Discovering Solang Valley: A 14-Hour Journey

It is time to start the series on Solang Valley from today. It is located in the Kullu valley of Himachal Pradesh. The height here is 2450 meters and this valley is famous for its scenic landscape, natural views, summer activities and winter sports. Every day thousands of domestic and foreign tourists come here to visit. And now even more tourists have started arriving here since the Atal tunnel connecting Manali to Lahaul valley has been built. So let's go to Solang Valley.

The distance of Solang Valley from Delhi is 510 km, earlier this distance was 585 km but since the work on the Chandigarh-Manali four lane highway has started and tunnels have been built in place of difficult roads, this route has become shorter and a little easier. I board a Volvo bus from Delhi and set out on a 14 hour road journey.

After crossing Delhi at night, the bus stopped for dinner where after eating light food, I come to my seat and sleep. I slept at night and woke up in the morning when I reached Manali. From Manali I take another bus to Solang where I stay at Hotel Adventure Valley. After reaching my room, I take a hot bath, then eat potato parathas and have breakfast.

By now the sun has come out and all the flowers in the hotel have bloomed in the sunlight as if they are welcoming me to the valley. Here at a height of 2450 meters, dark clouds are coming in the sky from another valley. Suddenly clouds have come over the Pir Panjal and Dhauladhar mountain range situated above the Beas river and the weather has changed.

At a distance, Mount Patalsu Peak whose height is 4250 meters is covered with dark clouds, below Patalsu the pine and deodar forests are pleading for rain. The weather has become so cold that steam has started forming on the roofs of the room. I walk around within a radius of one km from the hotel so that I can acclimatize myself to the altitude.

I have come to Solang Valley because there is going to be a trail race here in which runners have to run 100 km, in this category runners will have to bear an elevation gain of 7450 meters. Runners will run from the base of Patalsu to Beas Kund whose altitude is 3850 meters and from there they will go to Bhrigu Lake whose altitude is 4250 meters. In this event I have to mark this 100 km long route so that runners do not lose their way.

Today I have come, so today I will rest, roam around, eat local food and start my work from tomorrow. In the morning the sunlight was seen on the top of the mountain, then for a few hours the clouds came in the valley after which in the afternoon the weather became a little clear and blue sky was visible. This was the whole day of today where I reached Solang Valley from Delhi. In the next post I will share information about a new place here.

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/photoshop.