Atul Goyal

Tag: travel

  • Pune to Goa cycling trip – bliss in the western ghats.

    [Hi there! Unlike all my past posts, this time I’m going to try something new while writing this post. I’m just going to pretend that I’m talking to my cycling partner on the trip – Nupur, recalling the whole experience. Hope you like reading this new style…]

    Yo Nupur!

    I finally sat down penning my memories from the trip. I don’t think I’d be able to do full justice to the amazing experience but I guess I’ll still give it a try.

    I remember how it started with you asking whether I’d be interested in a cycling trip. And without a second thought, I said YES, even before you mentioned where we’d be going!

    Each of the places we visited was completely new to me, and so was the excitement.

    Remember the first day when we started the ride from Chandni chowk of Pune towards Mulshi?

    We started early morning and stopped for breakfast at this Marathi dhaba which served an amazing Puran poli. Did I get the name right? Also that serving of desi ghee from which, I happily ate not just mine but your part of it too! Good thing I don’t worry about putting on weight. 😂

    That filling breakfast was finger licking good! Was it the best we had on the trip? Was also good for our tight budget.

    Soon after that, we were pushing uphill for the climb along Mulshi lake. Those jaw-dropping views from the top made every uphill pedal totally worth it.

    Someone rightly said that the best view comes after the hardest climb…

    Hello breathtaking views…

    That dog who ran a half-marathon with our cycles along the beautiful routes through those remote villages?

    I swear he was running so close to the cycles that one of us could have easily tipped over. Though I still feel sorry for him to have followed us when we had nothing for him to eat. Poor chap kept following in anticipation.

    Or maybe he was just escorting us to make sure we cross that territory safely. We’d never know. How awesome it’d have been, if I had the superpower to understand dog-speak. 😎

    As we moved towards Lonavala, there was a downhill diversion bringing us to this dam where we saw our first real heavy downpour.

    Those endless buckets of water being poured from somewhere up in the sky. Isn’t this the place where we ditched using the rain jackets? What a blissful place and time it was! Honestly I had even forgot when was the last time I enjoyed rains so much. It felt energizing. Like something with a power to make a dead alive…

    Hello rains…

    So what if this diversion turned out to be the wrong one. Well yeah except the part where we had to ride back steep uphill.

    Riding further ahead amidst all that beauty, there was a moment when my stomach did a knock-knock to remind me that it needed refueling. Like urgently. Those few kilometers ride were a real test where I could sense my intestine had started digesting itself just to keep some energy flowing.

    That highway we later joined was the much needed silver lining. Was good riding on smooth roads after almost a whole day of riding through the village roads. Icing on the cake were those gorgeous waterfalls which kept us company throughout this stretch.

    Joining the road to Lonavala

    Finally we arrived at a roadside dhaba where, being extremely hungry, I lost count of how many vada paavs we had. I think this is when I finally got used to, and accepted vada paavs as a proper meal. Yeah I guess it is indeed something one can actually survive on.

    Climbing further towards Lonavala we met this heavy fog with negligible visibility. Not to mention that sudden rush of all those people which was a stark contrast to the region we earlier rode through where we barely saw anyone for hours.

    As soon as we reached Lonavala, the “buckets” followed us again and we quickly looked up a hotel which would be our resting place. And remember that generous man at the reception, who, on seeing these two cyclists coming in the heavy rain, gave us a good discount, which in his own words was out of the respect for what we were up to.

    And with a much needed rest, we finally called it a day! Hot shower, a massage with that magic oil, while recalling what a great day it had been, brings a joy of victory. Well celebrated with an awesome meal followed by chocolate, and a good night’s sleep excitedly looking forward to the next day of adventure…

    [The hike + run to Rajmachi fort, the phones getting waterlogged one by one, and a lot more all the way to chasing the flight in Goa on cycles, to be continued…]

  • Carrying bicycle via flights in India

    Okay so I needed to carry my cycle from Delhi to Pune and that’s when I got some suggestions from my cyclist friends about which airlines to go with. After checking with multiple airlines, these are the responses I got.

