Day5:

I woke up and decided to take a stroll towards the lake again in the morning.

The lake from the hills of other end:

Sheep Grazing:

Camp Site:

They say best time to visit the lake is morning, may be between 7 to 10 when the calmness, the serenity will touch your heart, you will be absorbed into the perfect tranquility. There is no wind and the famous Chandratal mirror forms, morning visit is a must to this magic lake, see why:

Had the prayer flags been missing, the lake might have gone unnoticed, such a perfect mirror it was:

Spiti River Gorge:

Road to Kaza:

Amazing Landscape Continues:

Kungri PWD Guest House:

Day6, 7 and 8:

We just drove through the remaining part of Spiti to Kinnaur to Kalka while taking 2 nights halt at Kalpa and Narkanda before catching the Kalka Mail on 3rd Night at 23:55 hours. It was uneventful long drive, more to avoid the messy and unpredictable Rohtang Pass and here are few snaps when I look back.

The journey through Kinnaur:

Narkanda Forest Rest House:

Shimla with Monsoon Clouds:

Previous: Himachal Pradesh – Gramphoo, Batal, Chandratal

The End

Day4:

Now the most wonderful part of the journey began from Gramphoo onwards as we took the left fork and started moving towards Batal via Chatroo and Chotadhara. The mountains and landscape start turning barren gradually as we crossed Chotadhara. Batal is a place infamous for chill and wind. From here after couple of km of road towards Kunzum pass there is a left fork on motorable road that would take you to Chandratal. The interesting part is we stopped at Batal for a cup of tea at chacha chachi’s shop but there incidentally we came across a couple of bikers who told us specifically that there are 4 tents this year in Chandratal, out of which 2 are 4 km away from lake where as other 2 are just 500mtrs away. When we enquired more a gentleman sitting aside told us, he could take us to one such camp which is close to Chandratal. Now when we started chatting, we found he was none other than Jamaica of BCMT who is very active in Spiti forum. So good friends found, we proceeded towards Chandratal through a narrow road keeping Chandra river at your left. You would acknowledge the height when you reach Chandratal as every step would make you feel tired especially if you are not well conditioned in that height. Next what we have seen, experienced couldn’t be expressed in words, at least beyond my vocabulary, so let’s stop talking and put some snaps to share with you all.

Landscape started turning Barren, approaching Spiti:

Wild Flowers in August:

Another lovely landscape:

Unstoppable Chandra River:

Typical Spiti Scape:

Road towards Chandratal:

Loneliness:

Trek Group coming from Baralacha:

First Glimpse of the Magic Lake:

Meeting the Nomads, they were supposed to start their 2 months long journey to Dharamsala by another couple of days:

Warm welcome with a cup of hot tea:

Magic Moments with the Magic Lake:

Life is a box of chocolate or a pack of ….. 🙂

What an amazing background to have a snap:

The pretty dog:

Magnificent Vista:

Previous: Himachal Pradesh – Pangi Valley, Pattan Valley, Lahaul Valley, Journey from Killar to Khoksar

Next: Himachal Pradesh – Chandratal, Kunzum Pass, Kungri, Drive Back to Shimla

Day3:

We knew that a wet weather system would set for 14th and 15th in the region and mentally prepared for a wet day ahead. It was as expected started with showers and visibility was quite low.

We have progressed 550 odd km in such a terrain in 2 days, a good achievement.

The more we progressed through the narrow gorges of Chandrabhaga, with low visibility and absolute remoteness and surging Chandrabhaga deep into the gorge, only word to describe the ambience was Mystic. Driving an hour, you won’t find a vehicle from opposite direction, so much was the loneliness. Suddenly the silence broken when we found couple of people around a HRTC bus stopped in the middle of the road. We enquired and found it was a punctured tyre and they never thought at that hour any vehicle could come from opposite side, so stopped the bus in the middle and started changing the tyres. We were frustrated but really didn’t had any option other than waiting for almost an hour.

We resumed our journey and it was really a fascinating drive across one of the loneliest road in the country, Waterfalls all around, clouds playing in the sky, little drizzle all the time made the whole journey really memorable.

