Spiti Road Trip : A Journey to the Trans Himalayas

When I got Spitified; my first longest trip ever

Visiting Spiti didn't only fill me with an inquisitiveness towards travelling but also pushed me a bit to step out of my comfort zone for a full complete week and taught me the importance of present moment in life. Spiti Valley was not just a trip for me, it was my first ever experience leaving the treeline behind and enter the barren lands, where you will only get to see huge and daunting mountains made up of just "sand", irkingly!

I started off from Shimla and made my first night stay in Sarahan. Passing through the curvy and some bumpy patches I reached in the evening. Sarahn is a village settled in the foot of Shrikhand ranges standing atop and sometimes taking a blanket of clouds on itself.

This place holds a special place in my heart as it is being visited by me and my family every year till now just to seek blessings from Goddess Bhimakali, making this place even more nostalgic for me.

Next day we moved towards Kinnaur and it was just like entering the place I had just studied about in books and articles only. It was my first time riding through the roads of Kinnaur. Kinnaur is a beautiful region in its own. The road carved through a tough terrain sets an example of intellect and hard-work. These roads are not ones where we can touch the speed of 70-80, a good pace of 40 - 50km/h is apt for driving with some good driving skills. The road was dramatic enough passing through the pine and cedar forests along the feet of surrounding rocky big mountains making every turn a jaw dropping one. The daunting Rocky ranges in the region can be captivating enough for a serious rock climbing junkie. The big cracks going up from the base of rocky mountain to the top of the pinnacle gives a brief description of the type of the rock. Passing through the feet of these ranges we reached Chitkul and the whole bumby and curvy ride was worth for this quaint view. Once taking a small tea break, I crossed the bridge and stepped down close to the gushingly flowing baspa river. Sitting at the bank of the river on any accessible boulder to soak into the serenity of the place is surely a thing to be done in the village. For a beginner in travelling, this moment will stay somewhere quietly in a corner of my heart. The air in Chitkul is little piercing coming straight from the snow laden peaks around, making the whole environment chill and cold. This village has been ranked for having the cleanest air in whole India, being another reason to attract people from all over India. Chitkul being the last village on the Indo - Tibetan border makes it remote on its own, leaving it with pure and mesmerizing culture.

Next day as I came out of my tent after getting ready, a random dog came towards me wagging his tail as if he has been waiting for quite a long to see me, and he sat down to have some belly rubs and after playing with him for a while I munched on my breakfast and went on to reach the destination I have marked for today. I started towards Tabo village and as there was quite lot of places to be covered in between, a careful pace has to be kept while driving.

Later travelling for quite two hours, I stopped at Khab Sangam. It is a worth watching confluence of spiti river coming down from spiti side at the right having blue turquoise water and another stream originating from a small lake known as Rakshas Tal right beneath the Mansarovar Lake in Tibet. If you stand at the starting of the bridge right before crossing it, you can see a tapered peak standing behind the rocky cliff, it is the highest peak of Himachal Pradesh, Mount Reo Purgyl. It makes it view clear once you reach Nako and this 6816 metres peak marks it's firerceness blatantly behind Nako village and can be accessed from there.

After taking a stop at Khab Sangam, I drove towards Nako village. Nako village shows vibrant budhism influence with obstruct architecture of budhist style houses with beautiful aisles passing through them. There is a monastery in the village having historical significance in Buddhism. There is a lake in the village that freezes during winter time and becomes a good spot for ice skating and in summers boating can be done in the lake.

After having lunch and a small acclimatisation walk in Nako, I headed towards Gue monastery, the link road to gue diverges before Tabo and is a 8km drive from the main road. There is a 500 year old mummy in Gue village placed inside a newly built monastery premises. Gue village is pretty close to Tibet borded and sometimes the digital gears around us shows the timing of China on them. Gue village has few houses and the roofs often remain covered with Yak skin getting dried in the sun for various survival purposes by the locals.

Further, again coming back on the main road I starting moving towards Tabo, and the terrain was blatantly changing with spiti river flowing on my left side. You can see huge towers of mud on the way, known as earthen pillars. It is believed to be formed after soil erosion under snow, giving rise to these peculiar yet attractive structures. After reaching Tabo, the sun was at the horizon seems like bidding goodbye for the day and signalling me to take some rest and end my day too.

Early in the morning I freshen up and took a walk towards the monastery and it was worth starting the day with such peaceful and heart warming vibes. Tabo monastery is a world in its own, once you enter inside the monastery, a different kind of positive energy peirces into your heart and soul every moment making you grateful for choosing to visit this place. It is a monastery standing here from 2nd Century and that has witnessed the world changing by being unchanged itself. This is now being protected under ASI and is being maintained by the monastery committee with great care and interest. In Tabo, there are few meditation caves that were being used by monks in the old time for meditation purposes. Later, collecting the beautiful vibes from the monastery, I started to move towards Kaza and on the way I visited Dhankar monastery, it used to be the old capital of Spiti kingdom, and a monastery built between earthen pillars marks the main attraction to be here. There is a hike near the village that can take you to a serene lake, that is pretty untouched and takes 45 minutes to reach from the village itself.

Moving ahead towards my destination I reached the subdivisional headquarters of Spiti Valley, the town of Kaza. It a small town with all the basic amenities available around for the survival of a humankind. Kaza is a hub to stay and to access some unique landmarks situated here in the spiti valley. From Kaza, one can easily access Key Monastery, a learning centre of situated at a pinnacle, making it a unique kind of formation. World' Highest Post Office, Hikkim and World's Highest Road connected to a motorable road, Komic can be also accessed from town Kaza. Also while on the way to visit hikkim we can visit Langza, the fossil village in this region of the Trans Himalayas. Many other small villages can be approached from town Kaza, so a stay for atleast two days is considerable to visit every worth visiting spot. This time I visited these popular ones, but next time I'll be stepping into the innate remoteness to dive into the pure feeling of serenity and tranquility. Spiti gave me a chance to feel what the real meaning of quietness can be. I was being there from place to place but my soul was like surrounded by a constant wave of serenity, in a real sense to call myself "spitified".

Next day, I moved back to Reckongpeo to step into the lap of Kinner Kailash ranges, in a secluded small village called Kalpa. Kalpa is a destination that offers an immense number of opportunities to capture the colour changing Kinner Kailash ranges, as the rising and setting rays of sun, makes the ranges look like one of a scenic views, and call me an opportunist, I had all it gave.

It was more than just a trip, it was a beginning of a new love in my life, the love towards seeing new places, meeting new people and gathering stories from new places, one at a time.