My dear friend, Tapas Dey aka Topshe is an ardent traveler and has a fascination towards the hills which is understandable as living in Delhi, the closest getaways are always the hills of Himachal or Uttarakhand. Indro and I have been coaxing him to write his experience about the travels and the destination but he was evading us, that is till now. Somehow, he finally gathered the courage to write about his recent trip to Jibhi, in Himachal Pradesh. Since, he doesn’t as yet have a blogsite, I am only facilitating him to reach out to a larger audience. Please read on Topshe’s adventure.

In the month of July, my daughter, Tulika aka Rakhi and daughter-in-law ILA aka Ruby at Dinner time directly placed a matter to be discussed there and then, “Baba, are we going somewhere this August 15^th?” For the last consecutive two years we went out for some family excursion trip combining Saturday-Sunday and holiday for 15^th August (Independence Day).

In the year 2022, we toured to Kaushani-Binsar 3-day trip for Uttarakhand. That time the group was a little bigger one as my brother-in-law along with family and my old friend Amal da and his wife, Nupur joined us. In all, we were 11 persons travelling in two cars. Then in the year 2023, I had to skip the tour due to sudden work in office, but 4 of my family went to Udaipur-Chittorgarh. This time, I have to choose the destination and plan for it, no escape for me!!!

This year 15^th Aug was on Thursday, so I asked my family members whether they could manage for 2 days leave on Friday and Saturday, that way we will have 4 days holidays together. Everybody assured me that they will try to manage it, even if, they have to make some other adjustments. Now, the most ticklish thing is selection of destination. My first option was Chopta, which is in Chamoli District of Uttarakhand. I even searched the hotel/Tent house for our stay, zeroed on one “Meadows Camp Resort” and talked to the person there for booking. However, due to incessant rain in the last week of July, there were news of landslides at Chamoli district and its adjoining areas. I have a friend staying near there, after retirement, I called him up to enquire about the conditions of road etc. He summarily rejected my plan citing the unpredictable nature of the region.

Then I switched over my option to “Jibhi”, which is 60 km away from Mandi, in Banjhar valley, falls in Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh. Jibhi is a small village, surrounded by lush greenery, and is a tranquil, unexplored hamlet in the Banjar Valley of Himachal Pradesh. It is ideal for travellers seeking solace in the lap of nature, this quaint town provides breath-taking views perfect for outdoor activities like fishing, hiking, bird watching and more. After juggling quite a number of options, in the first week of August we zeroed down to one homestay “Majestic View WanderHouse” for 3 nights (15^th, 16^th and 17^th August) and booked it, giving some advance payment. However, within next 2-3 days, news of cloud burst in the valleys of Kullu and adjoining areas came and Himachal Government started issuing advisories to avoid journey to those places. Now our situation has become like ‘Trishanku’, as we all have managed our leave sanctioned but our venue is still doubtful and only a week more left to start our journey. So, I proposed Plan-C, for a trip to Jaisalmer to my son and daughter. My son, Soubhik quickly surfed in Google and showed me two very good hotels for our stay, first night in Jodhpur and next two nights at Jaisalmer. Meanwhile my daughter enquired from the owner of Jibhi homestay about the condition of roads etc and adjoining areas. The owner assured us that their place is still safe and not to worry about the roads. So finally, we decided to stick to our plan to go to Jibhi as timing to reach that place was consistently showing the same in Google Map for the last 2 weeks.

DAY-1 (Thursday, 15^th August)

This time my usual co-passengers Manojit and Amalda had declined the offer to accompany us due to their preoccupation. So, on 15^th Aug sharp at 6.00 AM we started our journey in our Nexon SUV to Jibhi, Himachal Pradesh which is about 483 KM from our home and as per Google it showed that we will reach there at around 4:10 pm. Soubhik is on the wheel. By 8:20 AM covering about 140 KM, we reached our first designated halt at Zhilmil Dhaba to have our favorite Aloo-parantha breakfast and also to stretch our legs along with the use of washroom.

