Trip to Dalhousie

Have you ever experienced the beauty of Nature? If not, then you should experience it by visiting places which are exposed to Nature, such as DALHOUSIE.

Dalhousie is a wonderful place which is situated in Chamba district, in Northern side of Himachal Pradesh. It is very small hill station, though it is one of the best places to visit and experience nature.

I had visited Dalhousie few years back. I remember that trekking camp of which was organized by one of the best camping organisation, i.e "Anala outdoors". I was a part of trekking camp that was to be held at Dalhousie, for 12 days.

We started from my home town, Ahmedabad, Gujarat. It was a train journey from Ahmedabad to Pathankot and after that it was a 4 hours bus trip to Dalhousie. It took almost 2 and half days to reach Pathankot. One compartment was allotted for us as we were around 80 students going on trek to Dalhousie. At starting I was all alone, but in train I made some new friends who belonged to some other city. I had a lot of fun in the train journey as they were of my age; some of them became my best friends. The train journey was full of energy and enthusiasm, as we all were very excited about trekking.

After the train journey of 2.5 days we reached Pathankot. The bus was waiting for us, and all of us quickly gathered our bags and very quickly and rushed to the bus. As I was very tired after a long train journey, I took a nap though I didn't want to sleep. Then we reached Dalhousie town at night, but our Base Camp for Trekking was around 8 km away from town. Finally after sometime we reached the Site of Camp. Then we all were allotted a tent. I also shared the tent with 3 of my friends (train friends). The tent was awesome and we were provided with sleeping bags in it.

Then at night we all gathered for a short briefing by our camping head Mr. Chandresh. Then we all had dinner quickly and then I returned to the tent. As soon as I entered my sleeping bag, I was in a deep and peaceful sleep.

Next morning we all woke up and we had our breakfast after which we had a session of yoga and exercise. After that I was ready for exploring the mountains of Dalhousie which were full of Deodar and oak trees. Then Chandresh sir took us to a small trek informing us about the mountain and the trees around there and the people of dalhousie. I came to know about different species of trees and we also had a look at different varieties of birds there. We were divided in 2 groups for other activities for next 6 days. I had done activities like Tree jumaring which was climbing a tall tree with the help of a harness and the rope. Then on next day we had group games in which we played human chess and also many other games. At night we all played Antakshari with Camp fire. All would gather there and there was a pleasure to sit at night beneath the open sky with stars shining above. We also performed valley crossing by zip line and rock climbing.

One day we had our longest trekking to the highest peak of Dalhousie and then to Khajjiar( Mini Switzerland of Dalhousie). It is very beautiful place on the top of the mountain. There we all played cricket and had fun whole day. Then we returned to our base camp in evening. We all were very tired because on that day we had done trekking of almost 5-6 km.

Next day was last day of our Wonderful trek to Dalhousie. On last day we were taken to the Dalhousie town which was very small but full of energy. I then explored the town by roaming through the streets and shopping from various shops. The last day was most memorable day and it was very upsetting too, as we were about to leave such a wonderful place in the midst of nature. In the evening we had out last gathering in which we got a certificate of participation followed by the group photo. On the next day we had to leave for Pathankot. On the last night it started raining very badly. Temperature suddenly dropped down because of heavy rain. Then we all left the base camp and were on the way to Pathankot. Then in evening we boarded our train for Ahmedabad. The train journey this time was very upsetting but i was carrying thousands of memories and once in life experience with me back to Ahmedabad.

Dalhousie was one of the most amazing places I have visited so far. I had a wonderful experience of being with nature in these 7 days. I was just wondering if I could be there for some more days!!