Backpacking to Kalgha Village, Parvati Valley, Himachal Pradesh

It's been quite some time since I published about our backpacking trip to Chalal village & Kasol. So after spending idyllic 2 days vegging out in Chalal village, we were ready for the next leg of our backpacking trip and that was Kalgha. We packed our stuff & left for the bus stop as the next bus was to arrive soon at 10.50-11 am sharp. The weather was charming with the sun just warm enough not to make us sweat in that October early afternoon. Soon our public bus arrived & all of us were not expecting it in the condition it was when it arrived - crammed up with the villagers & the locals, along with a small kid (I mean a baby goat here :D). We could have left earlier as well to avoid the horde (classic mentality of the quintessential "middle class" families, more so when they are starting out young), the timing of the previous bus was 9.30 am but we were confident that we wouldn't be able to wake up so early.

Parvati River at Chalal

Nevertheless, we boarded our bus and pushed our way through the multitude and secured a standing spot near the window with support. The driver was one hell of a driver, I think all the mountainous drivers are - they drive though the perilous roads everyday every hour all around the year.

Manikaran

Here let me tell my readers that one can reach Barshaini - the small locality from where one can reach Kalgha, Pulga, Tulga villages, by two ways. There are buses which go to Barshaini directly from Kasol, or one can do a break journey from Kasol to Manikaran, then from Manikaran to Barshaini. We unfortunately didn't get the direct bus to Barshaini, instead we took the one to Manikaran, which took us around 45 minutes to reach, a holy place of the Sikh community (bus fare - ₹30 for the four of us). There is usually a 20/25 -minute break there. We got down and was waiting for the bus to Barshaini but as we are, young blood, got restless & impatient of the long wait so one of us went to a nearby private taxi to bargain a good deal to take us to Barshaini. We also realized that the bus would take more time as it would make numerous stoppages for the passengers.

Dealing with the driver

Manikaran

We were successful in getting a good deal - ₹ 350 for the four of us, well partly because there would be another woman and her child who also showed interest in traveling in the taxi instead of the bus (she too was in a hurry like us probably).

Finally we were on our way to Barshaini through the precarious winding rough roads.

Single vehicle bridge

Panoramic view as we gained altitude

The more we ascended, the panorama got more divine and the more we were flabbergasted witnessing the actual, raw beauty of our country. There are so many unexplored marvels in our country waiting to be traversed. Yes the problem in India has always been the logistics problem, which still has never been solved.

Barshaini

Looking down the valley

We reached Barshaini at around 12 noon finally. It was deserted, with only young kids playing football in the scorching sun. There were a few hotels/lodges for tourists at Barshaini itself. Let me tell you here that do NOT stay at these hotels/lodges no matter how much they try to convince you that Kalgha was very near to the hotel, you can reach within 5-10 minutes walking - they sell their lies blatantly. Kalgha is NOT 5-10 minutes walking distance from Barshaini. We asked for directions on how to reach Kalgha at the local grocery shops, , the personnel of NHPC who were posted there for the ongoing project. They guided us the way and off we set towards our short trek to Kalgha village. Brace yourselves for some spectacular pictures (that doesn't mean I am boasting off, the fact being the place itself is just so phenomenal that one couldn't help but keep the shutter clicking non-stop.

Crossing Parvati River

View of Kalgha village from Barshaini

On our way to crossing over Parvati River.

In the adjoining figure as one can see, it's a bit confusing as to which way one should go for Kalgha village. Even we went past the correct way due to our ignorance, but thanks to some of the NHPC employees who guided us to take the path on the right, we were again back on our track (the road on the left went to Tosh).

The muddy road on our way to Kalgha

Here again a small piece of instruction to my readers who would be visiting Kalgha for the 1st time - the actual path to Kalgha village starts from the point where the car (picture on the right) was located. This is a much shorter and faster way to reach Kalgha. We missed this important direction and went ahead with our backpacks.

We went further to the point from where the bifurcation began to Pulga & Tulga villages, but still were off-track and astray as to which one was the actual road leading to Kalgha village. Thankfully again, some NHPC employees came to our rescue who let us know that we had missed the shorter route long back, hence our only way out was to take the longer course. (below picture showing the trail which we took finally).

The trek trail leading to Kalgha village

We crossed some cute, giggling old ladies (giggling at our plight). We would stop at every 5-10 minutes intervals while ascending while the village locals would swiftly ascend & descend the trails. Yes, they were so fit & that is their only way of transportation in & out of their village. Our moment of embarrassment was when we had noticed a particular villager descending with some heavy weight while we were still on our way to Kalgha and after 40-45 minutes that same person was ascending with a similar heavy weight and strode right past us. We had progressed only a few metres from the point where he had initially crossed us...!!

View of Barshaini from a clearing

View of the valley from a clearing

After a trek of about 1-1.5 hours, the following vista just took our breathes away. It made us realize that our pain was just worth it. We had finally reached the outskirts of Kalgha village and stopped for a moment to gasp our breath and enjoy the countryside and the natural unpolluted air around us. We continued our way through the apple orchards and forest to Apple Cottage (my friend had read about this home-stay at one of the blogs). We had to wait for a good 40-45 minutes s as one of the bigger rooms was being vacated by a bunch of young college kids. As soon as the room was vacated, a young boy and a middle-aged man (probably between 40-50 years of age, I'm sorry I can't decide on the age of any person just like that) started cleaning and providing fresh blankets, pillows and carpets in the room. They even put fresh soap & detergent in the bathroom. As soon as they ended, we started to inquire about the room charges & fell nearly out of our chairs. The room rent was ₹500 per night (excluding the meals). We then realized the reason behind this home-stay being so popular. We were so exhausted after the hike we didn't realize that we were hungry too. We ordered the middle aged man (who we then had realized was the owner of the Apple Cottage) to make Maggi for the four of us while we got fresh.

Hot Maggi

The home-stay is named Apple Cottage because the owner had a big apple garden right in front of his home-stay. The home-stay had 3 floors - our room was on the 1st floor. There were shared rooms for solo-travelers on the ground floor with provision of warm fire in case of cold nights. The owner offered us some fresh apples from his garden along with the Maggi. We gobbled up the Maggi as if we hadn't eaten for days..!!

View from Apple Cottage

Snow-capped Himalayas

Snow-capped Himalayas

Never had I ever imagined having Maggi with such a mind-boggling landscape.

Also read: Backpacking to Chalal & Kasol