The break took 40 odd minutes to finish the breakfast and freshen up. After paying tips to the parking assistant, we all occupied our seat for continuing the journey. But here my son, who was still on the driver seat shockingly disclosed that the car engine is not starting… no response… it is dead!!! After his valiant unsuccessful efforts, I moved out of the car and checked the display screen on the dashboard where I found no light/indication of various essential features on the display screen. A doubt raised in my mind at this juncture that just a day before we started this tour, Soubhik has fixed a new rear brake display on the rear bonnet. I thus felt it might be due to some electrical error. I then asked the parking vendor whether he knows any car mechanics nearby who could rectify the fault. The fellow readily agreed to help me and called up someone on his mobile to come up. I asked the fellow, from where this fellow is coming. The guy replied, that it is about 20 KM away. I calculated in my mind that the guy may atleast take something about 30-40 minutes, if it is on the main Highway. After an hour a Sardar ji mechanic appeared on a bike with a very small bag carrying some spanners and a small car battery. Sardar ji, as a thorough professional checked the position of the car ignition key in the dashboard and opened the Bonnet of the car. Straightaway, he checked the power of the battery with a handheld electric current monitor he had brought with him. And not taking much time to check other parts, he declared that the Battery of the car is gone, completely dead and have to be changed outright. On being asked the cost, he enquired it from a dealer on phone and said that it may cost around Rs.7000/. Finding no other options, we agreed for whatever he has suggested. I gave him some advance cash and the old battery. As the Tata Nexon car is only 3 years old as such we never have imagined that this would happen; recently, I had replaced my other car battery after 5 years. Sardar ji came back after about 45 minutes with a new box containing battery for the car and informed that due to State holiday, he had to wait for the shop to be open. Within next ten minutes he fixed the battery and our car showed signs of life and that it is ready for the drive with roaring sound of the engine. It gave us immense happiness that we can again resume our journey although we lost some precious 2 hours that ultimately delayed our time to reach the final destination. We did not bargain much with the Sardar ji mechanic paying him the balance for the battery and his own professional charges and gave another Rs.50/- additional tip to the parking vendor who arranged this mechanic on a National Holiday.

It brought to my mind an incident that we faced in our last Tour of Kinnaur in Sept.2023 when a technical glitch in the car of my friend Aranjit, where his car heated up abnormally indicating NO COOLANT. After 4 liters of water and appropriate coolant, the problem was fixed by a helpful mechanic; that time we lost 2 precious hours as we were practically crawling for 40-50 KM searching for “red coolant” and a car mechanic.

During his last service of the car few months back Soubhik had asked the service engineer the reason for low level of sound of the horn, the mechanic after inspection told him that the battery is wearing out fast. But suggested to continue for few more months. It’s our bad luck that it happened on this tour on the Highway.

Then we felt, it’s also our luck that it happened at a place where we got an instant help like a gift of God who arranged a mechanic, who came on a national holiday at a time, the shops were yet to open. We thanked the almighty, that the problem we faced was sorted out there itself.

