We were planned to start from Chandigarh at 10 AM for Rampur Bushahr (Kinnaur), but as we all know plan never works our flight got delayed from Bangalore, after all delay we left Chandigarh on eve at 5. After few km of drive we started getting involved in mountains on the road towards Shimla, we knew there was lot more beauty and adventure to come but we enjoyed this road to the fullest as this was the first encounter of us on curvy mountain roads for this trip(first come first serve technique). Shimla is approximately 110 km from Chandigarh and will take almost 4 hours of drive. We took some small breaks and reached Shimla by 10:30 PM. We stayed for night in Kufri (small hill station in Shimla district) 15 km from Shimla.
When we woke up in the morning we were welcomed by beautiful lush green mountain, freshly blowing wind which strengthen us to keep going further. We had our breakfast at nearby shop and we headed towards our next destination Chitkul ("last village on Indo-Tibet border") 230 km from Kufri. After few hours of drive one of the bike tyre got rip up and we were stranded in between, after few hours of search we were able to find a tyre shop and changed it, we were late already. We restarted our journey and reached Rampur Bushahr and once more bike tyre ditched us were lucky to be in town that time but it was already eve and now to reach destination we'll have to drive till midnight which we all agreed. The roads were good except some bad patches but dangerous specially in night with all that mountainous curves, we arrived at Karcham Dam by 11 PM.
Leave the main road and cross the dam to climb 30 km for Chitkul, we spent few time at dam and started driving up to reach Raksham Valley where we booked our camps and finally by 12:30 we reached camp and was fully tired. The camp guys were very warm and served the hot and delicious food even at late night.
This morning I could say one of the best in my life. Mountains covered with cloud, sound of river flowing at its peak. This is what called beauty of nature, this is what called peace.
We were lost in nature for few hours and then a camp guy brought us back to have breakfast. After we all were fresh we left for Chitkul 12-14 km far from Raksham Valley. We had a tea at a place which is called as "Hindustan Ka aakhiri dhaba". Then we spent a lot of time sitting at the bank of river and enjoy the peace and decided to stay for one more night here.
While coming back to camp we explored few unknown spots and what we found "Dawa Lamu" there, a puppy of ours camp guy who got lost three days before. Dawa means "Chand" and Lamu means "Pari" and we took her to camp played with her lot and did bonfire enjoyed the asterism. We were already in love with the charm of Kinnaur beauty and one can see back of Kinnaur Kailash from here.
I would suggest this camp to everyone as they try to provide everything you want and guys were very friendly and price is also very economical.
We woke up in the morning had breakfast and left for our next destination Kaza 247 km from Chitkul. Kaza, situated along the Spiti river at an elevation of 3,650 metres (11,980 ft) above sea level, is the largest township and commercial center of the Spiti valley. We reached Reckong Peo as it's the main market had lunch and also did some repairment of bikes, it was already 3 pm by then and we started our journey to Kaza now. The roads started becoming tough even though can be termed as good except few Kms of dirt road with stones and also you'll encounter small water streams in between, the mountain started becoming barrren from green. We took a break at Pooh after driving 70 km, but the view and gold plated mountain formed because of sunset forced us to make a break little long. We did some fun for an hour there and with all energy regained left for Kaza.
Our next stop was at Nako to had dinner as the clock was ticking at very faster speed and it was already 9PM. One can visit lake and monastery in Nako but being less on time we moved forward and reached Chango village by 11PM. Instead of going to Kaza we decided to stay here at night to see Tabo monastery.
There we found a cottage with lot of apple trees and just at the corner of river. We stayed there for night and river sound took all tiredness from us.
We woke up early in the morning had breakfast and left for Tabo monastery 40 km from there. The town surrounds a Buddhist monastery which is said to be over 1000 years old.
We entered the monastery after having few clicks and a lady there told us about the history of the town and monastery. We did our lunch here and started our journey for Kaza, we reached Kaza by 1 PM and the first thing we did was to fill the tank as this is the last point of getting petrol before reaching Manali.
