[crazyfordriving]

WOW! Amazingly captured pictures, and beautifully described TL, loved reading every bit of it.

[vardhan.harsh]

Originally Posted by MotoNanu

Paaji tussi to kamaal kar ditta!

Excellent and crisp narration with wonderful pics. The snap with the man and the little girl is really cute and very well taken. I am sure you all had a great time and thanks of sharing. More pics are welcome

Thanks buddy. It was a curious moment between the man and the kid - to eah his own toy .

Originally Posted by Maverick5490

Hats off to your spirit of adventure, and nice to see the Team -BHP camaradarerie at such remote places.

Your narration and your pictures are fabulous, eagerly waiting for the rest!

Cheers!

P.S. Your title reminds me of the song: Little Talks by 'Of Monsters and Men'. Apt for the travelogue!

Hmmm have never heard of this song - but it does sound apt

Originally Posted by Dragonov

Excellent narration and photographs. You surely put your 4x4 to good use. Enjoyed reading the log

Thanks buddy. It was indeed a fun filled 4x4 trip.

Originally Posted by vinayrathore

Great narration and awesome Pictures!! I had been to Manali earlier in Feb and got to witness very heavy snowfall. The road was closed beyond Palchan. Lucky you, were able to venture till Kothi!

Rated 5 Stars!

Yeah Aarti too had been in MAnali once with her friends during that month. It does snow heavily at that time of the season almsot every year and it is great to see Manali in that layer of fresh white.

Originally Posted by Samba

Must say its awesome, driving through the Himalayas at night must be some memorable experience. Loved your narration plus your pictures too, specially the night pictures.
Two 4Wds + lots of snow + night driving + Himalaya = Sheer fun! What else do one need to enjoy! And yes rated 5 stars too.

The night driving was fun - but a bit tiring too. I wonder if I would attempt that again soon. I was pretty tired that night.

Originally Posted by specialedition

Another excellent log with pics. A little more brief about the black ice & the crossing if possible and did you engage the 4H on a thin sheet of ice on road or it was a few inche of snow. Thanks.

No, I was working my way up with the slide trick. No 4H engaged since apart from the black ice apart it was all tarmac! I could not risk enginging the 4 wheel drive on that stretch.

Originally Posted by powerband_rider

Thats an amazing trip @vardhan.harsh! The log is top notch in all vital departments - adventure/pics/narration
It was lovely to see Kiyang in action in its natural habitat, mountains. Snow being the icing on the mountains. err.. the cake!
Cheers.

Thanks buddy. I am glad that you enjoyed it.

Originally Posted by samarth.bhatia

Beautiful pictures, excellent narration and French village references. All night drives, 4H, 4L adventures and random & planned meetings in the hills!

This travelogue is different. Refreshing. Inspiring.

Thanks for sharing..

Cheers!
Sam

Thanks Sam. Am glad you liked it.

Originally Posted by wanderernomad

Brilliant as usual. Could you describe the exact spot of that huge rock slide? Characteristic of the stretch beyond Powari though as you crawl on the left shoulder before crossing over to the right side. Which alternate route are you talking about that got closed last year? Plus do you have some of the interior shots of the Gurkhs or a link where they can be seen? Thanks.
PS> Next time you go again to Jalori be sure you have an answer for the Dhaba Owner, the blessings cannot fail can they? lol.

Hey Wandernomad,
The exact spot of the landslide. Well if you remember if one goes towards Powari, first one crosses from the right bank of Sutlej to the left bank - after the cut-off for Sangla valley. Then one crosses again back towards the right bank. Immediately next is the climb towards Kalpa. Well this landslide was approximately 500m - 700m from this ascent towards Kalpa. I've heard that this route is always unstable, but this landslide was massive even for its reputation.

Rajeev, mentioned that Gurkha is still a work in progress and I'll share the link soon as and when he does. I did not take any snaps inside back then, but it was an awesome arrangement.

Look at googlemaps - you would probably get an idea of the alternate route i was talking about. It is a tad difficult to explain. It is hardly 200m above the existing route which was closed down some years ago.

