The planned trip- Four days trip around Tehri visiting Siddh peeths

 Planning is the most important aspect of any travel specially if it is a road trip. So when my sister came to stay with me in Dehradun in the month of July, we planned a lot. let me introduce you to the travellers;

tains1- Smita that is me

2- Sanchita - my sister

3- Dhananjay - Brother in- law

4- Aditi - my daughter

5- Raghav- my son

6- Purvi- Sanchita's daughter

7- Tata Safari our travel partner

No corona numbers were decreasing and number of tourists in Uttarakhand were increasing. Sanchita and Dhananjay have come to stay in Dehradun to take advantage of work from home and explore the places around. Char Dham yatra was cancelled so plan of going to Sri Kedarnath ji was already cancelled.

Massouri and Dhanoulti were over crowded and somewhere we were very scared of Corona so we were avoiding all the places where we could find crowd. So we got hold of one of our relative who is native of a village in deep mountains. Discussed with her the itinerary and all the other points, and leaves were applied. So we were ready for exploring unexplored Uttarakhand. 

Got my Safari repaired and overhauled for our trip, did little shopping and all the necessary arrangements.

Our planning was to leave Dehradun on 22nd of July morning and visit Dhanoulti, New Tehri, Chamiyala, Budha Kedar, Bina khal and places around and come back by 26 or 27th July.

It was raining heavily but didn't rain on 19th and 20th and we got information from locals that roads are open so we can start. So we were confident and happy of our plan. 

On 21st Evening it rained like cats and dogs. All of us who were looking forward to start our trip in morning were praying for rains to stop. It didn't stop. it rained whole night. In  morning got call from the relatives that roads are blocked and we couldn't go ahead as planned.

In morning as it was drizzling, with heavy heart I made breakfast and then suddenly told Sanchita to be ready. I told her that we'll keep our bags in car and go out. 

So we started, I told everyone that we are heading towards Mussoorie and Dhanoulti as its a week day and crowd will be less. We started around 11 AM.

Day 1- 22 July

At Petrol Pump a though came to me that it had rained all the night so roads to Mussoorie will be slippery and these people have yet to see Rishikesh why not start with Rishikesh.

We turned towards Rishikesh. It was decided to visit Lakshman Jhula and around but the mountain behind was calling us. So we drove towards Neelkanth.

Somewhere on Dehradun Rishikesh road

Weather was awesome. It was helping us to move around and explore. When we reached Neelkanth, the place was overcrowded with devotees. So we turned back and just nearby found another beautiful temple. We decided to go ahead and explore.

We had such a fun walking in clouds and greenery. And we were the only family at that time exploring the temple.

Then we came down and Dhananjay started driving. We were hungry after our small trek and were very happy to find such a beautiful place so went to Lakshman Jhoola and treated ourselves with a grand lunch @bhojmantra. 

After we were full, we trolled around Laksman Jhoola and it was evening Aarti time.

We saw clouds floating on Ma Ganga for the very first time. It was such a mesmerising and peaceful experience. We sat there till it was dark. Then the question was what next??? 

We had two options,

1- to stay in Rishikesh

2- to go back to home which was only 36 kms away.

We all decided in favour of option one.

We stayed at Bhandari Cottages as someone had recommended me the place and it has nice cafes around.

And then a day which went so fantabulous ended with such a happening dinner which made our kids the happiest.

Day 2- 23 July ( Ma Kunjapuri and Tehri lake)

It was not raining, so we decided to head towards New Tehri because road to Tehri is an important one so even if it is blocked it gets cleared very quick. It was a beautiful drive with breathtaking view.

On the way to New Tehri from Rishikesh, there is a Siddh Peeth temple of Ma Kunjapuri with a quick detour. It is a famous temple and beautiful drive. 

The temple is full of monkeys and they snatch your prasad and even attack you to snatch your belongings. We were very careful and climbed the stairs with sticks. After darshan when we offered Coconut one of the monkey attacked Raghav to snatch coconut. Everyone of us were shocked and we descended down quickly.

Horrified Raghav

And the monkey episode made us cut short our Kunjapuri stay. So we were at Tehri Jheel by afternoon.

And that day weather was with us. We did boating and enjoyed the beauty if Highest dam of India.

It was so beautiful and so calm. Kids enjoyed jetski too.

We decided to stay at GMVN cottages which is just in front of lake. These are beautiful wooden cottages with state of the art facilities. we were so focussed on lake that forgot to click cottages.

We tried to visit the dam but it entry was not allowed because of Corona.

Day 3- 24 July ( Ma Chandrabadni)

Weather helped us again as it was not raining. I enquired from locals about the roads around. Everyone recommended us to go to Chandrabadni as road is good and will not be blocked even if it rained. 

It was a great drive as we drove through zero point and so many villages and towns. Chandrabadni is the top of all the mountains around so we get a feel of having 360 degree view of all the places around.

The temple has got a small trek of 1 km which was super fun as it was almost into the clouds.

We had lunch there and had plenty of time in hand. Devprayag was nearby and it was tempting to go but we decided against and went back to Tehri. I thought to visit Pipal Daali pul and have evening tea there.

It started raining as we approached Pipal Daali and we got breathtaking view of rainfall in lake.

That night we at my Mama Ji's place and enjoyed playing with little Ginnie.

Then we planned to stay at club Mahindra at Kanatal and spend some luxury time!

Day 4- 25 July ( Ma Surkanda Devi Temple)

Thankfully it was not raining and we headed towards Dhanoulti. As soon as we reached Chamba, it was all clouds. Nothing was visible. We were driving into clouds. Reached Club Mahindra and they refused to let us in without a RTPCR negative test reports. We tried to convince them that we are vaccinated but they didn't get convinced.

So we thought lets visit Surkanda Devi which was nearby.

Surkanda Devi was the most crowded temple may be because it is on road and near to Dhanoulti. Surkanda is around 3 kms of difficult trek. Kids trekked very quick through short-cuts. We were using our lungs in full capacity.

We trekked in clouds and temple was also into the clouds. There is a unique smell of clouds which we could identify that day. After taking blessings of Ma Surkanda we all were hungry.

Kids were disappointed as we were not allowed to stay at Mahindra Club but that was compensated with a scrumptious lunch. After that we decided to head towards home. And the drive was all through the clouds. In the end it became adventure as roads were not visible and lot of traffic. All of the driving skills of Dhananjay was tested and he came out with flying colours and we are home at eight in evening.

This was the most unplanned trip we had and this was the trip we enjoyed the most!