Tirthan, Trout and Trekking - Part 1

My friends say I'm well traveled. I wonder why they would say that, because I'm usually the laughter stock and never-to-be-taken-seriously among my friends. But then they elaborate - "You are well traveled", they say, "but on Google Earth and Wikipedia", which follows the laughter and mocking (PS - they love me, I know). There, they did it again!

Actually, they are not completely wrong. Honestly speaking, I have visited way more places virtually than I have been to really. There was a time when I worked for an IT giant in Noida and, even though was being billed for a project, did not have any work to do.This continued for a while and instead of utilizing my free time in enriching myself with new tools and technologies that would help me grow in my career, I Googled and Wiki-ed. I searched mostly about places, India and outside, from a traveler's perspective. In India, my focus area, for a good span of time, remained Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. 

It was about the year 2009, I was watching a TV show called 'Highway On My Plate' on NDTV Good Times. In that episode, the hosts Rocky Singh and Mayur Sharma visited a beautiful, quiet hamlet Gushaini (गुशैणी ) in district Kullu. This village, among a lot others, is located in a river valley called Tirthan, based on the river's name. This is the only river valley in Kullu, I was told, that has not yet got a hydroelectric power project on it's river (much thanks to the local people protesting against this idea), so it still maintains the natural flow and beauty of the river. The local ecosystem is as it always has been for centuries. This river is home for Trout fish,very popular in the area and among all non-vegetarians who plan a trip here. I started reading more and more about the place, the other points of interest around the area, looking at the pictures as posted on web by the people who have visited there. The more I learned about the place, the stronger my desire to visit there got. But this desire was not going to get fulfilled for another 6 years.

The year 2015, I have grown much older (mature...much mature, did I say older?) and have visited McLeodganj 4 times till now, trekked twice till Triund and once camped there overnight. I just did not want to go there again this time. I, now, had made up my mind to do Tirthan Valley, Gushaini, Jalori Pass and Serolsar Lake over the last weekend of April. A friend of mine, an ex-colleague and 'ex-bus mate' - Yogesh was also joining. A Pahadi himself, he still claimed that this was going to be his first experience in trekking.

So, finally I got the tickets booked from HRTC website. Our bus Himsuta, a volvo which plies between Delhi ISBT and Manali, was scheduled for departure on Friday, 24th April at 9:03 PM. I planned to reach ISBT at 7:00 PM so we could eat at McDonalds well before we start. I did not want to eat at the restaurant the bus stops at, somewhere near Karnal, mostly because we got our seats at the back of the bus and I was apprehensive of getting motion-sick during the travel. Anyways, we were at the platform by 8:30 PM and had to wait for half-an-hour for our bus to come. I have always admired HRTC for its service and time-keeping. This was my 9th time and it did not disappoint me. The bus was on time, we did not have to put our luggage inside the cabin in bus's gut. I insisted on traveling light and carrying only one backpack containing only 3 T-shirts, a jacket, an extra pair of jeans and a pair of shoes (plus other regular small items like toiletries). The seats were comfortable, with a support for legs as well, but did not have blankets. The A/C did not really maintain a comfortable temperature throughout, so catching a decent sleep was out of question. We talked for quite some time, and when the bus halted at a roadside dhaba complex, we bought some chips and cakes, just in case we felt hungry in the middle of the night.

Somewhere near Jarol, before Mandi

I was still trying to figure out an ideal and comfortable position I thought I could relax in, Kiratpur happened. I could not properly see because it was all dark except for our bus's headlights, but it felt like they were in a process of making the road motorable by mending all the ditches, which was all it had. It almost recreated an apocalyptic chaos in the bus, or maybe just for the back-seaters. And it was not for a small stretch of the highway. I was anyway not able to sleep, and now this roller-coaster. So after sometime, my body yielded to the need for sleep and we woke up when the bus halted at a hotel somewhere near Jarol, after Harabagh and about 35 kms before Mandi. The journey from here was quite likable, with lush green mountains presenting their morning haze to you at every turn, the cool breeze that blows out even the last spec of urban smoke off you to leave you very fresh, and little scenes of daily lives of local mountain people.




The first day in Himachal - in the next part here...