Gatecrashing The Paradise Called Sangla

Lush forests, pristine rivers, lofty mountains, quaint villages and a colourful culture—Sangla Valley is a land of unbridled beauty.

- Gustasp and Jeroo Irani

Had we gatecrashed Paradise, we wondered, as vistas of unrelenting beauty unspooled outside our car windows. And, over the five nights that we were in Sangla Valley in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur district, ennui did not set in, for each day, more compelling panoramas would unfold. We had arrived there from Thanedar in Shimla district, after a long and spectacular journey studded with mountainscapes that would give the Swiss and French Alps a complex. We had driven along ravine-hugging roads that looked like spider webs as we climbed higher and higher into the mountains which resembled the clenched fists of a mighty boxer.

Finally, we pulled into the Banjara Orchard Camp and Retreat in Sangla Valley where the Baspa river, the colour of liquid cement, rushed down from the mountains as if it had appointments to keep and provided an engaging soundtrack through the day and night. The camp is located at 2,700 m above sea level amidst apple orchards where shiny apples hang low, tempting one to pluck a few and bite into their juicy depths. Comprising Swiss-style tents, riverside cottages and a charming stone and wood house, the Banjara Orchard Camp and Retreat was a heavenly getaway in a sleepy Himalayan hollow.

Nearby, wild flowers bloomed in shades of yellow, lilac, magenta and the ephemeral Himalayan Rose blushed in crevices while forests of pine scented the air with an astringent fragrance. Meadows unscrolled below lofty peaks and a glacier projected like an impudent tongue between the cleavage of two mountains. Bonfire evenings thawed the chill in our bones. We could not help but exhale multiple exclamations of “Wow!” from the time we set eyes on this magical valley.