Apologies for the delay. Got caught up in some work.
A little background
I am your average guy in his mid 20's, just finished with his studies and now looking forward to joining the corporate world. What differentiates me from others is the love for the mountains and open roads.
This trip was my first proper step towards realizing my passion to travel.
Initial Planning
The planning for the trip started with 3 people, but eventually jumped to 7 at the start of the trip. Final dates decided were 13th to 16th June. While deciding for a destination, all major hill stations were excluded as mid-June meant that all mainstream destination were out of consideration due to ongoing summer vacations. While going through countless searches on the internet, I found myself on the home page of BCMT, and eventually to this beautiful place Chitkul. So the destination was finalized and a rough itinerary was prepared. Advance hotel booking was made only for the first night halt at Rampur and we set off for the last Indian village, Chitkul.
Day 1
Delhi to Rampur
I started off from my home in South Delhi at around 03:00 in the morning, picked up a friend from Dwarka and met others at GTK Bypass at around 04:00.
Sunrise around Karnal.
Stopped for breakfast and to freshen up after Ambala where this pretty lady welcomed us.
First view of the hills.
We took a different and less travelled route. We turned toward Chail from Solan, and joined the NH-22 highway after Kufri
Some views enroute.
The roads were not that good.
Stopped for bio-break and a photo session.
Finally Reached Chail at around 12:00.
As we reached Chail, the car developed a problem, the steering had gone hard and it had become very difficult to drive. We somehow managed to park the car and tried to figure out the problem, we found out that the power steering hose had come off and all the power steering fluid had drained making it difficult to turn the car. We asked around for some help, but couldn't source required fluid in Chail. Finally a local guy came forward for help, he said he could bring the fluid from a nearby town for a few 100's over the oil cost. Having no other option, we gave him half of the money he asked for and told him he would get the other half on coming back.
He agreed and told us it would take him around 2 hrs to bring the oil. This gave us time to explore around the town and to rethink the current day's itinerary.
Strategizing and waiting for tea and pakoras.
Exploring around Chail
As soon as we got out to explore, the clouds opened up and it started raining heavily.
Finally the guy arrived after the rain stopped and gave us the oil. We thanked him, paid the balance amount, refilled the oil and were on our way. It was already 03:30, so we pushed a little hard to make up for lost time.
Enroute Kufri
Finally reached Narkanda at around 06:00 PM and we had another 70 kms to go for Rampur. The sun was still shining and it looked that we still had around an hour of daylight left, so we decided to head to Hatu peak.
Approaching Narkanda Town
Enroute Hatu
After a pretty scary and difficult drive of 45 mins, we were at Hatu peak.
Hatu peak. Not me BTW,
Temple of Hatu Mata
The view from the top was breathtaking...
Wildlife
The whole team
The sunset from the top was majestic.
It was beginning to get dark quickly and we were way behind our schedule. We came down to Narkanda, had yummy dinner at Himlaya Dhaba and proceeded towards Rampur. Finally reached Rampur at around 10:00, checked into Hotel Rampur Bushehar and called it a day.
Last click while coming down Hatu.
waiting for more....
