Delhi to Kinnaur & Tirthan Valley | Adventurism – 4

If you have missed any part especially the Day 2 of the travel story so far then it’s time to check it for sure with rest of them. Here is the listing of all the parts…

Day 3 – 25th April, 2010 | Kalpa, Kinnaur Valley to Shoja

It was bright sunny morning at Kalpa and as we all woke up, we all knew it would be a tough day, again. Somehow, few of us who had an ardent desire to see Spiti, controlled ourselves and asked few locales at the hotel about the road conditions ahead. They told us that few days back there was a massive landslide nearby Puh. That very moment considering our shoddy luck I decided, no matter if roads had been cleared for traffic in last 2 days, we are not at all attempting it. I wished it to be a correct decision as some of us were disappointed deep inside our heart, missing Spiti. (But we all had a sigh of relief coming back here and reading the news regarding that massive landslide in Spillow region which kept the Hindustan Tibet Road blocked for 5 days and was opened the very day when we returned back home :D) Atlast a correct decision I felt 🙂 and now the next big thing was to decide the place where we will head for next two-three days. None of us wanted Shimla, Narkanda, Chail etc, hence the only option left was Sarahan. Again everyone questioned "What is it?", "How is it?", "What we will see there?" etc etc and I was sure that they will kill me if nothing special existed there. I thought again to say let’s go to "TIRTHAN VALLEY" where we will have river by our side and the "Great Himalayan Natinal Park". None have heard about it but I have read massively about that place at the time of My Honeymoon Trip. I knew that there goes a path via "Jalori Pass" through Shimla | Ani | Kahnag side and is quite an adventurous one too. So we said let’s give it a shot and go for an adventurous drive!!! 

A bit of a preview…

Of course it was a day when we had to drive back that tough terrain of slush as for the last few days it had been raining. The positive sight though was the bright "SUNNY DAY" and we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to cover as much Kinnaur roads as possible basking under it. We all were ready for early morning breakfast at 8 AM and had great time having it. As again the quality of food was simply great. They had apple juice from the apples of their own orchards and it was I believe far better than the HPMC juices but unfortunately they don’t sale it. After the breakfast it was certainly time for some photo sessions to take full toll of this sunny morning at Kalpa.

Bright Sunshine at Kalpa…

It’s breakfast time…

Checking Something Fishy…

Kalpa, Himachal Pradesh…

We settled the bill and we checked-out of the "Kinner Villa, Hotel" leaving one of the most wonderful memories of any travel so far. Before leaving it altogether I clicked few pictures of Kinner Villa and around…

Kinner Villa (STD / ISD too 🙂 )…

Kinner Villa Room…

Kinner Villa Pathways…

Kinner Villa Dog

Kinner Villa Entrance…

Kinner Villa Competitor, "The Golden Apple"…

Parking Pit where we Slept…

After this nice little photo session we started our journey towards “Tirthan Valley” to relax in the lap of mother nature. Of course we got late due to all these sessions and it was around 9 AM we finally left from hotel. Both cars were separated only by few minutes but as soon as we reach the town hospital we saw the “Santro”, second car was no where coming. We kept waiting for almost half hour and kept asking vehicles coming down about their whereabouts but none of them gave a positive reply. All kinds of thoughts were coming in and out of our heads. When we were finally about to start ascend to search them; a call from unknown number appeared. We picked up because all five of them had VODAFONE connection which doesn’t work I feel anywhere in Kinnaur Valley and happily they were on the other side. They took a wrong road and got lost out of nowhere but had managed to reach main bazaar of Reokong Peo. Finally, we had a sigh of relief and of course waiting time was utilized in capturing the following pictures.

