Scooters, Tents, and Temples: A Himalayan Family Adventure to Bhadraj

I think this is the first time I have written for 24 consecutive days, oh yes I remember I haven't written for two days. But it feels like I am writing every day. This daily writing routine is a gift of @worldmappin because #worldmappin has organized #winterchallenge in which all travelers like me are writing blogs about amazing places in the world every day and we are reading, commenting, upvoting and resharing these posts every day through #traveldigest.

Today's post is about winter in the Himalayas where I go with my neighbors to visit a Hindu temple located beyond Mussoorie. We two families decide to go by scooter. The distance of Bhadraj temple from Dehradun is about 60 km for which Google is showing a time of 2.3 hours. My neighbors say that they have never done camping in their life so they want my experience to be useful in their first camping.

I have a 2 person tent but they don't have a tent, so we go a day before and buy a three person tent for their family which consists of two adults and two children. It takes us till afternoon to finish our work and by the time we leave it is 2:30 pm which is quite late. Our entire route will be uphill in which we will start our journey from 740 meters and go up to 2450 meters.

We leave the main road while crossing near George Everest House on the scooty on Mussoorie Road and now both of us reach the broken trail of the forest. Where driving the scooty was very challenging because there were potholes on the road and that too while climbing the hill. Due to the rhythm of the scooty breaking again and again, we had to push the scooty as well. Anyway, we reach the boundary of Bhadraaj Temple. The time is 05:30 in the evening.

Based on the first experience of the children and the neighbours, I look for a safe and good place which takes me 30 minutes to find. There will be no wind here and we will also get plenty of wood to protect us from the cold. Since no one except me knows how to pitch a tent, I pitch two tents alone. There will be no wind here, so I do not hammer nails in the tents. Before sunset, I pitch the tent in which I spread the mattress and keep the blankets brought with me in the tent.

Now the children are sitting in the tent and eating packed food while we are busy collecting wood from the big forest because the altitude here is 2100 meters and the temperature drops badly as soon as the sun sets. The cold has increased and now I myself need a fire. By 07:15 pm, I light the fire after which we all drink a cup of hot tea. At night, we eat the food brought with us by heating it on the fire and go to sleep late at night around 12 o'clock.

The night was warm but my neighbours did not have a good experience as they could not sleep in the jungle. I pack up the tent and watch the sunrise in the valley. I look at some snowy peaks in the distance and pack all the stuff on the scooty. At 9 am we are ready to go to the temple located about 3 km from here. The scooty cannot go inside the temple premises so we park it at a certain distance from the temple and start walking.

We had to walk only 1.5 km which made us sweat. The kids did not enjoy walking so their mother carried them on her shoulders. At 10:30 we reach the temple which is located at an altitude of 2450 meters. This is a white stone temple which is the temple of Balram who was the brother of Krishna. According to the belief of this temple, whoever visits Bhadraaj in this temple gets the benefit of visiting Badrinath temple.

According to the legend, when Balarama was passing through this place, a special type of disease was spreading among the animals in this area, the locals prayed to Balarama to cure the animals, after which Balarama cured all the animals from the disease with his water powers. After this miracle, the locals requested him to stay here, after which Balarama stayed here and spent the rest of his life engaged in penance.

We visit the temple and enjoy the snowy peaks visible in the distance. The children like this place very much, both the children enjoy running here and there while we elders talk about going back and plan to leave from here soon. After visiting the temple, we leave the temple at around 12 o'clock. Our scooty was parked on the way, sitting on which we were ready to cover the 60 km long distance again.

On our return, we see the grassy fields, admire the high mountains, see the beauty of the tents pitched in the grassy ground, look at the farms of the locals with love. And thus, we return home cherishing the surrounding mountains in our eyes. After returning, the neighbors say that we will not do camping in future but we had a lot of fun in hiking and we will continue it in future as well.

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 canon 77d, sony a7iii and edited in lightroom, post thumbnail created in adobe photoshop.