Road-trip, road-trip, road-trip, it was howling in my head. I shared my thought with TT and she jumped the gun. "Lets do it somewhere difficult and remote....WOW". So the deal was sealed.
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| Snow walls and the track we made |
Google and more google, revealed Ladakh and Spiti as the contenders. After having spent a cumulative of almost 5 months in Ladakh =, it held few surprises for me and so Spiti it was. Not much time in research, just some calls and basic route charted out. Scorpio readied up. Tent, rations, woolens, tools, spares all loaded and we were off within perhaps 5 days of deciding.
Day 1 was from Delhi to Mashobra, with the routine stops at Karnal and Chd
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| Willow bank bakers at Shimla |
. At Mashobra we checked in to Club Mahindra and retired to bed early, expecting a longish drive tomorrow.
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| Deepam just after Mashobra |
Day 2 was from Mashobra to Kalpa. Soon after Mashobra the tree cover became more dense and the road was good till the JP dam site, where the road simply vanished and all was a cloud of dust. Enroute to Rampur we saw a few landslides and also an overhang rock feature of the road that lasted for almost 200mts.
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| Overhanging rocks on the highway |
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| Route to Kalpa |
At Rampur we topped up on the fuel and filled up our spare jerry can as well. Headed for Reckong Peo. The drive from Peo till Kalpa was a continous ascend and beautifull. At Kalpa we stayed at Golden Apple Resort and it was bang in the midst of a orhard.
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| view from golden apple |
The windows had a view of the Kinner Kailash and green all around. By contrast the HPTDC hotel was much bigger, better located but so poor in quality and hygiene that you could almost smell the food eaten a week before.
With the chill in the air we had some great food with My Rey and a sound sleep. Next morning I went off for a walk to Roghi village and a little ahead to their grazing grounds.
Met a school teacher who took me further to amazing vistas. He was a very informative and hospitable person, he then invited me to his place, served some tea and biscuits.
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| Kinnauri house in Roghi |
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| Route to Roghi village |
The whole family had a heart rendering warmth. They even gave me some walnuts from their tree, which were so soft and creamy. I promptly hid them in my pocked for Deepam, and headed back to Kalpa. Later in the noon after giving a thorough clean up to our car in the stream, had a fitful sleep under the clear sky and cool noon breeze.
Later we headed off to Jaka,
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| Trekking to Jaka |
a longish hike to a lake in the high meadows. The route was spectacular with some amazing views of the Kailash. I vowed myself to come back to summit Kailash some day.
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| Kinner Kailash |
Next morning we made an early start and headed to Kaza. Soon after Peo the road deteriorated and landslides became a common occurance. With some apprehension and more of excitement we carried on.
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| Landslides gallore |
The landscape became bare and brown. Had a stop enroute at a well stacked canteen and filled up on some last minute shortages. Here we met a school teacher who was going to Nako and as the bus was not plying he wanted a lift.
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| Precarious bride crossing |
With two of them and two of us we moved on. Crossed the inner line check post and the route came along a deep gorge where a broken down truck was causing some obstruction to traffic.
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| Entered Spiti |
Soon after there were loops, very similiar to Gata loops, with the landscape now turning almost lunar. After the loops the teachers got off and we moved on. It was noon by now and Nako was no where close. But we were hardly bothered and were having a great time. Then we were hailed down by two tourists who pleaded for a ride as there had been no bus since last 2 days. We obliged, but as soon as they said that were coming from Kasol our antennae went on high alert. Immediately I braked and enquired if they were carrying any drugs, which they assured was not the case. The route became more steep and narrow with the cliff becoming more severe. An interesting incident happened at the check post of Spiti where we were supposed to stop and make an entry. They presumed we were drivers for the forigners and when we explained we were helping them, exclaimed that perhaps we were trying to fight an election from here :)
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| Gateway to Nako |
Soon we crossed Nako, then Tabo (dropped off the travellers) and moved on to Kaza.
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| First views of Kaza |
After Nako we crossed the ill famed Malling Nallah without any issue but it was scary, with the movement of the car triggering some fall of mud and rocks.
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| Ant hills ??? |
At Kaza we had no prior booking as we never knew how far we shall reach, saw a few places and homed on to Sakiya Abode. Plomked in our luggage had great food, very calming and comfortable place. Went off into the monastery and explored Kaza.Met some great people the BNHS group from Mumbai, French seamen, Italian driver, etc. Made Sachin Nugmpa Kangpao our den for pomodero.
