Wednesday, October 23, 2013

OUR TRIP TO THE TROUBLED LAND OF KATHUA-J&K.

Since we are stationed at Jammu city presently, my whole idea is to go round to every corner of J&K state during our tenure. This time we thought of a straight drive off to Kathua from Jammu city. This place generally doesn't feature in ones itenary ,if willing to visit J&K. But , to me, every corner of Jammu & Kashmir is just picture perfect .Kathua is some 80kms from Jammu city down towards Pathankot.
    Since , except dhabas,having food becomes a problem as one travels by road across the state, we thought of packing our lunch along + snacks.... Our target was JASROTA WILD LIFE SANCTUARY & UJH BARRAGE... The main places,as we drove off ,was SAMBA, HIRANAGAR, DAYAL CHAK to mention a few..... after, we reached JASROTA,from the highway ,we took the turn towards left into small narrow bylanes towards Jasrota wild life sanctuary..... Its quite a few more Kms drive thru' jungle roads...soon we could locate the UJH BARRAGE from the top of mountain roads amidst dense jungle.... We just wanted to go upto the waterfront at Ujh barrage.....but we were really having tough time to find a road to reach the location ..... Our SUV just helped us to drive thru' bolders/muds/jungles ..& ultimately we were there at the sight..... R. Ravi...blue sky & the beautiful Kassh flowers ,just made a beautiful scenary of the landscape. We walked across the barrage lock gate to the other end & now the Jasrota sanctuary was standing tall infront of us;We were more busy watching various types of birds , standing on the top of the barrage lockgate....After sometimes, we just wanted to find some good location  in the sanctuary to munch our snacks/fruit juice; Oh, the monkeys are on...waiting to have their share...................... After that we started onto our walk across the Bird watching zone..........................The walking area is somewhat restricted  with fences...... It was almost lunch time & we thought to finish off our lunch.... Our friend had a small oven to prepare soup & so-o the lunch was spreaded...... amidst dense jungle; What a romantic way to enjoy a good life.... River Ravi/Ujh barrage infront ... amidst Wildlife sanctuary ,a plate of Rajma-chawl,Vegs. & soup...... Next we tried the fort there & later a visit to Samba fort in ruins ,before we returned back in the evening.....
The view from the Ujh barrage.


R. Ravi.

Jasrota Wild life Sanctuary.