    Next up, Vistara

    https://twitter.com/airvistara/status/1138267612175929344

    And then Air Asia

    which as per that page, came out to be something like this:

    Sport Equipment
    15kgINR 1890
    20kgINR 3190
    25kgINR 5090
    30kgINR 6390
    40kgINR 9390

    After starting to loose hope, finally Air India comes to the rescue.

    (I also called them up just to be doubly sure)

    So as of June 2019, Air India seems like the most cost effective option considering that the flight ticket on AI was only 300 Rs costlier than the cheapest option while it also includes a free meal.

    So check the prices, and if AI is not costing more than the cost of carrying cycle with the other airlines, maybe just go with AI for a change? 🙂

    Happy cycling!

    PS: Thanks to Nupur Singh, Pratyush Thakur, and Gaurav Duggal for their inputs and help.

  • Bike ride. Leh to Pangong Tso.

    Pangong lake bike ride
    That ride to Pangong Tso. Ocean of memories associated with it!

    [Prologue: This is from my first trip to Ladakh. I was with three other friends and we did the Delhi – Srinagar – Ladakh – Manali circuit in a car. The Srinagar-Leh highway as well as Manali-Leh highway are both amazing for road trips with super awesome views, but more on that some other time.]

     

    So the previous day we were in Leh and we were roaming around in the town trying to find bikes for a bike ride to Pangong lake. We initially planned to leave the car back in Leh and pick it up when we come back to the city. We went to every single bikes-on-rent shop and garages, many of them multiple times trying to find a bike which wasn’t booked. And even as the dizziness due to the high altitude of Leh was starting to wear us out, my determinism to do the bike ride refused to come down.

    This is 2014 so one of my earliest travels in the remote mountains and was kind of a dream trip.

    As the sun went down and Leh became darker, my friends decided that they’d all just go to Pangong in the car and forget the bike ride. But looking at my craze I did get a company to keep looking for “one” bike.

    In the end, we found a Royal Enfield classic “Desertstorm” which is a 500cc beast. It just so happened that I am not the biggest fan of Royal Enfield and had actually never even rode ANY Enfield before! And here was a 500cc beast, apparently ready for this new rider.

    As it was clear that there is no other bike available in the town, it was either this bike or no bike. Didn’t take a long time before a decision was made. 😉

    So I brought the bike to the guesthouse and we all called it a day for the next day’s journey.

    Early next morning, I, on the bike and the other three in the car started together and went to the fuel-station to load up the required ammo. The plan was that we’ll go together but somehow we got split up and couldn’t find each other on the whole route. And there is no phone network outside Leh.

    So as I started moving out of Leh, I was getting a little better control of the bike which kept on improving during the long ride.

    Come Chang La (5360m) and the really bad stretch of road along with the unbearable cold wind hitting directly against the chest made it a bit challenging. I wasn’t sure whether the others were ahead of me or behind so I took a break at the pass. Riding the troublesome past several kilometers making it here was a huge milestone, and even though I was hoping that I might see the others here, that didn’t happen.

    I was hungry and the eatery here was closed but I did get some water to drink.

    Chang la

     

    With a salute to the army folks standing near a bunker at the pass, I resumed my journey. The views from up here were nothing I had imagined. (The views throughout the route were a treat for the eyes and I didn’t bother taking the camera out of rucksack and as a result I don’t have any photos of the route except those from this break at Chang la).

    I knew what Ladakh was going to be like but seeing the real thing and that too riding on two wheels, was an out of the world experience.

    As the elevation dropped the breathing became easier and so did sensing of things around. After hours of endless no-man’s-land, I saw an army shooting range on my right and a small eatery on the left. Stopped for a while and ate maggie while listening to sounds of firing from the shooting range, arriving after bouncing off the opposite hill.

    The energy boost did make the ride from here on, way more enjoyable and the last stretch to the lake was a real delight.

