|| K.LEADER DESK
Doodhpathri or “Valley of Milk”, situated 40 kms from Srinagar is definitely an unexplored place in Kashmir. If you plan to visit Kashmir sometimes, you should take a little time off to visit this beautiful and enchanting place. You will certainly love the green meadows, pristine environment and serenity. It takes about an hour from Srinagar by cab. A river cascading down the pebbles is a walk of 5 minutes from the parking. You will definitely meet sphered who will be keeping a watchful eye on his flock grazing on the verdant meadows and some cattle and horses.
A river cascading down the pebbles is a walk of 5 minutes from the parking. You will definitely meet sphered who will be keeping a watchful eye on his flock grazing on the verdant meadows and some cattle and horses.
On reaching river, you can soak your feet on the clear and icy water. God, it felt like my feet was frozen and numb for a second. As, the place is quite secluded, you can rent a tent and set up a camping station. There are a few shops which serve hot and mouth watery omelettes, Maggie, Kashmiri tea and coffee. The best thing to enjoy here is the ride on horses to the bottom of snow covered mountains and trekking. The best time to travel Doodhpathri is between May- July as the weather is pleasant and preachy. The temperature varies between 10-15 degrees during this time. The approach to Doodhpathri is still not easy.
The best time to travel Doodhpathri is between May- July as the weather is pleasant and preachy. The temperature varies between 10-15 degrees during this time.
This probably why it is still not crowded by tourists and is relatively a secret place knows only to locals. We even found a lot of young Kashmiri boys delightfully surprised that we had managed to visit the place when they had not done so yet! An uphill mud road through a pine forest lazily crawls up in a snake like pattern for about 3 kms. This walk, for me, was an absolute delight. The air was fresh and smelled of the forest. Being a city bloke used to polluted air, I felt I was in heaven! The view from the top was just amazing. But the valley was not yet visible. We kept trudging along chatting along a flat road at the top.
The road winded around a corner and there it was!! An expansive flat land covered with grass which seemed to give way to the end of the world! We ran towards the end of the flat land and started hearing the music of the downhill streams. There she was. The valley of Doodhpathri. White and Brown and Green. Shining. Hidden. Mysterious. Divine. We loved it! The Valley of Kashmir still holds many beautiful secrets. One of these is the Valley of Doodhpathri near Srinagar. We went there this May.
The snow caps on the surrounding mountains had still not melted. The floor of the valley was still covered with snow. The snow on the slopes surrounding the valley had however melted and was now covered with lush green grass. The magical colour play of brown mud, shiny green grass and pure white snow looked enchanting!
The approach to Doodhpathri is still not easy. This probably why it is still not crowded by tourists and is relatively a secret place know only to locals. We even found a lot of young Kashmiri boys delightfully surprised that we had managed to visit the place when they had not done so yet!
