This is a new adventure of my life in which I went to a place for the first time on a two wheeler. We two people went to a temple situated at a height of 2756 meters by riding a scooty for 60 km in the mountains. Today's blog is about this journey in which we two people went to visit an ancient temple situated 60 km away by riding a scooty. In today's post you will read about the way to reach the temple and see what all we saw while walking on the road.
For a long time, it was planned to go to 'Surkanda Devi Temple' which is located in the state of Uttarakhand. When we went from Dehradun, we had to cross the queen of mountains Mussoorie, when we moved ahead, we crossed the famous hill station Dhanaulti and reached our destination which is known as Surkanda Devi Temple. In the morning we left without having breakfast and at 8 am the first rays of the sun knocked on the valley, despite which I started feeling cold in my fleece.
I told my partner to exchange my jacket because I am driving and I am feeling cold air on my chest. After changing the jacket, the scooty starts moving at a speed of 50. Looking at this speed, I am thinking that we will reach Surkanda Devi temple in two and a half hours. But I forgot that on the winding roads of the mountains, the speed of vehicles is never like it is in the plains.
Leaving Dehradun, we have come on Mussoorie road, the scooty is talking to the wind because it is a four-lane highway. My partner is sitting hidden behind me so that he gets less wind. Both of us are wearing helmets, whereas here in Uttarakhand, wearing a helmet is optional for the pillion rider. After 28 km, we have reached a junction from where if you go left, you will go to Mussoorie and if you go right, you will reach Dhanaulti and we also have to go on this side.
The road till now has been very beautiful, there was no need to reduce the speed anywhere. After this turn, the road becomes a little narrow and is also broken for a few km. After reaching here the average speed of the scooty reduces. Now the next stop is Dhanaulti where the height is 2286 meters, this place is very cold even in summers, let alone winters. From here we can see snowy peaks on the left side of the road which are covered with snow. We get lost in this view and stop the scooty and get lost in these snowy views.
Coming back on the scooty, we start moving towards our destination. By now it has been three and a quarter hours, and Surkanda Devi temple is 12 km away from here for which we will take 30 more minutes. After reaching Surkanda temple, we park our scooty in the parking lot. The temple is 2.5 km away from here for which we will have to walk. We have reached here after driving the scooty for 3:30 hours and believe me the views seen on the way did not let us get tired nor did they let us lose focus from the road.
Standing in the parking, we can see the ropeway that goes up to the temple. The colourful ropeway cabins look as if they are floating in the air. A side moon is emerging in the blue sky which is half these days. Fields are visible below where the locals have done farming, the cold wind coming from the snow-capped mountains at the end of the valley is saying “Welcome winter”.
Talking about the view, we can see Swargarohini Peak, Bandarpoonch, Shrikanta, Gangotri Peak, Jhonli Peak, Manda Peak, Thalesagar Peak, Jupkiya Peak and Time's Dune from the way. The 6600 meter high snow-capped peaks are a living example of nature which make us feel alive. And in the end I would like to thank my gearless scooty which came to such a height and climbed the 60 km long high mountain. In tomorrow's post I will present to you how to reach Surkanda Temple on foot.
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from Sony a7iii and Canon 77D (55-250m) and edited in deskstop software adobe lightroom. Thumbnail created in dekstop adobe photoshop.