    The first view of the huge Pangong Tso in the distance was nothing short of spectacular. As I made it to the lake I finally had a rendezvous with the gang with a huge, huge sigh of relief…

     

    Pangong lake
    The gang. With the beautiful Pangong in the background! Look at the color of the lake! Yep, it’s real!

  • Chansu – a beautiful village off any traveler map in Sangla valley

    Chansu Sangla
    Photo taken with self-timer from the top of a waterfall. The houses that you see is the village Chansu. Enjoying the vistas and the music produced by the waterfall with a fresh breeze of air serving as cherry on the cake!

    After a fateful turn of events during my month long stint in Kalpa, this Spring, I landed in Chansu.

    Chansu – a village in Sangla valley – reached via a winding dirt road from the Baspa II dam just before Sangla, taking you higher and higher till you arrive at this serene place. Chansu is a magical place only locals know about. There are no hotels, no guesthouses and not even homestays.

    Without any dependency on tourism, the economy is almost exclusively dependent on agriculture which primarily includes apple, Apricot, peas, potatoes, and other vegetables.

    An apple in the making. (More: Arrival of Spring – Photoblog from the beautiful land of Kinnaur)

     

    I had met this amazing family in Kalpa and getting invitation to come to their village of Chansu was something I just could not reject.

     

    I got a chance to spend a couple of days here, staying at Simi’s great-grandparents’ house. Getting to see the life of people in these remote mountains up-close, and getting to learn new things in the process was an amazing amazing experience. And when I wasn’t at the farm or at the house, hiking around at the outskirts of the village was my favorite pastime so much so that time just flew!

     

  • How an evening at Chandratal became an adventure we didn’t see coming…

    Different people find their dose of adventure in a wide variety of experiences. This is a story of how an evening at Chandratal became an adventure I can never forget…

    This time of the year. Two years back.

    The faint visuals of the evening at Chandratal still keep popping up as part of memories. Sometimes when I’m revisiting the photos. And at other times subconsciously…

    It was my first trip to Spiti. I was traveling with my younger brother, Gaurav and my friend, Chirag. I didn’t know of Spiti long before that. Didn’t go with much preparation. Didn’t factor in the EXTREME cold that nights at these high-altitude regions unleash even at a time when the plains are burning hot…

    So as fate had it, it was going to be a full-moon night the day we were at the Chandratal lake. As some of you would know, camping around the lake is banned so this base camp is the campsite. This campsite is like just a kilometer before the lake. From there, it’s an easy walk to reach the lake.

    Many of you would also have experienced the drastic drop in temperature that happens at such a high altitude as soon as the sun goes down.

    As naive as we were, we planned to walk to the lake in the later part of the day so that we reach there a bit before the sunset, enjoy the views for a while, wait for the sunset and be back to the camp after catching a glimpse of the full moon. If I knew any better I’d have picked up every single piece of warm cloth we had in the bag back at the camp, and keep some extra quick energy food. Did I tell you we were so naive?

     

    Chandratal lake

    As we reached the lake, with the sun reaching for the horizon, the whole setting was that of a surreal landscape. The breeze flowing past the sublime surface of the lake, the surrounding vistas and the golden rays of the sun… it was nothing short of an out-of-the-world experience.

    We could see more people around the lake by this time. Some of them were also looking like having conquered the world. There was this big group of foreigners getting photographed with a huge flag of India. I could relate to their joy.

    Only till we were blessed by the Sun.

    Thanks to the thin atmosphere, this region hardly retains any heat and un-surprisingly it drove every single person around us, back to their relatively comfy shelters. Except for three souls. Who were determined to catch a view of the moon. Yep, the three naive ones…

    As it got colder and colder, with the wind getting even stronger, we were losing energy fast. We had a packet of dry fruits. Which got finished in a blink.

    We hoped that it would become bearable if we don’t face the direct wind so we hid behind piles of rocks hoping to prevent ourselves from some of that nature’s fury.

    That too, didn’t move the needle.

