Day 10 - We went to Dhankar Monastery and then headed out of the Spiti Valley towards Kunzum pass and Lahaul valley. This stretch is the most surreal of all the drives - heavenly !!!! We took hundreds of snaps and yet do not feel we did justice to that place !!!!
Tips -
- Diesel is always an issue here !!! So plan accordingly.
- Power shutdown is common too !!! :)
- Altitude sickness is a possibility ( we did not have issues though )
- Consider going to Komic village - they are on a higher altitude
We were pleased to find that the people over here were very friendly and nice. They were enthusiastic about our arrival and keen on us seeing places too !!! The camping would be organized by these people and they were very happy that we had made it to Kaza with minimal problems !!!!
I consider the fact that they were able to keep us happy in-spite of the the power shutdown [ we had no power the entire duration of our stay ] ... an achievement. Mr. Om Prakash of this place is a very enthusiastic trekker himself and helped us decide which places to go considering our diesel situation. They also arranged for diesel at Batal ( after Chandratal camping ) but were unable to do so at Kaza itself.
So we eliminated Pin Valley drive from our agenda. We had already lost seeing the 1000 yr Gompa at Tabo due to the delay at Nako. We perhaps could have stayed couple of days longer in Kaza .. but since we had booked the Chandratal camping ( which had been already organized for that day ) our options were tight.
I still feel they could have arranged for a postponement of the camping but as it turns out ..... we were very lucky we headed out the day we did !!! We missed the Leh cloudburst by one day !!!!!
Terrible Driver of DL 1Y V 8465 INNOVA - I was getting a little annoyed with our driver ( make that very very annoyed ) who had not been keen on us waiting at Nako. He had wanted us to head back. But we persisted. Low level whining from drivers we always expect but this guy had started to become very very tedious. Inspite of the Retreat people trying to talk to him !!!!! He was now begrudging going to Dhankar Monastery too !!! Looks like he was trying to welsh out of taking us anywhere ....... and was only cribbing once he knew we were cut off from civilization !!! I mean even if we were to replace him .. it would not be easy at this point in the trip na ?
Our sore point was that .. the diesel situation did not look good. With the trucks being stuck in Nako for days the Kaza fuel station did not have diesel so we had to carefully plan our outings .. while rationing the fuel consumption !! It seemed ironic to me ... we had arrived where we wanted to .. and we could still be done in by ----- diesel ??? :)
Luckily and after prodding - he got diesel in the evening of the first day. So we felt more comfortable with the drive to Dhankar Monastery and Lahaul Valley.
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| Spiti Valley view from Ki Monastery |
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| Enroute Ki Monastery |
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| Enroute Dhankar Monastery which is on one of the mud spires - Rain must be a scary thought here !! |
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| Can you see the sheep crossing over the mountains ? |
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| Eroded mud spires on the journey to Kaza |
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