We resumed our journey, Soubhik desired to drive till the mountainous terrain comes. I also didn’t object to this, giving him more opportunity to have practice for long drive. In the Google Map which Soubhik scrupulously follows showed a shorter route to our destination via Rajpura (in Punjab) which goes straight to Amritsar after Ambala city diverting left from Ambala-Chandigarh Highway. After some distance on the Highway near Rajpura, the map shows to take right turn towards Kharar/Kiratpur Sahib road. However, there was a blockade on road ahead with a policeman directing us to take left U-turn to the road we came from. After about a KM going back, the direction in the Map still insisted to take the same route, means Google Map falls into a loop. At this juncture I suggested my son to return to Ambala Highway and take the other left turn from Lalru, a small sub-city on the Highway. Accordingly, after Lalru on the NH, Soubhik took left turn to Kharar/Mohali road. With all this mishap following the Google Map, it was 1.30 pm and we had covered only another 140 KM, so we decided to halt for lunch. After brief scanning of the area at Ajit Singh Nagar on Kharar-Kurali Road, a board of Sagar Ratna came with some other options of Starbucks and KFC etc on the same Food Court. Everybody expressed to have lunch from Sagar Ratna to taste ethnic South-Indian food. There we got a good designated parking lot. At Sagar Ratna, we decided to have different items for all to taste different type of food available there. Soubhik ordered for Thali, Ruby opted for Dahi-Vada, while Rakhi decided to have Rawa Masala Dosa & Dahi Vada Combo Meal, Sudipta ordered for Lemon Rice and I took Paneer Butter Masala Dosa with Fresh Lime Soda for all. The taste of food was nice with good ambience.

Taking a break of 40 odd minutes, we again resumed our journey. After taking right turn on the ridge at Kiratpur Sahib we topped up our tank form a Jio Petrol Pump so that we won’t have to think about refilling till we return back to Mandi on our return journey. I am on the wheel now. Roads are quite smooth here. So to control the speed of the vehicle, authorities here at Bilaspur put around 15 electronic speed check point on the road to monitor the speed limit of the vehicle. After Sundernagar-Bilaspur, we got 4 tunnels rapidly, till we reached Aut Tunnel crossing Mandi in between. Due to these 4 tunnels, our journey was quite smooth and faster, though it had started getting dark. Now we started facing the potholes on the narrow Aut-Banjar-Ani-Sainj road. Our speed drastically came down to 15-20 kmph. Roads were mostly empty except near Banjhar market, where we faced problem when a Bolero Mini-truck coming from opposite side blocked our road. As there was less space available to pass, the front left tyre was almost went down into the deep trench used for passing waste water. After much maneuvering the steering wheel, I managed to get my car back on the road. Meanwhile, we got several calls from the Homestay to get the updates of our ETA. Finally, we reached our destination at sharp 8:00 pm, driving last half an hour in pitch dark in the narrow road with long trees on both the side of the road. Here the roads are a bit narrower than the road we found at Chhitkul. At some of the stretch it was little slippery due to mud. Till now we didn’t get any rain on our entire journey.

The Google Map in the Car showed that we have reached our destination, “The Majestic View X WanderHouse”, but surprisingly nothing was visible in our surroundings, not even the light of the homestay. We ranged up the Homestay who told us to stay there as he is sending someone to attend us and to take our luggage. Soon a person appeared from nowhere, who took our luggage and asked us to follow him. It was pitch dark, on a narrow hilly stretch moving steep upwards wide enough for only one person to climb at a time, the fellow who came for our luggage, moved up effortlessly with our luggage. After about 50-meters of steep upward climb we reached the gate of our homestay. Completing the usual formalities at the reception we were guided to our room. It was single room having king size double bed with a cupboard and two cushioned chairs and a center table with an attached bathroom and most interestingly a staircase to another double bed placed just above the double bed giving a feeling of duplex. It was pitch dark outside as such we were unable to see our surroundings from the balcony except sound of flowing water coming from some rivulet or drain. The person who came to drop our luggage requested us to join for the dinner at around 9.00 pm. One-by-one everyone of us freshened up after day long journey and stretched our legs trying to explore our surroundings in the pitch dark. All of us changed to our casual dress and met in the dining room downstairs to have our food. Food was included with our room charges that we forgot to mention here. In the buffet system they have arranged with options of Roti, Rice, Yellow Dal Tadka, Bondi Raita, Mix Sabji and Chicken Curry. We were hungry and the taste of the food was good… so we had a fill as per our hunger level. Thereafter, we all came to our room and got engrossed in our mobile to get the updates of the day and reply.

