HI

Renukaji - Explored the Unexpected!!

This was once again one of the sudden trips that we had made in the summer heat of Delhi in 2009. This time of course with our cousin and his wife. Suddenly over one weekend we decided to go to a place called Renukaji in Himachal Pradesh.

We left early morning and thankfully our taxi was on slightly before time to our place and the driver’s phone call acted as our wake up alarm.. his call definitely added a bit of panic to our morning and we had no option but to rush and we got ready just in 15 minutes. Myself and Varun were in Gurgaon then and from there we had to go to pick up the other two travelers from Mayur Vihar in Delhi. We somehow made on time at Mayur Vihar and both Chintu dada and Ruchika Bhabhi were ready and waiting for us. Without wasting much of our time we started for our journey to Renukaji.

We stopped on the way to have breakfast at one of the dhabas. The journey was fun but somewhere without realizing and trusting GPS we took a wrong turn and you bet it was less of a road and more of potholes...after an hour of bumpy ride we finally reached a small beautiful town called Paonta Sahib which is famous for a gurudwara and we decided to take some rest and enjoy the beauty of river Yamuna standing on the bridge. And of course how can you miss clicking photographs. After a small photo session we were back on our way to Renukaji.

I still don’t know how but somehow we managed to take once again some wrong route and trust me I strongly believe it was the longest way to reach Renukaji. It turned out to be a blessing  due to its scenic beauty. We passed number of small waterfalls on the way and were fortunate to witness a unique “Aata chakki (flour mill)” that was running without any supervision on its own because of the water flow/ fall and in local language its called “Garhat”  We kept clicking pictures and tried to capture nature as much as possible. Finally we made it to Renukaji by early evening. We had already done pre bookings for our guest house so the check in was quick.

Let me talk a little about Renukaji. It is a small place around a lake and the lake is supposedly the largest one in Himachal Pradesh. There is a legend behind which says that Renukaji (mother of Parashuram) became this lake. The lake is full of fishes of all sizes big and small and very huge turtles. Looking at these creatures one can say that the lake provides them good nourishment and life conditions to grow to such huge sizes and one other reason was that fishing was strictly prohibited. Along the periphery of the lake there were temples, small zoo, vendors and our guest house.

After freshening up in the guest house we all went for a stroll around the lake. On the way we were greeted by lots of monkeys. On the way back after paying visit to the temples around we came back to our guest house. Once the sun sets there is nothing much to do so we just relaxed on the terrace of the guest house and chatted through the evening for few hours till it was time for dinner. In between that Varun and Chintu dada went to enquire about the next day`s plan at the guest house reception. Somehow during time that myself and Ruchika Bhabhi realized that the place is actually bit scary with huge and deep lake around there was some kind of dullness…sadness about the place….may be just a figment of our imagination that could have germinated after knowing the sad legend about the lake. Whatever it was, but it was not very pleasant feeling…the place was not very lively at that point of time. Before too much indulging ourselves in the sulking mode we decided to change the topic to something exciting and we started making plans for some future dream trips like Masarovar 

After a while the dinner was served in the restaurant and then we finally decided to retire for the day that started with the taxi driver`s call…it had been a long day indeed.

Next day we woke up early and gathered at the terrace for tea which was served with some biscuits, however the biscuits were finally snatched by monkeys J The view of the lake from the terrace was awesome. It was just serene..a treat to the eyes!!!

After finishing our tea we once again headed for the stroll around the lake and this time we took one full round though took lot of breaks in between. We fed the fishes & turtles on the way, visited a small temple, saw a huge bear, black bucks and also a leopard. Can not forget the bright yellow crystal eyes of the leopard that were shining in the dark room and not to mention were scary. Overall there was so much around the lake to see and experience that we didn’t feel that we walked almost 3.5kms!!

During our parikarma around the lake we met 2 middle aged sisters who were on their trip to quite a number of places and Renukaji happened to be one of those. They seemed to have shunned all their family responsibilities before starting trip....looked quite carefree. We spent a little time chatting with them and yes its true it’s a small world, they turned out to be our cousin`s neighbour in Mayur Vihar.

After this we reached back our guest house and then decided to go out hunting for a waterfall J We decided to by our Innova and finally after some 5-6 kms we stopped near a bridge and there was water flowing down below. We tried reaching the source to whatever possible extent we could and decided to go down by walk with change clothes, towel etc. It was a narrow kachha rasta going down the valley from the side of the hill and with little careful steps we reached down the valley. However all along the way as each step progressed I kept thinking to myself about the amount of effort that I will have to put in to climb up the road back from the valley. We finally could trace the little source of the waterfall. The water was cold, but still we went in and clicked pictures. After spending few hours there we walked back to the cab and then back to guest house.

During this entire trip somehow we always had this super confusion about the roads and we always successfully managed to take the wrong ones. We actually were not sure how long will it take us to reach back to Delhi hence we hurriedly got ready and had a heavy breakfast before we left our guest house. This time we decided to take Nahan route and on the way it started raining very heavily. The landscape on the way very different from the previous one yet very beautiful with lots of flowering trees which looked all the more beautiful and greener due to rain.

Once back to the plains, we crossed many sunflower fields and stopped at one which was closer to the highway to pluck some bright yellow sunflowers for our houses. It was by then evening time hence the flowers were facing towards the setting sun in the west and it was a beautiful sight. We plucked few of them and then back in the cab wrapped them in newspaper till we reached home.

On the way we decided to have a late lunch at Haveli in Karnal. The meal was great followed by malai kulfi and crispy jalebis!! Also got clicked ourselves there with the dancing bhangra statues before resuming our journey ahead for Delhi.

Overall it was a long and tiring trip more so when everyone had to attend office the next day but at the same time one of the fun trips where in we explored everything whether we wanted to or not ... thanks to our sense of direction and GPS that day!!