Roaming around Tirthan Valley in Himachal Pradesh

The roaring Tirthan river

We lived in Sainj Valley, Himachal pradesh for a year and we have roamed to many wild places in the Great Himalayan National Park. One thing that we understood is that it takes a life time and more than that to see  and experience the Himalayas. We always loved the spring and summer season in Himalayas rather than the winter season, so when we planned for a trek in GHNP we decided it to be the summer season. When we discussed this with our friend Santosh Chetri in Bhuntar, HP  she suggested Tirthan Valley. Tirthan Valley is a jewel in the crown of Himachal Pradesh as it is one of the last remaining wild destinations in the state. 

Everywhere I turned my head it looked scenic. Can you notice the little basket kind of thing hanging in big cables ? It is called  “The Jhula” and it was being used to transport goods between mountain tops. Quite a sight to watch ! There were even Jhulas for people to cross the river and we used one to cross the river and it was something to remember for a lifetime.

It was a long travel to reach Tirthan Valley from South India. We reached Delhi and then travelled overnight in bus to reach Aut Tunnel and then hired a cab to reach Nagini in Tirthan Valley. Generally the Himalayan weather changes drastically and we had seen that in person. A week before our travel there was heavy downpour in Tirthan and we were bit worried about the weather. But when we reached the hills , it was bright and sunny,  infact it was hot. We came to Tirthan Valley to do birding but seeing the alluring Tirthan river we got so relaxed and decided to do casual birding instead of running behind every birds we see.

Nagini , Mungla and Gushaini are beautiful hamlets along the sides of Tirthan river. The Tirthan river is the purest and the most beautiful river I have ever seen in India. The whooshing of water was very soothing even though it was so loud that we couldn’t hear ourselves unless we spoke loudly. We felt like our body was inherently longing for the sound of nature, so we felt the calmness flowing through our body when we stood near the Tirthan river.  To our delight, the hamlets were surrounded by pomegranate, pear and apple orchards. Our delight was heightened when we saw each apple tree bearing hundreds of ripened apples. 

Apples in Himachal Pradesh

A tree full of apples is always a treat to eye and mouth. These apples taste so different from the apples we get in the shops. Once we had a taste of this apple we couldn’t go back to the store apple.

The people in the hamlets were very busy with apple plucking, carrying the apples, transferring it in a jhula and sending it in trucks to the cities. We enjoyed ourselves watching these activities. The village people were kind enough to share the apples with us, so we were also treated with these yummy apples. Another gang who were so happy with the apples were the parakeets. The Rose-ringed parakeets, Plum-headed parakeets and Slaty-headed parakeets were having a feast with the apples.

Usually Slaty-headed parakeets fly high and we cannot see them closely. This time we were lucky because of the apples. They didn’t mind anyone and were fully focused on the apples. The parakeets were flying in flocks and made quite a show.

We stayed in a homestay which was located amidst apple orchards and it had a beautiful view to the Tirthan river. The hot delicious meals they provided made us  to just sit and relax. For once we decided not to run behind the birds and take it easy but it looked like the birds started looking for us. The Striated Laughing Thrush was casually jumping on the balcony rail looking for insects. Verditer flycatcher and Grey-headed canary flycatcher were always on the apple trees. House sparrows and Russet sparrows were making quite a scene by flying in flocks. These sparrows were greedily eating the seeds of the Indian Hemp (Cannabis indica) plant which is commonly seen around Himachal Pradesh. I seriously couldn’t stop laughing and marveling at the energy of these marijuana intoxicated little birds. On seeing the energy of the birds we too pumped up some energy to take a stroll along the river.

The walk from Nagini to Gushaini was very scenic but had to keep an eye on the road as we couldn’t hear any vehicle sound over the roaring river.

As the morning sunlight hits the Tirthan valley, the scenery was mind blowing. The mountains looked bright in green color and the houses also looked very bright.

Along the way we were also keenly searching for the Crested Kingfisher on the rocks and wires along the river. The Crested Kingfisher is the largest Kingfisher in India and can be seen along the streams and rivers in high altitudes. We narrowly missed this bird in Sikkim and during our previous visits to Himachal pradesh.  We couldn’t spot the Crested Kingfisher but spotted plenty of Plumbeous waterstarts who were shaking their tails and wandering on the rocks along the river.

Morning glories were in full bloom. They are common flowers, but they looked quite magical in that scenic Tirthan Valley. Especially when the sunlight fell over these flowers, they were glowing!!

While walking we noticed that the locals were growing corns and other vegetables infront of their houses. Seeing the corns we looked out for any sign of seed eating birds and we saw a flock of munias happily munching away the corns. The munias were the same Scaly-breasted munias who could be commonly seen in South India. We were happy to see them,  but as we had travelled so long to see Himalayan birds we didn’t give much attention to them (Sorry folks, once back to home we will enjoy seeing you building nests and flying around). Then a yellow flock came and they were all Yellow-breasted green finches. These little birds were eating the corns and Indian hemp seeds. When we were watching them happily, we failed to notice a bystander nearby. It was a huge fluffy dog !

