Delhi - Khajjiar - Chamba - Dharamshala - Palampur Road Trip Oct'14

[ToughGuy]

Prologue

Nowadays my concentration is on Himachal and long weekend of 2nd Oct'14 gave me an opportunity to do Delhi - Khajjiar - Chamba - Dharamshala - Palampur - Delhi road trip, with 6 days and 1497 Kms covered Dainkund peak, Khajjiar, Chamba, Laxmi Narayan temple, Chamera lake, HPCA cricket stadium, Dalai Lama temple, Bhagsunath temple, water fall, Chamunda devi temple, Norbulingka institute, Aganzar maharaj temple, Baijnath temple, Bir landing site, Bir monestary, Kangra fort, Ananpur Sahib gurudwara.

Day-1

Memories of 15th August'14 drive to Shimla was still fresh in my mind, It took 13 hours to reach Shimla due to the long weekend rush, this time I took no chance and started from Delhi at 3:50AM on 2nd Oct'14. Packing was done a night before and bags were stuffed in the car well in advance this time, car general checkup, fuel refilling, car breakdown kit etc all checked and done.

After my online research I choose the fastest route and took Delhi-Ambala-Jalandhar-Ludhiana-Pathankot-Banikhet-Dalhousie-Khajjiar route road from Delhi to Pathankot was in good shape with few diversions, Pathankot to Dalhousie was fantastic and Dalhousie to Khajjiar was narrow and rough, with zero breaks crossed Pathankot around 11:30AM took a fuel break at Indian oil outlet just after Cantonment area.

Missed the turn to Khajjiar at Kalatop-Khajjiar sanctuary and accidentally reached the base of Dainkund peak & Pohlani Maa temple at 1:00PM, most of 1.5 to 2KM trek route was well paved view from this place was blissful for us after such a long drive had a Maggi break at temple, was back to parking area in 1.5 hours soon reached the HPTDC Devdar in Khajjiar at 3:30PM had a late lunch and enjoyed the beautiful vistas from here till evening from our cottage. Khajjiar is truly a beautiful place and rightly given the title of mini Switzerland.

Pics continue from this road trip

Our constant companion on this road trip



Map excerpt from Outlook traveller



Starting ODO reading



Fantastic road from Ludhiana to Pathankot



Phew :) Pathankot is so near now



Sole break of Day-1 at IOCL pump after Pathankot cantonment



Views as we are approaching Banikhet



Explorer-1 posing near Dalhousie public school



Road near Dainkund peak



Parking space near Dainkund peak base
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[ToughGuy]

Re: Delhi-Khajjiar-Chamba-Dharamshala-Palampur road trip Oct'14

Pics from Day-1 continues:

Dainkund peak and Maa Pohlani Devi trek start point



Breathtaking view all around as we progresses



At some places trek route was little rough



Khajjiar Sanctuary view from top was amazing



Clouds were playing hide and seek with mountains



Finally reached temple Jai Maa Pohlani



View from Pohlani Devi temple



Small temple premises which have couple of Maggi points



Kalatop-Khajjiar Sanctuary entry gate for Khajjiar and base camp for Kalatop FRH trek



Road from Sanctuary gate to Khajjiar is narrow and pathetic
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[AppU]

Good Start ToughGuy

Waiting for more pics with detailed writeup

 

[ToughGuy]

Good Start ToughGuy

Waiting for more pics with detailed writeup

AppU thanks for your encouragement, sorry for delay in posting the updates was little bit tied up with office work

 

[ToughGuy]

Pics continue from day-1 of the trip:

This beautiful view of Khajjiar welcomes us after reaching here



Trip meter reading after reaching Khajjiar from Delhi



Centrally located HPTDC hotel Devdar was our destination for the day



Vice Counselor of Switzerland in India brought Khajjiar on the world tourism map by christening it "Mini Switzerland"



He also put a sign board of a yellow Swiss hiking footpath showing Khajjiar's distance from the Swiss capital Berne-6194 km



Breathtaking view of Khajjiar from our HPTDC Devdar cottage



Spent peaceful evening roaming around and soaking the beauty of this place
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[ToughGuy]

Day-2 of the trip:

Date: 3-10-2014

Morning view of Khajjiar from our cottage was blissful and worth every effort we made to reach and stay at this place, checked out early morning after our complimentary breakfast. Our stay at HPTDC Devdar was uneventful and pleasant though they are miles behind GMVN and KMVN in terms of hospitality and attitude towards their guests.