    We kept trying different things but all efforts were in vain. Finally when we didn’t see anything working, realizing we had barely enough energy left to go back to the camp we decided to call it a day. It was pitch dark and we – the naive ones – didn’t have any torch. So we planned to use the phone flash as long as the battery lasts.

    Though walking was supposed to help keep the body a bit warm, we underestimated the cold. It was sucking energy fast. We were going numb…

    We walked and stopped, walked a bit more and stopped, to catch up with breath and regain some energy. The time was 8pm-ish and there was no sight of the moon. Not that that was our biggest concern though.

    What should have been like a half an hour walk, took endless time.

    Or so it felt.

    So a point comes when we are walking real slow and I’m thinking and rethinking whether we would make it or not, but thanks to the strong company of Gaurav and Chirag, we don’t lose hope even when we are drained of all the energy and body heat. Not even a single time did we mention to each other about any pessimistic thoughts. There was this unspoken fact all three of us knew that only thing that we can do is keep walking. And that’s what we did…

    A few minutes later we noticed some lights in the distance. Lights that must be coming from the dinner tents back at the campsite. It was clear that we still needed to walk a lot to reach those lights. And we had exhausted phone batteries by now. What were we expecting!? Of-course nothing lasts forever!

    The distant lights from the base were a sure hope, though. That we just need to keep following the zigzagging path faintly visible under the multitude of stars and keep heading in that direction down to the campsite…

    After an endless walk, just before we were about to reach the camps, the magnificent moon with all its glory arose from the mountains from our back side. Surreal, it looked!

    Coming back to reality we resumed our marching ahead to the campsite and eventually after what felt like an eternity we did make it to the camps.

     

     

    Was this whole experience something I’d choose to plan given an option? Probably not.
    Did I regret anything? No.
    Was the experience worth the trouble? Hell YES!

  • Arrival of Spring – Photoblog from the beautiful land of Kinnaur

    Melting away of snow with the arrival of Spring, brought a palette full of colors during my month-long stay in Kinnaur. Spring – such a lovely time to be in the mountains!

    apple flower
    An apple in the making. From Kinnaur – the land of Apples!

     

    The above one and the below one are photos of same branch of Apricot (khubaani) just 3 days apart!

    Apricot khubaani flower

     

    Plum flowers
    Plum flowers!

     

    Met this beauty on a hike to a waterfall in Chansu!

     

    chulli flower

    chulli flower
    And some lovely flowers of Chulli (wild apricot) growing on the roadside everywhere in Kalpa!

     

    Spring ❤️

  • Say Hello to Sameeksha, from Kalpa

    Meet Sameeksha, from Kalpa. She’s three yr old. We call her Simi, and she calls me Mamu. Simi is so dear to her parents that her Mom and Dad have told me so many stories about how she’s so important for them including the fact that they had planned her name which is a combination of the Mom and Dad’s name, if the baby turns out to be a girl which they really wanted, and that her birth date being 14th Feb is God’s gift to them.

    So Monday is her first day at school and we both have been running through alphabets and numbers for past few days, and she seems to be more than ready to start this journey we call schooling. She loves her yellow-pink bag which has a one eyed fish and tells me different stories about where the second eye went. She almost eats a page from her shiny new books when she sees a picture of a fruit against some alphabet. Heck, she also makes me eat those imaginary fruits! 😀 She’s so shy of getting photographed but loves seeing the photos I capture, so much that she tells me “Mamu ye to doggies hain. Ye wala photo achcha hai. Mamu ab moon ki photo dikhao. ab pahaad dikhao. ab baraf dikhao…” and gets this huge smile when she sees her own photos.

    As my time to move out of Kalpa was approaching, I wanted to gift her something. The dinner conversations with the family, the hardships of life in the remote mountains I’ve seen, did help me deciding what it’d be. And her parents, after some convincing, have been generous enough to allow me to do this. So I’ve taken up all her educational expenses. When I talked to her Dad about it, the first question he asked me – Simi rahegi to hamare paas hi na? I almost cried. Ofcourse she will!