Chandrabhaga Gorge:

A Waterfalls across the road:

Mystic Valley in other side:

Raging Water flowing across:

The Scary Road goes on:

The Waterfalls on the other side meeting Chandrabhaga through a glacier:

The valley widens as we approach from Tindi:

Then we faced another blockade just few km before Udaipur. It was a raging water crossing, simply scaring, locally known as daldal nala. You see and decide what you call it, water crossing, falls, river whatever but never can be a road. Big stones pulled in the force of water making it impassable even for bigger vehicle like HRTC Buses. A lone dozer was the only hope but somehow it was not starting, Now we started getting nervous. The dozer guy was frantically looking for a spanner to start it and to our luck, somehow our driver Vinkal had it with him. The dozer started after a try of almost 45 mins and started to clear the boulders and stones to make it passable.

There it is:

A closer look:

God always gifts us some wonderful moments whatever scary situation it is, see the smile, it gives you courage even in difficult situation:

The lone dozer is trying at its best:

Vista opened up more as we hit Lahaul Valley on Leh – Manali Road:

The Khoksar PWD GH in the evening:

Previous: Himachal Pradesh – Crossing Sach Pass to Killar in Pangi Valley

Next: Himachal Pradesh – Gramphoo, Batal, Chandratal

Day2:

Nothing much to write as this day was to feel the nature in various form, initially lush green Chamba, then slushy and muddy upward drive from Bairagarh to Kalaban to Satrundi and finally to the Sach Pass and then killer drive to Killar, never have seen such a steep gradient while getting down from Sach Pas to Bogutu. A complete change in weather, mountains, rocks and everything around you would surely mesmerize you once you cross this mighty pass. You might redefine what remoteness is once you cross this section. I have a dream of going to Killar – Kishtwar one day but this awesome journey from Chamba across the Pangi valley would remain in my memory for long.

The road till Bairagarh is tarred and you will enjoy the scenic Chamba all along but after Bairagarh things would start changing. It was before 10km of Kalaban, suddenly the road got vanished and we started realizing why so many traveller consider Sach pass so challenging. Vinkal being a very expert and efficient driver really made a mess and finally it was the local contractors who got us out of the trouble. At least 10 people pushed the car from behind and one got into driver’s seat and next 40 seconds was a thriller, we were stuck for almost half an hour and it was a great relief once we crossed the section.

The road from Satrundi towards top was rocky rather than muddy but the wild flowers around you would cast a magical spell, I have never seen so much of wild flowers, may be August was good time to see the flowers but that was an experience hard to forget.

The moment we crossed Sach Pass, blue sky and gorgeous sun gave us a warm welcome as we entered the rain shadow region, few challenging water crossing, few tense moments with rock falling and few unnerving moments of driving took us to Bogutu where we had tea, but at 5.00 in afternoon with bright sun at top, we felt the chill of Pangi Valley, couldn’t stand in open ground, it was so windy.

The road at this end was blasted from sheer rocky terrain and the colors of the deep canyons were amazing. Few waterfalls straight on the road made it more thrilling, we were tired and finally reached Killar around 7, another 12 hours of journey. We booked Killar PWD which was excellent, I have stayed many HP PWD but this one along with the one in Sissu stands out. We were very tired but the caretaker of the GH couldn’t arrange food as he was busy in entertaining some Govt Babus. We had our dinner outside and quickly retired for the day.

Few moments as I look back:

It’s all very soothing green until you reach Bairagarh:

The distances from Bairagarh still a good 77 km away from Killar:

The road from Bairagarh to Satarundi:

Wild Flowers are Amazing:

Everywhere wild flowers:

In the middle of Ice Wall:

At Sach Pass:

Remoteness at its best:

Other side is NOT always green:

Lone Ice wall:

Waterfalls will greet you at every bend:

Free Car Wash, see the width of the road:

Amazingly colorful rocks and kudos to them who blasted a road here:

Ohh My God, I don’t know why you are taking my snap?

So Sweet:

Grazing on Glaciers:

Killar PWD GH – another Must Stay:

Previous: Himachal Pradesh – Kalatop

Next: Himachal Pradesh – Pangi Valley, Pattan Valley, Lahaul Valley, Journey from Killar to Khoksar

