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Wonderful! Another long weekend, yet another lovely ride from you. And this time Chitkul, no less! Brilliant, I am eagerly awaiting some photographs of Chitkul. I loved that place.

So you are back! Keeping an eye on this thread

Nice Nice, Will keep an eye on this thread.

@Aryan, I dont recall seeing so much snow on the hills last year when we went to Chitkul in May. Or am i wrong?

Yes, we did not see SO much snow, but we did get our share of snow et al. This year, let's go then!

@Aryan/DCS/KurtRules: Thanks. Will be updating the thread later on at night.

If you wanna see snow in chitkul/kalpa.. time to go is now !! Its melting fast. I missed snowfall in chitkul by 2 days

Great I heard about your ride from Manan bhai that you are going Lahul he was very anxious to go on that ride and was also telling me to join this ride but unfortunately we couldn't join you.Chitkul is an awesome place,I might visit that place in July...

An incredibly busy week, a frowning boss and all that corporate talk about vacations recharging batteries go out of the window. The heart is still there, in that little village in himachal.
Anyway, now to the log...

The good friday is one of my favourite festivals, simply because it always ensures a 3 day weekend. I was scouting around for places to visit, when i saw the Spiti thread of OF sir. I was dumbfounded by the sheer beauty of that place. Leaves be damned, i was going in for a 4 day ride there. A PM correspondence with Kurtrules and it was clear that even touching spiti valley would be tough
He suggested Kalpa and Chitkul. I was a bit skeptical about Kinnaur but anyway, a 4 day ride was on...

Day 1: Wifey wanted to spend time in Ludhiana, hence she was not gonna be joining in for the full ride. We started at 5 am from Gurgaon, met up with Subrata at ISBT kashmiri at 5:30 and soon, after a short breakfast break at our fav Pehelwan dhaba, we were heading towards Ambala. Dropping her at Ambala, we headed for the hills. Progress was good but going up the hills, i was a bit too fast for Subrata so i took a break at Solan. Half an hour and no sign of him. I was going mad calling him and unsure whether to fall back to check. Eventually,he picked up the phone and it turned out he was already near taradevi. We synced up after shimla and then it was the bumpy ride to Narkanda and onwards to Sainj and Rampur.
Our first day target was Sarahan but Subrata was down a bit mentally. Hence, we stopped at Rampur (a district hq, small town) on the banks of sutluj.



13 hours of riding and 515 km covered. I was now toying with the idea of making a run for Khab atleast and then fall back towards chitkul/kalpa for the second day. Rampur was a tad boring and i ended up eating some stuff which didn't go down well with my stomach.
A sutluj view room (Rs 400) at hotel sutluj view, with safe parking, and we were off to sleep, still confused about the route to take the next day.




Day 2:

A lazy start at 7 in the morning from Rampur, we bypassed Sarahan and headed towards Khab.



Kinnaur welcomed us with some stunning pieces of
road engineering.








The roads post bhawanagar and till powari were pretty bad, all slush and gravel. But we were not complaining. It felt good on those roads, pushing the bike and ensuring that we didn't slip.
The vista was stunning, post powari.












Stopping for tea at one place, we decided that trying to hit khab was gonna be boring(all rocky mountains) hence we decided to kill time in Apka. Let the photos speak for themselves.










An interesting thing happened. We took a small diversion to Rarang, a village and ended up losing sight of each other. With no network, it took half an hour to sync up again :-)

Finally, after idling away time there, we decided to hit Kalpa for the day.
The ride to kalpa was incredibly scenic, with the kinner kailash and adjoining mountains looking down on us.



Kalpa, what a beautiful place.

















I was sorely regretting not getting my wife along for the ride. We explored some areas around kalpa and finally checked into a hotel aucktung (400 Rs) Was surprised to see that the owner of the hotel was a Bong. He was pleasantly shocked to see two bongs on bikes making it to kalpa. An evening walk around the village and an STD call to my wife(used STD after ages -- its pretty cheap nowadays :-) )
The temple at the village square was playing some hymns which were reverberating through the village. It was serene and we just sat there, watching the various hues.





No TV at the hotel meant an early sleep, the next days ride clear in our minds.
Towards chitkul and back track to Sarahan.


... to be continued.

WTF am I doing in Pune ! thats some fantastic ride and pics ....

BTW , will a bullet on a megaphone cause any hollywood style avalanches here ?

Wow Amazing locations & pics,Wish I Could visit these places soon

@Niks: For motorcycling.. north is the place to be :-)
@Sudhi: Thanks.

Day 3:

Got up early but in Kinnaur, time really moves slowly :-) We took our time to get ready and load up the bikes. As was the trend, a Bong family was also leaving the hotel and they kept enquiring about our "paaglaami"

Moving down Kalpa we saw this view of Rekong Peo.



