Sarahan - Gateway of Kinnaur

Saturday, 24th April 2010

Weather at Delhi was really on move and it was already touching 41-42C, we at Travellingrants were planning to take a break from this heat.

We called one of our team member at Chandigarh to pick up a destination and he came up immediately with the name of Sarahan and Sangla Valley.

We started our journey with our all time favourite machine Karizma on 24th April at 5.30 A.M in the morning.

This was really a cool morning, a very different from usual summer morning. After going around 30-40 km we realized that the sky was overclouded and there were more possiblities to rain and it came to the truth in next 20 minutes when it started raining a bit.

Out first target was Shimla famously known as "Queen of Hills" and was summer capital of British rulers. In this series we are not going to cover Shimla and its surrounding areas, we will only cover our target destinations Sarahan and Sangla Valley.

We reached Shimla around 8 AM and  were welcomed in to Shimla with rain. It was really a pleasant weather

Road

Chandigarh and Shimla are connected by National Highway No 21 and it's a well maintained and and a very good road for driving except a rough patch of around 6-7 km near Solan District around 45 km before Shimla.

After a short break at Shimla we started towards Sarahan due to the rains our speed was limited and we were crusing at around 50-60 KMPH.

In order to go from Shimla to Sarahan possible best route is

Shimla----------------	Theog	35KM
Theog-----------------	Narkanda	32KM
Narkanda-------------	KumarSain	19KM
Kumarsain------------	Sainj	17KM
Sainj-------------------	Nirath	12KM
Nirath-----------------	Dattnagar	6KM
Daatnagar------------	Rampur	10KM
Rampur---------------	Jhakri	11KM
Jhakri-----------------	Jeori	13KM
Jeori-------------------	Sarahan	17KM

Road Condition

Road from Shimla to Jeori is National Highway no 22 and it's in a good shape and condition, after Rampur due to the high altitude area the road conditions are not so good and before going to Sarahan and Sangla it's recommended that one should try to find the weather condition in this area in advance.

Petrol Pump

One can find petrol pump easily up to Rampur, after Rampur we found one petrol pump at Tapri and the other one was at Reckong Peo, the capital of Kinnaur district in Himachal Pradesh.

ATM Availability

On the way to Sarahan and Sangla Valley Rampur is the only last main town before Reckong Peo and one can easily find ATM here.

At Rampur one can find ATM's of the following banks

1)  State Bank of India

2)  Punjab National Bank

3)  HDFC

4)  ICICI

after Rampur there are only 2 ATM on way before Reckong Peo.

1) Near Jhakri

2) At JP Hydro Power Project Complex at Karcham

Tips

Before moving ahead from Rampur make sure

that you have sufficient amount of cash and

 your Vehicle have sufficient fuel

We reached Sarahan around 3.30PM after making our self to fight with rain on whole day. When we reached Sarahan conditions started to change and weather was heading towards a clear sky mode.

Sarahan

Sarahan is a small town in state of Himachal Pradesh. This small town is surrounded by Greater Himalaya Ranges. At an atlitude of 2165 Meters its a place surrounded by nature from all sides.

Sarahan was the summer capital of the Bushair state.This place is famous for Bhimakali temple dedicated to mother goddess Bhimakali. Bhimakali  is considered one of the 51 sacred Shakti Peethas. Temple in itself is a blend of Hindu and Buddhish architecture.

One can clearly see and feel the beauty of Srikhand peak which is heigh of 5227 Meters. Due to its self kind style of farmlands, ochards and slanting slates roof, Sarahan present a picture of perfect place to forget anything and just enjoy and feel the nature at its best. Sarahan is known as gateway of Kinnaur.

Accomodation

One can have quite a number of options to stay at Sarahan. Temple commitee has a  sufficient amount of accomodations, one can contact the Temple authority for this beside that other options are also available.

HP Tourism Development Corporation have there Hotel (Hotel Srikhand) at Sarahan. One can have advance booking from any of their counters throughout the country as well can avail their online booking facility: 

HPTDC Booking link

Hotel in itself is at a beautiful location and we were really happy with the service and hospitality and will surely recommend this one to all.

Beside its spirtiual importance Sarahan is a place rich in nature and one, once there, will surely manage to forget all their worries and tension in this location.

Weather

In Winters temperature drops below freezing point and one if planning to go shoud go with heavy woolens. Summers are pleasant and light woolens and cottons are recommended.

Tips

Due to the uncertain weather conditions it's

 highly recommended that one should pack some

ligh woolen clothes even if planning to go in Summers

Network Connection

There is no network connection problem in this area all major network provider Airtel, BSNL are opearting in these areas.

Medical Facility

These are some of the interior areas and one can only find first level medical facility, for other cases one needs to go to Rampur or Shimla. We highly recommend that one should carry some first level medical kits with themself to avoid any minor cases.

Other Attractions

Beside the nature and Bhimakali temple Sarahan has a few more interesting places. There is a Bird Park just a few minutes walk from temple one can see rare high attitude birds like Monal (State Bird of Himachal Pardesh) and Snow Cork.

A trekker can easily find many light and steep trekking routes in this area, one of them we came to know about is Bashal peak.

Bhaba Valley which is around 50km away from Sarahan is also a highy recommended.

We hope that you  liked this post.

So stay tuned for the next post of this Series about Sangla valley and we are sure you will like that place.