Day-2 (Friday, 16^th August)

Sudipta, my wife, as usual got up early and I too woke up around 6.00 am. After freshening up, I went to the Balcony to witness the absolutely green surroundings. Dark blue sky, tall trees surrounding our homestay, cool weather, continuous sound of water flowing somewhere in the distance and chirping of the nameless birds. What a feeling!! We started exploring the length and breadth of the homestay from the balcony itself. We were informed to reach the dining room at 9.00 am by the chef for breakfast which consisted of a mix of Parathas with achaar, bread-butter toast/ sandwich, tea and coffee. At dining room, we came to know that there were 5 more persons staying in this homestay. Then 2 more boys and 3 girls came looking for accommodation. So it was a good crowd in that small dining room. The cook-cum-booking clerk-cum-caretaker was smart enough to handle everyone smilingly.

After breakfast, we left for our first destination, “The Jibhi Waterfall”, which was just 100 meters from our homestay. As it was little downhill, we decided to walk the distance. Reaching there, we realised that we had crossed the gate in the pitch dark last night when we came to the homestay. There was an Entry Gate, from where Rakhi purchased 5 tickets @ Rs.20/- each. I wondered why there’s a ticket for entering the park when it is not so popular to attract huge tourist inflow!! On entering we found that the place was nicely maintained by Forest Department of the local Government, without disturbing the natural beauty of the place. We found a very small stream flowing downwards near the entrance. We walked alongside it on upward direction for which a walk-way has also been made with small stones by the authority. After a little distance of about 200 meters, we reached the base of the waterfall. The height of the waterfall is about 50 ft., few other families are there taking snaps; we also got some for ourselves on different angle. It was lush green everywhere. After spending some time there, we decided to return. I went back to fetch our car which was at the base of our homestay.

After picking up my family from the gate of “Jibhi Waterfall”, we moved to our next destination, “the Kulhi Katandi”, popularly also known as “Mini Thailand”. On reaching there, we found that the Forest Department put up entry fee!! We found a small trail of walkway going downward; after about 400 meters of jig-jag walking downward and about 150 meters from the point where we parked our vehicle, a small rivulet came to our view. We leisurely walked along the stream enjoying every moment in the nature. After some time, we found the kaccha path have become narrower and we have to balance ourselves to cross the small difficult passage. After crossing this passage, we came to a point for which this place has been named “Mini Thailand”, where two huge rock forming as a triangle on one side of this rivulet. Very ideal for nature lovers who seeks solace in the lap of nature. Spending some half an hour there taking snaps etc., we walked towards the exit point. Midway we stopped at a Maggi-Momo point from where we had a plate of delicious Momo. Near the exit point, we found a small local dabha. As it was 1.30 pm, without wasting much time, we entered there to have our lunch. We ordered plain rice, roti, yellow dal, mixed sabji and one paneer delicacy. Food was really good.

After finishing our lunch, we decided to go for Jalori Pass which is about 20 KM by car, going steadily uphill at an altitude of 10814 feet (or say 3300 Meter). Our homestay at Jibhi is about 1600 Meter is just half the height. The road towards Jalori Pass is narrower and at some stretch it was muddy as well as slippery due to recent rains. We parked our car on the road side where many other cars and tempo travelers were parked as well. From here on, one has to trek to the Point Zero for the view… we too started to walk to reach the zero point of Jalori Pass which was about 4 KM of trekking through the jungle terrain. We started our trek at around 4.30 PM, but slowly the dark cloud started forming in the corner of the sky. Walking around a KM or so, we found it is impossible to reach to the top point at this speed and then return safely to our parking before rain started. So we aborted the idea and slowly came down to our starting point taking snaps for memory sake. Our return to homestay was eventless.