Originally Posted by mobix

Truly amazing and awe inspiring mate. We will be definitely going there next year, thanks to you & Rajiv (rkbharat) amazing travelogues.

Thanks mobix. I hope you do go.

Originally Posted by Baddychat

Super narration Harsh. You had me in splits. That backed by some stunning imagery made it all the better.

Rating your thread a thoroughly deserved 5 stars.

Cheers

Thanks for the 5 stars Baddychat.

Originally Posted by crazyfordriving

WOW! Amazingly captured pictures, and beautifully described TL, loved reading every bit of it.

Thanks for going through the log buddy. One more edition coming up soon.

[vardhan.harsh]

It was 1’o’clock in the afternoon when we chugged away from Manali. It was a latish start and a straight run would have led us to be in Delhi by late in the night, probably around 2 am. However, we decided to take the detour towards Parashar lake. A mini-destination which had been on our minds for quite some time, but one which had been neglected for more ‘delicious’ destinations and drives. The lake itself is small and flanked by an old temple which is quite revered by the locals. And with an altitude of around 2700 m it stands just above the treeline in a huge meadow - or a bugiyal as they call it in this part of the world. At the altitude the panorama visible from there is quite exquisite.

The detour itself is somewhere after Bhuntar at a non-descript town on the highway by the name of Bajaura. The detour itself is poorly marked, but the saving grace was that everyone seemed to know about this lake. I guess the temple makes it very popular among the locals as a picnic destination cum pilgrimage. The wide highway is replaced by a narrow tarmac road - but good enough for two vehicles to cross comfortably without breaking a sweat. One leaves the tarmac somewhere mid-way towards Mandi and start climbing rapidly towards the lake. It is a long and continuous climb but with few switchbacks. This makes it possible to keep an average speed of about 20-25kmph even on those roads. The traffic was sparse, thankfully as there were plenty of blind turns.

These peaks are typically devoid of snow once summer hits Manali


But till the time they lose all their snow, they look lovely


A rafting expedition hitting a rapid - the best part of the expedition


On the district roads towards Parashar Lake


The road conditions were quite decent, except for being narrow

The last climb is through a thick jungle, where there are painful switchbacks - specially for a Safari with a horrible turning radius after which just out of nowhere the trees disappear and one is treated to a vast meadow. At the end of the meadow stands a Forest rest house and a PWD rest house both of which are lone buildings in an otherwise vast expanse. If one has the time and has booked them in advance - they looked like a really fantastic place to spend a night with the snow-clad Himalayan peaks for company. Sadly, by March haze takes over making for a low visibility but I would assume Oct - Dec would be a fantastic time to stay here.

One walks a bit - hardly for about 10 min - from the parking lot to the ridge, below which lies the lake. At the ridge one finds a ‘dhaba’ doling out vegetarian goodies and is a pleasant surprise since the entire route is devoid of any ‘dhabas’. Sadly for carnivores like me, even eggs were not available owing to its proximity to the temple. We went down towards the lake to take a couple of shots, having been blessed with a first clear sunset of the trip.

Above the tree-line - approaching Parashar


A flock of sheep cross the road


A quaint moutainside


The 'Parashar bowl'


A wider view of the Parashar bowl


The dhaba at the ridge of the bowl


The old temple


An abstract attempt


The last rays of the sun hitting the temple


This PWD resthouse would make for an excellent night stay


The haze made the view less charming than what it must be from the lake

The fuel meter was nearing empty and it was time to pour out the spare diesel we had hoarded on what was meant to be a ‘Spiti’ trip. It was already 6:30 pm by the time we had rolled out - and a push all the way to Delhi seemed unlikely. We decided to crash the night at Bilaspur where we eventually managed to reach by midnight or a tad before midnight - stopping only for a dhaba pitstop for dinner. Our halt had always been the lake view hotel at Bilaspur, sadly it was completely booked that night, so we had to settle for some non-descript hotel which smelled of leaking cooking gas!

A painted sunset


The under-construction IIT Mandi campus. Situated at a lovely spot and huge!

