Five days in dreamy Dharamsala

Dharamsala is an extraordinary place. I've just arrived in Delhi after spending five nights there, which feels a little like returning to an office after a week's holiday. An escape into the mountains feels like a fever dream when you are back in the real world.

I covered two games at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, and spent far more time than I had envisaged writing about the outfield. I walked across it a couple of times and, in my view, there is no way it was fit to stage a World Cup match - but you are probably not here to read any more about that.

Instead, let me tell you about what Dharamsala was like away from the cricket. On Sunday morning, I hopped in a taxi with Simon Wilde of the Sunday Times and Tim Wigmore of the Telegraph which climbed up some of the most treacherous roads I have seen in my life: barely wide enough for one car, let alone two.

We were dropped at Gallu Temple and, armed with some bananas, chocolate bars and a few litres of water, we set off into the hills, following the arrows to Triund. A couple of hours later, we emerged at a campsite at the top of this trek, 2875 metres above sea level and with stunning panoramic views of both the Himalayas, and the towns below.

Simon has been travelling overseas to cover cricket since 1986 - he has toured almost every winter since 1996/97 - and wrote the book on England tours, in the literal sense. And yet he still rated this as among the most memorable experiences of his winters away, not far behind whale-watching in South Africa. If the pictures do not do it justice, that should tell you how good the views were, during and after a long hike.

We raced back down as we tried to make it to England's afternoon training session on time, though were thwarted by a wrong turn which added more than half an hour to our journey. My phone tells me I took nearly 27,000 steps in the day - no wonder I was so tired later that evening that I fell asleep while watching Arsenal play Manchester City from my hotel, waking up to see my group chat celebrating our late winner.

On Monday, after training, we took the cable-car at sunset from Dharamsala itself to McLeod Ganj, the bustling, touristy hub above the town. The most popular restaurant, McLlo's, was filled with cricket fans, and has its walls plastered with photos of celebrity clientele: Virat Kohli, Ravi Shastri, MS Dhoni, Kapil Dev, Pierce Brosnan … and, err, Mitchell Swepson and Matt Renshaw.

Our plans to visit the waterfalls were thwarted by the fact England played Bangladesh on Tuesday - cricket getting in the way, once again. But after the game, I had time to return to the cafe I'd found on my first night, Yellow Llama: home of delicious momos and mango lassis. Both nights, I was one of only a handful of customers - and found myself watching a Pakistan game, along with the front of house and two waiters.

If the HPCA Stadium is most famous for its views, I will remember it mainly for its idiosyncratic media entrance. The drop-off point for taxis is the gate of a series of government colleges, and members of the press find themselves walking among students, past horses and through a playing field to reach Gate 3. It sums Dharamsala up: beautiful, chaotic, unique.