    More than for Simi I think I’m doing it for myself. The thought of keeping this promise, year after year might just help me have an even stronger sense of mission in what I do. I might need to cut down on my personal expenses here and there and drop some luxury. Being able to support a kid’s education is surely worth lot more than any of that.

    Her Mom – I call her didi – asked me to stay in Kalpa at least till Monday to see her go school. And I’m here till then. Hope to see a day when all of the Indian society stops discriminating against the girl child and a girl’s education becomes equally important just like how it is for Simi’s parents. Love you Simi!

     

  • 2016 – My 100 days in the Himalayas, Part-1

    I’m feeling thirsty as I make my way on a narrow path, towards the destination I’m aiming to reach today. There is fresh snow as far as eyes go. It’s onset of Spring here in Annapurna region of the Nepal Himalayas. What an amazing time to be here.

    At one place a few feet away, there are footsteps of some animal, clearly visible on the snow. Very likely, it walked across just the same morning. They don’t look like that of snow leopard, though. I’m still optimistic. I keep looking. One sight of that elusive creature will make my day!

    My dry throat draws my thoughts back to the thirst. I get reminded of this line from Samuel Taylor’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’

    Water, water, everywhere,
    Nor any drop to drink.

    I turn back. Down to see the Machapuchare base camp (MBC) checking if anyone else is coming. I could use help with some water. There is none. The Machapuchare – literally meaning “fish tail” owing to its resemblance to the tail of a fish – stands tall back there. The near vertical slopes can’t hold any snow so it’s standing there with most of the top edges naked. It is a sacred mountain. Climbing it is not permitted. What a view from where I stand. Coming back to reality, I have considered the worst case scenario of walking back to MBC, in case I don’t seem to make it to the Base camp of Annapurna (called ABC, in short).

    I look into the side pocket of my camera bag, only to find the wrapper of last chocolate I ate somewhere before MBC. Could use some instant energy. I find some dry fruits stashed in a corner of the backpack. Munch a few cashew nuts. Having had this rest for a few minutes, I gain some strength and start walking again. The clouds have started gathering up. Just like past several days. I know it’ll start snowing anytime. This has been happening every day for last so many days. Which is a signal that I have to make it to the ABC without losing any time!

    I’m able to see base camp far from where I stand but it’s been tough few hours and I still seem to be getting nowhere close. I am counting 10 steps. Followed by stopping to catch my breath. The process keeps going on. Whenever I see a bit less steep walk ahead, I try counting to 20 steps but anything more makes breathing difficult. I’ve been hiking for more than last 20 days now – around the full Annapurna circuit – but today feels different. I tell myself that it’s a marathon, not a sprint…

    As the base camp looks within reach, the snow has started falling. And it’s getting windy. The snow is not too heavy yet, but I can’t waste any more minute now. Survival instinct. Gives you energy you didn’t know you had. I guess, this is something hard-coded in the DNA of all life in the world. I can’t have any complaints, because it works.

    Finally, at the end of the “marathon”, the jaw-dropping south face of Annapurna reveals itself.

     

    Annapurna - south face

     

    [Photo from the next morning] The incredible view with the morning sun hitting the south face of Annapurna I – an eight-thousander, the highest peak of the Annapurna massif – makes it all worth it. It stands there in all its grandeur. Massive. Beautiful. Inspiring.

     

     

     

    This is just one of those 100 days from my journeys in the mountains this year. Every other day brings new adventures up here.

    Nepal, Ladakh, Spiti and Sikkim. Places on the map of my solo trip in the mountains in 2016.

    Himalayas. This is my home away from home. This is where I truly feel alive. All these journeys have been full of new learnings every day. Meeting new people every day, from diverse backgrounds and varied cultures, and having conversations on different topics with them, is an enlightening experience for me. Shatters a number of pre-conceived notions we all have about other places and the people living there. Then there is nothing like the amazing views you get to see. Getting completely undisturbed long stretches of time, whether that’s in amazing stays such as Zostel Spiti or remote homestays of Markha valley or Annapurna circuit, provides a great time to catch up with my reading. Far away from the hectic city life, there is something about the disconnect here. It helps to make a better connect with myself.

