Advertisement
Renuka ji the hidden jewel of Himachal Pradesh
Hidden amidst the thickly forested serene hills is set one of the prettiest mountain lakes in india and the biggest in Himachal Pradesh,India is Renuka Ji. Renukaji lake and temple are a well kept secret of Himachal Pradesh. Renuka ji is situated in sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh in India and is approx around 672 m or around 2132 Ft above sea level. This place is around 37 kms from Nahan. We wanted a quick easy weekend trip and also to rejuvenate ourselves we planned a trip to Renuka ji. My trip started from New Delhi and i travelled alongwith my family by my own car. This was my first visit to Renuka ji although i have travelled a lot in Himachal Pradesh. Sirmour District is least known for its tourist destinations. its a hidden jewel of himachal pradesh. The name of the places comes from Renuka ji Lake. Renuka is said to be the goddess Renuka, the mother of Lord Parashuram.
Day one we started early from Delhi around 6.30 and i decided to take the GT Karnal road from Delhi till Karnal
and after that i turned right to take the state highway going towards nahan. karnal is around 2-5 hours drive from delhi and we decided to take a break there for our breakfast. Highway dhabas in Karnal are very famous for its food. it was around 8.30 AM when we reached Karnal and headed straight towards jhilmil Karnal for our nice stuffed paraathas with white butter followed by a nice coffee. The Dabha is situated in the national highway itself. There are many other options also available in karnal. Lots of nice fast food joints. Sagar Ratna for south Indian food lovers and so on. After having a nice breakfast we started our drive towards Nahan from Karnal. The drive was so pleasant, we passed through the green fields of Kala Amb and also nice water fall near baba badolia baba temple.
After passing through Nahan and reached Renukaji around noon. I had booked my stay in HPTDC Hotel in Renuka ji. This beautiful hotel is just by the lake side infact one entrance of the hotel leads directly to the lake. The location of the hotel is just awsome. Surrounded by lush green forest on three
sides and lake on the fourth side its was a delite for people like us who stay in urban jungle. The rooms in the hotel are decent and spacious. The staff were helpful and well behaved. There is a restaurant in the ground floor of the hotel which also serves some nice himachali cuisine. After settling down we had our lunch in the restaurant and then in the evening proceeded to the Renuka ji temple which is a five min walk from the hotel. It is pertinant to mention here that it rains a lot in this place. Since its surrounded by lush green forest it is obvious. The moment we finished our lunch it started to rain and the temp came down pretty quickly. But it was a welcome relief for people like us who starve for a nice rain in Delhi. After paying our obeisance to Renuka Mata , we strolled along the beautiful Renuka lake for a while before heading to our hotel restaurant for dinner. The restaurant served some nice himachali food like, Rajma madra, khatti chutney with rice. Himachali karhi etc. After having our dinner we retired to our room for the night.
312
RODODENDORON FLOWERS ON THE WAY TO HARIPURDHAR, HP, INDIA Day Two. Next morning we got up early and went for a short walk along lake renuka and lake parashuram. i could hear a lot of birds chirping, different kinds of birds and also lots of monkeys on the tree but they were harmless. . one more thing that caught my eye was the rooster. The multi coloured roosters roaming around in the wild. The locals call it the jungle murga. The rooster was multi coloured bigger than the usual size. After finished our morning walk i headed to my room and had my shower and went down to the restaurant to have my breakfast. The breakfast consist of stuffed Parathas, poha and coffee/tea. After finishing our breakfast we decided to go for a boat ride. Boating is available throughout the day. Since the lake is considered to be sacred you have to remove your shoes before going for boating . The charge are 200/half hour for four seater and 300/half hour for six seater. the boats are new and are in a good condition and all of them are pedal boats. After finished our boat ride we we came back to our room and was planning our
next move and was googling for places to see around that area. The employee of the restaurant who was a local boy came to our rescue. He suggested a place called Haripurdhar which is around 60 Kms away. Since the place was new i decided to hire a taxi which costed me around 2000 rupees.
The ride from Renuka ji to haripurdhar was breathtaking. One of the finest view ever enjoyed in my entire life. Haripurdhar is a small town situated in sirmour district of Himachal Pradesh. This was also the summer capital of sirmour. Haripurdhar is situated at an altitude of 2687 m. It is situated on the high ride overlooking a deep valley. This place is famous for Maa Bhangayani Temple - the most powerful godess in sirmour. Even in june - july u can enjoy a temp of around 5-10 deg here. In winters there is tremendous snowfall. This place turned out to be a surprise for me and was among one of the hidden gem of himachal pradesh's unexplored place, the roads from renukaji to haripurdhar is in a bad shape and very narrow. on the way you pass through the giri river.
The temple is situated on top of the mountain. its small and beautiful and the view from the temple was simply breathtaking. on a clear day you can also have a clear view of churdhar peak covered with snow from the temple. on the way to the temple the mountains were covered with rhododendron flower. We returned to Renuka ji around 3 pm and headed stright to the small zoo situated across the renuka ji lake. It is a small zoo where they have kept some animals like the snow leopard, bear and deer. you can hire a battery car to visit around the place. after finishing our zoo ride we came back to our room. In the night i again tried some himachali karhi and rice with khatti chutney. After dinner we retired for the day.
Day Three Today as usual i got up early and went for a walk around the renuka ji lake which is around 3 1/2 kms in circumference. Did some yoga and had my breakfast. Today we had to head back to delhi around 9.30 Am we started our journey back to delhi we decided to visit Gurudwara Ponta Sahib
on the way to delhi. The route from Renuka ji to Ponta Sahib which is around 48 kms is the roads are narrow and is not in a good condition. The hill drive is full of surprise. We saw some of the rare bird species during the ride. The himalayan monal was the only one which i could identify. There were many other birds which were so colourful but i could not identify the speicies. around noon we reached ponta sabib gurudwara. Gurudwara ponta sahib is built in the memory of Guru Gobind Singh ji, the tenth guru of sikh. The weapons and pens used by Guru Gobind Singh ji are displayed in the museum near the Ponta Sahib. The gurudwara is situated on the banks of river yamuna. After paying our obeseince we had lungar prashad in the guruduwara. After having our Lungar Prashad we head back to Delhi. We reached Delhi around evening and that was a the culmination of one of the most memorable trip.
Conclusion This place is nice for any person either solo or family trip. Two to Three days is enough to cover this place. This is also a bike
lovers paradise. the roads till Renuka ji is in good condition. But if you decide to go to Haripurdhar as well then you have to be a perfect rider/ driver since the roads are very narrow and in a very bad shape. This brings to an end one of the best place i have ever visited.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.121s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 9; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0662s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb