Namaste 🙏
Hope you are doing great!!!
Thanks for showing all the love and support on my posts. This really has encouraged me write almost everyday and has developed a lot of discipline in me. I never thought that I’d be able to write six days a week. I really appreciate efforts of everyone engaged in this wonderful community from writers to curators and greatful for everything they’ve been doing and making a positive impact in my life.
If you haven’t been through the previous parts of this series I’m putting the link to them below—
St. Paul’s Church —
The narrow streets of Landour took us to this beautiful church built in 19th century while we were completing the famous Landour Infinity Walk. It literally felt like we were travelling back in time while we were walking towards the church. The church still stands tall in between the tall trees of the dense forest.
This church has seen a lot of things and changes. It’s one of the oldest buildings of Landour and can accommodate 250 people. Due to this, it has been used as a military hospital too during early 20th century. Landour being a cantonment area, and this church being the centre point of army chaplains, served as a hub for the British people living near this region.
Looking closely, we could clearly see impact of time on the building, however we were surprised to know that it had been renovated only 2-3 times by now. There was something about olden architectural style and building materials that constructions of today didn’t have at all in spite of all the advancements.
We wanted to get inside this beautiful church but got to know that the church was closed that day. We didn’t got sad as we already witnessed this beautiful view of the church with dense forest in the background and sun shining through the trees. Everything was just perfect and it seemed like we were on a set of a 19th century movie.
Journey to Lal Tibba —
As the church was closed, we continued our journey and moved towards Lal Tibba. Now we could certainly feel the chill in the air as we gained a lot of elevation. The density of the forest also added up to the chill. The occasional spells of sunshine that we were getting while walking was feeling heavenly to us. We could see the clear sky and sun shining brightly through the tall trees but the sunlight was not able to fully penetrate the forest roof.
Now the street was very less crowded. There was very less people walking there and we loved that vibe. Everything was so peaceful and refreshing.
At this point we realised that the slope of the street was near about flat and there was only a little elevation that we were gaining now. This also made it easier to walk on. It cannot be more perfect than that.
After walking for about 15 minutes from the church, we reached this point where three roads divided from the main street. We got a little confused now that which way to go.
Three roads dividing from the main street
The rightmost road was going to the restricted army area and we saw that mentioned on the gate. We also saw a holding mentioning the way to Lal Tibba that was the centre one so we took that way.
Restricted military area
There were very less private properties in this region because of the military presence here. The private properties that are present here are mostly owned by really high profile people or army officers. Some of those properties are converted to bnbs that we can book but they are really expensive. You can see the entrance of such a property in the photo above.
We reached Lal Tibba after another 10 minutes of slow walking and we were greeted by this beautiful street art made on a public toilet about pollution. It looked really amazing seeing such vibrant colours after seeing a lot of green for a lot of time.
Street art on a public toilet
The highest point of Landour —
So we reached Lal Tibba, the point of Landour but, there was a point even higher than that. There was a rooftop restaurant at Lal Tibba that offered the best views that this place had to offer. The rooftop restaurant also had binoculars so that we could see some of the highest peaks of India of Gangotri Range of Himalayas.
We could see a lot of high altitude peaks from here. Some of them even more than 7000m. It was indeed a scenic point as it is mentioned in the maps. Holy Kedarnath was also visible from here and I was stoked to know that!!!
A screenshot of peak finder app (alpine viewer) on my iPhone
Luckily we got the the table at the rooftop of the restaurant. This is the most famous landmark at Lal Tibba. Many celebrities have visited this place and they had an album showing that at their entrance.
Soaking myself with the mesmerising vistas
We ordered the most ordered sandwiches from the restaurant along with coffee. It was really a memorable lunch with such mesmerising views. The food was also very delicious.
Trying the famous sandwich
Seeing through the binoculars—
After finishing our food, it was now time to see through the binoculars that was there at the centre of the roof. I was not able to capture through the binoculars but believe me, it was just amazing!!!
This binocular in-spite of being old and scratched could show all the peaks up close. It felt like those 7000 meter peak were right in front of me. The view without binoculars was no less. We could see to a lot of distance that day as it was super clear. There were many layers to the scenery that we were seeing. We could see a lot of mountain ranges too.
These photos in-spite of being very beautiful and vibrant are not at all paying justice to what we saw from there with our naked eyes. We were so relieved and refreshed to see such a view.
The Binoculars
That’s all for today.
Thanks for passing by!!!
Peace ✌️