Our final destination for the day was HPTDC Iravati Chamba and we planned to reach there early evening to attend the Dussehra celebration. Khajjiar is connected to Chamba directly via narrow road of 22 Km's but we choose 71 Km's long Khajjiar - Banikhet - Chamba route which got excellent wide roads and felt like driving on highway, it was fast very fast :)

En-route we covered Khajji Naag temple, Mata ka mandir, Kalatop Khajjiar

Please find pics from our day-2 journey below:

Early morning view of Khajjiar from our room



Misty view of landscape from balcony railing



View changes dramatically as the day progresses



Pan view of Khajjiar landscape



This men was charging 10 bucks per snap with flower basket and rabbit



12th century temple dedicated to Khajji Naag



A blend of Hindu and Mughal styles of architecture is reflected in the wooden carvings on the ceilings and wooden posts



Khajji Naga shrine dedicated to the serpent god from which the name is believed to have been derived



Information board outside temple



The image carvings are said to represent the Kauravas who were tied up here in the hideout by the Pandavas
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[AR Ram]

Woh!!!

Well narrated travelogue and beautiful captures.

Reminds me my road trip to Manali last year. Unfortunately we couldn't move out of the Hotel due to heavy snowfall.

Thanks for sharing; and waiting for the next episodes

 

[ToughGuy]

Woh!!!

Well narrated travelogue and beautiful captures.

Reminds me my road trip to Manali last year. Unfortunately we couldn't move out of the Hotel due to heavy snowfall.

Thanks for sharing; and waiting for the next episodes

Thanks AR RAM for your beautiful words, we are lucky to miss the snowfall by whisker at Manali last week hope you are following my Manali log too.

 

[ToughGuy]

Pics from our day-2 journey continues:

Date: 3-10-2014

We started our journey towards Kalatop base from Khajjiar in the morning



One can take their vehicle upto FRH Kalatop through this makeshift road after paying 200 bucks



We parked Explorer-1 at base of Kalatop sanctuary and started the 3Km long trek upto FRH



We hired a guide for Rs. 100 bucks to cover this trek route which worth every penny if you are not in a group



Guide took us through this shortcut route which saves around a half km of walk but route was scary



Though walk through this shortcut was one of the most beautiful thing of this trip



This shortcut path joins with wider road here through which vehicular traffic was moving



So many vehicles on this trek route spoiled the beauty of this



This is the small parking space available at FRH Kalatop



Finally reached at FRH Kalatop in less than a hour
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[ToughGuy]

Pics of our day-2 journey from Khajjiar to Chamba continues:

Date: 3-10-2014

Small garden at FRH Kalatop



This path will bring you to canteen located at FRH Kalatop



View was not clear from Kalatop, so no mountain show



The rest houses can be booked by tourists in advance at the designated circle office of the department



Soon we started our return trek but didn't took the above shortcut this time



Explorer-1 happily posing for click



Witnessed beautiful scenery on our way to Chamba after crossing Banikhet



Dussehra procession started by locals near Bathri



A closer view of Dussehra procession



Road condition from Banikhet to Chamba was excellent, wide and fast
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[ToughGuy]

Pics of our day-2 journey from Khajjiar to Chamba continues:

Date: 3-10-2014

Explorer-1 happily posing for pic



One more pose of Explorer-1



Fantastic view of river Ravi near Chamba



Procession of Dussehra started in Chamba as we reached



People especially kids were quite ecstatic



Clicked these pics from entrance gate of HPTDC Iravati



Little kids were dressed to represent different god and goddess



everything was managed quite well by local administration and organizers
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[ToughGuy]

Pics of our day-2 continues from Chamba:

Date: 3-10-2014

The Chaugan is the nucleus of all activity in Chamba, surrounded by impressive administrative buildings and a shopping arcade built during the British period



After the Dussehra festival this Chaugan ground gets closed to the public until April for maintenance purposes.