Yellow-breasted green finch is a beautiful small yellow bird that can be found in northern parts of India. We were happy to see a flock of these finches flying casually on the crops grown by the villagers.

Wherever we go,  a dog follows us and this trip was not an exception and  we usually “harass” them with lots of photos and long walks.  Some lazy dogs run away if we walk long distances while some are resilient and stay.  In this trip we were greeted by a different dog on each day. We loved walking with them although they distracted us from bird watching and sometimes even chased away the ground birds. One dog was particularly plump and he was following us so closely that we hardly had space for ourselves in the narrow trails up the hills.

The big fat dog was blocking our way in every direction we turned to and we couldn’t run behind any bird without stumbling upon him. Finally we gave up and went back to our homestay to eat Aloo Paratha. Another day, we heard a pecking sound and we were searching for the woodpecker. Then a strong disgusting smell came and I jumped when something touched my leg. One smelly dog who had rolled on some garbage was standing there. I shooed him and he went to Vinod. I maintained a long distance from them and couldn’t stop laughing at Vinod when the smelly dog brought another smelly dog friend.

It looked like the dog was checking where the stench was coming from. Poor Vinod was sitting with two smelly dogs and those dogs tried to rub the stench onto vinod. The whole scene was hilarious and smelly.

By this time we got quite famous in the peaceful hamlet as we were walking on all the roads in Gushaini , Mungla and Nagini. Many local people stopped and asked eagerly what we were seeing and some even showed us birds. The local postman in Nagini noticed us and chatted casually about the local homestays and trout fishing. He was distributing letters to the locals on foot as it was a small community. So we stopped at each house while he delivered the letters and continued our talk. After sometime he suddenly started talking gibberish and we couldn’t understand a word. He laughed at our blank faces and told us he was talking in Pahari language. The local language in Himachal Pradesh is Pahari language and the postman tried to tell us the difference between Hindi and Pahari language. The above conversation looked very animated and comical as we used lots of sign language. We learnt some hindi when we were living in Sainj Valley but by the time we reached the bridge to cross the Tirthan river, we forgot our half baked hindi hearing Pahari language.

There were many small bridges in the villages to cross the Tirthan river. Standing on the bridges and watching the roaring river was one of our favorite past times when we were in Nagini. But in a few places people just used jhula to cross the river which looked very scary and interesting.

As he moved on,  we started our long wait near the bridge in search of the  Crested Kingfisher. The wagtails and waterstarts were jumping on the rocks. On the river edges , Yellow-billed blue magpies were making such a racket that we could  hear them even over the sound of Tirthan river. These magpies are very beautiful birds but when we were living in Sainj valley, a family of yellow-billed blue magpie was living next to our house. So when everyone screams on seeing such a huge colorful bird, we are like “yeah,yeah he is our neighbor”. We just waved at these birds to be calm and continued our search for Crested kingfisher.

After a few days of roaming around in Tirthan and good food , we were contemplating on “how simple life could be”. That evening the valley looked even more beautiful in twilight. We just sat in silence hearing the Tirthan river and watching the vermilion sunset.

Vinod always love sunrise and sunset. In Tirthan Valley he got to see the colorful sunset behind the pine trees. The place looked serene and we enjoyed the colorful painting on the sky by nature.

While we were returning back to the homestay after the sunset, I was searching for owls and spotted the Asian Barred Owlet who was sitting gloriously in an apple tree. He looked so beautiful in the evening light.

We were nearing the end of our days in Tirthan Valley and still no sighting of the Crested Kingfisher. So we decided to walk near the Tirthan river bank for one last time before we enter The Great Himalayan National Park . We went to the bridge and within few minutes we heard the sound of Kingfisher. It was a magical moment for us to see three Crested kingfishers screeching and flying over the Tirthan river. It looked like they went for a vacation to a different place and were now back to home. One sat on a rock, one went behind a tree and one on the wire. We watched the beautiful Crested kingfishers to our heart’s content before leaving the Tirthan river.

The black and white kingfisher looked majestic with his big crest. The Crested Kingfisher loves trout fish, so his favorite spot is on the banks of the rivers flowing in high altitudes.

These are the moments that are worthy enough for the lengthy and tiring travels. Especially in this trip the birds came to us rather than we running behind them. Like the local villagers, the birds also were very curious and came checking upon us.

After seeing the Crested Kingfishers, we were happily hopping around the village while the villagers were packing the final set of apples. The villagers again handed over some apples to us with a big smile (Maybe seeing our expressions at the apples) and we were munching them and waving good-bye to the river and the mountains when a little bird came hopping on the road.

I always love to walk on the roads after rain. In Nagini, we walked when it rained as there was no traffic on the road. The scenery looked more beautiful in the rain and we enjoyed the walk in the rain.

To our amazement it was the Little Forktail bird and it was a lifer for us. It was a little parting gift for us ! In this trip even though we didn’t meticulously search for birds we got few lifers including the Brown Dipper.  It looked like as long as we were in Tirthan Valley the surprises were not going to end. But it was time for us to bid farewell to this enthralling Tirthan Valley and get ready for hard trekking inside GHNP to see flowers and butterflies!! I will soon write about that in another post 🙂