We reached our homestay around 7.00 pm. We asked the cook for tea with some pakoras but he said that he can provide tea only as he’s already late for the dinner arrangements. We had the tea with some dry snacks brought from Delhi and changed into more comfortable attire and patiently waited for the call for dinner. While we were enjoying the hot cup of tea with snacks, the rain started with full intensity. We thanked the god that the weather was kind, the whole day for us. Now that we were under a safe roof, enjoyed the downpour sitting on the balcony. Dinner was as usual good with chilly chicken as a non-veg item besides the dal-sabji-rice on the plate. It was drizzling when we came to the dining hall but now it had intensified again making it difficult to go back to our room from the dinning space. With the help of some umbrella, we reached our room taking our quota of drinking water for the day. Surfing the messages in the WhatsApp we retreated for the day.

Day-3 (Saturday, 17^th August)

It was bright sunshine outside in the morning when I came to the balcony to assess the condition of the sky. Today we had planned to see the “Chhoyei” waterfall at Tirthan valley which is about 16 KM from our homestay spending the morning there till lunch. We also planned to have our lunch there at Khem Bharti homestay where we stayed during our previous visit. But at breakfast table, the cook gave us a very scary news that the road near “Jibhi Waterfall”, just 20 Meter downward from where our car was parked, has washed away in the last night’s heavy rain. He also informed that it is the only motorable road connecting other parts of the world. The message was too scary for all of us as none of our children was carrying Laptop with them. And if we are unable to return by Sunday, everybody has to skip their office. Except me and Sudipta, taking extra leave was difficult for the rest of the members. After breakfast, with heavy heart we slowly walked down to assess the extent of damages to the road and tried to find any possibility to reach the other side of the landslide. We found that there was a small cemented pipe underneath the road linking our homestay and rest of the valley for passing of rain water which was blocked by mud and big boulders in overnight rain. As a result, the water flowed over the road to the other side downhill sweeping away about 150-meter road completely.

We moved further juggling over the big boulders to the other side of the damaged road as we have no other things left to do for the day. Since morning we noticed that there was very little movement of vehicle on the road. News came that due to rain, at many places such roads were damaged for vehicular traffic. It was otherwise good sunshine and weather was also nice, so we leisurely walked down about 2 km to nearby village on the Jibhi-Banjar Road state highway under the shed of long trail of trees to explore the beauty of rural Indian village. It was 1.00 pm, so we looked out for a good dhaba/restaurant on the stretch. Soon Rakhi found one who was sitting idle and said that they served multi-cuisine food. However, the cook informed us that we have to wait for 15-20 minutes as he will prepare food in accordance to the order we placed.

We selected a table in the open balcony on the rivulet side to enjoy the view of small stream just beneath the dhaba. Looking at the worried face of Ruby, I suggested Soubhik to book a cab tomorrow from here to Mandi or Chandigarh and from there take a Volvo Bus to Delhi to reach Home on Sunday night itself as it is quite uncertain when the motorable road will be ready to take out our car from that landslide point. About half an hour later the food was served, hot and delicious. After paying the bill, we leisurely walked back to our homestay to take rest. As vehicles were quite less on the road due to blockages at several other places it was a bit risky to venture out further. Reaching our hotel, Soubhik informed that Ruby has talked to her contacts, who has offered to send a cab tomorrow morning to pick them up and drop them at Chandigarh Bus stop. Rakhi also insisted to accompany them. I decided to stay back with Sudipta till the road is repaired for our car to move out.

The evening was spent sitting in the balcony leisurely watching movement of vehicles on the other side of the rivulet. Dinner was served a little late. The other occupant in the homestay shared their excursion story how they spent the day without access of any vehicle. After dinner we left for our room to check on the messages and news of the day.

Day-4 (Sunday, 18^th August)

With the chirping sound of birds in the midst of rumbling sound of waterflow, we all wake up early in the morning. Ruby, Rakhi and Soubhik were all set to leave for Chandigarh although with a heavy heart. Around 8 AM, Ruby got a call from the cab driver who was coming to pick them up. He asked her to share the location. Nearly an hour later, the driver informed that he has reached up to the point where the vehicle could reach after landslide. We took out the luggage and slowly traversed down the damaged road. Ruby’s contact has sent a good vehicle, a Mahindra KUV300. The Driver was in pure white dress, very soft spoken bearing a pleasant personality. Sharp at 9:30 AM, their vehicle started off slowly for Chandigarh.

