I wrote my last blog on 7th June, which means it has been 36 days since I wrote on hive. I would like to tell you that my mother's health had deteriorated so much that she had to be admitted to the hospital and after being admitted for about 20 days, I have finally brought her home and she is feeling better and is recovering. Illness is very ruthless...it swallows all the savings in one go. Now the account is in minus...and now it is time to double the hard work again.
Anyway, let's focus on the journey. It was last month when I reached Solang Valley with my friend. We had come here for a long distance ultra race starting from 15th June. In this event, runners will run 480 km and that too in just 120 hours. I reached my friend's house a day before so that I could collect the necessary items for the event and load them in the car and leave early next morning for my destination.
Solang Valley is about 550 km from Delhi and it usually takes 12 to 13 hours to cover the distance. But nowadays the road is being widened and therefore traffic jams have become a common occurrence here. Landslides are happening a lot here and as soon as the monsoon arrives, the mountains are ready to leave their place. Last year there were so many landslides on this highway that the highway had to be closed for a few days.
We get late in our attempt to leave early the next morning. And when we get late, we decide to get even late because the event's t-shirts will arrive by noon. And when the t-shirts arrive, we decide that we will stop at Chandigarh today from where the journey will be shorter. This decision was taken because we did not want to drive the car at night. So we leave home thinking that we will stop at Chandigarh and also call our friend in Chandigarh at whose house we are going to stay.
We stay at Chandigarh at night and leave for Manali the next morning. There are clouds in the sky, so understand that the weather is very good. We stop enroute for lunch in the afternoon and reach Mandi before evening where we stop for a hot cup of coffee and continue our journey. After reaching Kullu, we spend some time sitting on the banks of river Beas and admire the mountains with lovely eyes.
While crossing Kullu, we see paragliders flying in the sky, playing with the clouds. After crossing Bhuntar and Cloth, we finally reach Solang Valley at 05:30 where it is cloudy and the weather is cool. Solang Valley is situated at 2450 meters and is famous all over India for its thrilling sports. Here tourists can enjoy sports like trekking, hiking, cycling, paragliding, ziplining, river crossing, ropeway and zip line.
Although there are many valleys in the entire Himalayas, but I like Solang Valley very much, the reason behind this is that as soon as you reach here, the amazing view of Dhauladhar and Pir Panjal range appears in front of the eyes as if you can touch it by extending your hand. Solang village, Patalsu Peak, Anjani Mahadev temple and Hanuman Tibba mountain located here are the main centers of attraction. I love the flowing Beas river and deodar trees here.
That's all for today, tomorrow I will show you an ancient temple named "Anjani Mahadev" located here. Till then take care of yourself and keep smiling. I will meet you tomorrow and will take you to the lap of Himalayas by holding your hand...there is so much peace there that we both will forget ourselves and become a part of the vast form of Himalayas.
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to tranlate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from POCO F1 android smartphone and edited in Lightroom/photoshop.