Jaypee is building what seems to be like multiple dams on the sutluj river here. Pretty impressive structures but as is the norm, no dam photographs. Didn't stop me from taking a snap of the water gushing out with a little rainbow though :-)



From Karchham we took the cut for Sangla and Chitkul and immediately ran into slushy roads. To make matters worse, some tankers were actually spraying water on the road. Here, Subrata had a fall but i didn't see it and went ahead. I missed the pakka road towards Sangla and continued on. A local, obviously sensing that i must have made a mistake, guided me back to the correct route but Subrata was nowhere to be seen. With no communication, i was hoping that he would take a break somewhere as he won't be knowing that i was actually behind him now :-)

He loves his fags and a break he did take and we were able to sync up. We entered Sangla and were stunned by its beauty.










Snow covered mountains all around and the valley was all green. A breakfast break here brought some bad news too. I was under the wrong impression that Sangla had a petrol bunk. Slightly low on fuel, i was a bit worried. The locals told me that the closest petrol pumps were in jeori and in powari. Anyway, i decided that it would make no sense to go back now and applied all the fuel saving tips i have ever read to go to Chitkul :-)

The road to Chitkul was stunning to say the least. Without a doubt i can say that this was the most beautiful place i have ever been to (edging out sela pass and tawang :-) )

We had to take multiple breaks to enjoy the stunning landscape. Let the pics (no composition etc.. just point and shoot ) take over...

























I took a turn and saw this...



Normally, i say wow or awesome or amazing, but this time all that i could mutter was "fcuking fcuk man!!" Ah, what an amazing place. We rode upto the last bit of road in chitkul and then onto the fields , doing some offroading. Here, village children surrounded us and asked for a ride. We obliged and they hopped on to the bike as we took them around the fields :-)

Their curiosity was engaging and soon, a photo session followed and then QnA about the bikes and Delhi (where its too cold and people die) The river was someway down but i was a bit wary of leaving the saddle bag and the bikes there, to the mercy of these boisterous children. Hence, i took the bag and asked the children to show the way













At waters edge of the Rupin river(i think thats the name, correct me if wrong) i simple sat and soaked in the atmosphere. The kids jumped here and there and asked me all sorts of questions. Infact, i didn't even take too many photographs. Finally, we bid farewell to these kids and started the ride back to Sangla.




Now it was a milleage run for me and i actually switched off the engine at couple of places and let gravity do its thing :-)

The ride to Sarahan was pretty interesting for me ,what with the fuel gauge at its last bar and i trying not to cross 4k rpm everywhere.









A brief stop at a bridge brought about an encounter with this mountain goat. Maybe its because i am a capri, i love this animal. He checked out the bike but seemed unimpressed. Do noticen its cornea (rectangular)



Huh !! this is my territory


At round about 6 we finally reached Sarahan, a nice little town around the BhimaKali temple.





An evening stroll there and we retired to our room in the hotel, catching up on the IPL circus. At the dining table, we encountered another Bong family relishing its aloo bhaaja, bhaat and torkaari :-) Man, i tell you , we are surely the most travel crazy community in India.

Day 4:

Started from Sarahan at 7.



A brief stop near narkanda. All this seemed so boring now :-(



Riding in the snow free mountains was a tad boring now. It got to the point of frustration by the time we reached Solan for lunch and i was, for the first time in my life, wishing that the hilly section get over quickly !!

I was cornering nicely hence took this shot to see the marks on the tyre.. Look look !!


The plains greeted us with the hot sun but i wasn't concerned. Poured some water over me and soon it was like AC inside my riding gear :-D

We did non stop from Ambala to gurgaon and finally, at 9 at night, i was home :-) some 560km in 14 hours.

Its been a week since that ride and i am now desperate to go there with my wife in tow :-) Lets wait for the next extended weekend now..

Good one there Mik.. You must have enjoyed Chitkul more than Kalpa..Or is it the other way round

great Mik full utilization of the off days....nice pics and interesting crisp log

Is the title inspired from Ruskin Bond's book "Time stops @ Shamli" ?

Nevertheles, thanks for sharing about this beautiful place!!! Lovely

Dear Mik,

I would be very prudent in saying- I envy you. But nonetheless, its good to relive those wonderful memories from the text and the wonderful photographs.

Last year, Aryan and me did Delhi Kaza Delhi, whereby we included the Pin valley and Kalpa too. Incidentally. most of the places which you have shot a photograph of, were the ones from where we too clicked. and not only that, most of our other mates, would too click there too. The passage that was tunneled out of the rock (before Bhawanagar), the Water fall past Kalpa, the terrain at Sangla.....they are just the same. Loved them. Thanks.


I enjoyed reliving those wonderful times through your write up and clicks. Keep touring.

All Cheers

dcs

P.S: How badly do I need to ride!!!