     

    This brings part-1 to an end. Hope you liked it. I’m still trying to improve my storytelling, so love your feedback. Will continue with the other highlights of the journey in Nepal and from the rest of the Himalayas in subsequent posts.

    So friends, what are your travel plans, in 2017? Let me know in the comments below. Cheers to a new year, to another year full of adventures!

  • Markha valley – the best teahouse trek in the Indian Himalayas

    Markha valley is the closest you get to classic Annapurna circuit style tea-house trek in India. I hiked Markha valley in late September which is end of the season here. The video at the bottom of this post shows a glimpse of the whole experience.

     

    Markha valley

    The stark contrast of colors created by green fields along the Markha river bed with dry barren mountains on both sides and clearest blue skies makes for an incredible and unique landscape. Not to mention the warm hospitality of Markha people combined with you being in a complete disconnect from the outside world provides a chance for an amazingly immersive experience as you find yourself in an altogether different world.

     

    Duration

    Starting from Leh and ending the trek at Leh, it takes about 7-8 days depending on your speed and the number of rest days, if any, that you take along the way. Unless you’re an experienced hiker, I’d recommend planning for 10 days which gives you enough time to enjoy the trek. Count at-least one day of acclimatization in Leh before the trek. A shorter version of the trek saving two days is also possible as described later in the post.

     

    Logistics

    Markha valley makes for an amazing Do-It-Yourself (DIY) trek without a requirement of guide/porter and without needing to carry significant provisions of food, camps, etc., which would be needed for trails not having any villages en-route (like Pin-Parvati trek, Chadar trek, etc). The arrangement at homestays is such that some of the village homes double up as a (very basic) guesthouse allowing you to stay in the extra rooms they have. Mostly, the rooms are built of thick walls with a multi-layered roof of wooden logs and a top layer of mud.  This keeps the inside naturally warm, with mattresses, blankets/quilts provided as well to fight the cold as it goes freezing outside. Meaning you also don’t really need a sleeping bag. The lighter the backpack, more enjoyable the trek! 😀

    Very often, especially when it’s less crowded, you get to have dinner with the host family in the common dining room while getting to know about life in this high altitude region far away from the city life. When it gets crowded and the rooms are full, the dining rooms which are quite big, also serve as a place for many travelers to get a shelter and rest. You get dinner and breakfast at the homestay and packed lunch in the morning when you leave to continue the hike to next village. The villages are far from each other and very often the packed lunch is the only food you have during the whole day before you arrive at the next village.

    The homestays help making it easy to trek without the help of a guide/porter. Which is what I personally prefer. Don’t have anything against those folks but I just like the full freedom I get being completely on my own. By staying in the homestays you’re directly contributing to the local economy, if that is something you want to contribute to. The homestays in the villages throughout the trail provide a gem of an experience. In my opinion, the experience is even more authentic and closer to the local culture as compared to the hotel-ish teahouses of the more popular treks in Nepal.

     

    Markha valley trek

    markha valley trek map

    The trek is usually done in counter-clockwise direction. It starts from Zingchen (3400m), where you can get a taxi drop from Leh. Zingchen is the first village with 4-5 houses in total with two also serving as homestays. Moving ahead from Zingchen you arrive at a trail diversion. The left one takes you to Rumbak and beyond to the Stok. The right one continues to Yurutse (4100m) with a single homestay which is often packed. Even at the end of the season, it was packed by the time we arrived and I had to find a sleeping place in the dining room.

    After Yurutse starts the climb to Ganda la (4900m) and after a long hike you cross the pass and walk downhill with Shingo being the first village. Further down you reach the trail meeting the Markha river valley at Skiu (3400m). This is where you start hiking the actual Markha valley. Taking a left from here takes you up the Markha valley while towards the right is an exit via Chilling. Instead of starting at Zingchen, you can alternatively start the trek from Chilling. Chilling is connected with Leh by road, so you save about two days and skip the early pass crossing for even better acclimatization as you move up the valley.

