Walking in the Footsteps of the British: A Trek Along Colonial Trails
6 comments
Namaste to hive family, I hope all of you are safe and sound. It has been a few days since I came to Solang Valley whose height is 2450 meters. While staying here I have visited Anjani Mahadev and last yesterday I and my companions summited Mount Patalsu peak.
I have come here to volunteer in the trail running event that is going to be organised here and in the event I have to mark the trails of the route present here. In this event there will be categories of 14 kilometre, 30 kilometre, 60 kilometre and 100 kilometre.
Today I do not know how to mark the route, but the trail where I will go today is going to be a part of this race, so I will go to check this trail which is located approximately 5-6 kilometers away from Solang Ghati. My companions want to drop me from the car but I convince them that I will go on foot from here. After all, walking on foot has its own fun.
I leave the hotels after breaking the rules, cross Solang Ghati and move towards Kothi village. If the road above Kothi village is followed, we will reach Rohtang Pass from where one can go further to Lahaul-Spiti and Leh-Ladakh.
Looking at the greenery of Kothi village and the views of the village I enter the jungle where Chid, Deodar and Ban trees are standing side by side. Till now I have covered 5 kilometers on foot and it took me half an hour to cover this distance and I am alone here.
Today I have to explore the path in the jungle beyond Kothi village and walking on this trail I have to reach the place from where one path goes towards 14 Mod and the other path goes towards British Bridge. If we walk towards British Bridge, we will reach Mori Dug from where one road goes down towards Vashishtha Mandir and the other road goes up towards Bhrigu Lake.
I start walking on this trail which will go towards 14 turns. These roads were built during the British rule. It is said that when India was a slave of the British, these roads were used by the British. The British used to come on these roads, cut the jungles and take down the woods present there which were used for making roads, houses and lighting fires.
I never feel scared when I am alone in the jungle during the day but I always feel scared when I am alone in the jungle after sunset because there are leopards and black bears here. I am not as scared of leopards as I am of black bear.
I have already covered 4-5 kilometers on foot on the Anjan trail which connects Kothi village to 14 Mod and I had to see this route till here. Now I am going to come back on this route tomorrow so that this route can be marked. After recce, I came to know that this route is safe and secure and this time during rains there has been no landslide here.
So friends, that is all for today on this trail. Tomorrow I will come in front of you and show you the views up to 14 turns from where you will be able to see high mountain peaks like Rohtang Pass and Hanuman Tibba. Thank you, Namaste.
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from POCO F1 android smartphone and edited in deskstop software adobe lightroom. Thumbnail created adobe photoshop.
Comments