Solo Trip - Nag Tibba Trek & Mussoorie

Chapter 1: Planning of a Solo Trip

Approaching long weekend of November, 2018 with Holidays of Milad-un-Nabi & Guru Nanak's B'day and getting to know that my wife has an official tour during these dates, made me to think to go for a solo trip. However, never taken such decision in the past of going solo, I reconsidered and approached my friends to accompany me for a small trek in Himalayas - but nobody, on such a short notice, agreed to join me for this trip and finally, after doing much research online, I chose Nag Tibba in Uttarakhand as my first trekking destination since it was close to Delhi & was ideal for beginners as well. Moreover, I can spend some "me only" time at Mussoorie which is the closest Hill Station from Nag Tibba. I googled random trekking agencies and asked them, for my travel dates, if some group is available for this trek. One of them told me that there will be a small group joining, who have booked tents from the agency, in the base-camp. That means, I have to start my journey alone till the base camp accompanied only with a guide. I agreed to his proposal and even gave him INR 500 as advance transferred electronically.

So, next day I have a Tatkal Train ticket booked from Delhi to Dehradun and sitting in office I am still looking online for better group trek options  available in websites such as bikatadventures.com, & indiahikes.com. Mostly all these websites have groups starting from Saturdays of every week, & my plan was to start this trek before Friday so that I am back to Delhi by Sunday morning - it was a tough search. Then I found this website called thrillophilia.com with a group starting trek on Friday & back to Dehradun by Saturday evening - this suited my plan very well. After consulting my friends who have gone for treks before, I booked the package for around INR 3500 which included pickup & drop to & fro Dehradun, a guide during trekking, night stay in the tent & food/beverages during the whole journey with them. I requested to cancel my prior trek booking done with local agency based in Pantwari & even got my advance back from the honest guy :) I rented a 50L trekking bag &  a trekking pole for Rs. 350 and Rs. 200 respectively from sharepal.in in Delhi.

Chapter 2 : Exploring Mussoorie by Bicycle & Scooter

Gurudwara at Library Chowk, Mussoorie

So, my plan was to be at Mussoorie for two days and start the trek on third day. I reached Dehradun by Nandadevi Express early morning on 21/11/2018 around 6 AM & boarded bus to Mussoorie from the bus-stand which was just next to Dehradun Railway station. By 7:30 AM,  the bus dropped me at Library Chowk, just next to Mall road in Mussoorie. After enjoying the beautiful view of the mountains standing next to Gurudwara there, I walked till Hotel Mall Palace which is situated on Mall road around one km away from Library Chowk.

Day 1: Peddling all the way!

Interesting Hoarding on Mall Road : Swach Bharat:)

After checking-in at the hotel, I looked nearby for breakfast options and found one south Indian restaurant called UDUPI to have Uttappam Sambhar. I was feeling tired because of overnight train journey and therefore, took a 2 hour nap & got ready by 12.30 PM to kick-start my solo-trip day. While wandering around Mall road I saw many street vendors renting mountain bikes (bicycles) for going to nearby attractions. I thought rather than hiring a taxi, hiring a mountain bike would be a better option and it would be so much fun to see Mussoorie over a bicycle with rent of Rs. 100/hour. The guy told me that I can go to nearby attractions such as  Camel back road & company garden. I heard about kempty falls a lot and asked him whether I can go there by this bike. He laughed and said yes, you can go easily downhill but while coming back it will be too much incline and difficult to peddle the bike uphill. Nevertheless,  I wore my winter cap & took the decision to take the bike till Kempty Falls from Mall road which is 14km one-way distance with the "Dekh Lenge" attitude.

 

Going downhill was really so much fun. It was effortless and I hardly had to peddle during my journey. Cool breeze was touching my face and smooth road downhill was an ultimate experience. It was green & silent ride till Kempty Falls. It took only 30-40 minutes to cover 14 km distance downhill mainly because of the decline and it was like riding a silent electric bike. I parked my bike near a shop (shopkeeper assured me that parking there is safe as he will keep having a look at the bike) at a market near Kempty falls and then took a cable car till Kempty Falls. Standing near the bridge, the sound of water fall & small droplets coming on my face boosted my energy levels and I felt so fresh. I had Maggie noodles and cup of coffee at a small shop nearby. While having coffee I was amazed to see how tall this waterfall really was! Some people had the guts to even remove clothes and stand under the ice-cold water fall. After a while, I took the cable car to go back to the market and was happy to find that my bike was parked safely.

