, no village, and no buildings on the way. Mid way to Billing we reached a spot which gave great views of the hills below which spread far and vide. On the route, we met with a horrible situation!!! Our taxi tyre got punctured and for our surprise we found no helping hand since it was an isolated place.. Luckily that day we had gone with my friends relatives and their cab was the only one which could have provided much help. The driver of other cab took my wife and children’s in his cab and me along with one other male guy started walking towards top of Billing. The route was so much haunted that we were thinking every moment of spotting some wild animals across. After walking around 8 KMS we spotted our families enjoying on top of Billing grass fields.
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| top of billing |
It was an amazing view from top of Billing. One can see terrace fields interspersed with trees, green hills, and little houses down below. To our disappointment, there was not much light and wind to do Paragliding and hence after relaxing for a while and taking some pics we left the abandoned place. For new comers to this place one should make a call prior to enquire regarding climate situation and should also carry some eatables as there is only one shop on top which serves Maggie and Eggs with short stock.
On 10thmorning we decided to visit Dharamshala. Dharamshala is another beautiful town about 36 km from Palampur. It is the home of the Dalai Lama and of many Tibetan refugees. The upper part of town where most Tibetans live is called Mcleodganj. Enroute Mcleodganj, we visited Dharamshala Cricket Stadium which is believed to be at the highest level in the world.
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| bhagsunag falls |
Entering Mcleodganj, we straightly headed to Bhagsunag temple. We payed our obeisance at the temple and after temple there is a pool getting running water from the hills through three lion mouth shaped opening. Behind this pool there is a Swimming pool lined by tiles about five feet in depth. As this was tourist season and quite hot even in the hills, lot of people were bathing/swimming in it. We climbed a little way up the way leading to Bhagsunag water fall. It is a paved road around a km or so going up to the waterfall which is a small stream coming down the rocks to form a lot of small pools, each one having some people enjoying the water. We chose to go down to one of the lower pools to have some fun. After enjoying at the falls, we spent some time exploring local market and his Holiness Dalai Lama’s residence. In the evening we came back to Gopalpur and headed straight to our room as it was getting chilly outside.
On 12thmorning we took our breakfast and went to visit Gopalpur Zoo.
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| leopard @ gopalpur zoo |
Though it is a small Zoo you can easily spot a number of wild animals. It was an amazing day watching big cats at Zoo and experiencing rain fall after a little while. At around 2 PM we came out of the Zoo and went to nearby cafeteria named London Café which is owned by my friend. Though the place is small and some people may not find it comfortable in terms of luxury, I suggest every person visiting Gopalpur Zoo should get there and must try their variety of momos. They were the best momos I ever had anywhere in India. After having some snacks at London café, we came back to our hotel room and enjoyed the evening with bonfire.
Though we went to visit limited places during this tour because of time availability, it was worth spending time in nature’s lapse. We came back to Mumbai with great lifetime memories of Himachal Pradesh and still feel hungry to see more and more of Himachal. We left the place with heavy heart and look forward for more of Himachal soon.
