Wednesday Walk - Cherishing Old Memories
It has been more than 30 days since the lockdown was enforced here. This pandemic has taken more than 180 thousand lives and the numbers are only increasing. Apart from going out to buy groceries, I haven't left home, let alone taking walks. While there is nothing much we can do about it, we can still revisit old memories and cherish those times when we were free to move around and go wherever we pleased.
I was thinking about going out today to but some groceries and take some pictures for wednesday walk but somehow, I couldn't. I have been to many places in my homeland but I was never really keen to take pictures of the places I visited. I have been asking my friends to share the pictures of the places we visited together and luckily, I have got enough of them.
I recall the time when I visited "Dal Lake" with a few friends last year. I got the pictures yesterday and thought about posting them for wednesday walk contest. It was probably during the month of August when we visited Dal Lake.
This picture was taken when the night was approaching and it was dark everywhere. The picture was taken on the shore of Dal Lake. The view was absolutely splendid and it was very calm at that moment. There is a two-way road at the shore but due to "Hartal", not many vehicles were passing by.
We reached there at around 6 pm in the evening and nature greeted us with a beautiful rainbow. As you can see in the picture, it had rained and the road was wet. At this time of the year, rain is followed by a rainbow mostly. The rainbow added to the beauty of Dal Lake.
The lake is divided into two parts, known as "Bod Dal and Lokut Dal" in Kashmiri which means big lake and small lake respectively. There are two small islands on both these lakes, Char Chinari in Bod Dal and Sona Lank in Lokut Dal. Tourists are often seen visiting Char Chinari in Shikaras(houseboats). There are plenty of houseboat hotels on the other shore of the Dal where you can stay and enjoy what nature has to offer.
Walking on the shores of Dal Lake is a memory to cherish in itself. The lake is spread over a vast area and you have to walk 10 miles from the starting point to see the end of the Lake. There is a small food park, known as Makai Park on the opposite side of the road. The barbeque of that park quite famous in the whole Kashmir. Wen went there to taste barbeque and continued to eat until our stomachs gave up. I haven't tasted better barbeque anywhere and on top of that, it is very cheap.
The skies turned gray again and it started raining. We hustled back to our car and left for home but not before we had spent quality time to be remembered for years.
The best time to visit Dal Lake is summer as during winters, the Dal Lake freezes and you can literally walk over it. The temperature drops below 10° celsius in the month of January. The Mughal emperor, Jahangir, had built a few gardens on the shore of Dal Lake. The most famous ones include Shalimar Bagh and Nishat Bagh. These gardens are flooded with tourists during summer.
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