[Kandisa]

Day 8: Kalpa to Sangla & Chitkul
It was a beautiful sunny morning at Kalpa with the mountain range visible from the window of the hotel room, albeit with the obstruction of the electrical lines.





Vista towards village Roghi



Breakfast was very decent with breads, parathas, omelettes and tea. While loading the truck, two cab drivers approached me to enquire about portable air compressor to fill up their tyres. The one I have is more than 7 years’ old and the pressure gauge is gone but thankfully it still does the job of filling up the tyre pretty fast in emergency situation. It was almost 10 when we finally started the journey back from Kalpa to Sangla & Chitkul.

A typical house enroute


A brief stop over at the Reckong peo market for some small souvenier shopping and we continued in the same route through the kinnaur kailash backdrop. In one of the check-post I was stopped under the assumption that this is a rented vehicle from company like Zoomcar! There was a brief halt becaue of ongoing blasting in one of the portion just before the hydro-electric project.





V-cross posing at the Shongtong bridge





Taking the left turn from the bridge at Karcham we chugged along the narrower uphill stretch towards Sangla. The scenery became engrossing once we were past the welcome gate to Tukpa valley.























The option of night stay was kept open and we thought to crash in any of the homestay/hotels before evening. The amount of construction of hotels/ properties around Sangla is alarming though. We decided to go till Chitkul and decide on the night stay option. But few kms after crossing Sangla, we came across a highly rated property, Hotel Rupin River view and thought to enquire about the availability and tariff. Thankfully a nice three bedroom accommodation was available in the wooden cottage area at an attractive discount. So we deposited some advance and proceeded towards Chitkul with the plan to come back here in the evening. With the accommodation part sorted, we were more relaxed and soon reached the check post around Mastrang. This strectch is like an oasis in the route with water streams around the beautiful greeneries. One can spend good amount of time in and around this area. The sun was playing hide and seek and the weather was switching between sunny and cloudy.





We reached Chitkul just in the late afternoon but thankfully the sun was out fully this time. We directly went to the riverbed with the truck. The wild river in the layered background of forest, mountain and blue sky is nothing sort of magical. It was severly windy though. While my daughter became busy in playing with the sand, rest of us tried our hands to take few shots of the surroundings.

[Kandisa]

The machine


My navigators for the journey...



And yours truely



Some experimentation with photoshoots by my brother





Good no of tourists were around and it was visible there is an exponential pace in construction of new hotels all around. Probably few years down the line the place will no longer retain the same attraction because of too much of conrete structures around. After spending around hour or so in the riverbed we decided to drive to the last permissible point for the civilian, the ITBP check post. The officials informed that trekking permit beyond this point is possible to achieve through ITBP main office at Peo. Also good amount of road construction work is in progress in this area, heading to the Tibet border. Turning around, we stopped at a small homestay for a nice warm cup of ginger tea. We left Chitkul just before the evening fall and drove through same stretch to reach the hotel.

The 'akhri dhaba' is no more the last pitstop


The scenic area on the way back


The sunset backdrop





Hot water was readily available in the geyser. Dinner order was placed quickly as we felt the hunger after getting freshned up. And this was probably the best vegetarian food in our entire journey with finger licking daal, dum-aloo and some vegetable preparation. The gentleman who owns the place was around and we had some nice conversation post dinner. Out of curiosity I just thought to check the occupancy situation of the hotel around the Durga Puja time and unsurprisingly the entire stretch was copletely booked by tourists from Kolkata. Surely this is one of the favourite holiday destinations for the Bengali people now a days surpassing the more common Shimla, Manali etc. Plan for the next day was nothing fixed and tentatively we thought to stop over somewhere convenient enroute the return journey back home. One of the hotel staffs offered us a short trekking option to the glaciar point next day morning. However missing Daranghati during the initial phase of the journey was always on my mind and I thought to check up the weather and road condition by making few phone calls. It was encouraging and promptly we decided the next day’s venture would be to this place before we come back the conventional return journey route. So the trekking plan for the next mornig was cancelled and we decided to start early after having breakfast in the hotel. Listening to the sound of the river passing by the hotel we returned to the cozy bed just before 10.

