Before I start the log, some credits, Special thanks to anup sir for Info and Tau for encouragement and yeah Tanveer sir for contacts of genuine mechanic for sorting out the issues in the car.
The plan for a holiday was there in our minds since our fully loaded family trip previous winter which was limited to lower heights due to 8 people in our Omni(2 family together).This time just we 3 wanted to do this, after so many ideas, suggestions and confusion(online/offline). I booked up HPTDC The Hatu, Narkanda and Kinner Kailash, kalpa and nothing for Sangla/Chitkul.
Day 1- 2nd October 2008:
As per the plan we left early at 4.30 am, just half an hour late from the actual departure time. No waste of time in tanking up as it was done previous night, with almost all the things planned (except for the last day accomodation). First 125 kms were pretty quick, crossed Karnal by 6 or so, thanks to the new flyover at Panipat and relatively zero traffic on Karnal bypass and Ring Road. Didn’t feel like stopping at Zhilmil because we had just started to enjoy the drive and weren’t tired/hungry at all.
Must be close to Three digit speeds, pic taken by sis.
Racing with the Train, I lost
Next point was Ambala which we reached pretty early 7.45 or so. Kept on driving at 80-90 km/hr despite not so smooth NH-1, NH-22 from Ambala was awesome, newly laid and just so smooth that I couldnt resist driving at 80ish speeds and touching three digits twice.
Even after reaching Zirakpur there was no traffic, I was surprised as Panchkula, Kalka and Parwanoo were completely empty, we were happy as there was no traffic, but we were clueless about the real trouble coming up.
As soon as we crossed to Himachal the trouble began, the roads were broken and uneven till Shimla and when we drove through the bypass the real mess began, bad roads, no roads and terrible back breaking roads. Reached Narkanda by 4 PM, earlier we had our brunch at Giani Dhaba, Dharmpur. Tanked up the car before Shimla.
Saw the Kalka-Shimla train so cute..
The train was pretty fast or was I busy taking pics, donno!
My Dear Omni..
First stop after pathetic Shimla bypass
Lost in Fog.
Freshened up and relaxed at the hotel lawns till late evening. The views were nice and was very soothing sitting outside, sipping tea and having tasty pakoras and cutlet after that 12hr back breaking ride. Slept early as we had a very long drive the next day to kalpa.
Day 2- 3rd October:
Early morning start from Hatu.
Got up early and were ready by 8 am, confirmed route details and road conditions in the hotel and drove to Hatu Peak. The road was seriously fun to drive on and took sometime to reach the PWD-RH at the top. The engine did stall twice due to late gear change but managed well. Spent some good time there and clicked some pics and visited the temple there and started our journey towards kalpa.
Hatu peak view
Narkanda-Rampur was in excellent condition with minor landslides on the way, had our brunch at HPTDC Rampur and tanked up at Rampur itself.
Satluj River
River again
Now the real fun began following the Satluj river the roads were mixed bag of good and bad, then came the pathetic dam construction site, Wangtoo-Karchham portion was non-existent and more time wasted in covering this part of NH-22.
Waterfall on the way..!
Beautiful as well as BAD Roads..
Our Companion
Turbulent river
After close to a km from the last bridge after the dam site, the BRO/CISF people suddenly stopped us as they were clearing up the landslide which occurred sometime back. I reversed in order to save my poor car from any damage, now as soon as they clean up the rocks more rocks came down on the road. In sometime the whole hill portion came down on the road with very huge rocks which took close to 2 hrs to clean up. Thanks to these people was the road was completely blocked if they hadn’t worked on it we would have to return back. HUGE line up of Cars, Buses, and Trucks. It was completely dark by the time we reached Powari, the drive to Recong Peo and kalpa was incident free and both of them were scraed as nothing was visible except where the headlight reached. Took sometime to locate Kinner Kailash as we couldnt find any one for directions. Chose our room, luggage parked and dozed off to sleep after dinner.
Time majorly wasted in Landslide site due to work and Traffic Jam that occurred after the road was opened.
Day 3: Kalpa
Day 4-5: Kalpa - Chitkul - Shimla - Delhi
More Photographs
