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Trip to
Nahan-Renukaji-Rajgarh-Nohradhaar - Ambala
Six students-Nikhilesh S. Chand, Harsh Mehta, Aditya Basu, Sanil Dhadwal, Akshay Jain and
Rishabh Rath submitted a proposal for an eight day trip to Nahan, Renuka lake, Rajgarh and
Ambala.
SCHEDULE
Day 1 |
Day 5 |
Day 2 |
Day 6 |
Day 3 |
Day 7 |
Day 4 |
Day 8 |
We
assembled at the New Delhi Railway Station at 07:15 hours. We left for Ambala by the Kalka
Shatabdi at 0740 hrs. By 10:00 hours we were in Ambala.
We reached Col. Chand’s residence within in 10 minutes. After resting
for a while we left for Nahan, 70 kms. from Ambala at 1145 hours. The beauty of the
heights fascinated all of us.
At 1345 hours we reached Nahan where we were greeted by Havaldar Bhanwar Lal who showed us
our rooms and gave us a brief lecture on ‘the do’s and don’ts’ of
Camp.
Our rooms were comfortable. At
15:30 hours Captain Rathi, gave us some insructions about diving. At 15:45 we left for the
diving tank. All of us climbed to the top of the top of the concrete walled tank and
listened to the whole process of SCUBA diving. Two people demonstrated the process while
one told us all about the apparatus which weighed 17 kg. All of us thought twice about
diving into a 15-meter deep tank with 17 kilos pulling you down. But, when the instructor
told us that due to buoyancy the weight if the apparatus would actually be one kilo!, we
felt relieved. We dived and practiced breathing only through the mouth, even though there
was a clip to close the nose. The water was really cold so diving could be real fun. After
this all of us had a medical check-up. At 2030hrs. we all retired for the night.
Day
began at 0500hrs- we were supposed to report for a warm-up session at 0600 hrs. Since we
were late by 5 minutes we were sent for a round of the entire field as
punishment. After that we jogged along the hilly mountains for a kilometer in the chilly
weather with Hav. Bhanwar Lal to begin the Obstacle course. Here we met two demonstrators
who showed us how to go about this course. During the first obstacle itself three of
us,Nikhilesh, Sanil, and Aditya got hurt while jumping off a concrete bar 7 feet in the
air to what seemed like soft ground. It was followed by the Horizontal rope cross, the
Ditch cross (where Akshay injured his right ankle), the Tunnels, Wall climbing with rope,
the Tyre and Chain Jungle Gym cross, the Steel bar steps cross and finally the Under
Barbed Wire slither.
The horizontal rope cross-comprised of a rope attached to two poles, which had to be
crossed by lying on them in a certain way. The ditch cross is described best by its name.
The Tyre and chain jungle gym was one of the most challenging obstacles. At 0900hrs we had
our breakfast .The next was slithering which was to literally slide down from a helicopter
against a rope with no security below or with a harness. This really frightened us which
and us decide against it. So, we went for rock climbing on an artificial rock wall. It was
fun untill Aditya got stuck suspended 7mts in the air with the harness squeezing out every
living cell out of him!! This was followed by rappelling down a wall before finally going
back to our rooms for some rest. All very thrilling indeed; we ate and retired for the
night at about 2100hrs.
Day
three began on a happy note, as we were to visit the serene environment of Renuka Lake,
which was 45 kms. further up from Nahan. We reached Renuka Lake at 1100 hours.
The fascinating lake thought to be 60 mts. deep was studded with ruby like lotuses and
surrounded with lush green trees and grass. The water was very clean as a result of which
all life was clearly visible like turtles eels and beautiful fishes. It is believed that,
when viewed from a height, the lake looks like goddess Renukaji. Then we set off for a
5-kilometer walk around the lake. At the other end of the lake there was a mini zoo. We
saw bears and lions all at close quarters. All of us were stunned by the majesty of these
benign creatures. The magnificent beasts were let loose in their vast enclosure and unlike
the cramped, half dead creatures at Delhi zoo they were roaring away in glory. Their huge
bodies and beautiful manes stunned us all.
After having lunch we went for boating. After this we noticed some stairs leading to a
makeshift cove where hundreds of fish gathered. We learnt that tourists fed them some atta; this was a thrilling experince, we also fed
them. After this we visited Renukaji temple, which was close by and started for Nahan at
about 1630hrs. After resting for a while we went left for a visit to the town.
We saw the palace of the Sirmaur kings, the artificial lakes; once beautiful but now
filled with tadpoles. These lakes were for the pleasure of the queens. We learnt about the
Gorkha conquest of Nahan and of its troubled history.
After
our historical sojourn and a visit to the temple we started touring the nearby shops. Most
items were of phenomenally low prices; a sari for Rs 40, a blank tape for Rs 20., Songs
recorded on a cassette for RS 2 per song, a tennis ball for Rs 10, a full size cricket bat
for Rs 200, slippers for Rs 23, etc…
After returning, we had dinner at 2030hrs. Just as we retired it began to hail. It got worse when we found that the common door to
the rooms (which was only made of wire mesh) was letting in enough rain to flood the area.
