Started out on 6th June to cover Lahaul and Spiti via Kinnaur, not knowing the travails.
Two cars A Palio 1.2 and a Maruti 800.
Two families –of three people each.
Thus the team consisted of (from L to R) Sunil, Dipan,Sumeet, Ananya, Ashish and Neeru.
We all had a literally rocking time.
Having spent first the night at Fagu we left, with a short stop over at Sarahan to visit the Bhim Kali temple, for Sholtu to break our journey to the Sangla valley. Sunil fell ill the night we reached so we had to spend two nights here. We started on 9th June for Sangla Valley. We had a comfortable stay of two nights at the Sangla Valley (projected as the best valley in H.P.). A nice quaint place with beautiful view of snow peaked mountains all around. The highlight of this place, however, was our visit to the Kamroo Fort atop the village Kamroo.
And the next day was the visit to Chitkul (from Sangla), the last motorable village in Sangla Valley, Kinnaur which had the “Hindustan Ka Aakhri Dhaba”.
On June 11 we started for Kalpa. This is a beautiful place which has a nice old village and has developed in a very tourist friendly manner. The village remains old and the new structures, mainly hotels/rest houses etc are spread out around the village without disturbing the antiquity of the village. It offers beautiful view of the holy Kinnar Kailash Peaks. Auchtung Guest House, the place where we stayed, faced the Kinnar Kailash peaks, also the highest in the ranges. This is Sunil atop the café of our guest house.
This is the Kinnar Kailash.
A typical old hut of the Kalpa village.
That is Sumeet with the locals at the Kalpa Village
From Kalpa we were to proceed to Pooh on 12th, stay the night at Pooh and then proceed for Tabo, thereafter to Kaza and then go on to Manali.
At Kalpa we were informed by the owner of the Guest House, Mr. Sangrattan Negi that our cars may not be able to pass the Muling Nala to reach Tabo. And in case we are able to cross the Muling Nala and reach Tabo to go to Kaza, the road after Losar to Rohtang was kuchcha, and worsened after crossing the Kunzum Pass upto Gramphoo.
Sunil and Ashish were in a quandary. On enquiry from a driver who had the night before checked in guests coming via Kaza also advised them not to take the cars and that his Innova had been damaged enroute and had vowed never to do this route again.
It was decided, then, that we would leave our cars behind, hire a Tata Sumo, go upto Kaza, return to Kalpa and trace our steps back to Delhi. As luck would have it, with ongoing peak tourist season there was no Sumo available. And Innova rates were beyond our budget. Thus yet another decision was taken by our two men who were also the drivers through the entire rough terrain, that we will proceed in our cars, in case we are not able to cross the Muling Nala then we would return to Kalpa and take it from there.
That done we packed up and started for Pooh on 12th .
This is an absolutely wild nala we came across on our way to Pooh.
Our Palio suffered a puncture on the way to Pooh since Sunil had got extra air filled in the tyres to get a better road clearance, apparently the air measuring guage of the mechanic who had done it was faulty and the tyre actually burst. So that is Sunil, after replacing the tyre and putting the luggage back!
The roads from Kalpa to Pooh were excellent and were being broadened as well. We stayed in the accommodation provided by the army, thanks to some friends here in Delhi. We were looked after very well and Col Thakur, gave our visit a personal touch by inviting us over to his residence. Apparently the conditions here are tough and it is not a family station. Col Thakur also gave us some valuable information regarding the road conditions till Kaza and Manali, which was not encouraging at all.
View of the ranges from our accommodation at Pooh.
I must make a mention at this juncture of the Pooh General Store, which was on the outskirts of this town and was known to stock every conceivable thing from dress material to stationary to eatables to cement to hardware stuff to tyres and the list could go on….. A photograph taken by a phone camera.
OOPS this one is not getting uploaded!
We started from Pooh for Tabo with a break at Nako. Amazing roads and vistas, the movie sought.
Notice the rock cuttings under which the road goes beyond the bridge.
Some pictures taken on the way, just before reaching Nako.
Nako was like an oasis in the barren mountains, an absolutely green and clean village with a pristine lake. And two sights with tented accommodation, one being run by Banjara and the other, right on the bank of the lake by a homely gentlman. We took a tea break after visiting the lake and village Nako.
It was a commendably clean village.
The Nako Village
Local women at the Nako Village
The village as seen from across the lake
We started from Nako, hating to leave it. But soon thereafter, came across the Maling Nala which decides on day-to-day basis whether it will allow the vehicles to go over it or not. It has apparently never allowed a road to exist on it.
Some pictures…
Ashish here is trying to steer through the Nala
Ashish in the picture above succeeds….
And both the cars have successfully steered through.
The Muling Nala closed down the day after we crossed kyonki woh bilkul baithe gaya tha with no hope of crossing over for the next month or so, so we had no choice but to come back via Manali. Bye the way the army sources tell us that it is closed till today!
Pictures enroute to Tabo.
We reached Tabo in the evening and checked into the Tiger Den Guest House. This place has a monastry which completed 1000 yrs in 1996, very serene and quite place, good food and decent accommodation.
The Tabo Monastry.
Next morning the POA was to reach Kaza after visiting the Dhankar Monastry.
We came across this herd of Yaks and mules, all black, on our way…
The Dhankar Monastry
One with the locals at the Dhankar Monastry
On the way to Kaza we found many road blocks due to the reasons as in the following pictures
Reached Kaza, pictures from the edge of the village…
So here it goes - PART II
This place was too chaotic after Tabo, though we enjoyed some very good meals and it was good to loaf around in the markets. This place also has a petrol pump, stated to be the highest retail outlet (of may be Indian Oil)!
Next morning we geared up to do the difficult bit of travel ie Kaza to Manali with a stop over at the Kye Monastry.
The beautiful and majestic Kye Monastry.
Some pictures on the way to Kunzum Pass.
The Losar Village.
It after this village that the road conditions deteriorated and were just kucha, at times with difficult nalas. We came across no car, only Sumos, Innovas, Scorpios, trucks and buses on the way, were categorically told by many people coming from the other side that our cars will not be able to make it, but I guess Gods were with us that day. It was cloudy, though it did not rain except when we reached the Rohtang Pass. Not being sunny and bright meant that there was relatively less melting of ice and lesser water in the nalas!
The Kunzum Pass was beautiful.
And the “roads” we traversed in pictures, I don’t think I need to say more….
We made it to Gramphoo and to the Rohtang La …..And we did it!!!
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