Getting ready to start the journey uphill, I put the lowest gear on the bike and started to peddle hard. Within few meters I realised that it is going to be really tough to peddle 14 km uphill. I even thought that I will take a lift from some pickup-truck or SUV midway, if I find one. Each kilometer felt like a challenge but I did not want to give up. At many turns on the way up, the incline was so bad that I had to literally stand on the peddle to push the bike up. On the brighter side, I wasn't feeling cold because I was sweating considerably. Upon covering 3-4 kms, I started  to enjoy the ride, constantly admiring the view and was feeling proud looking down having covered a considerable distance. It felt really nice when locals admired me for the efforts when I shared my to&fro cycling plan while purchasing water bottle from a shopkeeper. However, when sun was about to set and having covered  60% distance, I attempted even harder to request for a lift from moving vehicles which I felt were big enough to accommodate the bicycle and me. After several attempts, having crossed JW Marriott, one compact SUV stopped and the driver agreed to drop me till Library Chowk. I quickly removed the front tyre of the bike and moved swiftly lifting the whole stuff towards the boot of the car.

"Put the rear tyre first and then the remaining body" said the driver after seeing me making several attempts to fit the bike inside. Unfortunately, all these attempts were proving to be unsuccessful. His co-passenger even noticed a small scratch inside the boot and told me rudely that this thing is not going inside. I politely stepped back to avoid any hassle, put the front tyre back to the bike and started to peddle again. And then comes the phase of my journey, when upon sitting on the saddle my sit-bone was hurting & I was constantly asking localites about the distance left till the top. Upon completing 90% distance, it was almost dark and I decided to walk for the remaining distance.

It was almost 7 PM to reach back till the top & my plan to cover other tourist spots wasn't possible as it was too late. Later, I realised that it took me more than 3 hours  to come back from elevation of 1352 metres to 2014 metres. (Courtesy: Google Fit App), contrarily, going down was less than 1 hour.
Peddling up 662 m, covering 30 kms on mountains and burning more than 1000 kCals was something to be proud of.

Around 7:30 PM, I gave INR 500 to the bike vendor and upon advise from my wife, went to Kalsang on the Mall road to have dinner. Kalsang gives Tibetan & Chinese food & is very famous across Dehradun & Mussoorie. I liked the music playlist there (reminded me of my childhood - MLTR, Bryan Adams cassettes) and its prawns soup was really nice and it was like heaven after the long journey in the cold. In the night, before I could go to bed, all I could think off was getting my feet into a bucket of hot water.

Second Day: Scooter Ride 

Next day, I had breakfast at the same place, Udupi and while having breakfast, I was thinking to cover Landour, Lal Tibba, Dhanaulti & local places around Mall Road. The guy in the hotel advised me to take shared taxi/bus from the bus stand, but then it would have made me dependent on their route and timings . I thought of hiring a bike/scooter instead for the whole day which would give me freedom to travel anywhere anytime. I googled two wheeler hiring agencies and negotiated with one of them to finalize INR 800 per day for Suzuki Access.

To protect me from the cold, I went back to the hotel room to get hand gloves which I had kept for trekking and placed power bank below the seat of the bike . Got my bikes' tank filled for 300 bucks, I went to Lal tibba first, covering the Lal Tibba Scenic Point which basically was a restaurant with a rooftop observation deck & telescope to see the snow cladded mountain range. From there, I went to Rockabye Manor, a boutique hotel, to have a cup of coffee. The property had wooden floor & ceiling throughout which was giving a very warm and cosy feeling in the mountains. I was told by one of my friend to see Sachin Tendulkar's house (which I saw was now demolished by the govt) and have food at Char-Dukan. I had Bun Omlette at Anil's Cafe at Chardukan, which was really very well prepared.

Next planned destination from Landour was Dhanaulti which was almost 60 kms away and more than 2 hours ride time. The road to Dhanaulti was curvy and smooth. It was a good experience riding the bike on the curvy roads of the mountain in such a good weather-it felt like I'm playing a video game in mountains. Blue sky is a delight to the eyes for someone coming from famously polluted Delhi-NCR. On my way, I saw many small kids in school uniform asking for lift. I decided to stop and told only one of them to sit on my back while they insisted on doing  a tripling. One kid sat behind and requested me to drop after 5-6 kms near the village he resides on the way towards Dhanaulti. During our ride till his village, I was shocked to learn from him that they usually depend on such lifts to go back from school to their home, otherwise they cover the whole distance walking.

The closer I was getting to Dhanaulti, the colder it got. I reached Dhanaulti around 3 PM and went to Dhanaulti Eco Park. It was a short climb to reach the view point from where you can enjoy the view of snow cladded mountains through a telescope. I enjoyed Maggi and cup of tea at the chilling weather in Dhanaulti. I witnessed shooting for a Colours TV serial named Tantra (I got a selfie with the actress)

I Reached back Mussoorie around 6 PM to see the Company Garden which was not very impressive with cheaper version of Madame Tussauds, which I did not buy tickets of and few other souvenir shops. I had dinner at the same spot, Kalsang and this time I had momos and Thukpa soup. I then went to Carnival Ritz, a multiplex on Mall road to see Fantastic Beasts,  which concluded my 2 solo days in Mussoorie. These were filled with fun and back-to-back activities in Mussoorie. I had a sound sleep in the comfortable bed later.

