Lucky by chance

Kharapathar-Thanedar circuit in Uttarakhand is an unexplored paradise. Photo by AFP

Kharapathar-Thanedar circuit in Uttarakhand is an unexplored paradise. I discovered the charms of Kharapathar-Tani Jubbar Lake and Thanedar quite by accident last year. But it has been my favourite place in India. Fed up with the Mumbai's hot winter, a friend and I had driven from Mumbai to the Himalayas in Uttarakhand.

On the road We'd turned off the Grand Trunk Road from Delhi to Chandigarh at Pipli, driven past Yamunanagar and started the climb into the mountains at Paonta Sahib. We then spent the night at Chakrata and entered Himachal Pradesh, driving past the village of Hatkoti. That night, due to heavy fog, we ended up taking the wrong road (the one to Theog) and reached Kharapathar. We'd wanted to go to Rohru on the road to Narkanda. It was bitterly cold and gloomy and at that moment, the impulsive drive across 1,800 km seemed rather senseless. But it all changed the next morning when I threw open the curtains of my room at the Giriganga Resort in Kharapathar. The landscape was white and the view was veiled by the heaviest snowfall I have ever seen.

We gingerly drove on to Theog, since the road to Rohru was now iced out. Luckily we had snow chains for the real tricky iced out sections. Snowed out From Theog we headed to Narkanda on NH22 -- the main Shimla-Rampur road -- because Kufri and Chandigarh were snowed out. Luckily, a friend runs an idyllic retreat in Thanedar, so we weren't stranded. The next morning we all walked six kilometres to the Tani Jubbar Lake. The snowfall had stopped and the sky was a cloudless blue. The lake and the adjoining Nag Devta temple looked like an artist's freshly painted canvas. Though I've been here during the summer, the snow lent to this place an altogether different charm.

Standing there on the ice-covered grounds, I thanked my stars for that wrong turn and snow-logged roads that forced me to come here. And the beauty that surrounded me made the long drive worth it too.

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