PARVATI VALLEY

I and my friend Piyush came up with a plan for trekking to different villages of Parvati Valley. Raghav (My college friend) and Vasu(Piyush’s college friend) also joined us. Now we were a group of four. There are a lot of small villages in Parvati Valley and a person cannot cover each village in one trip. We created an itinerary that included five villages:- Rasol, Kalga, Kheerganga, Tosh & Kutla. Booked our tickets for overnight Volvo which departs at 7:00 pm from Delhi and reaches Kasol by 8:00-9:00 am the next day. One thing is important that on the trekking trip you should always pack light or else you will have to struggle with heavy bags.

Rasol

After reaching Kasol, we had our breakfast in Kasol market. The trek for Rasol starts from the Kasol market itself, so we headed towards Rasol by 11 in the morning. The Rasol trek is quite easy in the beginning but gradually the inclination increases and then it becomes tough. The trek is not so long it is like 5 to 6 km from Kasol. The average time it takes to complete the trek is about 2-3 hrs but it took us 4-5 hrs since Raghav was a slow trekker and we decided not to leave him behind. Up there after reaching we already knew where we had to stay, it was Om Bhai Cafe. There were no mobile networks in Rasol. By late evening, the temperature went down and it was all chilling. The first village was covered but we were way too tired obviously because it was the first trek of our trip. We were there for one night and the next day early morning we started trekking down.

Kalga

After reaching back to Kasol market, we hired an alto for Barshaini. Trek to Kalga starts from Barshaini. This trek is very easy, most part of the trek has stairs in it. Here also we knew exactly where to stay. It was the Lost & Found Cafe, Kalga. A guy from Delhi, Anirudh, came here and he settled here only by opening his own cafe. He told us about his journey of leaving Delhi behind and settling up here. He was super chill and a very good host. He made us cheese sandwiches and they were so so tasty.

Kheerganga

Basically, there are two ways to reach Kheerganga, first from Barshaini and second directly from Kalga. So, Anirudh told us that we can start our trek to Kheerganga right behind his cafe. After checking out from lost & found, we started our trek. Kheerganga is not that difficult but it is quite lengthy. It is about 14 km in total. The inclination is normal, and not very tough. Scenic views are awesome on the way to Kheerganga. The whole trek is so green and also a lot of waterfalls are there. Trek is full of pit stops for basic refreshments. We found a camp after reaching there and the first thing we did was the hot water spring. I can’t even explain the amount of relief you get when you dip yourself into the hot water spring right after such a long trek. Literally, you just can’t feel your legs!

Tosh

While trekking down from Kheerganga, we took a different path which helped us to reach Barshaini. We knew we can get cabs from Barshaini to Tosh. There is no such trek for Tosh, there is a proper path to reach Tosh village. There are a lot of famous cafes in Tosh. One of the most famous is the “Pink Floyd” cafe. Pink Floyd is a rock band and in this cafe, they play only Pink Floyd. We had our lunch there and also we were expecting our two friends there – Puneet and Anmol, they came from Delhi three days later.

Kutla

Trek for Kutla can be done from Tosh. So after having our lunch and meeting Puneet-Anmol, we left for Kutla. It was a simple trek but there were 2-3 points where we got stuck just because we went for a shortcut. It took us 2-2.5 hours to reach the camp where we had our tents. Puneet told us that there is a point called “Buddhaban” and it was not so far from Kutla so we decided that the next morning we will do this trek. Raghav stayed in the tent and we all started the trek. Two hours to trek up and hardly 1 hour while trek down. Buddhaban is a very beautiful place, it's like a valley, with mountains all around and wide green fields in between them.

On the same day of trekking down from Buddhaban to Kutla and then Kutla to Tosh, me and Raghav had our return journey back to Delhi. The rest of them stayed for another day. Our return journey was also in Volvo, comfortable and budget-friendly.