Chapter 3: Nag Tibba trek

On 23rd Nov, 2018 around 8AM, I checked out from my hotel to meet the Trekking Group at Library Chowk near Mall Road. I had requested to join the trekking group of 20 pax at Mussoorie instead of Dehradun. The group was served breakfast near a Restaurant/Dhaba near Kempty Falls market. It was almost a 2 hours journey till the village called Pantwari. Our trek started from Pantwari around 12.30 PM and we were given boiled egg, a burger, juice & small chocolate bar packaged together as Lunch which was supposed to be taken midway during our trek. The trek was on an inclined rocky terrain and it was too sunny to wear any woollen layer, which was surprising for a November Trek in Mountains - probably, global warming to be blamed.

   

The trek was comfortable apart from the sunlight being too strong. It was really nice to be with the group as it had people from different backgrounds and one of them used to stay, a year back, in the same condominium as mine :) such a small world. We had lunch at one of the place where we found source of flowing water, and the guide accompanying us told to find a place to sit nearby. I was luckily carrying a foldable mat, which my wife had gifted, which proved to be handy for having the lunch as 6 of us sat on the mat. On our way, at almost 80%  distance to the base camp, we halted near the goat village resort. As the place had a small concrete building with kitchen in it, I requested for some warm water, so that I can mix my tea-premix to enjoy it in middle of the trek.

We were aiming to reach the base camp before the sunset & our timing to reach the base camp was perfect as we could enjoy the sunset sitting on grassland at the basecamp. The base camp had a lovely 180 degrees panoramic view. The tents were already set when we reached the base camp. We were later served hot mix-pakodas and tea, which we could not resist and I must have had dozen of pakodas. Slowly, it was dark enough and I took out the mat and laid down flat gazing the constellation, the sky full of bright stars - I even saw a shooting star :)  This is a sight very rare for Delhites.

Later, we arranged thin logs of wood from the nearby area  to build the bonfire. Adding small roll of toilet paper proved to be instrumental for lighting up the fire. For the dinner, we had tomato soup followed by Dal, Mix veg, Roti & Rice near the bonfire. After chatting for a while and seeing others getting drunk and talking random things, few of us, decided to go to sleep.

Around 9.30 PM, we entered our respective tents. They had arranged twin/triple sharing tents. Two of us, luckily got a tent which was supposed to be a triple sharing tent. The guy sharing the tent with me guided me to zip up inside the sleeping bag, which for me was really challenging. It was really difficult to be comfortable inside the tent and especially the sleeping bag. It's made of waterproof material and does not give you a cosy feeling and it is difficult to flip sides once you are inside it and it is irritating to hear the sound when you slide over it. After several attempts to find the best posture to sleep, I was too tired to attempt further and probably slept around 11.30 PM. The guides woke us up around 4.45 AM. Guiding ourselves with torch light, we managed to freshen up in the toilet tents set up nearby. Breakfast was served around 5.30 AM - it was mildly sweet Dalia and tea, which was decently prepared.

Around 6 AM, again guiding ourselves with the torch light and leaving behind our trekking bags in the tents, we headed  towards the peak - Nag Tibba. Unlike the trek from Pantwari to Base camp, the trek from Base camp to Nag Tibba was really nice and was mostly forest covered area.

It took almost 2 hours to reach the top and at the peak-spot there is small circular piece of land with Indian flag and couple of other religious flags. Getting there to the top and looking at the 360 degree view was mesmerizing. I, then looked for a spot of silence nearby with nobody around and then laid down flat on the grassland just looking at the blue sky. It was really relaxing to then just sit and look at the mountains in front of me. I closed my eyes for few minutes and was sitting still there to enjoy the silent atmosphere. On our way back, we went to Nag temple, and reached back to the base camp around 12.30 PM. We had lunch around 1 PM, which this time was my favourite Rajma Chawal. I had 3-4 servings of Rajma - there is something really nice with these beans especially if it is sourced from the mountains - I had good experience of Rajma flavours in Jammu, Kashmir and now Nag Tibba. Somehow, when we were about to start the trek downhill from basecamp, I felt little pain in my lower back - I then applied some pain relief spray and tightly strapped up Fleece jacket around my back. To even make it more sturdy, while holding the trekking bag on my back, I strapped up the belt around my bag even more tightly. This arrangement was making me feel better and giving good support to my back. Going down you don't really require to stop in between to take rest because gravity will do the work for you. One thing I can rely on the most throughout my trek was the trekking pole which I had hired from Delhi. It was proving to be beneficial for my legs because there is a lot of impact on legs while going down and you get a good grip and softer landing because of the trekking pole. We reached back to Pantwari around 3:30 PM and found a nearby dhaba to have a cup of tea and Bread Omelette. Our tempo traveller was waiting for us & we left for Dehradun around 4 PM. After finding some traffic in Mussoorie, we reached Dehradun around 8 PM. Since, my train to Delhi was around 11.30 PM, I went to nearby restaurant around Prince Chowk, Dehradun.