Last time in 2010 when I visited Kinnaur, Lahaul and Spiti around June, I missed going to Chandratal as the road was closed. The road to Chandratal usually gets open in July middle and usually gets closed between end September to first week of October. The road between Batal to Chandratal is scary enough to drive in couple of places and it’s quite risky to try it in too early or too late in the season. The other road which is just a trek route exists from Kunzum top to Chandratal but that’s too steep yet short and quite risky to try when its snow bound in early season. So I promised to myself to be back in this circuit again but probably in a time when approach to the lake is more likely to be opened. My objective was to camp a night near lake and those whoever visited this place surely know how difficult that is even in the peak summer months, as the places is surrounded by all high Chandrabhaga peaks and Barasigdi glaciers. It’s the sheer wind chill that makes you feel terrible since afternoon, that’s a typical Tibetan weather with high wind, tremendous chill and abrupt drop in temperature once Sun is down. So for me the best possible window to try to Chandratal was August. Now as I already visited the region two years back, I thought of making an over ambitious plan of adding Sach Pass and Pangi Valley and entering the circuit from Chamba region, traverse through Pangi Valley, Pattan Valley, Lahaul Valley, Chandra Valley, Spiti Valley and finally through Kinnaur Valley coming out to Great Indian Plains and all these in flat one week. Those who are not aware Sach Pass is arguably India’s most difficult motorable pass to cross through. The driver we decided to go with was our trusted Vinkal who drove me in my last Himachal trip. We call this as Grand Tribal Circuit of Himachal.

 The itinerary and plan was as below:

Day1 – Chandigarh – Journey to Khajiar – Stay at Kalatop Forest RH
Day2 – Khajiar – Tissa – Bairagarh – Sach Pass – Killar – Stay at Killar PWD GH
Day3 – Killar – Udaipur – Tandi – Sissu – Khoksar – Stay at Khoksar PWD GH
Day4 – Khoksar – Chatru – Batal – Chandratal. – Stay at tent
Day5 – Chandratal – Kunzum Pass – Losar – Kaza – Tabo – Stay at Kungri PWD GH
Day6 – Tabo- Kalpa – Stay at Private Accommodation
Day7 – Kalpa- Narkanda – Stay at Narkanda Forest Rest House
Day 8 – Narkanda – Kalka – Board Kalka Mail at 11.55pm

This log is primarily be a photologue as in my earlier report of Kinnaur-Spiti-Lahaul, I covered most of the places in details.

Day1:

Our route was as below for first day:

Between Baddi and Nalagarh NH21A is a shame for anything called road forget about NH. As we did it by hired HP Car which doesn’t have permit to travel through Punjab we had to compromise on our route, else for approaching Kalatop I would always prefer through Pathankot – Dalhousi route any day.

Surprisingly we found the section between Swarghat to Jalwaji via Bhakra was extremely scenic and very few cars you would find and a good opportunity to embrace nature while you drive. One of my best drive in HP. In Bhakra we had a lovely breakfast with alu-parotha watching the dam just opposite to us.

From Shahpur (Point E) road became drastically bad for 20/25km which I would surely avoid if I go next time and would try taking Shahpur – Nurpur and then go up towards Lahru. In this stretch we were stopped by locals and advised not to proceed as we saw stones were coming down from mountains pretty regularly. But we were so tired after 2 days of train journey and 400km of drive, we took our chances and passing through live land slides rather than making our route any longer.

Meanwhile I called up Harsh for Kalatop’s exact location but for some unknown reason, the live road atlas somehow got confused Kalatop with Patnitop and frantically trying to rectify our route by asking us to move towards Jammu as soon as possible Later he realized we were following exactly his Sach Pass trail and helped to a great extent as he always does. As per advice form Harsh we took the Jot route from Lahru and that was really a heavenly experience, visibility was almost touching zero, we got another Sumo ahead of us who tried his best to give us side so that we could overtake him, but we are too determined to follow his backlights. That’s the best you could do in such a low visibility and in so much of a winding road.

Kalatop’s location is awesome and I would certainly return there again to stay for couple of days, not sure when that will happen as this wish list keep on increasing but never I get a chance to visit a place second time. It’s within forest area and if you have plan to visit try reaching Kalatop check post by 5.00pm. We were late and we had troubles in finding the person in check post to give us an entry there.

Some memories as I look back:

Lush Green Chamba District covered in Mystic Clouds:

He is too kind to allow me to take a close shot:

Famous Khajiyar Meadows but visibility was poor due to evening approaching and it was quite clouded and raining:

Sunset from Kalatop FRH:

At far side, lights are on in Dalhousi:

Kalatop FRH – a must stay:

Next: Himachal Pradesh – Crossing Sach Pass to Killar in Pangi Valley