[Kandisa]

Day 9: Chitkul to Daran ghati

Just similar to Kalpa, good mountain view was available from the window of the room and it was so refreshing waking up in the morning. There was good no of camp stays on the downhill portion just by the side of the river and few people were sipping the morning tea sitting by the side of water.

Our room


Parking lot




The surrounding vista


We took bath, had again a tasty meal of paratha and sabji and bid adieu to the courteous staffs of the hotel.
View from the breakfast table



It was a lovely warm morning with no trace of bad weather whatsoever. Retracing the path back through the same wonderful road traversed the day before. With frequent stops for photo breaks it was a leisurely journey back to the Sangla turn off and then in the main highway, NH 22.













Journey throug the wide winding road was uneventful with the Vcross steadily cruising along the river Sutlej. It was around noon time we took the right turn from the main highway towards Gaura. The road suddenly becomes much narrower and on top of that there is a market area on the ascent portion with quite good no of vehicles all around! Took us some time to get settled with the chaos and after that the journey was much better. Reached Gaura around 3 and in the nearby market area had a late lunch with rice & chicken curry. Some stop over at the rest houses en-route took us some time and we reached Mashnoo around 5. The tarred road ends here and the narrow steep rocky track towards Daran branches off from here. We missed the turn, went ahead and took a U-turn from the nearby bus stand. The next few kms was steep uphil climb through apple orchards and we could hardly stop to take any photo. It was a nice deserted trail with dense greeneries all around.















Travelling through the sunshine and shadows, we steadily climbed through the 12 km stretch to Daranghati and reached there just before the onset of evening. It was a totally secluded area with snow cladded peaks visible at the distance through the dense jungle.











Initially we planned to camp out, but seeing the caretaker of the rest house, somehow felt lethargic and thought to check out the accommodation availability. My wife struck up a conversation with the caretaker who was taking off the quilts kept in the sun to dry out. He clearly mentioned that there is shortage of water. Since we were carrying the 20 L bottle which was largely unused we told the water issue could be taken care of. Sharing a few experience from our past Himachal trips and dropping names of few places and some govt. official helped our cause and finally we got green signal to stay there for the night but were told that only one room would be made available. We settled for the time being and the truck was parked inside the premise of the rest house. Few of the electrical points inside including the ones for geysers etc was burnt and the caretaker informed that it happened few days ago, during the heavy thunderstorm and rain, on the same day we thought to come up this route (on the 2nd day of our journey!). Also few cattle in the nearby village died in the lightning strike the same day. It was indeed a wise decision not to come here on that day amidst such turbulence.





While taking out few necessary baggage for the night again it was found that some previous rainwater did not completely dry off! So we decided to take everything out and put the drenched stuffs in the corridor to get back to nromal condition. The evening was setting in and we put the camp chairs outside to enjoy the solitude. The caretaker turned out to be a good fellow and soon prepared some nice tea for us. We handed over packets of soups and also few packets of ready to cook meals for the dinner. He was bit comfortable to know that only heating the packets would be good enough and there was no need to cook anything separately! While sipping the hot soups he shared many interesting stories of the region including a local demon who used to take form of any human or animal to lure and trap locals till a few years back! In recent time, during the winter time the area gets some die-hard bird enthusiast visitors who come in search of the elusive western tragopan when they come down from the higher altitudes. He also shared that normally he lives totally alone in this place and it was only because of some road construction activity, few Nepalese workers were staying in the vicinity for the time being. He also pointed few old, abandoned structures each of which was used for some purpose during the English regime including one for the stable and one as a check post. It was a different experience listening to the varities of stories under the moonlit sky with a chilly atmosphere all around. Dinner was taken around 9 and slowly and politely I requested him to open the other room also just for the night since there were three of us apart from our little daughter. Probably by that time he gained some confidence about us and somehow agreed for the same. We hit the bed around ten and this was supposed to be our last night out before resuming the return journey the next day.

A star trail attempt washed away in light

[Kandisa]

Day 10: The long way back to Noida

It took us some good time to pack everything back into the truck in the morning after getting freshened up. Morning was beautiful and the vistas in and around the rest house was really soothing











We decided to have a short walk along the abandoned part of the erstwhile ‘silk route’ which used to run through this zone towards Sarahan. There were deep jungles all around and it was misty atmosphere.