But it was the last straw when we got to know of a leak in the roof! The thunder,
lightening and rain thrilled us.
On
the 5th of May we were supposed to go for a trip to a small lake for water
sports. Unfortunately a major setback encountered us when Capt.Rathi told us that the
demonstrators were not available. Capt. Rathi, gave us two options: either we go for a
40km trek with 30kg on our back or visit a place called The Black Mango Hotel about 17 km
down hill and then relax a couple of hours there before coming back. Not very surprisingly
nobody wanted to trek 40km with 30kg. Thus at about 0900hrs we all set out for Kala Aamb Hotel with swimming trunks in a bag and
10 liters of water! When we reached there at 1240hrs, we were all drenched in sweat. The
long walk downhill made us hot in the head and sore in the feet, more so as some of us
were injured. The only things that kept us company were one person from the cantonment and
the walkmans we had. In the end were all very tired indeed and rested for half an hour
before diving into the small pool. At about 1430hrs we had lunch at the hotel and by
1630hrs we were on our way back to Nahan. We made a call to our parents, which made us
homesick for a while. Thus we all set out to the shops close by to get tokens for our
parents and siblings. We had our dinner at 2030hrs before retiring at 2130hrs.
Day
5 turned out to be the day when we would travel to the highest point in our journey. It
started when we all left for the city of Rajgarh with Hav. Bhanwar Lal. It was a very long
journey as Rajgarh is 8000 feet above sea level. We
reached there by about 1230 hrs. We rested in a PWD guesthouse where we rested for a
while. We reached Nohradhar to find ourselves
amidst a few houses and some shops on a road between two mountains. Hav. Bhanwar Lal lead
the way up a mountain as we began our second trek of the trip, with some of us still
injured. It took a trying one hour twenty minutes to reach the top of the hill but the
spectacular view urged us to move on. Soon it was time to go back to Rajgarh. It was very cold that night but we had ample
number of blankets and clothes to keep ourselves warm.
On
this day we traveled the most by road from Rajgarh to Nahan to Ambala where we were to
stay for the evening. We left Rajgarh at 0900 hours and reached Nahan at 1300 hours. We
took our luggage, had lunch and then relaxed till 1430hrs before we finally bid Nahan
goodbye. We reached Col Chand's house at about 1600hrs. On the way back to Ambala we again
stopped at Hotel Kala Aamb to have some ice cream and play chess.
This
was the last day of our visit and turned out to be one of the most eventful. After having
breakfast at 0730hrs we all set off in a gypsy for the Ambala air station at about 0745
hrs. However there was a problem in getting the permit and for the greater part of an hour
we moved to and fro from the Base Ops (The Command Center of the base). When Mr Prahlad Singh came out with our permits
there was some problem again as the purpose of the visit was written as: PICNIC!!! This
was also sorted out in a little while.After finally getting our permit at 0910 hours we
were lead by Mr Singh to the ATC Centre of the station. It was a small but very vital
component, which took care of all weather situations at the time of taking off, flying of
the landing of an aircraft. There were thousands of instruments to measure various weather
related things.
Later we visited the Bird Killing Department, which is quintessential for the air station.
What we found rather funny was their motto – “Our mission is to kill
birds.” We met Flight Commandant Gokul who first gave us information about the planes
of India, Pakistan, China and the USA before showing and explaining every aspect of a
Jaguar, which was on the tarmac. It was quite spectacular to see the numerous the cockpit
gadgets and the Jaguar taking off and the fantastic streamlining etc. In the background we
could see and hear the booming of Mig-21's, Mig-27's and Mig 29’s, which were taking
off and landing. At about 1200hrs we left for a tank ride. An officer escorted us to the
tank which was in a large field and then told us all about the tank, its parts and its
weaponry system which could cover 5kilometres within 1.7 seconds!!! After all of us
explored the tank a tank driver was called for and we were taken for a 15-minute tank ride
around the field, which had a lot of slush on it. It made a pounding noise and let off a
lot of poisonous exhaust. We decided to leave and return to our respective rooms for a
much-needed rest at 1430 hours, ate our lunch and went to sleep.
At 1630 hours we left for the Army Sports Complex close by for swimming in a T-shaped,
double Olympic sized swimming pool which ranged from depths of 4 ft to 26ft!!! It was
quite a lot of fun even though some of us had cramps and didn’t do much. All of us
returned to our rooms at about 1830hrs. After a little while we decided to leave for a
restaurant Drive in 22 to end our very exciting trip with a bang. It took us 35 minutes to
reach there. We had our dinner and were back by 2230 hours we all had a good meal and went
to sleep.
Photgraphs from the trip
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