Dheeraj Sharma

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Hospital at Kalpa…

Government Office at Kalpa…

Sweet Childrens at Kalpa…

We were getting short of Petrol but we knew there was one petrol pump at Rekong Peo and other one at Powari. When we started after meeting the other car at Rekong Peo we found that petrol pump near main bazaar only offer fuel to Government vehicles and told that there is another one a KM ahead but off-route. So, we decided to skip that one and choose Powari petrol pump to get the fuel. As soon as we reached the Hindustan-Tibet road we were greeted by the heavy slush. Again there was a stretch of 200 Mtrs approximately where poor dZire (my car) had a tough time tackling it and this time all had to get off the car to make it achieve some ground clearance. Thankfully the traffic behind us didn’t pissed up and waited patiently for us to clear the 12-15 inches high and heavy slush. We waived some gratitude to them as they passed us and to God as this time it was Daylight :). Meanwhile we kept clicking the pictures on the way towards Powari whenever we got a chance…

Powari-Peo/Kalpa Route…

En-route Powari…Satluj Partitioning :)…

En-route Powari…Glimpses from Hindustan-Tibet Road…

En-route Powari…Glimpses along Hindustan-Tibet Road…

Thin / Low-level Slush all over Hindustan-Tibet Road…

This thin slush was prominent through-out the Kinnaur Valley region that day and was handled with ease after experiencing more than 12 inches of the same ;). After reaching Powari petrol pump, we decided to add just 10 L of Petrol to keep the car lighter thereby help it maintain some ground clearance (wild guess I believe).Soon we reached the water crossing and this time it was easy piece of cake. The water level and it’s velocity had considerably gone down as compared to last to last night in rain.

This Water Crossing or was it a Nightmare the other day :shock:..

Informational Panel…

My Poor dZire ripping through Kinnaur Valley…

God Is Everywhere…

After crossing it we thought it would be easy although road was full of thin slush throughout but there was one more long stretch of the thickhigh slush where everyone had to step out for the third time. The problem this time was, it was too near to gorge aside. But, again the poor dZire (car) tackled it, only after rubbing it’s under belly 2-3 times. Throughout the course of the road it was bumper of the car which got few hefty blows due to few deep ditch(es). Bombarding has to start in next 30 minutes so we increased our pace to cross Kinnaur Valley as soon as possible. Girls requested to stop for freshen up at Bhawanagar and we went down to that Government Vidyut Board Rest House to use their unattended washrooms :). We bought some chips for a change of taste and off we head to complete the final round of exiting Kinnaur Valley. Our target was to reach Rampur for lunch but we never missed the opportunity to click the photographs en-route and here are few of them to treat your eyes…

P-Break after crossing the Heavy Slush…

How High?? Will They Collide :shock:…

Mountain Carved Roads…

Exiting Kinnaur :)…

Will He Jump??? :confused: …

We spotted a busy Monkey…

Exited Kinnaur and greenery welcomed us…

Does this save vehicles!!!:confused:

En-route Kalpa to Rampur

We reached Rampur 2.30 PM and this time we decided to go for lunch at Bushahr Regency, HPTDC few steps ahead. This one has accommodation too as compared to Cafe Satluj, Rampur where we didn’t have good meal. Again we were short of time and immediately placed the order but my friend’s wife was having trouble and started feeling dizziness. We gave enough time for her to rest and my wife handed over a medicine to control the same. Everyone washed up the dust from face and hands which dominated the first half of the day on road. Our food was served and again here as well the quality was not good enough but we had to satisfy our appetite though. Also I would like to tell that the serving time was quite on a higher note as they only had to serve on 3 tables but still it took time. My friend’s wife was still feeling the same although we knew that it would definitely take some time for the medicine to show it’s affect. We left around 3.40 PM and gave advice to a fellow driver heading to Spiti, to avoid driving at night as it was his first trip ever :shock:. (The reason I never believe in hiring taxis from Delhi as you very well land up having a driver who has just came from Bihar heading towards hills 😉 )…As we left Rampur we had to stop for clicks of Hanumaan Ji and get some air pressure into the tiers of the cars.