My brother was roaming around the upper part of the jungle for catching glimpses of some birds. After half an hour or so we came back to have the breakfast with maggi and tea and finally proceeded for the return journey towards the Taklech – Nogli route.











The Saraikoti temple was seen up in the hills and since we had to return all the way, we didn’t go for the visit to the temple.



All of us loved this place, so much so that my brother was contemplating to open a seasonal summer clinic in the region sometimes in future! The condition of the road on this side is also equally bad although the climb is relatively gentle. There were some short patches of tarred road in between. There were apple and kiwi orchards along with some sort of colourful wild roses by the side of the road.



After around an hour or so finally we got proper tarmac and it was a good change after some good amount of off-roading. Midway through the Taklech stretch, we came across an apricot tree which had major part of the branches on the road. And there were ripe apricots all around! So we stopped the truck under the tree and my brother utilized his 6 ft+ height to stand on the side of the bay area and pluck a good amount of probably the best quality of apricots we ever had! It was such a good fun and we kept on gulping quite a few while collecting rest in bags till we realized that we amassed at least 2-3 kgs of fruit!



Post the apricot break the downhill journey continued and the next stop was the lunch break a few kms before Narkanda. Can’t remember the name of the hotel but the chicken preparation was really homely and delicious! A short break at Narkanda was taken to collect few Himachali caps and scarfs and it was already late noon. It was very clear we were not going to reach back Noida till very late night but since it was all going to be through the highway we were not very worried althought it was bound to be the most boring part of the trip! At the outskirts of Shimla we encountered a huge queue of vehicles and decided to take the detour through Chail. Chail is and always will be a special for me and my wife as this was the first trip we made post our marriage and it was done all in public transport including the beautiful rail journey from Kalka to Shimla in Shivalik express and a bus journey from Lakkad bazar bus stand to Chail after a 3-4 hours wait. So it was nice recollection travelling through the road to Chail and this time our beloved new truck. My brother hadn’t been to this area before and we thought to take a brief stop in the Chail palace and spend some time. But the huge no of vehicles in the parking lot and the summer holiday rush made us continue without stopping. Chail is surely becoming a mainstream holiday place. Just a few kms after crossing Chail enroute Kandaghat I could spot a familiar white Fortuner at a bend coming from the opposite direction. Just when it came close, I could see the familiar face in the driving seat. It was none other than Commander Rathi, the ex-navy diving maestro and passionate off-roader-travel enthusiast who is lovingly maintaining our old petrol jeep now in his custody at Ahmedabad. He was on his way to Spiti. A brief exchange of pleasantries and we had to get going because of vehicles queuing up from both the directions. It was evening time when we stopped for a cup of tea at Sadhupool and a night long drive was now inevitable. Post an early dinner around Dharampur, we carried along the same stretch where road-widening work was in progress and finally hit the plains around midnight. Rest of the journey through the mad traffic rush on the NH1 was nothing exciting and finally we reached Noida at the day break, just before 5 in the morning. Spending a good amount of days in the hills, the heat wave seemed to be unbearable. Somehow we dragged ourselves to the rooms, had a quick shower and dozed off before waking up for the breakfast few hours later. My brother had a flight back in the evening and surely he didn’t miss his Belgium trip any more post the beauties of the varied terrains in the Devbhumi in the last ten days. So that’s how the inaugural hill drive in the Vcross came to an end. The odo clocked approx 1800 kms in the trip and surely I had a better understanding of the behaviour of the truck by the end of the trip. And I was absolutely sure we did make a right choice with the Vcross as it is probably the most optimum highway cruiser cum offroader as per our liking in the specified budget range. Surely there will be many more places to be ‘V-crossed’ in coming time. Till then it is ‘THE END’ for now.

[Samurai]

Moving out. Thanks for sharing... - Support Team

[Kandisa]

Sorry for the delay in replying as the thread was moved for completion.

Originally Posted by VivOverland

Hi Kandisa awesome to see your travelogue, very inspiring to see the variety of trails you've gone through. Do keep traveling and sharing, I'm looking forward to seeing more V-Cross stories on this forum!

Absolutely, this is one vehicle which begs to be driven and taken to places. Hope to share more travel stories in near future.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Congratulations on the Isuzu D-Max. Must have been quite a different experience from driving the 440, I am sure. Would love to read about a comparo of chalk with cheese!

