Banjara Diaries – Part 3
Amritsar to Khajjiar
Morning started for the Banjara from Amritsar to Khajjiar via Pathankot. The road was full of heavy fog. Mustard fields passed by and we could spot few homes in them. It was going to be a long ride.
After few hours we stopped at a road side Dhaba for breakfast, “S.K. Dhaba” . Since we missed savoring Kulchas in Amritsar , we had decided for breakfast “Hum Kulcha Kha Ke Rahenge”. SD even wrote this on the mist filled window of the car 🙂
The chole were mildly spiced , with the onions and turnips dipped in tamarind sauce, thick sweet curd and butter. Loved it !!!
It’s all about passion
En route Pathankot , SD started noticing some concrete structures on top of the houses. Initially they were just eagles in different sizes and colors but slowly the structures changed to flowerpots and footballs. Finally, after reaching Pathankot, we checked about the structures with the driver.
To our pleasant surprise, he informed us that those structures were water tanks. They can be in different shapes from eagles to airplanes to even kitchen tools designed as per the passion of the house owner. What a novel idea!!!
Thus, we learnt about the “Water Tanks of Punjab“.
The Himalayas are calling
The landscape began to slowly change once we crossed Pathankot and started the upward drive towards Khajjiar. The roads became steeper and curvier, the chill increased and slowly the mighty Himalayan ranges could be seen in distant. Khajjiar had received snow fall the previous week and the entire region was covered with a thick blanket of snow. The Himalayas were calling and we were going. 😊
We had booked ourselves a 100+ year old heritage bungalow in Khajjiar. We reached late evening to the place and crashed to sleep after a nice homely meal.
The morning woke us up to the beautiful snowy Pirpanjal Mountain ranges.
A lazy early morning was spent with ginger tea and playing with the most lovable Doberman I have ever met.
After a sumptuous breakfast of eggs, Aloo Parantha and tea we started for a small trail up to a hill nearby suggested by the owner. The entire trail was filled with snow and it was fun walking through it, especially we least expected it. On the way we spotted a beautiful statue of Lord Hanuman.
Once we reached the top, we had snow ball fight followed by the mandatory snowman building session. After saying our prayers at the nearby temple, we descended back to the town.
Jon Snow, I have arrived
The route back to the Bungalow took us to the Khajjiar lake. The entire lake and the meadow surrounding it was filled with 2-3 feet deep snow. We decided to do a round of the lake through the snow. The walk left us freezing in the feet but it was totally worth it. I, for one, wanted to do such a snow walk since a long long time. The last one I had done was more than a decade back.
On returning back to the bungalow we had an open-air barbecue followed by dinner over discussions with the owner about other trails nearby. Since we were supposed to proceed for MacleodGanj the next day, we decided to call it a day.
Hopefully we will be returning to Khajjiar few more times for the jungle treks, the paragliding at Bir Biling and Diankund Trek. Of course, needless to say, we are going to stay at the same heritage bungalow.
You can read about the details of the Bungalow here.