Within a few minutes of their departure, we saw a JCB reaching the damaged spot to repair. It gave us immense joy that at last we can also move out from this patch of bad road. Meanwhile we packed our bags and settled our dues in the homestay. Around 12 noon, the driver of the other occupant came rushing to inform us that the road has been mended and opened for the traffic. Without waiting much for the other vehicles to come and jam the newly repaired road from all directions, Sudipta and myself taking not a moment more, got into our vehicle which happened to be the third one out from the repaired road. Meanwhile Sudipta ranged up Soubhik to know how far they have reached and also to inform them that we have started for the Home. Soubhik informed that very soon they will reach Mandi. So I instructed him to get down there at Mandi Bus stop from where we will pick them up in one and a half hour. They may have their breakfast by the time we reach there. We reached Mandi Bus Stop before the ETA of Google Map. As the expected time to reach Delhi showed 11:30 PM, not wasting much time there we continued for our return journey and I continued to be on the driver seat. In another 2 hours covering 120 km we reach a place called Gharauli which is in Punjab just before Kiratpur Sahib where we found a good Restaurant named “Manjeet’s”. Here we decided to have our lunch and stretch our legs and use the washrooms. This restaurant had good ambience. We had some quick lunch there as we had some food with ourselves that we consumed in the car. After half an hour break, we again started for our destination, targeting to reach home before 12 midnight. Now, Soubhik has took the charge of wheel. Till now we moved as per our plan but now Google Map showed the quickest route which is from Rajpura. Accordingly, we took the route map suggested. However, at Rajpura (Shambhu Border), we again found the road is closed for vehicular traffic. After rerouting about 4 Km we again reached the place where the road shows closed sign. I moved out of our car to enquire from a police man standing nearby who confirmed that according to Google map, many people were wrongly been getting diverted daily, whereas the road has been blocked at Sambhu Border by Kishan Morcha since long. At this juncture, I told Soubhik to return back to Bhanur and reroute his map to reach Ambala through Zirakpur travelling about 30 Km in this process we lost considerable time. Once we reached Chandigarh-Delhi NH Road, we found the road were not so crowded as otherwise expected being a long combination of holidays.

After about 100 km run on the GT Road, we decided to have our dinner somewhere near Karnal as it was 9.30 PM already. So, we stopped at Karnal Haveli where we had earlier experienced good food. This was actually a food court with many other food joints operating within same compound. Everybody went to washroom to relieve themselves and I went to the entrance of Karnal Haveli restaurant, where one fellow was distributing coupons with latest priority number. Very rational, well-maintained system I found. I got a ticket with 114 written on it. But in the door of the restaurant a digital display board shows the last coupon gone inside was 70. The fellow standing there told me to wait half an hour for our turn to come. Meanwhile others also joined me. Came to know the waiting status, we searched the other available outlet. There we found Delhi’s famous Karim’s also have an outlet which is relatively less crowded at that time. So we decided to have our dinner there… needless to say the food was also quite good. After finishing our dinner, we came out and checked the time which was showing 10:20 PM. Soubhik was feeling quite tired after driving the strenuous road from the point we took our lunch at around 3 PM. So I took the wheel now for the rest of our journey. Google was showing we would reach our home not before 1:30 AM. However, finally we reached our home at 1:00 AM sharp.

That is not the end of our journey. Very next day Soubhik went to take his car from the parking. There he found the rear right tyre is completely flat. To this we recalled that one bang sound came when we were near Bhalaswa Dairy in Delhi. I came out from the car to checkup. But did not notice any damage and we continued. Without any inkling I drove the remaining 30 KM distance to our home on a flat tire only to know the debacle the next day.

That’s the end of our eventful journey.