The monochrome picture of the V-Cross looks ethereal - like a silver lining on the ground for the grey clouds above.

Thanks a lot. Haha, there can't be any comparison at the first place between a petrol non-AC, non-PS heck even non-door (if you ignore the soft doors) 1986 model soft top jeep and a 2017 2.5 L diesel pick up! From a driving perspective, the Vcross is nothing sort of a luxury for me, covering optimum level of features. Highway drives are so less taxing now and destinations could be reached without being exposed to natural elements (dust, smoke etc.) preserving the 'freshness' of the occupants! At 7000 km and with couple of long drives, the engine is just opening up and should be more responsive in coming days. Space is no more a constraint now and thankfully five full grown adults can comfortably seat. The rear occupants don't need to jump over any more from the front door through the driver & passenger seats! However the dimension, especially length and the diesel clutter are the two things I 've gradually become habituated with. Being the first (& probably the last) diesel vehicle in the family, I am still learning the proper driving style for such a truck; things were much more straight forward in the jeep. Also the sweet sound of magnaflow muffler while accelerating is sorely missed. But somehow somewhere there is some connection about the DNA of these two vehicles and probably thats the reason the Vcross appealed to me and family as much as the Jeep. In ideal world though, I would like to have both in my garage

Originally Posted by wbd8779

Congratulations!
I saw the car a while back in the neighbourhood , and was wondering if you had bought it .
How does it fit into the parking slot . I tried fitting one into my parking and had to drop the idea since it doesn't fit and juts out into the driveway.

Do stop me if you spot next time Well fitting into the parking slot is the toughest thing about this vehicle and to be frank this was my greatest apprehension. In fact the first day I entered the basement with the truck I literally was taking names of all the gods to help me out! Thankfully over the time I ve more or less learnt to manage it although one has to be absolutely focused while parking in or out. A momentary lapse of concentration might be costly for the body. As on date I 've got an external tube protection done on the vehicle both in front and rear and that helps a lot in measuring the gaps.

[mukulrathi]

Originally Posted by Kandisa

It took us some good time to pack everything back into the truck in the morning after getting freshened up. Morning was beautiful and the vistas in and around the rest house was really soothing

An awesome travelogue Kandisa, as always. Happy motoring and many more such trips. It indeed was a pleasant surprise meeting you near Chail in your new vehicle.

[siddarthab]

Wow !!! Splendid travelogue and superb pictures taking us along with you on this spectacular journey. The V-Cross has been made for you it seems

Warm regards,

Siddhartha

[hikersoul]

Awesome itinerary, nice choice of trails for the vcross. Looking forward to more such trail searchings by the silver beauty.

[VishJ]

A great travelogue which for me is simply " India Redefined ". Not to forget the V Cross too. It has really changed the way one can tour around India. Wonderful pictures also turned to be an eye candy. Crunch more miles with the truck.

[Ace F355]

Excellent vehicle, excellent gateway and brilliantly written travelogue, Kandisa. From a old school Jeep to a proper lifestyle 4x4 vehicle! That's quite a turn of tides there. Trust me you are going to enjoy the places more and more with V Cross. This vehicle's ability to take you to off-beat places, yet being practical, safe and comfortable long distance cruiser is hard to beat.

Loved the write-up, thanks a lot for sharing.

[tazmaan]

Looks like you had a lot of fun and it can be seen in the pictures. I am happy you are enjoying every bit of the V-cross and wish you many more memories with the Vcross.

I see you have changed the OEM tires, what have you upgraded to?

[raghubhaskar]

Sir -
I've seen a lot of pics in many travelogues, but this is simply amazing.

Would you have google route maps? If maybe I would want to do this some day :-) The B/W pic of the V-C is beautiful.

Are the roads good enough for a sedan to make it through?

[behaln]

Absolutely brilliant travelogue and many congratulations for the truck. It's indeed quite imposing. In fact my fortuner looks puny in front of it. Awaiting your updates on putting the canopy on the rear.

[nishsingh]

Pretty sure the views would have been amazing, but all I could see in the pics was your V-Cross! That is a gorgeous machine!

Wishing you more miles and smiles on it!