EARLY MORNING AT POOH


Imran Contemplating:-



NAKO LAKE:



OF SIR CONTEMPLATING @ NAKO:-

@Anshul: Your B&W film photographs are always beautiful. Thanks for sharing these.

Awesome T'Log... Mesmerizing snaps, Tempting vistas.... a complete visual treat.

Thanks a lot for sharing....

Huge thanks to Old Fox for his inimitable writing that always provides a certain joy in my mind. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your texts as much as I enjoy riding along those curves with no aim in particular. Good good, now I can go back to my Ulysees!

Some unusual sights from Frozen Spiti

The cold Himalayan desert was slowly breaking the shackles of a freezing winter when we rode through it. And the unusual weather made us privy to some unusual sights..the kind one doesn't normally come across. Here's sharing with you all some of those sights with their associated stories.


^ This was the state of Malling Top when we passed it on the way to Kaza. Every drop of water, flowing, dripping or static, was frozen and that too in bright sunshine. Actually, this is the most notorious part of the Shimla - Kaza route..notorious for getting blocked by falling rocks at the drop of a hat. We were lucky as the ice was acting as an additional binder for the rocks and debris. This place is at almost 14,500ft.



^ A truck that turned turtle just a kilometer or so from Mallimg Top towards Tabo side. The edge of the road drops off into an almost 1000ft drop. I wonder what was going through the minds of the occupants when they clambered out of it!



^ A small river frozen in flow! This is between Tabo and Kaza. Its almost like being a part of an animation scripted landscape with freeze rays galore.



^ A frozen waterfall. Frozen in mid-stance as the water skips and jumps over rocks in a series of steps. Amazing.



^ The frozen snout of a man-made waterfall. This is the out-flow from a micro-hydel plant at Attargo (between Tabo and Kaza). The water gets blown sideways by the wind and freezes as it gets deposited on the uneven rocks close by. The ice thus formed freezes more water and eventually a big snout is formed. All this was happening in bright sun-light.


^ The harsh and pitiless face of winter. This young buffalo probably got caught in the ice-field while it was snowing heavily and died from freezing. Later, perhaps some scavengers stripped its body off all the flesh and skin. This was on the Spiti river flood-plain close to Dhankar.


^ Arctic conditions..well almost! It was pretty cold in Kaza and it shows by the way snow melts and yet gets re-frozen as it drips through the lamp-post lattice-work. Kaza Circuit House.


^ True Arctic landscape this! Almost like glacial ice cracking and dropping off into water. The river cuts through a high snow-bank which is gradually cracking up under the consistent sun. A beautiful sight. This was in the Pin Valley.


^ An impromptu man-made tunnel. Somewhere on the road from Kingel to Basantpur. The mountain is being mined for stones and clay, probably illegally. The tunnel was wide and high enough for a small truck (the Eicher Canter types) and some 200 odd meters long. Interesting to ride into and out .



Thanks everyone for the appreciation. Sharing experiences becomes ever so pleasurable when it elicits such positive response. Thanks again.

Thanks a million Ken. And Ulysses interrupted for the Spiti experience..wow! Hope it wasn't 'Hades' that you interrupted .

And our resident Black & White expert finally posts. Wonderful pictures there Anshul. The true unadulterated B&W photography. No fancy photoshopped digital conversions these . Great stuff!!

Beautiful Sir, its magnificent your explanation with every pic I am waiting for next year now Sir....

Finally I get to talk Ulysses with someone... that I am elated is an understatement!

Amazing stories behind those photographs. Superb stuff really!

As i switch between the two spiti logs, I am left astonished by the sheer contrast between them. One with almost polar landscape, disappearing in to thin air 9 days later! Time is of the essence, yes, time is of the essence

The lampost pic is brilliantly captured Sandeep ji. It is evident that the atmospheric temp must have been well below zero inspite of it being a bright and sunny morning. I hope your sunblocks and shades did their jobs well. And why I say that? Primarily because once I made the blunder of taking off my shades and looking directly at the snow, lit by sunshine, at 17300 feet, and suffered from photoconjunctivitis for a good period of 7 days

Thanks Shivanshu...and yes keep your RX primed and ready for next March.

Thanks again Ken. Spiti in winter is an amazing canvas.

The feeling of 'astonishment' is mutual Vaibhav. And so is the power of the seemingly 'distant' sun.
Yes, the shades had been a top priority. I did my basic mountaineering from WHMI manali (now Atal Behari Inst. of Mountaineering) and snow-blindness was front-page headline stuff there .

Roger that Sir, it would be ready for sure

@OF sir: Super stuff! And seeing that whole waterfall frozen at Attargo is a sight to behold. Moreover, frozen Malling Nala looks amazing too! Ah! What a wonderful continuation to an amazing trip. Each time I see this thread, and that inner desire comes out - how I wish I could've accompanied you three. I guess, there is always that "next time".

And this will be discovered a few 1000 years later, frozen safely in ice.

INDIA TV flashing "BREAKING NEWS"

GAUR SE DEKHIYE... YE HAI PRACHIN BHAIS KA KANKAAL... TEEN HAZAR SAAL BAAD ACHANAK YE PRACHIN BHAIS PRAKAT HUI BARAF KI KABAR SE... YE JEEVIT THE BEESVI SADI MEIN... FIR KAISE YE ACHANAK SE BARAF KI CHADDAR ME GAYAB(extinct) HO GAYE?... KAHA SE AAYE THE YE... KYA YE ALIEN THE?... KYA YE DOOSRE GRAHA SE AYE THE?... MILEGA HAR SAWAL KA JAWAB... ISS BREAK KE BAAD...

LANE IN NAKO:



NAKO VILLAGE:



NAKO FROZEN:

HUGE:



MALING FROZEN:



ON THE WAY TO HOORLING:





Towards LARI:

Amazing stuff Anshul. Been a long time since we met. Lets sit and discuss Godard and what came after...