Got up to these views of the Kinner Kailash Range..
Its so difficult to tear one away from views like these from the window of your room. Gazing out at such vistas along with your bed tea is a surreal experience.
A zoom shot of the Reckong Peo monastery...
Still Sarahan calls and we start off around 9am after breakfast and make our way down to Peo and then join the main highway towards Cholling. This time around on the way back, we had to wait for around 30 mins at the Cholling bridge to make our way up towards Urni village which will throw us out near Tapri.
I got talking to some locals and a cop there and was told two things.
1) A stretch of 4 kms of NH22 from tapri to Cholling has been washed away and the river has taken over that section. They had repaired a section of the road but it proved to unstable and sunk in again so we are in for the long haul.
2) The bypass road towards Urni village is a steep narrow track which is unpaved on the Cholling side. The cop told us that this road was not meant for any traffic and is unable to take the heavy loads of constant bus and truck traffic. They have begun reinforcing the edges of the road with rocks but they seemed apprehensive about how the road will hold up in case of heavy rains.
Am adding a caveat here that this information is just on basis of my interaction and may not hold true but just wanted to give a heads up to travelers on this route to get information beforehand.
Some pics of the bypass road.
The 19 kms bypass does not really pose any problems at the moment just you need to make sure that one doesn't get stuck behind any truck or a bus since they would really slow you down.
Once we joined the NH22 at Tapri it was smooth sailing till the turnoff towards Sarahan. The roads up to Sarahan are lined with flowering plants and trees all over the place...a lovely little drive.
Traffic Jam
HPDTC Shrikhand is right at the entrance of the quaint little town and I personally would rate it arguably among the best state run tourism hotel in the country. We had a lovely dinner at their restaurant which has huge glass windows opening up to the valley
Our Cottage at HPDTC Shrikhand
The Bhimkali mandir at Sarahan is a huge temple and has a lovely evening aarti.
The restaurant at HPDTC Shrikhand.
Nothing much to do at Sarahan except some walks around town, attend the evening aarti, have some good food and relax around the lovely cottage.
We started back at around 9am the next morning towards Shimla, we had no particular destination in mind and decided to stop whenever we felt fatigued.
Some views of the road down towards NH22 from Sarahan.
Just as moved out of Sarahan, a tempo had busted its axle on a narrow section of the road cutting off all access. After an hour of waiting, we were diverted by the locals to another village bypass which they said will throw us out at the highway after 10 kms...so down we went off another off road adventure on the narrow village roads but this was much easier than the Tapri-Urni road but cost us almost a couple of hours.
After this, the drive was lovely and we made it to Narkanda and beyond in no time. This time I was determined to take the Shimla bypass and asked around before entering the town, was guided to the tunnel and even saw a sign pointing out the Shimla bypass...entered the tunnel and lo and behold was back in Shimla town again. Took over an hour to pass through the mess and to add to the chaos it started raining along with howling winds. The rains kept us company almost till Parwanoo where we joined the Himachal expressway and were down to the plains in double quick time. Passed through Chandigarh and were in Ambala by around 7pm. We crossed only 325 kms that day in almost 10 hrs of driving.
Some lovely deodhar trees enroute...
Noticed Haryana tourism Kingfisher Hotel right by the highway and checked in for the night.
Haryana Tourism.
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