Day 8 - Nako to Kaza - Spiti Valley Tour 2010

Day 8 - Finally the road was cleared and we could go ahead !! Or so we thought. This was a day of delays and delays but we were lucky enough to reach Kaza ..... the way things were going we thought we may end up getting stuck somewhere between Nako and Kaza ... or may be return to Nako for a night halt again !!! Ouch ! :))

Aah ..... the rains ... !!!! Frankly rains are scary here !!!! Mud roads become treacherous and slippery !!! And there is the danger of rock slides, landslides and the ever present streams .. either blocking the road or forming a waterfall ..... which may be strong enough not to venture underneath it !!!!

Then there are flash floods .. one such flash flood had skewed one of the bridges that we had to cross over - the Losar bridge. Phew !!! I was amazed at the destruction that a little bit of rain could havoc !!!

We had 3 delays -
First there was a big rock that blocked the road that had slid down the mountain just the previous day due to rains. - 3 hour wait. Which was only due to the rock being "Kaccha" .. so they could drill it .. dynamite it and blast it out of the way !!!! :)

Second there was a place where part of the bridge had fallen .. so the relevant area was being smoothed / covered and strengthened over by mud - 1 hour delay.

Third - part of the road had clean fallen into the river ... so BRO/GREF was hacking a road in the hillside !!! It took them the whole day .. but we reached that place around 3 pm so had to wait for 3 hours .... !!

Finally we reached Sumdo around 5 pm !!! We had travelled 35 kms in the entire day !!! :) 

After reaching Sumdo - most vehicles flew toward Tabo like bats out of hell. Since we had already lost 2 days we headed straight to Kaza Banjara Retreat.

Heading out on the 3rd day .... towards Tabo and Kaza

The huge rock blocking our way

Views ...

Road is clear - small rocks do not count ! :)

Golden hued sand vies with black ... lovely

Road has clear fallen into the river !!!!

Road to Kaza