Renuka Lake, Nahan, Himachal Pradesh

Renuka Ji Lake

I was craving for a weekend getaway for quite some time and then just a phone call to my friend made it possible. I always love planning my holidays and with help of reviews from other travelers on TripAdvisor, I decided on Renuka Ji lake, Nahan in Himachal Pradesh.

Destination was around 260 Kms from New Delhi which I anticipated around 10 hours journey as we will have kids along, my son and my friend's daughter. We planned to leave early in the morning at 5am to avoid traffic, but as always, I was running late and finally we left at 7am in the morning and picked my friend, his wife and their daughter. After struggling with school buses on the way and office goers, we finally touched NH-8 and my car was more than happy to fly.

I continued ignoring the requests from my friend and my wife to stop for breakfast as I wanted to cover maximum stretch while the road was empty but had to stop soon when I looked at my wife's eyes turning red. For the sake of my life, I stopped at the road side Dhaba at Karnal which served yummiest Aloo Paranthas with yogurt and butter. We ate till we were full and then with few burps, it was time again to hit the road.

I enjoyed the driving while my wife, my friend's wife and the kids went to sleep in the back seat. Soon, my friend also went into the nap zone and I continued to enjoy the drive with my sunglasses on.

As we took a turn from Kurukshetra towards Kala Amb on NH-73, weather changed and it started to drizzle. By that time everyone was up and I turned up the music and enjoyed the view of green fields around.

We crossed Kala Amb and hills surrounded as we entered Nahan, a small town situated on a hill top in the Shivalik hills, overlooking green belt. We had booked a hotel in Nahan for a night stay to explore this small town. We checked in to our hotel around 2pm and after lunch we relaxed for a while and went exploring the laid back town.

We went to Pakka Talaab and Rani Tal where locals usually spend their time and enjoyed munching Chicken tikka and paneer tikka while it started drizzling.

We returned to our hotel at around 7pm and it was still drizzling and ordered pakodas with cup of tea while we sat in our balcony enjoying the beautiful weather and views. Later that night, we had dinner in our hotel and went to sleep early to get energized next day to our trip further while it rained all night.

The plan was to wake up early in the morning to leave for our next destination, Renuka lake which was two hours journey further from the town center of Nahan. As expected, plan didn't work and we woke up quite late. We got ready cursing ourselves and got ready as fast as we could. It was drizzling as we left our hotel and we encountered slight landslides on our way to Renuka Ji lake.

I drove slowly and carefully until I passed the danger zone and then I started enjoying the drive and rains with music of course. We stopped a lot on our way as the views were breathtaking and during rains, hills did look marvelous, so green. We stopped for breakfast on the way and enjoyed road side food.

Finally, we reached our destination and stopped at Parshuram Tal which is right beside the Renuka Ji lake. According to Purans the Renuka Teerth is considered as birthplace of Lord Parshuram, the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The view of the Parshuram Tal is spectacular surrounded with hills. There are a lot of fishes in the Parshuram Tal and we also spotted a turtle. We fed some food to the fishes and turtle and then after my wife was done with her poses and photography, we stopped at Renuka lake which was just 2 minutes away from the Parshuram Tal. Renuka lake and Parshuram tal are both connected as well which is considered as divine meeting of Lord Parhuram and his mother Renuka Ji.

Parshuram Tal

We parked our car inside the hotel Renuka Ji which is the only hotel available there with the best location overlooking the Renuka Ji lake. The hotel belongs to HPTDC and is well maintained property with pretty basic rooms.

Renuka Ji lake is 672 m above the sea level and is the largest lake in Himachal Pradesh. If you see the lake from a height, it looks exactly like the profile of a lady lying down. Legend has that Renuka Ji jumped from a hill after an argument with her husband and the place where she fell, turned into this huge lake.

The Renuka Ji lake attracts lot of local tourists with religious beliefs and to cherish the beauty of the place as well. Boating facility is also available in the lake.

As we reached, we were mesmerized with the beauty and the peaceful surroundings. We relaxed in the lawns of the hotel and enjoyed hot tea with cutlets. We went for a walk in the evening exploring quiet and peaceful area.

We returned back to our hotel and relaxed in the lawn overlooking the beautiful lake and shared the good old memories of our previous trips. Soon it was dinner time and we went to the hotel's restaurant and ate our tummy's full and then went for a short walk before we ended our day.

Next morning, we woke up quite early and after the bed tea, we got ready for the breakfast and checked out of the hotel. We planned to visit the small zoo surrounding the lake. The entry is free of cost and you can walk all around or you can take your car to the zoo with a nominal fee. We preferred to go by car considering we had kids along and it was quite humid. We spotted leopards, bears, lion and deer. It was a nice experience but it was getting quite hot and we had to leave soon.

We bid Goodbye to the beautiful Renuka Ji lake and Parshuram Tal and fed the fishes once again. We did hope to see the turtle once again and waited for a while but he didn't show up. As we were about to leave, we spotted him coming towards the edge and said Goodbye to him as well.

 As we were returning to our car, we did some calculations to see how much did this trip cost us, we were amazed to see how much we have saved, especially on hotel booking which we did through coupons we were able to grab for Makemytrip from Cuponation.

My car was ready to fly again, fly towards home.