Dharamsala

View of the Dhauladhaur Range from Triund

We arrive at the Gulu Devi temple after a bone jarring, stomach churning ride up from McCleod - Ganj. My breakfast of yoghurt and fruit is somewhere between my stomach and the atmosphere but soon calms as I take in the fresh air and beauty of the surroundings. I look up toward Triund 3000 feet above my head. The steep sided Himalayan "foothills" which, anywhere else at 7000 feet would be called mountains, are cloaked in rhododendron forests in full bloom. Patches of vivid reds and pinks accent the green of the conifers and deciduous trees clinging to the mountainsides.


We shoulder our day bags and follow the trail that at first contours gently around the mountain. The gentle slope soon turns to a rubble stairway and we are climbing steeply up the mountain across near vertical slopes. At times the trail is eroded and we step carefully to avoid a five hundred foot plunge down the mountain. It is slow going as the footing is difficult and Deb is not feeling her best.

Deb and Richard at Triund with Moon Peak in the Background

After a few hours we arrive at a small teahouse perched on the side of the mountain. We rest while sipping chai and admiring the vista of the valley below and mountains above.

After the break we push on as the trail gets rockier and steeper and we finally push up to a small plateau where the panorama of the Dhauladhaur Range of the Himalayas is fully in view. Peaks in the range rise to over 21,000 feet and the view is breathtaking from our 10,000 foot elevation. We lounge on the cropped grass of the high alpine meadow as the sweat cools off our backs and nibble on snacks to restore our energy.

Deb at Triund with Moon Peak in the Background

We watch as afternoon clouds slowly shroud the peaks making it difficult to tell where the snow ends and the clouds begin. After relaxing for a few hours we reluctantly start the 9 mile trek back to McCleod-Ganj.

McCleod-Ganj is the current home of his holiness the Dalai Lama who is exiled from Tibet. It is situated at about 6000 feet in the foothills of the Himalayas just north of the town of Dharamsala. The next day we visit the Dalai's temple complex which sits on a ridge with magnificent views of the Dhauladhaur Range and the valley below. While not an architectural masterpiece like the temple in Ladakh, it is nonetheless a spiritual place and very pleasant to visit.

On our last day we went to the nearby village of Naddi for a spectacular view of the Dhauladhaur Range.

View of the Dhauladhaur Range from Naddi

We enjoyed this brief respite from the heat of the plains below but know soon we will have to return to Delhi for our flight home.

Sunset from McCleod-Ganj