Not many people are aware but there is a beautiful and pristine lake namely “Renuka Ji” surrounded by lush green wooded hills just about 120 km from Chandigarh (3.5 hours), it’s in Nahan, a little quaint town in Sirmour Dist of Himachal Pradesh and a perfect weekend getaway for seekers of peace and tranquility away from the city crowd.
It is the largest natural lake in Himachal Pradesh with a circumference of over 3200 meters and at an altitude of 672 metres above sea level, it is named after the goddess Renuka (mother of Parshuram). It is a very clean lake and it lies in the midst of a thickly-wooded valley. It is also believed that Renuka Ji is the incarnation of Goddess Durga.
We started early on Saturday morning by car from Chandigarh and reached there by 11 AM. There is a HP Tourism Development Corporation Guesthouse (The Renuka) very close to the lake (other hotels are a little away), it’s a mid range guesthouse to stay there and not very posh but a good option due to its proximity to the lake. Another advantage is ample car parking space available in this guesthouse, it’s Restaurent offers good North Indian food including some Himachali delicacies (reasonably priced). A room (reasonable rates) can be booked online on Govt of HP Website (only 2 floors, no lift and no power backup, No great service also), we got a room on the first floor with a stunning view of lake.
After fresh up, we walked to the lake and hired a boat for 30 minutes, it’s really amazing to do boating in this green water of calm lake which is surrounded by thickly green hills and green forest. The cool breeze and clean water around certainly takes you to another world and is sure to freshen up.
Thereafter, we walked to the Renuka Ji temple which is also quite close by (walkable). We offered our prayers at temple, had lunch at the guesthouse and relaxed in our room for sometime. In the evening again, we did boating in the lake again and walked by the side of lake feeding the fishes. At Aarti time, we attended the same at the temple.
This place is not at all crowded and one can spend time in peace here and unwind.
Next day morning, we visited Renuka Sanctuary and Mini Zoo which is on the other side road of lake and vehicles can be hired there, bear, leopard, wild cat are the animals available in the zoo besides deers etc.
Thereafter we checked out of the guesthouse, and post lunch we proceeded to the Suketi fossil park which is about 20 km and is one of those places you must visit in Nahan. This park houses life-size models of pre-historic animals, made up of fibre-reinforced plastic, giving you a true Jurassic Park feeling.
From here, we started our journey back to Chandigarh and we were home by 7.30 PM on Sunday after a wonderful rejuvenating two days short trip.
