It's a known fact that one of the biggest joys of living in Delhi is getting out of there. Leaving town makes Delhiites happy, so much that they honestly like the city for a little while, after they come back.

This is especially true in summer. To get some time outside the capital when the weather is - to use an euphemism - unbearable, people are ready to try out any possible combination of the words weekend, out, town."People," in this case, includes us.

In normal conditions, we would not jump on a bus in the middle of a Friday night, direction somewhere in the Himalayas, and drive for about ten hours knowing that the return trip will begin no later than Sunday early afternoon. But nothing is normal about the conditions of a Delhi summer, so we decided to get over our prejudices on things like bus trips and outdoor clothing and joined Escape Delhi on one their adventures.

After a night of driving we reached Rishikesh, then our bus climbed up for a couple of hours more and arrived at the Mercury Himalayan Explorations Adventure Resort in Chamba, Uttarakhand. Or, in other words, a camp in the middle of nowhere. A camp, yes, something else we wouldn't normally try. 

But - guess what - we had a great time. We ate delicious food. We're talking about wholesome organic vegetables, grown right by the camp in Darbar Farm: vegetables that tasted like vegetables, we had almost forgotten what that meant. We explored the surroundings and, if you'll forgive the cliché, spent long moments taking in the view and the (fresh!) air. We had time to read. To do nothing, and very slowly. The big city seemed (and actually was) so far way.

There was a campfire at night. It was beautifully chilly. We got up to watch the dawn and overheard someone trying to convince someone else not to get married, over the phone, as the sun came up. Then we went back to bed.

The tents were clean and the beds comfortable enough (it's camping afterall). But the pillows were made of stone, so next time we'll bring our own.

It may not be something we'd do every weekend, but the trip to Chamba was exactly what we needed to come back to Delhi, make peace with the city and embrace its merciless summer.