Day 6: Bilaspur - Delhi
The drive back was uneventful. An early start saw us reach the plains for breakfast somewhere near Ropar and we arrived safely at our home just in time for lunch.

The END

[wanderernomad]

Ok so you got stuck near to Karcham itself ? You crossed over to the left bank at Wangtoo and then you again switch over to the right side now a days at Karcham. That spot was never an issue about 10 years back with solid rock face on the mountainside. But then Karcham is hardly the town that it used to be. With the dam construction at full pace it is a complete mess. Then you cross over again to the left bank at Shongtong. Between Karcham and Powari ASAIK there is no alternate route. Now I am confused. I thought you meant an alternate route that byepasses Powari if one was to go from Kalpa to Pooh. I am afraid Ill have to trouble you even more for the info now.

[mathewirene]

Literally I was taken on a dream journey to the magical Spiti by your travelogue. It had all the elements in the right proportion. The most striking aspect being the high quality pics and the angle of the shots when it comes to capturing the most beautiful scenes in the world as well as capturing the 4x4s in the right background and in the right pose. Infact I have one like more for the Gurkha, it looks really beastly with alloys and all. Great post guys!!

[vardhan.harsh]

Originally Posted by wanderernomad

Ok so you got stuck near to Karcham itself ? You crossed over to the left bank at Wangtoo and then you again switch over to the right side now a days at Karcham. That spot was never an issue about 10 years back with solid rock face on the mountainside. But then Karcham is hardly the town that it used to be. With the dam construction at full pace it is a complete mess. Then you cross over again to the left bank at Shongtong. Between Karcham and Powari ASAIK there is no alternate route. Now I am confused. I thought you meant an alternate route that byepasses Powari if one was to go from Kalpa to Pooh. I am afraid Ill have to trouble you even more for the info now.

I think the best way to clear the confusion will be to look at the attached map below.

Originally Posted by mathewirene

Literally I was taken on a dream journey to the magical Spiti by your travelogue. It had all the elements in the right proportion. The most striking aspect being the high quality pics and the angle of the shots when it comes to capturing the most beautiful scenes in the world as well as capturing the 4x4s in the right background and in the right pose. Infact I have one like more for the Gurkha, it looks really beastly with alloys and all. Great post guys!!

Thanks buddy - but err, did you go through the log? We did not manage to reach Spiti at all.

You should have seen the Gurkha from inside - it was an awesome custom job done by Rajeev.

[sameervg]

Hi Harsh,

Superb travelogue and amazing pics. Rated 5 stars for the same.
Spiti valley has its own different beauty of nature.

I have also traveled spiti valley in June four years back. That time I travelled with rented Scorpio and route was Chandigarh - Narkanda - Kalpa - Sangla valley - Kaza - Kunzum pass - Rohtang pass - Manali - Chandigarh.
I also want to drive that route with my own car.

Thanks for sharing such nice travelogue.

Cheers !

[mathewirene]

Yep Harsh, I just used Spiti since that was the initial destination. Then the journey, as the pictures says, turned so magical even through half way that I just imagined what it would be if it was completed.Pretty good travelogue. And thanks to you after so many years simply being a passive reader, this is my first post on the forum.

[wanderernomad]

Originally Posted by vardhan.harsh

I think the best way to clear the confusion will be to look at the attached map below.
Attachment 1092526

Ok that clears the confusion. So you were stuck ahead of Powari. From your earlier post I got the impression that you got stuck even before Shongtong. I know that route it was precisely for this purpose as the mountain face around Powari is very unstable. Its a pity the route is closed now.

[callmetarantula]

Originally Posted by vardhan.harsh

Why did we want to do this crazy drive? Because that was the only way we could cover most of a white Spiti in the limited 6 days we had during the Holi break of 2013.

Lovely read & nice pics. The fun that you guys had shines through. Reminded me vividly of a trip my partner & I made to Spiti in the beginning of Apr 2011. Luckily we were able to croos over into Spiti & Baspa with all the roads been opened as we arrived. We were halted at Kunzumla & had to turn back from there, though the non-plan was to cross over form Rohtang.

Enjoy many more such adventures & keep the entertaining writing going.