Kaza is one such stunning village that is tucked away in a seclusion in Himachal Pradesh. It is surrounded by astounding snow-capped mountains and rough terrain that is smoothened by gurgling streams of river.
I feel like never going from here, we spent 5 hours there enjoying the nature at its fullest.
But being less on time and already behind a day had to left for Chandratal lake which is 100 km from Kaza and will definitely test your skill as a driver. We left for Chandratal by 6 PM which was a kind of stupidity also as we had to cross Himachal highest pass "Kunzum" and it's not very brave decision to cross it during night, because of dark we missed its beauty but we felt it's adventure crossing Himachal highest pass during midnight how many people would have done it I guess very few or none.
The roads started becoming worst and the slopes were very steep and finally we started riding on dirts and stones. We reached Losar village by 10 pm and were stopped at checkpost and got to know that after 10 we can't go to Kunzum. However we requested and had already booked a camp at Chandratal and paid too the guys allowed us that too because we were 10 people.
When we thought we have overcome a problem were proved wrong, roads started becoming more than worst can't call it as a road also, temperature started dipping. We reached the top of Kunzum by 12AM, stayed for a while and left for Chandratal as it was too cold in the night and we were freezing like a hell.
When you will start getting down to other side of Kunzum there is a road going towards Chandratal, move towards that road and 14 km what it would take to be there at the camps. We encountered few water streams in between and one of them was too heavy to cross easily, the flows of stream was very high during night what I felt and the roads started getting more than worst. With all difficulties we finally crossed that stream with our shoes wet and legs freezing.
Finally we were at camp by 2:30 PM, the guys cooked food for us till then we enjoyed the nature gifted to us and after dinner went to bed.
We woke up early morning had breakfast and went for lake, lake is almost 2 km from camps and after a while you'll have to hike for a km to reach lake. The name of the lake originates from its crescent shape and is at height of 14,100 ft. There one can feel that there is something lies beyond beauty. We all were stunned seeing the lake and felt all our hard work to reach here was worth it. We spent few hour of time clicking photos and getting lost in nature.
We came back from lake by 1 PM and started our journey for Manali, which is approx 120-130 km but will take 7-8 hours. We again took the road to Kunzum pass and started going down, we stopped at Batal village and had our lunch and continued our journey, we heard a lot about this batal-gramphoo road being one of the worst and dangerous road in the world but it was more than that. It is not even a road, it is a dirt with stones lot of water crossing one being the toughest to cross (chota dhara) and river flowing along with the road. And again one bike ditched us and got punctured. It was in eve 5:30 PM and to get it fixed either we had to be back at Kaza 100 km or leh-manali highway. But suddenly we saw two trucks coming and loaded that bike in truck and started for Manali again and this was the toughest of road I have ever faced, chota dhara was way to difficult to cross but that difficulties bring the adventure and we were ready for that from the beginning. After all this bump we reached Chhatru and took a break had tea and was not having any courage to go, but heard that the road is going to be better after few Kms as we'll hit the leh-manali highway we continued our journey. And finally! finally we were on leh-manali highway by 10 PM and was feeling like heaven but there was Rohtang waiting for us to be welcomed. To make thing worst, it had started raining, once the rain stopped we headed towards Manali through Rohtang pass, and I came to know that not being the highest pass compared to Kunzum, Khardungla and Changla why still Rohtang is dangerous, it's fogg came all of a sudden and visibility became very less and driving with such low visibility was very tough and we were very conscious for every curve and at one point it was such less that we couldn't see anything 10 mts far from us, so we stopped and started waiting for foggs to get clear. After half an hour foggs cleared out little bit and we resumed our journey and finally reached Manali by 3 AM in the morning.
It was kind of a little tired journey but it's beauty will make you forget all, I'll always remember this journey and got courage to travel more and more and do more adventures.
Hope you'll like it and for any doubts regarding the trip plan can mail me at itsnishant22@gmail.com.
