The place
A side valley where the road ends.
The Tirthan is a side valley of the Beas at 1,600 metres, where the tarmac stops and the Great Himalayan National Park begins. Apple country, trout water, and villages that still keep their wooden temples.
The land
A river you can hear from every bed
The Tirthan runs two hundred metres below the house, cold and clear, with a path along it that goes eleven kilometres up to the park gate. Deodar and oak above the house, apple and walnut below, and in the right week of May the whole hillside is in blossom.
The village of Nagini is a hundred houses and a temple, five minutes down the track. The park beyond it is the home of the western tragopan, which you will hear and almost never see; the walk to the first ridge is a long morning, and we pack it.
The food
From the garden, the river and the village
Breakfast is included and long: eggs from the neighbours, apricot jam from our own trees, siddu steamed the way the valley makes it, and as much coffee as the morning needs. It runs until eleven.
Dinner is one menu a night, ₹900 a head, told to you at breakfast so you can say no to the trout. Rhea cooks; the vegetables come up from the terrace garden, the rajma and the rice from the village, the trout from the river when it gives. Everyone eats together at the kitchen table, or alone in the room if you would rather.
The seasons
Open from March to June and September to January
We close for the monsoon, when the road is not to be trusted, and for a month in deep winter to mend things. Each of the four seasons we are open for is its own place.
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Spring, March to May
Blossom on every terrace in April, long light, the river loud with the melt. The walks open one by one as the snow goes up the hill.
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Summer, June
Warm days, cold water, the shade of the deodars. The one month the river is for swimming, in the pool below the mill.
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Autumn, September to November
The clearest skies of the year, apples coming off the trees in October, walnuts on the terrace. The best walking, and the busiest weeks.
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Winter, December and January
Snow most years from the middle of December, the stove all day, the valley quiet. Bring the warm layer; we bring the second blanket.
