[Coooolcat21]

Another carved door panel.


The temple and its beautiful location












Mother and son-quality time






Lal Tibba.




Beetles






Many hores around that place




Beautiful landscapes.

[Coooolcat21]

Clouds pay a visit to the beautiful green mountains.




















Misty paths.












Back from Hatu Peak.

[ashphil]

Lovely TL Coooolcat21. The photographs are awesome and the narration is excellent. I am impatiently waiting for more! Do give us some information on how the vehicles performed. Rated 5 star.
Regards,
Ashok

[rajeevn]

Dear Coooolcat,

That's some wonderful pictures and narration. Can't wait to get more from you, especially as you take us from Narkanda to the Upper Himalayas.

My one complaint against you—you waited many months before posting this wonder T'log. Us Team-BHpians could have been seeing these mouth-watering photographs and your eloquent writeup months ago! But since you have finally brought it on, keep going at a furious pace, for we are all glued to it!



To be truthful, this T'log is also heart-rending, by the way, for people like me who are are sitting in Delhi's 45º C heat right now, seeing you, the family and the T-Fort in the midst of misty and green-speckled mountains. It takes away all desire to work, my friend!!

Thanks again, and please bring it on thick and fast.

[adityasiera]

Originally Posted by Coooolcat21

17th August. Narkanda - Hatu Peak - Narkanda.

Great writeup, lovely photographs . It brought back fond memories of my Ride to Kaza, Changtha, Komic in 2010.We checked into the Hatu Peak, on our way back and this was the place where we became civilized again.. Attaching a few of my pics.

[Coooolcat21]

18th August.

We were off at the usual time after a breakfast of Toast, eggs and alu-parothas. This was to be our staple breakfast for the next two weeks and the cause of nightmares to some of us. we had decided not to travel along NH 22 but take a small detour along an internal road pasing through Baghi - Sungri and rejoining NH 22 just before Rampur. The Road was narrow but the drive was out off the world. We faced our first road block just a few Kms after getting off NH 22. A huge rock had slid down the mountain-side and parked itself on the road, this was being broken up and shifted as at the same time the now shakey mountain-side was being cleaned of other loose rocks. We were luckily stuck for just about 30 mins after which we could just squeeze through two truck size pieces of the rock. We took our time and were therefore delayed. After reaching NH 22 we drove on towards Kalpa which was our night halt.
As it was raining constantly could not manage many pictures of the beautiful drive and it started getting dark real fast due to which we missed out seeing quite a bit of the scenery. Towards the end we missed our turn towards the hotel and drove on for a few Kms ahead towards Kaza. We stopped on the way to ask for directions from 2 gentlemen who were walking down the dark road. I rolled down the glass to ask for directions and even before I could complete my sentence one of them staggered and fell onto the window. However the other person immediately apologised and told us that they were returning from the temple and his friend had, had a bit too much of the "prasad". Well it was only the next day that we actually got to see what the "prasad" was . . We reached in the dark and were shown the most luxurious rooms on our entire trip in a HPTDC Hotel. Kinner Kailash is a really beautiful Hotel.

We start of our day with a beautiful morning.


Soon we stop for the first road block of our trip


Gave us time to walk around and appreciate the beauty of the place


Brilliant coloured moss on the mountains give them the unique bright green colour.






The road ahead.


Beautiful house with a perfect location.


The bird is lucky too..


Little waterfalls sprout from every nook and corner along the paths.










It starts to rain again.


The roads are a mess.




Finally lunch being made at one of the most beautiful place till date. It tasted great too as it had the magic ingredient of the mountains.

[Coooolcat21]

We continue our beautiful drive to Kalpa.

Steep Climb


Wet Mountains


Mountain Roads


Pieces of rocks from the mountain side


Clearing the loose rocks.


Mountain Roads and Water falls...




Water Board Connection, HP Style.






House at the end of the road
















Rocks all dressed in florescent moss. ( close to Bhaghi and a closely guarded location)


Running the mountain gauntlet.




Pink Flowers and Mountain Roads


Real hard work to maintain motor able roads.






Badly built Dam.

[fazalaliadil]

Coooolcat21,

Your beautiful capture of life and people around this tough mountainous place, literally takes us there. 'Lal Tibba' must be turning into an infinity pool when it over flows. The heart shaped mountain top in post #32, (below the misty pines) was it noticed and deliberately shot?

The streams, water falls, misty woods, clouds, fresh foliage, ferns dwarfed by pines and many things I may have missed, have been put together so beautifully in words and photographs.

The intricate carving and detail at Hatu temple are work of master craftsmen, so is the capsicum sandwich.

Lucky devotee, so what was the staggering prasad?
And why did you have to ask Mr. Prasad, out of the two?

Your son has every reason to flash two V signs.
Regards,

[purebliss]

Originally Posted by Coooolcat21

.The first seeds were sown by a rare photograph here and a snippet there in the mainline press, stories of a friends friend who had been there and was smitten for life by this holiday he/she had been on.

