Day 5 - Dalhousie to Udhampur via Kajiara

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We started at 7:30am and went to Kajiara (Indian/Mini Switzerland) as it is called true near chamba valley which is 27 kms from Dalhousie. You will know why it is called so once you see the pictures.
On the way we drove through a couple of forest ranges filled with pine trees. On one of the passes just outside Dalhousie we got some fantabulous view of several snow covered peaks which gave a lot of work to our cameras.
At Kajiara we also visited a jagadhamba temple where there was a beautiful huge Shiva Statue. Later we returned to Kajiara had breakfast at one of the restaurants and returned to our hotel in Dalhousie.
Then checked out of the hotel and started our journey to Udhampur at 12 pm.
Found a new route from Dalhousie to Udhampur via Dhar, Shahpur Kondi, Ramkot. This is a military road which is built and maintained by BRO which stands for Border Roads Organisation. Hence the road was very wide a double carriage road and a good one two except for a small patch.
This road also goes through Ranjit Sagar dam which has a huge reservoir between the Himalayas. This is the same reservoir which we saw yesterday from Dalhousie 6000 feet up. That’s size that I am talking about. I understand that it is the life line of Punjab and has a hydro generation station.
Rode through the deep valleys of Himachal, Punjab and J&K. The valleys were so deep and endless that some time it used to give me a scare and I felt like asking myself is this the right thing to do. But that I guess made us respect the mountains, valleys and the roads and drive safe.
Once we entered J&K we also drove over tall bridges and long tunnels. We also saw railway tunnels and bridges of Kashmir railway on the way to Udhampur.
As we were entering Udhampur I noticed a sign board saying ISKCON a thought of staying there for the night came up and discussed with JP and Ravish. With little reluctance they both agreed though not whole heartedly.
Once after reaching ISKCON spoke to the Campus incharge Mata Kunti Devi who asked a lot of questions before confirming a room for us. Once she came to know all about our trip she agreed to give us a room. After freshening up they offered us Prashad and after prashad when we were talking to Mata about our entire program she told us that we should extend our stay in Udhampur for one more day and vist Vaishnodevi without fail. Then when we told her that since we couldn’t get reservation for helicopter ride we had dropped the plan of visiting Vaishnodevi, she immediately called a minister and made arrangements for the helicopter ride and as well as VIP darshan at Vaishnodevi. We all were so happy and that was when JP and Ravish felt it was a wise decision to stay at ISKCON.
We then slept at about 9pm.
Toally we rode 243 kms today and my odo has clocked a total of 800 kms from Day 1.

Photos of Day 5

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=pottumarthi&target=ALBUM&id=5624344388690042449&authkey=Gv1sRgCKmo3pbbprrF5QE&feat=email

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Comments

[hotel in dalhousie]

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