Tirthan Valley – Magical abode to nature

29th June’18

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles” – Tim Cahill

The journey begins

This was the day we plan to start our journey for a long-awaited trip to Tirthan Valley (a lesser known place to enjoy the beauty of nature and peace of mind). After a lot of if and buts finally, we penned down the location as Tirthan Valley. Thanks to the Ghumakkar Family for suggesting this great place.

It was a long day or might seem long due to excitement for the trip. Everything was arranged and planned accordingly. At around 8.30PM, I left from office and picked my wife (Pooja) on the way. Then, I need to pick up one of my friend (Hitesh) and his wife (Mansi). It was planned to meet my friend at Rohini Sec. 17 around 11. But due to heavy rainfall in Gurgaon, all the roads to Delhi were congested and choked with heavy traffic. Finally, we were able to reach Rohini around 11.30PM.

Thereafter, finally, we started our journey towards Tirthan Valley. It was a rainy day and we were little uncertain about the trip due to the weather forecast according to which it’ll heavily rain for the next 3 days. But luckily the rain stopped just when we crossed the Delhi border towards Murthal. The weather was so pleasant due to recent showers. After half an hour we were at the Murthal toll plaza and confused whether to take a short break here or continue and take a break later. Finally, we decided to take a break later as we need to cover around 550KMS and half the way is a steep hilly area. After a short while we start feeling sleepy so we decided to take a short break after crossing Karnal. We didn’t want to lose more time as we want more and more time to spend at the Tirthan valley. So, we take coffees and get some food packed for the further journey.

The ride was smooth and we were enjoying a lot with gossips and the vape machine I recently bought. The road condition was absolutely great till Roop Nagar after that there was a rocky patch for almost 10-12 KMS as some road constructions were going on.

Finally, we reached the Act tunnel from where we need to keep left to reach Tirthan Valley. I was surprised to see the road condition was pretty good on this small road. After a few KMS, we saw BEAS River on our right side and the view was mesmerizing after that point. Now, we’re playing between both banks of the river some time left bank some time right one. Finally, we were able to reach the Riverside Resort, Tirthan Valley around 11.30 AM on next day.

30th June’2018

To our surprise (I already know this ☺) the resort is situated on the other bank of the river and there is the only way to reach resort is through a wired pulley which is manually operated. It was quite an adventure for us to sit in that pulley and reach the other side of the river to reach the resort, especially when underneath a chilling and gushing river is flowing in full flow. We quickly checked in to our rooms and get some breakfast for our grumping bellies. All of us were tired like hell after a whole night long journey. We quickly had our breakfast and discussed the further plans and get ourselves in bed for a quick nap.

I was the first one to wake up around 4.30 in the evening. It was already dawn outside as we’re surrounded by hills from all four sides so the Sun goes down too early. My wife and I decided to get in the river water for some fun. To my surprise, even after a very hot afternoon, the water was still spine chilling. We enjoyed in water for almost an hour or so and then came out as it’s getting colder with the growing evening.

In the evening, we asked the manager (Bhuvan) to arrange a bonfire and the dinner outside in the lawn area and he happily accepted the request. We enjoyed the evening with the great serenity of the area and the gushing water sound of a river. We played Antakshri and sing songs loudly, enjoy some BBQ chicken specially made by Bhuvan. We slept around 11.30 to wake up early as we planned the day to Jalori Pass and Jibhi Waterfall visiting. There was one more visiting point known as Serloskar Lake which is around 6 km of trekking from Jalori pass but we skipped that as we were not able to take a 3 hours long trekking.

Jibhi falls

The views at Jalori Pass was something everyone admires to we were there for around half an hour and then came back to visit the Jibhi Fall. It was a small fall coming out of some rocks. The water was freezing here as well. We decided to get back to resort as early as possible to have some fun in the Tirthan River water. So, we came back down around 3.30 and had some quick refreshment and jumped in the chilling river water.

We were in the water for almost 2-3 hours and came out only once the sun went down completely. It was a great fun to be in the fresh flowing water. To my surprise, the river water was so clear without any adulteration and litter. Like yesterday we again requested manager to arrange a bonfire and dinner in the lawn area. The manager was so supportive. We all were a little sad as the trip is going to end as tomorrow morning we ’ll leave for Delhi.

1st July’18

It was a beautiful morning and the Sun was playing hide and seek behind clouds. We all were a little sad to leave such an amazing place. We packed our things and asked the manager to get us final bill so that we can check out early as we need to reach Delhi as soon as possible. Also, the weather was again cloudy and rain starts any moment now. We checked out of the resort with some great memories and leave for Delhi.

On the way back, we found heavy rains till Kiratpur but the weather was superb due to the hailstorms. We were able to reach Delhi around 9 PM. We exchange our goodbyes with Mansi and Hitesh also a promise for next trip very soon.

Thank you all for reading this.