Chaugan ground was clearly visible from HPTDC Iravati room balcony



During the annual ‘Minjar Mela’ fair, the entire ground becomes a flea market



Finally Ravana effigy was burnt which concluded Dussehra evening for most of us



Had a walk through local market of Chamba in the evening



General public common parking space in Chamba
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[ToughGuy]

Day-3 of the trip:

Date: 4-10-2014

This morning we decided to visit Lakshmi Narayan temple complex first which was located at walking distance from our HPTDC Iravati hotel after our visit to this beautiful temple we headed towards our next destination Dharamshala were we have advance booking in HPTDC Kunal. En-route we visited Chamera lake and enjoyed the speed boat.

Route taken to travel from Chamba to Dharamshala was Chamba-Chamera lake-Banikhet-Tunnuhatti-Lahru-Sihunta-Shahpur-Dharamshala

Road near Chamera lake have few bad patches, from Banikhet upto Tunnuhatti road was very wide and fast, between Tunnuhatti to Lahru road was narrow but with less valley stretches, between Lahru to Shahpur via Sihunta most of the road were washed away boulder filled patches was regular also found JCB cleaning old landslides may be happened during last monsoon, road was dangerously narrow at few places though last 15 km stretch upto Shahpur was fantastic at that time road repair work was going on. Road from Shahpur to Dharamshala was fantastic, to avoid traffic I took turn before Gaggal to cover the last 15KM upto Dharamshala, road was little narrow but manageable.

We reached Dharamshala HPTDC Kunal around 5:00 PM due to weekend mad rush road from Dharamshala market-Mcleodganj was completely choked up so with no options left we had dinner at hotel and called our day off.

Below are pics from our day-3 journey:

15-20 foreigners of Blazing trails motorbike groups had also camped at HPTDC Iravati last night



Morning view of Chaugan ground after yesterday's Dussehra celebration



All important government buildings are located along Chamba Chaugan ground



Approach towards Laxmi Narayan temple was steep



Entry gate of Laxmi narayan temple mentioned Laxmi nath temple complex



Legend states that the image of Lord Vishnu present in this temple was made of a rare marble imported from Vindhyachal Mountains



Laxmi Narayana Temple has a mandapa like structure with wooden Chhattries, the shell roof, atop the temple



The temple has been built in the Shikhara style and consists of Bimana i.e. Shikhara and GarbhGriha with a small antralya



Laxmi Narayan Temple is the most famous temple of Chamba. It is both an architectural marvel as well as a place of great historical significance



HPTDC Iravati was centrally located in Chamba with private parking space and In house restaurant
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[ToughGuy]

Day-3 (4-10-2014) of the trip continues:

We bid Chamba goodbye at 10:20AM and headed towards Chamera lake which was around 40KM away from here and lies en-route. Pics from day-3 continues below:

Journey so far, trip meter reading at start of day-3 drive



Such is the beauty and vastness of the Chamera lake that it is touted to be Himachal Pradesh’s marvel in modern engineering science.



Explorer-1 posing for a pics on its way to Chamera lake



Finally we reached at boating side which was on other end of lake



Eight minute ride of speed boat will cost Rs.350 per head



Wow what a thrilling experience it was worth every penny spent



An artificial lake, Chamera Lake was built as a reservoir of the Chamera Dam which is a major hydroelectricity project



Tourists are awestruck after this nerve breaking ride



If you are at leisure then can also enjoy motorboat which spent considerable time at middle of lake
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[ToughGuy]

Day-3 (4-10-2014) of the trip continues:

We see off Chamera lake in less than a hour and headed towards our final destination of the day HPTDC Kunal Dharamshala. Nothing much to write in this post pics of roads and surrounding continues below from day-3 of our journey:

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