Road Trip to Spiti – Himachal Tribal Circuit

Road Trip to Spiti – Himachal Tribal Circuit

Road Trip of Himachal Tribal Circuit

It was mid night. I opened my eyes, my vision still blurred for not being completely awake. I could only find darkness and could only hear the sound of the fluttering tent, which after mixing with expeditious winds was creating a Cacophony that was ringing continuously in my ears.
A little headache kept coming and going and pinching, sometimes low, sometimes hard.
Even at this hour, I was worried of something and what was that?? What if it snowed. I heard those people talking amongst themselves “Aj Baraf Giregi” as the weather was turning inclement. And if that happens our plan gets hammered not to be revived anytime soon and this dream journey comes to an end right away. We have not gone through all this, fought with our friends, went against everyone just to come this far. What if someone of us is hit by AMS??
Well !! Chuck the Stupid thoughts !!
Suddenly I realize that I want to pee. And Boom!! My heart shattered into pieces thinking of the courage that it would take to go outside in a freezing temperature like this. I avoided and tried to sleep like that only and I succeeded. The same thing happened time and again. Finally at around 04:00 hours it was uncontrollable. Again the same thought!! Who will go out?? I have to get up, wake 2 other people sleeping there, crawl and cross them, wear a jacket and shoes and then go out.
Suddenly I was hooked by a new thought. Who switched on the light?? I could strongly remember the guy saying us to switch it off as it is charged by Solar energy and we need to save it. Yes..!!! There is no doubt about that we switched it off before going to bed. Then I touched the quilt, it was wet due to the frost. What is going on here??
Finally leaving all the thoughts aside and gathering some courage, I had to go out to relieve myself. Within no time I was back in my bed and was fast asleep. It would have been the quickest leak of my lifetime.
When I got up finally, Sun was up and shining brightly outside. Got up from my bed, went outside and the view I could see cant be described in words. It was a new day, sun shining bright, barren mountains & the snow covered peaks, 360 degrees of sheer beauty.
Really Wish if the time could have stopped there!!

Teaser Post
Feb 2014
A friend gets engaged
His bachelor is planed
In short span.. more friends got engaged.. Turned out to be 5-6 friends’ bachelors!!
15 friends in all…
Goa Trip… Finalised..
Long Weekend.. check
Leaves at office.. for most .. approved
Air Tickets.. Done in April
Villas at Goa.. Search On!
Sep 2014
One night’s discussion and…!!!
This happens
Some Teaser Pics –
Rohtang, Spiti Valley and Kinnaur Sep-Oct 2014

Day Zero-Day One; Friday, Sep 26th 2014-Saturday, Sep 27th 2014; Gurgaon-Delhi-Manali-Solang
With all the preparations done, we were ready for the journey. The plan was to leave at 10PM in the night and reach Solang by next afternoon. But we got late in leaving as one of our companions had to come from Pune and his flight got delayed.🙃
Finally we could leave at 12 Midnight. The progress was good till Una post which we took a wrong decision to take a detour in order to avoid the bad stretch and heavy traffic at Bilaspur. However this detour cost us more than 3 hours extra😢. Finally we reached Manali at 7PM on Sat. We were tired and hungry and hence we headed to Old Manali to have some Tibetan food. What we got was delicious Soup and Momos😍. Then we went straight to the fuel station and got the tank filled as for next 2 days, we wouldn’t have found any fuel. Next filling station post this would have been Kaza which is more than 200kms from Manali, nearly half of which was total off-roading which was going to be really gruelling for our hatch.
After a long journey of 22 hours, we finally checked into our hotel at Solang. It was time to have a couple of drinks and dinner and to call it a day. We badly needed rest as we hadn’t slept for last 36 hours and we had to leave early the next day too.
Pics from Delhi to Manali/Solang journey

Started from Delhi

Somewhere near Bhakra Nagal Dam

Entering Himachal

Your Truly

Beas River – Near Pandoh Dam

Love these Drives

Somewhere between Mandi and Kullu

After a good night’s sleep, we were woken up by Vikram, who had to leave from the hotel with his wife for Chandrataal on his Esteem petrol. We got up and left at 5:30. After making an entry at Gulaba checkpost, we were all set for the day’s journey. Soon, the day got brighter and our photography breaks initiated due to which Vikram and his wife was soon out of our sight. We reached Rohtang at around 9AM with a small tea break at Marhi.
Post Rohtang, as we entered Lahaul valley on the Manali Leh highway, the views started opening up with vast valleys and snow capped peaks coming into sight. After a few kms we reached Gramphu, where we saw the diversion for Spiti valley. We took the diversion towards Spiti Valley and the roads took bad shape. Infact there were no roads at all. We were maintaining a slow pace considering we were on a hatchback and that too a Fiat and did not want to get into any trouble with any underbelly hit. We crossed several water crossings. We were cautious in crossing them with one of us getting down and guiding the driver for the best way out. At around 12 noon, we reached Chhatru.
We were feeling hungry and hence we decided to halt there for lunch.

The Good Morning pose as we leave from Solang

Sun Kissed Peaks

Morning Sun as seen from enroute Rohtang

View open as we enter Lahaul Valley at Rohtang Pass

Magnificent Views of Lahaul & Spiti

This is where we take the diversion towards Spiti at Gramphu

Offroading begins as we take on the dreaded Manali-Kaza stretch

A chorten as seen from the trail

Doing this stretch on Low GC hatch is tricky but is super fun

Post a simple yet delicious lunch, we were all set to leave. We were already 6-7 hours into the journey and we had just reached Chhatru. We had a long journey ahead. The trail was all off-road with many water crossings on the way. We maintained a slow place and the day didn’t just seem to end. Our photography breaks were getting longer with every turn taken.
Finally at around 3 we could spot Batal at a distance. It was 3:30 when we arrived at the famous Chandra Dhaba more commonly known for the warm couple Chacha Chachi. The first thing that Chacha told us when we greeted him was, that he could see our car coming since long and the kind of pace we were driving at, he could walk faster than that on foot:D. Also he told us that we were getting late and as it would get dark soon it would be very risky and almost impossible to take on the 12km jeepable track to Chandrataal 😮. It took all the happiness away from us and once we thought to halt there for the night only but that would mean no night at Chandrataal camps. 🙁 So we discussed and thought to give it a shot.
After a cup of tea, we left from Batal. We hadn’t even covered a couple of kms and we hit another roadblock, a caravan of stranded trucks and due to narrow path we couldn’t go ahead. We decided to check and after walking for a while, we noticed that a truck had got punctured. Our hopes of reaching Chandrataal got shattered once again, but to our surprise the truck’s tyre was changes within 10 mins and we were again set to move. Soon we reached the detour for Chandrataal. This track was so narrow that at a few places it could hardly accommodate just one car. Luckily no car came from the other side and we could reach the campsites just in time before it got completely dark.
We settled at Parasol camps. It was getting cloudy and soon it was so windy and cold that standing out in open was nothing less than a punishment. Also there was a prediction of snowfall the next day 🙁. Hence we were worried and praying for a clear window so we could cross Kunzum La the next day. We had early dinner and went to bed at around 9.