Day 11 and Day 12 - Chandratal to Manali - Manali to Sojha - Spiti Valley Trip 2010

Day 11 - We started early from Chandratal towards Manali. A short heated altercation with the "Terrible Driver of DL 1Y V 8465 INNOVA" left a very bad taste in the mouth. He actually threatened to leave us stranded at a bifurcation of the road from Chandratal if we did not do as he said !!!! This was too much !!!

My hubby rarely loses his cool but this argument decided it for him. We would have to replace this good-for-nothing driver !!!!

River crossings were tough. The camp guide Bishan was with us and it helped quite a bit to have him !!! He was taking a lift till Manali.

The drive to Rohtang was misty and beautiful until we reached the pass itself ! It was jammed with vehicles and the pass was slippery with mud !!! We had a 3 hour wait here for the pass to be cleared for vehicles going into Manali. We halted in Manali.

We called Banjara about the driver's antics and they promptly replaced him in 30 min !!! Phew !! Thank God !!! We were so disgusted with his attitude and behavior. God knows why he had come on this journey if all he wanted to do was stay in Delhi !!! Ugh !!!

I did not think Banjara's would change the driver. I expected them to ask us to adjust for the remaining 4 days of the journey which would be typical of any other travel operator. But they did not !!! That definitely raised my opinion of them.

Tips

• Start early. The Rani Nala and one more stream ( forgot the name ) get full as the day passes with ice water melting in the sun. So crossing is very tough.

Day 12 - We headed out to Sojha just 3 hours from Manali. The route was typical green hill station ... green , verdant and misty !! :) Lovely .... We pass a tunnel that is 2.5 kms cut into a mountain enroute.

About Banjara at Sojha
The Sojha property is lovely although it is set amidst other private lands too. So you can hear other families around unlike Sangla !! :) There are many steps to go down [ or climb up !! ] to reach the retreat so
The staff at the retreat is courteous and good. We enjoyed our stay over there. The view from the rooms is wonderful !!! On a good misty day it is like being in the clouds and when it clears -one can see the entire valley and top part of ranges of mountains ... just gorgeous !!

We just relaxed on this day since the day was misty and going to any place would not have yielded us any views. We explored the area around the retreat.

Tips

• May-June is the best season for Sojha. The views are fabulous and not obstructed by the mist.
• Do check out Raghupur fort. The trek is of medium difficulty but well worth the 360 views of the ranges and ranges of mountains. Take a picnic basket !!!
• GHNP is located 8 kms by walk/trek from Gushaini. And this is to the entrance of GHNP. No vehicle is allowed on this route. Plan accordingly. The walk is not very difficult.

Rohtang pass in the mist

Slushy mud - Rohtang pass

Traffic jams are very common on this route

Steps leading down to Sojha Banjara Retreat

View

It was a misty day

View from our room

Day 9 & 10 - Kaza - Kunzum pass - Spiti Valley Tour 2010

Day 9 - We were refreshed at ready to go out and explore Kaza !! :) On this day we went to Kibber and Ki Monasteries. The snaps speak it all !!! Ethereal !!

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

About Banjara Retreat , Kaza

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.

Spiti Valley view from Ki Monastery

Enroute Ki Monastery

Enroute Dhankar Monastery which is on one of the mud spires - Rain must be a scary thought here !!

Can you see the sheep crossing over the mountains ?

Eroded mud spires on the journey to Kaza