This time last year, as I was itching to get out of the hectic academic curriculum in the college, a long weekend in the next week gave me the perfect opportunity to go out and explore. With weather on our side, we three friends packed our bags and started our journey from Delhi.
Uttarakhand and Himachal were the only two options in this three-four days’ period, we rented three bikes and started our trip late in the evening.
Day 1
We started seven in the evening and barely managed to get out of the Delhi and its traffic around eleven in the night. Sarahan, a small hill station in Himachal as our final destination. The highway from Delhi to Chandigarh was a treat, with Himalayan expressway as icing on the cake, we rode continuously for 14 hours and reached Narkanada around 10 am. We rented one room near Narkanda, rested for a few hours and explored Narkanda a little.
Day 2
We started from Narkanda around 5 o’clock in the evening. Few of our friends were on a different road trip to Kasol, and we planned to join them the next day. We knew this is going to be a tough ride as we were planning to ride in the night. Narkanda(9,040 ft) is indeed an incredible place to be, with altitude even greater than Kufri(8,629 ft) and Shimla(7,467 ft), chances of finding snow here is far higher than the other two places. Journey till now was predictable, soon came the unpredictable path where we were at the mercy of the Google maps and didn’t have a clue from where we are passing through. The landscape from Narkanda to Jibhi was breathtaking, that’s right we were not able to reach Kasol that day, we spent the night in a beautiful homestay in Jibhi. The route towards Jibhi is entirely unexplored, and you will rarely find riders or tourist along the way. Jalori pass (10,800 ft above sea level) is one of the most beautiful passes I have been through, shame that when we reached there, we could barely see.
Day 3
At night, we didn’t realize how beautiful the homestay and its surroundings are. In the morning, we were stunned by the beauty of the place. A stream of water flowing in front of homestay that can be seen from the room’s balcony, with greenery all around and the sun is just coming out from behind the mountains. Looking back, I can say it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I was very reluctant to leave that place, wanted to stay there for one more day, but alas we were short of time. The road from Jibhi to Kasol is one of the best I have seen, with no sign of lousy batch and with little traffic in the way we reached Kasol in three hours. The whole day we spent in exploring Kasol, with the entire place sitting on the banks of the Parvati River.
Day 4
Next day in the morning we started for Tosh, it offers some of the most breathtaking views of the Paravati Valley. In between from Kasol to Tosh, you will come across Gurudwara Manikaran Sahib, along with the Kheerganga trek that starts just four-five kilometers before the Tosh Village. Tosh is an example of unparalleled natural beauty, what makes the experience even more mesmerizing is its cafés and hippie culture. We stayed there for a day and left for Delhi the next morning.
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