Visited Sahastradhara with my friend and swam in the natural pond

Summer is arriving in the entire Himalayas and when summer arrives, the snow of the Himalayas melts, as a result the rivers, drains and springs located in the foothills of the Himalayas are filled to the brim with water. Sahastradhara Waterfall is included in this series, which is my favorite place in summer. This is a historical and religious place located in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand, here people from all over the country come to bathe in the Shiva temple, Dronacharya cave and the water rich in sulfur and sulfur. This place is just 11 km away from where I live and since summers are here now, I would like to go here almost every day.

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Yesterday evening I and Aarav along with me had made a plan to go to Sahastradhara situated at a height of 870 meters. We watched Oppenheimer movies till late night and when we were supposed to leave at 7 in the morning, we were late in getting up and leaving the house. The summer sunshine is so strong at 07:30 in the morning as if the month of June has arrived. Not even two minutes after leaving the house, some visitors blocked our way, so without getting into an argument, we left them to take a bath in our swimming pool and moved ahead.

Both of us, while walking in the hot sun, see three dogs lying on the road and say 'Hi' and move ahead. We are going towards the bus stop where before reaching we look at the litchi trees and see that all the trees have budded and in the next 2-3 months the litchi will be ripe and ready to eat. We have to wait for the bus for about 10 minutes. Here in Dehradun, electric buses have started running which are said to be very good for the environment, which I also support. In this heat, we are getting a chance to sit in an air conditioned bus with a ticket of just Rs 20. Tell me, what else do we need in this heat?

While sitting in the bus, we are talking that if we leave a little early, we will not find crowd at Sahastradhara and we will also be able to swim with pleasure in the empty pond. 30 minutes pass by while we talk and we reach our destination. After getting down from the electronic bus, we now have to walk about a kilometer to the main pond where we have to swim. This place is in a valley and there is no sunlight yet, but according to the way the heat is increasing, soon the sunlight will illuminate the water of the river. Crossing the only bridge over the Sahastradhara river, we enter the limits of the famous temple “Shiv Mandir”. Here at many places JCB is cutting the mountains so that more hotels can be built. We continue to walk ignoring such developments.

Here we also cross a Buddhist temple named “Dikug Kagyu Buddhist Temple”. There is a big board at the main gate which tells us that on our left side is the Shiva temple and if we go straight we will reach Sahastradhara. As we move ahead we cross the ropeway. Since we have been here before, we did not consider it appropriate to go by ropeway and moved ahead again. By the way, the ropeway ticket is Rs 200 per person. We reached here around 08:30 and the shops in the market are just starting to open.

After crossing Sahastradhara Bazaar, we cross the second bridge here, if we go through this bridge, we will reach the amusement park present here, which is closed nowadays and will open soon. After walking for about 14 minutes, we finally get our first sight of the Sahastradhara river. Here small ponds are made on the local river so that tourists can come and take bath and have fun. Along with the pond, local people have opened small food and snack shops. Tourists eat here and all the locals are living with this money.

We go a little further, a little further to where our favorite pond is. Every time we come early in the morning and take bath and swim here. Around 08:45 we reach our destination, keep the bag we brought with us aside and change our clothes. By now the first rays of the sun have entered the valley and the yellow light of the sun has started taking over the river. Of course the sun has come but the temperature here is quite cold. I am worried that I might feel cold when I go into the water.

All the ponds are empty, both of us quickly take off our clothes and jump into the river. As soon as she entered the water, the river said, “Of course summer has come but my current has not reduced yet”. The water is really very cold. As long as we kept swimming, our body remained warm and as soon as we stopped, we started shivering. To escape the cold, we both kept doing one lap after another. The water was as cold as it was clean. Sulfur and sulfur are mixed in this water and it is said that bathing here cures most of the diseases. I have big hair, so I tie a handkerchief around my head so that the fun doesn't get spoiled while swimming and the hair doesn't fall into my eyes.

When the river is entering from one pond to another, it is forming thousands of waterfalls and that is why this river is named Sahastradhara. Sahastradhara literally means river of thousands of streams. After swimming for 20 minutes, my friend comes out of the river shivering, while coming out he says, “I am feeling very cold and I am going to change”. He changes and in the meantime I sit in the sun and warm myself. When my body warms up again, I'm ready to swim another round.

Seeing me swimming and jumping in the water, Aarav gets excited and he changes and comes into the water again. We swim for 30 more minutes, come out of the river and change our clothes. By now the sun has taken the entire valley under its spell. When we start walking back, we see a shopkeeper filling air in the tire tube. Shopkeepers rent these tubes to tourists for Rs 50 to Rs 100. Here you will also find many changing rooms whose rent is Rs 50 per person.

As we are descending, we are able to see that now tourists have started filling this valley. It was good that we came early in the morning and enjoyed this place to the fullest without any crowd. A shopkeeper was seen taking out the garbage floating in the pond. Saw some tourists having fun under a waterfall coming from the mountain. Now we are hungry so we reach “Jai Bharat Family Pond” located here but seeing no sunlight here we go out from here. The current of the river has cooled us so much that now both of us can even eat fire. Well, soon we sit on the balcony of the restaurant facing the waterfall coming from the mountain.

Sitting here, we eat potato paratha and Maggi with hot tea. Along with tea, we enjoy swimming in the river and watching the tourists having fun. It was very funny to see those who could not swim. People are enjoying their journey by lying on the tubes. After breakfast we go to the bridge and click some photos. On one side of the bridge, many tourists are visible in the river, while on the other side there are some expensive hotels, hence the ponds on this side are completely empty. If you come here to visit and stay, then everything from good hotels to good restaurants are available here. Spending the night at the foothills of the mountain and that too on the river bank is no less than a dream.

After seeing the Shiva temple from a distance, we join hands and start on our way. Just walked for one kilometer and forgetting the current of the river, my body started getting drenched in sweat. To get relief from the heat, we drink cold soda which is called 'Banta' here. After getting divided, we cross the bridge over Sahastradhara and reach the bus stand where the electric bus was standing ready to start. Without wasting time, we board the bus. Again after paying the fare of Rs 40 for two people, we take 2 tickets and return to our home by 12 o'clock.

So this was the story of our trip to Sahastradhara river where we had a lot of fun swimming in the summer. I hope you enjoyed reading this journey and seeing the photos. Let's meet friends soon, till then take care and have fun.

Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to tranlate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from android poco f1 and edited in Lightroom/photoshop.