My Stay at Hail Himalayas

I recently stayed at an adventure camp Hail Himalayas on their invitation from 6th to 8th January and what a great start to 2014 the three days had been.

Hail Himalayas, Katnalu Creek

The Hail Himalayas camp site is located in Katnalu creek in the district of Shimla in Himachal Pradesh at an altitude of about 4000 feet. For reaching there the nearest train station is Kalka. To reach beyond Kalka one has to take a detour from the Chandigarh-Shimla road at Kandaghat and go towards Chail and at Sadhupul (about 12 kms from Kandaghat) leave the metallic road and take the dirt track for about 4 kms to reach this as yet mainly unexplored area.

Tented Accommodation at Hail Himalayas

The camp though has only tented accommodation but it is very luxurious and the tents have all amenities like a starred property. I had a comfortable double bed with good and clean sheets and quilts as well as blower.

Attached Bathing & Toilet facilities in the Tent 

There are tea kettles with tea and coffee sachets in the tents which is a boon for heavy tea drinkers like me. The attached bath had hot and cold piped water.

Artificially Created Waterfall & Water Channel at Hail Himalayas

The camp organizers have put in lots of effort in  using local material as far as possible in making this camp. They have even created artificial water channels and mini waterfalls within the camp site. This water is sometimes diverted to the panchakki (watermill) to grind the wheat etc into flour and when not required then it forms the waterfall.

Delicious Himachali Food at Hail Himalayas

I had some of the best Himachali food here in recent years including the needle soup and Alam, a spinach like food, Khatta Aloo, Himachal style prepared Rajma, chicken etc. The food was like home cooked food – tasty and light.

The camp has ziplining, valley crossing, and rappelling facilities and can be made a base for short moderate treks to long tough treks. The area could become a bird watchers paradise as I saw several birds in this region for the first time. In my short stay I was able to do two short treks but the details of that would be in another post.

Hail Himalayas at night

As there is no other settlement nearby you do not hear any mechanical sound but only those of chirping birds and of the water gushing by in the creek flowing next to the camp site. The nights are absolutely marvelous as you do see so many stars compared to the habitations near towns and cities.