History of Karol:-
The tibba is famous for its ancient Pandava times stories. A mysterious Pandava cave, the destination of the trek, is hard to reach. Some trekkers took 3-4 attempts to reach this magical cave because of the dense forests in between. It is believed that this cave exists from the time of Mahabharata, the Indian epic. The cave is believed to be the longest and deepest cave in the whole Himalayas. Its one end is in Karol and other closing end is in Pinjore, 47 Km away from Solan. Some scientists carried out an experiment in which they poured some colored water at the Karol opening and found the water rushing out in pinjore through other end. This confirmed the length of the cave. It is believed that the cave has some magical powers and one has to remove all the leather items from body before entering the cave.Journey starts:-
6 Kms from Solan on NH 22 comes a village called Chambaghati. You can reach Chambaghati by bus or auto from Solan. There is a narrow lane in between some shops that goes uphill towards Karol. This is the starting point of the trek. Me and my two other friends started our trek from there right at 11 am. On that day, we were alone who were trekking to that mountain. We started climbing the steep mountain with our SLR camera to take pictures of the scenic beauty. Within first half an hour we were so tired that we were unable to feel our legs. Up the hill, there comes Jarash village after a trek of about 2 hours, last village of that mountain.
Jungles of Karol
Jarash Village
Reaching the cave was itself out of the world experience. Temple’s caretakers told us to remove our shoes and leather items from our body before entering the cave because of its religious entity. We tried entering the cave but unable to go more than 20-25 feet inside as it was dead dark inside. Some big bats flew towards us right from the inside of cave and we ran out of there totally frightened.
Some people say that the cave is magical and if someone after consuming alcohol or non-vegetarian stuff tries to enter the cave then he/she will surely disappear inside. We filled our bottles with the chilled and clear water and asked the caretakers to guide us the way through jungle. They gave us a few hints for finding the way. For your information, I want to say that the place is literally a labyrinth.
Magical Pandava Cave
One should take help from the locals otherwise you will surely mislead your way inside the jungle. Also, you must have to reach the city before darkness because it is impossible to stay up there at night due to presence of wildlife over there.
Trek Ends:
On our way down the forests, we found some traces of some wild animals faeces. We were totally horrified again. Somehow, we managed to find the correct way through jungles and by 5 pm we reached the Jarash village.
Then we had a sigh of relief. We took some pictures of the astounding beauty of mountain belt. We reached Chambaghati by 6 then boarded a bus directly to Chandigarh for our way back to home. The Karol trek will always be in my memories and I wish to conquer this mountain once again in my life.
This is the best tour on the east coast! It was amazing how many places we visited and what great memories we made!
This was not our first time going to here. It is a great place to shop not too far from New York. We took the bus from Port Authority and traveled through the countryside to get there.
We always stay at here when in town. The location is great, staff is wonderful and we love the overall feel. Beautiful view from the here.
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