Thanks. you have succeeded in passing it on.One day I too hope to trace your steps to highlands.

You seems to have a way with words and a keen eye for colours. Good work.

[Coooolcat21]

Originally Posted by VindyWheels

Hi Cooolcat21,

Loved your narration and pics covering the street, market, people, monuments and the beautiful vistas! Felt like I was actually travelling and seeing those places

Photographs are topnotch, some breathtaking. I guess you meant Canon with 100-400mm "zoom" and not "prime". How did the nex fare compared to the DSLR? I presume the wide angle shots are clicked with the nex since you used the zoom lens on the canon.

Eager to experience the rest of the journey.

Cheers

Vindy

Thank you Vindy. The nex faired pretty well. Keep watching as there is lots more to come.

Originally Posted by ashphil

Lovely TL Coooolcat21. The photographs are awesome and the narration is excellent. I am impatiently waiting for more! Do give us some information on how the vehicles performed. Rated 5 star.
Regards,
Ashok

Thank You Ashok for liking the pictures and rating. The Fortuner did very well. Lots more coming for sure.

Originally Posted by rajeevn

Dear Coooolcat,

That's some wonderful pictures and narration. Can't wait to get more from you, especially as you take us from Narkanda to the Upper Himalayas.

My one complaint against you—you waited many months before posting this wonder T'log. Us Team-BHpians could have been seeing these mouth-watering photographs and your eloquent writeup months ago! But since you have finally brought it on, keep going at a furious pace, for we are all glued to it!



To be truthful, this T'log is also heart-rending, by the way, for people like me who are are sitting in Delhi's 45º C heat right now, seeing you, the family and the T-Fort in the midst of misty and green-speckled mountains. It takes away all desire to work, my friend!!

Thanks again, and please bring it on thick and fast.

Thank you so much Rajeevn. Soon after we got back from the trip we were back at work and got busy with daily chores. In reality mentally it took me a long time to get back from the trip We had about 80 GB of photographs ,took me a long time to sort them out.
Now that I am finally writing, enjoy and you can be sure that there are loads of photographs on the way.

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

Coooolcat21,

Your beautiful capture of life and people around this tough mountainous place, literally takes us there. 'Lal Tibba' must be turning into an infinity pool when it over flows. The heart shaped mountain top in post #32, (below the misty pines) was it noticed and deliberately shot?

The streams, water falls, misty woods, clouds, fresh foliage, ferns dwarfed by pines and many things I may have missed, have been put together so beautifully in words and photographs.

The intricate carving and detail at Hatu temple are work of master craftsmen, so is the capsicum sandwich.

Lucky devotee, so what was the staggering prasad?
And why did you have to ask Mr. Prasad, out of the two?

Your son has every reason to flash two V signs.
Regards,

Fazal Sir,
Thank you so much for the appreciation and also describing my pictures in detail that I have not been able to. Concerning the pic you have mentioned ,it was taken deliberately. I liked more the way the cloud was cradled among the tips of the pine trees.

Keep watching,
Regrads.

@adityasiera, Thank you for sharing your lovely pictures.

@purebliss,
Thank you.

[Coooolcat21]

Another beautiful stream

Our first sighting of an apple tree.It was tough to keep my son away from these trees.


Sheep ,a comon sight in these regions.


Wild flowers for me.


More waterfalls flowing right onto the roads.




A beautiful temple.


The most beautiful path that leads to school.










Hydel power project tunnel.
















Land slide.





It was soon getting dark because of the clouds and the rains,we were going to miss a lot on the way. But then on the other hand we got to this point thats photographed by each and everyone, and it looked magical in low light.
Was so happy to be in this place as I had looked at these pictures for long on other logs.

[AbhishekB86]

I am speechless ma'am. Kudos to you. Absolutely beautiful. I am sure the little one will remember this even when he's 25. Can't wait till I get a 4x4 to attempt this.

The narration is top notch and words can't do justice to your photography skills. A lot of credit goes to those who were driving too.

Makes me wonder. Why do we live in cities?

[novice_alto]

This is not done Cooolcat. You are updating very slow.

Jokes apart, you narration and pics are just awesome. Also, please share if you needed to use your Fortuner's 4x4 capabilities anywhere. By any chance, any videos?? Your group had two formidable SUVs, one the largest selling and no pushover by any means and the other the best SUV (my opinion) in India.

And yes, please keep them coming, and fast.

Thanks for sharing.

[noidea]

Brilliant travelogue, Cooolcat. Terrific photographs. Great narration. Absolutely hooked.

Tell us the story of the landslide - seems you were really close !

[megazoid]

Brilliant thread. Great pictures and narration. Was on the kaza-shimla stretch around the same time and I almost got quashed under a rockfall at reckong peo. That landslide picture makes me shudder.