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| Chankar from a distance |
Next day off we were to explore Dhankar by a rout meant to be motorable but we went along.
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| Room on the roof of the world |
Next we were off to Ki, I went of cyclying from Kaza to Ki and Deepam came to rescue me back, had a lovely time in Ki.
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| Entry instructions at Ki |
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| From the roof of KI |
A few incidents in the gruelling high alt cycling trip I will always remember, one was when i was literally frozen and rigid , my only liquid and calorie source - Frooti fell off from the bike and I was unable to bend my limbs to pick it up and in slow motion it slipped of the cliff and all i could do was sit and watch and thaw in the sun that had just risen. Also when the down sections came speeds I picked were phenomenal.
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| Kaza by morning |
We came to know that the road to Manali may have opened and being risk takers we decided to move to Manali and literraly open the route for the season. Net day at dawn we were off. The landscape became frost very soon and the last village at Losar was covered in snow.
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| Losar -here we come |
A lama sat in our car asking to be dropped to Kunzum. Least assuring was to see that a sole JCB that acts as a rescue had dropped off its wheel into the spiti river and was immobile. None the less three of us - Ajay (another traveller willing to trust his neck with the two of us in wanting to cross Kunzum to Manali), Deepam and me with the lama started from Losar with Maggi in our bellies.
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| Maggi at Losar |
The road soon was ice and the snow starting to build up. Loosing traction we slowed down and
went more carefully.
The black ice is a killer and we could see water flowing under the ice that we were driving on. Soon the snow which was covering the landscape became 1,then 2, then 3, then 10 feet high. There was no road and no orientation. But turning back never occured to us.
Icicles as long as swords hung on the roads and when we reached Kunzum the gompa was no wher seen only a spire on the top, implying that the whole of it was burried in snow, that must have been more than 15 feet deep and covered the road and all navigation sights as well.
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| Kunzum..spot the chorten and where the heck is the road |
Coming down the Kunzum loops was an expierience never to be forgotten, with snow falling thick, and the snow on the sides piled up to more than 20 feet in each side and no road to be seen and only ice that we were skating on. The brakes were as good as absent as there was no traction, only some engine braking and off roading saved the day. At two occasions we were almost done and over with falling over the cliffs, withing no control what so ever. But perhaps the lama's blessings saved the day. At Chattru had another maggi, and were informed that there again is no road ahead , as its yet under the glaciers that need to be cut by the BRO, so just drive and follow the river. U MUST BE JOKING MY FRIEND i thought, follow the river ??? Holy cow, how can we do that when all that we see is snow , in nut shell we had to create a road as we went.
So we did, at places the walls of snow were more than 30 feet high that we passes through
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| Snow walls and the track we made |
. But we did and when finally we broke through the snow line, it was plain ecsatcy. We got out of our car and exhaled, but we were not the only ones exhaling-our tyres to were-6 punctures,repaired by us in the next 2 hours.while deepam frolicked with the sheep......
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| 6 punctures...self repair in progress |
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| The palampur to Spiti trekking sheep |
Then the ride was good, Gramphoo and then Rohtang. After having crossed no living soul all through the drive suddenly to see a crowd at Rohtang was very unpleasent. Dropped Ajay at Manali bus stand and then searched for a place to stay, homed on Negi , negotiated a special rate, had great trout and a fitful sleep.
Next day we re-couped in Manali and then carried on to Delhi non stop.
Amazing road trip, in pure terms of snow, wilderness, isolation and scary factor.
The black ice is a killer and we could see water flowing under the ice that we were driving on. Soon the snow which was covering the landscape became 1,then 2, then 3, then 10 feet high. There was no road and no orientation. But turning back never occured to us.
Coming down the Kunzum loops was an expierience never to be forgotten, with snow falling thick, and the snow on the sides piled up to more than 20 feet in each side and no road to be seen and only ice that we were skating on. The brakes were as good as absent as there was no traction, only some engine braking and off roading saved the day. At two occasions we were almost done and over with falling over the cliffs, withing no control what so ever. But perhaps the lama's blessings saved the day. At Chattru had another maggi, and were informed that there again is no road ahead , as its yet under the glaciers that need to be cut by the BRO, so just drive and follow the river. U MUST BE JOKING MY FRIEND i thought, follow the river ??? Holy cow, how can we do that when all that we see is snow , in nut shell we had to create a road as we went.