Bushahr Regency, Rampur…

Jai Hanumaan Ji…

Trees Getting Blue…

Feeling Some Symmetry in Hills…

Feeling Some More Symmetry in Hills…

Where’s the river…

It’s Dirty Now…

From Rampur to Tirthan we had to take the road going straight behind the railing at Sainj leaving the highway which goes along Sainj River I believe. As we left the highway the road became narrow and started to make us feel more concentration on road. My wife and friend’s wife (who had started to feel better as she was insisting to head Shimla but none agreed as both were more or less at same distance from Rampur) were sitting on the back seat and they stopped looking outside the window as it river beside the road was looking scary to them :). I was enjoying the drive through that road and it was indeed a pleasure. We only knew two main towns Ani and Khanag but right now none was showing up on boards. I kept driving as the altitude started to reach higher and higher with river flowing besides us. Finally, Ani town came up but Khanag was still 20 KMs odd,  meaning 1 Hr drive at least and it was 6.15 PM :shock:. No one wanted to drive in the night again which I thought would surely be unavoidable if we plan to reach Trithan Valley tonight itself. Everyone was praying as we approached high hills up towards Khanag there comes a region or stretch of road where you feel you are on top of all the other hills around and driving WOW!!! it was some feeling man. My brother-in-law was just feeling the heat of height and gorges aside as the stupendous mountains peaks looked leveled to us. Seriously it was most adventurous drive I took ever on my travel trip just by the intensity of views I would say.

Dheeraj Sharma

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At one of the sharp blind turns (well this road had mostly blind turns only) there was one idiot standing in middle of the road with his Maruti 800; waiting for his aunty chicks to get come and get in. I had to dodge it any how and there was very minute gap between the edge of the road and  his car. But, that idiot didn’t even move a bit to give us some clearance. What happened was the poor dZire got brushed to his bumper from along hood around it’s rear tyre. He came out to see although it was too low to be called a scratch on his black bumper. I stopped aside and meanwhile our other car also came but man surprisingly utterly disgruntled, asked us to leave :D. We did so as we were already getting late. As we were about to reach Khanag we found so many people / boys groups on high after I believe some drug / drunk or I don’t know. They were in plenty to be seen there and most of them were in blues. We managed to leave them without any disruption as one can expect from so many drunken guys. We reached Khanag at 7.20 PM and Jalori Pass was till 5-6 KMs from there. The darkness has started to dominate the sky slowly and steadily as moon had started to take it’s affect.

Well as the darkness has started to cover the sky so did the road had started to become steep and steep and even steeper as we inched towards "Jalori Jot". There was a curve when a bus came from the other side and we had the Santro behind us had real tough time giving it a pass. Yet, another situation to tackle. But believe me the near Jalori drive was one of an experience of it kind. Finally at 7.45 PM we managed to reach "Jalori Jot" and it was completely deserted without even a single soul. The breeze there had a fair amount of Chill even then. We came out to click few picture although in dark but nice memories though…

Darkness at Jalori Pass, 3120 Mtrs High…

Gang at Jalori Pass, 3120 Mtrs High…..

Devil (although hidden) at Jalori Pass, 3120 Mtrs High…..

After few clicks and getting some angry shouts from my wife 😉 for making it late, we finally stepped into car to ramp ahead. I had decided we won’t be going Tirthan now as we already had enough of drive in the dark for this trip. But I also knew that Shoja is not very far and from here which have couple of good guest houses to sleep at least. As we descend which was again extremely steep, the car’s first gear I felt will have tough time. Nevertheless, I must say this is a kind of driving experience a rookie like me must go through although with fair caution to learn greater control. After sometime we reached a diversion having a board of "PWD Rest House" and my mates insisted again to ask for accommodation there even despite I am assuring that’s there is a guest house very near. And as usual "PWD S***ED" and after enjoying the cold breeze for 10 minutes or so we left ahead. Just after few minutes we reached "Raja’s Guest House" which I knew was there right from the start of the climb. The guy’s showed us the rooms and we parked our cars on roof top which had plenty of space for just two cars. Here, again nobody was there apart from us. My wife insisted for just two rooms for safety concerns but we finally convinced her that we all are safe 😀 and took three rooms. It was time for dinner and the chill in the air was increasing more and more. We had the dinner, some booze and shutoff the lights for a sound sleep in Shoja’s Cold…

Yet again at the end of the day I will say it was a driving experience to be remembered and cherished for a long, long time.

The journey ahead-