Lal Tibba, Dhanaulti & Surkhanda Devi - Day 2

(From lal-tibba)

We had planned to start early and so we did by checking out. We waited for chainu notiyal to arrive promptly but he arrived 20 minutes late. We headed to lal tibba which happens to be the highest point in mussorie. We were there around 7:30 am and it was all serene with birds chirping and echo of nightingale.

(Dhanaulti - Sun shining)
After numerous stops here and there, we reached picturesque dhanaulti roughly around 9’ish. But it was quite sunny and I was dismayed. While googling, I had come across a beautiful snap, albeit resolution was not that sharp but showed clouds engulfing the area. I had come to dhanaulti hoping to see similar scene. But it was quiet sunny with no trace of clouds. Car parked and we jumped to explore the area. Bala, as usual disappeared and I was literally shouting for him and had to bring him back from edges. And then from nowhere arrived low clouds and dhanaulti was a different place. I happily clicked some photos and we had our breakfast at a sleepish guest-house there and moved on.

The next stop was "Surkhanda Devi temple" on our way to chamba from dhanaulti. This was not a simple road-side temple and Bala had chosen it from Lonely Planet for the purpose of “trekking exercise”. One has to trek 2.5 kms up on winding, steep and narrow path. Bala was very much interested in doing this trek and I did not dissuade him and joined him merrily. But 10 minutes into trek and we were huffing and puffing and profusely sweating. I was cursing the fellow who had invented/discovered the temple. And I was asking every one, "how far is the temple? How much time will it take?" The answers received were depressing for it meant one to one and a half hours of more puffing. But answers were motivated since they came from pony owners. The repair work made the climb more difficult and we had to go "on the rocks". The view of the surrounding area was getting better and better as we proceeded but the heart beat got faster and faster. Occasionally Bala would try to go near the edges and plead for a snap but prompt rebuke from me made him retract his steps. It took us around 50 minutes to reach the top and it was highest point at 2903 m. We also were told by our driver that this place always received the first snow fall. The butter/cheese toast and parantha with curd at dhanaulti which we had as our brunch was well digested. I had a quick darshan and Bala had even quicker darshan. The view from the top was “god-level” to borrow bala's takia-kalam.

I was all ready to make the return trip but Bala was lost in a different sphere. I again had to hurry him up and reluctantly he agreed. Making the down trip was less stressful and one only needed control on legs. As usual Bala broached my marriage plans and pulled my leg about the impending "judgment day" for a while. A quirk question was posed by him, "Should not I leave my scent of arrival here?" and I remarked "as if you belong to the cat family". Bala was in command both while getting up and down, demonstrating that he truly belonged to the cat family and I had my slippery moments owing to my running shoes. The down time was very less and we managed to cover 5 kms in around 90 minutes and were pleased with our performance. To check our performance, the driver was questioned by Bala as to the time taken by other people and his face beamed like an Olympic winner on hearing the answer "three hours". Bala had already declared this part as the best part of the trip. But who knew what lay ahead of us for many things happen between the cup and lip.