Dhanaulti-Kanatal-Rishikesh

After having nice and heavy breakfast at Astha's place we headed towards our first destination Dhanolti. It was so generous of Astha and her family we travelled to Dhanolti in her Innova with her driver. Astha's younger brother Nandan was also with us and this was his first journey in the mountains inspite being so close.

Dhanolti is 58 kms from Dehradun. We started at 10.AM from Dehradun, as soon as you are 10 kms from the city you will start seeing the changes in the surroundings, landscapes, trees etc. As the hilly terrains starts. On the way you could have some glimpses of the hill station Mussoorie which is on the mid way to Dhanolti. As we crossed Mussoorie the roads beacame steeper curves narrower and scenes were just breathtaking. Temparature fell to 20 in that sultry summer. We could now see the tall and green Deodar trees all around.

We reached Dhanolti around 12 :30 in the noon. It is at an elevation of 2,286 m/ 7,500 feet above the sea level. It was really beautiful pollution free and very silent hill station. Astha's dad had prebooked the Hotel for us which was the only 3 star Hotel in Dhanolti, Hotel Drive Inn. We checked in kept our bags in the room and quickly came out we were ready to explore Dhanolti.

Dhanolti is known for its quiet environs amidst the alpine forests of Deodar, Rhododendron and Oak. The main attraction of this hill station was Eco Park. There are two Eco-parks, "Amber" and "Dhara" about 200 m apart. It houses a protected patch of small forest containing Deodar Trees.There is an entry fee of Rs 25 For Adults and Rs 10 for Children.The adventure sports facility is available for visitors in the form of walking over the flying fox and riding horses. We sat there clicked some nice pictures. Nandan was quite playful and excited in the Eco park. After an hour four of us came out and were now hungry as it was lunch time. We al had lunch in one of the cute dhaba which was on the roof top ! The best thing about this place is that it has not been commercialised. You will find reasonable priced dhabas in this place. After lunch it was time that Nandan would say bye to us and leave for Dehradun along with the driver bhaiya in the Innvova. We felt sad for him as he was enjoying the place and now he had to go.

We went for a trek that evening and the roads were very quiet and view was simply awesome. 3 of us just roamed clicked pictures and had fun. After 4-5 kms of trek we decided to come back as it was dark now. We had very light dinner and came back tou our room which was very luxurious and comfortable. We played cards in the night listened some music and went to sleep after a while since we were all tired.

We got up early since 10 was the checkout time. We got ready and had breakfast Aloo parantha in the dhaba just outside the Hotel Drive inn which was very yummy. Now we had to leave for our next destination Kanatal. On the mid way to Kanatal there is a temple Surkanda devi temple which is a very well known temple in that area and we decided to visit that.

Surkanda Devi Mandir - 2757 m/9976 feet

Surkanda devi mandir is the temple of goddess Sati or parvati who is considered to be Shiva's wife. Mandir is surrounded by dense forests and affords a scenic view of the surrounding region. From the top you can see almost whole of the Tehri Garhwal diatrict. To hike at that place we had to take steps and it took around 1 hr to reach the temple. The place was full many tourists and also local people of that place who had a very strong belief in deities and goddesses. We took some rest there and came down and this time it took 30 mins. Reaching down we were very hungry, we had lunch in of the dhabas which was starting point of the stairs of that temple.

Now we had to leave for our next destination. - Classic Hill Top Resort. Which was a 4 star resort in chamba, kanatal. We took a local jeep from the temple and reached our resort in 30 mins.

We were surprised to see such a beautiful and well maintained resort in that village and yes it was on top of a hill ! It was a kind of treat for us at that situation when were very tired and all thanks to Astha's dad for doing the bookings for us. The resort was very big had all the ameneties and the best part was the Swimming Pool! Anupama and I were non swimmers so first we were scared to go but Astha knew swimming very well she was just excited to jump in that pool. We finally went in the pool and enjojoyed the water though I did'nt know swimming. We came back to our room our body was freezing of cold but thank god there was heater too in our room. We were delighted by the luxury the comfort peace that we got in that resort.

The night was stormy and we could hear the sound of the wind like a roar. But since we were in our room it was safe. Then we had very delicuous dinner which even had the non veg and to our surprise even the dinner was complimentary.