My neighbouring family taunts me that I never go out with them and I go out alone. This time when I got some time before Diwali, to avoid their taunts, I told them that let's go out this Saturday where we will all go camping. They were as excited as they were disappointed by my talk. On asking, I came to know that they did not have a tent and sleeping bag, which I resolved by going shopping with them where we bought a tent for them and also sleeping bags and mattresses.
It did not take much time to find the location, the neighbour already knew that we would all go to Bhadraaj Temple. This temple is located in the Himalayas in the north of India. This temple is located at 2215 meters on the outskirts of Mussoorie region of Uttarakhand, which is also known as Devbhoomi. The road distance from Dehradun is 50 km, motor vehicles can go up to a certain limit, after which there is a walking distance which I do not know yet.
I have never been to this location so this will be my first experience. We have decided to go by scooter so we are 4 adults and 2 children...we have some bags, tent and sleeping bags with us which we set outside the scooter and in the scooter's trunk and leave by 1 pm. I think it should take us a maximum of 3 hours to cover a distance of 50 km and thinking this we board our scooter.
Before Sahastradhara we have to reach Mussoorie road which takes 30 minutes, we get a little jam at the turn of Max Hospital. From here the road is wide and well built, now the scooter is running at a speed of 40. Because now the hilly path has started so the speed of the scooter has reduced further, on moving ahead the climb has started which will now continue till Mussoorie top due to which the speed has reduced further. Now I feel that we will be late by the time we reach our destination.
2 adults and 2 children are sitting on one scooter while on ours, I and 
Well, despite all the challenges, we manage to reach before Bhadraaj temple complex by 06:30 pm. I find a nice and clean place in the forest and set up the tent. It takes me about 30 minutes to set up 2 tents alone. After setting up the tent with the children and luggage, we go to the big forest to collect wood. By 07:30 pm, we manage to collect wood. Because according to the weather department, the minimum temperature here is going to be 4 degrees, so we had to collect more wood.
By 8 o'clock the fire is lit, on which we make tea and eat the parathas that we had brought from home after heating them. The children are also sitting in the dark and watching the stars in the sky with great enthusiasm. This is the neighbors' first experience of camping and they are enjoying it in the jungle and are also afraid of wild animals. I explain to them that I have done research and there are no man-eating animals here, so we should not be afraid.
No one sleeps except me, when I feel sleepy at 12 in the night, I go into my sleeping bag and sleep and wake up at 7 in the morning when the sun is rising. As soon as I wake up, the first thing I do is pack both the tents and light a fire and make tea. After having tea and breakfast, we load all the stuff on the scooter again and move towards the temple which is hardly 2 km from here.
Because the road is broken and there are deep potholes, we park the scooter a little below the temple. Now we all are walking towards the temple. We enter the temple premises after taking off our shoes at the temple gate. It is good that it is sunny today, otherwise my nose would have started running at this height. The temple opens at 09:30. Pandit ji comes and worships Bhadraaj Bhagwan and gives us prasad.
After taking prasad and blessings of the God, we spend some time in the temple premises after which we decide that we should go back now, otherwise it will be evening by the time we return. Well, let me tell you about the temple that it is dedicated to Lord Krishna Balram because they did penance here for many years. The height here is 2215 meters and a lot of snow falls here in winter. I would like to come here sometime in winter.
On the way back, we have to walk several kilometers with the scooter because the climb is so steep that the scooter is not able to climb it. It takes us about two and a half hours to reach George Everest Road from where we now have to reach Mussoorie Mor. We stop on the way to have lunch and then again start on the scooter. After reaching Mussoorie Mor, the scooter is moving at a fast speed because there is a descent from here and the road is wide. We reach home by 4 pm. So this was our journey which started with the neighbors and ended by taking them camping.
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from canon 77D and edited in lightroom, post thumbnail created in adobe photoshop.
[//]:# (!worldmappin 30.47986 lat 77.95223 long To the Temple and Beyond: A Family's Journey to the Hills (Bhadraj Temple, INDIA) d3scr)
