A Race Against Darkness, A hike from Pandu ropa to British Bridge

Hello friends, hope you all are healthy and enjoying life. In the last few days I showed you how I visited places like Patalsu Peak, Anjani Mahadev, Kothi Village, Vashishtha Temple, Bhrigu Lake, Rawli Kholi, 14 Mod, Manali, Saga Dug, British Bridge etc. All these places are around Solang Valley which is situated at an altitude of 2450 meters. It has been about 7-8 days since I have been roaming in these mountains and enjoying the views here.

Come on friends, today I take you to the next leg of the journey I left halfway yesterday where how I reached British Bridge from Pandu Ropa. From Solang to Bhrigu Lake and then Pandu Ropa, we three friends completed a hike of about 19 km. It is almost evening and we are still above the tree line which is situated at an altitude of 3567 meters. It is 3 pm and we have started descending towards the first station which is Mori Dug.

Winters are slowly arriving in the entire Himalayas, and due to this almost all the vegetation on the ground has either dried up or is going to dry up. While walking with great difficulty I saw 2 purple flowers which were looking very beautiful, their beauty was so much that I could not resist clicking them. I am walking behind everyone while my two companions @naveen.jogta and Ved are walking about 100 meters ahead of me.

The tree line is visible at a certain distance below us, while to our north the Ghepan mountain is clearly visible whose height is 5870 meters. There is also Hanuman Tibba mountain somewhere among the clouds whose height is 5980 meters. White clouds flying over the green grass, the sunshine and our tiredness...all these symptoms are telling us that we should stop and enjoy the views of nature and if we feel like it, we should sleep on this velvety grass.

I put forward my idea to my friends, which both of them reject by saying that if we stop here now, it will be dark by the time we reach the forest and we are not at all prepared for the darkness because we do not have light. They are absolutely right, and when it gets dark, we will not be able to cross the British Bridge which is under construction, on which the plates are yet to be laid. I am worried how will we cross the bridge in dim light?

Keeping this question in my mind, I ask both of them to pick up some speed. Of course it is downhill and we have been walking for about 8 hours, so now walking is not that much fun. Naveen enters the tree line after putting the last mark above the tree line. There is shadow in the forest and the yellow light shining from behind is that of the sun which is on the verge of setting on the horizon. Our battle with light is going on.

After two and a half hours in the middle of the forest, we reach Mori Dug campsite which is situated at an altitude of 3000 meters. Here we take a 5 minute break, drink water and look for a tent nearby so that we can get tea but neither tent nor tea is found. Disappointed, we get back on our feet and start descending at a fast pace. The walking distance from Mori Dug to British Bridge is a full 6 km, the path is of course downhill but there are many streams on the way and many places are filled with mud which will slow down our speed a lot.

With the scary dream of British Bridge in mind, we are running to end today's long day. We are crossing the stream located above Jogini Falls, the water is not very fast but it is quite slippery due to which one of my shoes gets wet in the water. Now when it is about to get dark and the shoes are also wet, it is getting cold.

Finally we reach the start of British Bridge at 6 pm. Now I have only one concern that all three of us cross this under construction bridge safely which is built on Khanora Stream. Currently, iron frame is being prepared on this bridge, after this wooden planks will be laid here, after which this bridge will be ready for people. Naveen is crossing in the front and then Ved. I stop and advise both of them to cross slowly.

I felt good that both of them listened to me completely and crossed the bridge safely, now it was my turn, I also crossed the bridge slowly and all three shook hands after crossing the bridge. After congratulating each other, we move towards Solang Valley which was another 5 km away, but the good thing is that we crossed the forest and the bridge before it got completely dark. I look at the mountain above the Beas river behind which the last light of the day is going.

So this is how the day ends, hope you liked this blog and photos. See you in the next post where I will again tell you about some other place around Solang Valley. Till then take care and keep smiling.

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 in dekstop adobe photoshop.