    After Skiu, the trail heads up to Markha (3700m) and Hunkar (4000m) and then to Nimaling (4800m). All the villages in the valley are really nice with awe-inspiring views. The valley falls under Hemis national park and occasionally you see herds of mountain deer and blue sheep, especially in the upper section of the valley. You’d need to be really lucky to spot the elusive snow leopard, though. Nimaling – also known as freezing nights pass – is literally the coldest I felt on the whole trail. There are no permanent houses here, it’s just a group of camps.

    After Nimaling begins the hike up to Kongmaru la (5300m) from the top of which you get some incredible views on both sides of the pass. Crossing the pass you’re going down the other side reaching one of the villages on the way staying for a night or directly catching a taxi to Leh from somewhere near Shang sumdo.

     

    Closing thoughts

    Even being solo, you don’t really ever feel lonely on these treks as you keep meeting other travelers on the trail and even more so at the day’s end in the homestay. During my trek, I met people from different parts of the world all the time and surprisingly didn’t meet a single Indian traveler the whole time. Coincidentally, the same thing happened during my Annapurna circuit hike as well.

    I think the best thing about such long treks isn’t getting a break from the usual, not even the amazing views you get to see, not the fact that you get to know yourself better. All those are there AND true. But the best thing has to be the new perspectives you come across during discussions with people from different cultures and countries. I find that enlightening. 🙂

     

    Have any questions or feedback? Do let me know in the comments below.

  • Incredible Spiti – a road trip

    Spiti, literally meaning “the middle land” between India and Tibet, is a desert mountain valley and the whole region is one of the least populated regions of India. I did a (lazy) photo blog after coming back from Spiti but never sat down and wrote this detailed post. Finally writing it, hoping this should help you plan your dream trip.

    The time was end of June, which is about time Kunzum la gets cleared of snow to allow you to travel from the Spiti valley towards Rohtang and Manali and thereby completing the full circuit. When Kunzum la remains blocked (which is the case for six-seven months every year), retracing Shimla-Kinnaur route back is the only option.

    Route map

    Delhi – Kufri – Rampur – Sangla – Chitkul – Nako – Tabo – Pin valley – Kaza – Chandrataal – Manali – Delhi

    The circuit takes you through the beautiful valleys of Satluj, Baspa, Spiti, Pin, Chenab and Beas rivers.

    In terms of pure natural beauty, Chitkul (Baspa valley) and Mudh (Pin valley) are incredibly beautiful and serene. Both are a bit detour from the main circuit. Making side trips to both of these valleys was an amazing experience in itself and I would have hated to have missed out on either of these!

    Spiti Weather

    June-July is the time when it’s scorching hot in the plains but pleasant during day time up in the Himalayas and cold during the night. Depending on the altitude, the weather can still get unbearably chilly especially during night. Chandrataal was the coldest region we encountered with sub-zero temperature. Other than that a t-shirt works alright during the day as the sun is rather sharp at the high altitudes and one blanket serves enough when you’re sleeping in a hotel. Acute mountain sickness (AMS) is an issue which you need to be aware of, and prepare for, especially if you’re coming from the Manali side as the ascent in elevation is not as gradual as the one from Shimla side.

    Spiti Roads

    Boulders Road

    Snow cut Road

    The roads, right from Sangla to Rohtang are in a mildly bad to challenging conditions. The stretch from Kunzum la to Chandrataal lake is the worst part we encountered. Driving sedan on this route is extremely tricky and there’s high risk of getting stuck somewhere. We were in a Swift Dzire which according to many people we met during the journey is a poor choice due to the bad stretches, but thanks to our amazing driver bhaiya, we successfully completed the circuit. I’d recommend going on a 4X4/SUV on this route.

    In total we drove approximately 2000 kms, driving through some of the most breathtaking yet challenging roads of the world.

    Select next page below for day by day travelogue.