[contact.nitin7]

Spiti in March 2022

It was nearly 10 years since I had last been on a Biking trip, in 2013 me and my friends had a real close call with that Uttarakhand CloudBurst and it had shook us to pieces. Gathering all the might I had and support from my better half, I decided to do a trip when old friends said - Nitin, you gotta do it with us.

Who could say NO to old friends asking for a bike trip, some of them are avid-writers, drivers and riders of this forum, and the rest you’ll get to know eventually throughout the thread.

We 7 people decided to do the Lahaul Spiti Valley, and the preparations started.
Riders - Yours truly - @beingniting | @arjunthakur | @rachitkdogra | @keshavarora | @atulmodi | @diasjacob and @nardevsinghchib - (Nardev was supposed to join us at Zirakpur, he rode all the way from JAMMU non-stop to make it up in time)
Like said by many Tbhpians - don't always follow G-Maps, he also took a route suggested by the lady on g-maps and got scorched in heat and bad roads.



Preparations Start with Basics and Essentials:
Gears and Biking accessories needed - bought from - BikeAHolic (Noida)



we decided to leave the right after HOLI - 20th March - 06:00 AM
-


Meeting point - Sarai Kale Khan - 6:30 AM



All of us pushed from the Meeting point at 07:00 AM sharp and were excited to be on the saddle.

We headed straight for NH1 and Delhi, we all were munching miles like crazy, we didnt realize when we all crossed Murthal, Sonepat, Panipat and reached Karnal in a whizz.

We all decided to take a brief stop for breakfast at a roadside dhaba which looked Okayish.
Time - 09:30


We literally stopped for 40 odd mins and pushed back on the road killing time again because we also had to meet and catch up with one more rider who was on his way from Jammu to meet us at Zirakpur and he was riding non-stop.
and we made good time starting from karnal we made it to Jabli right after zirakpur at 12:30pm


Started from the Coffee Chowk after a sumptous 2 cold coffee each and headed straight to our Next halt at Narkanda
Hotel Narkanda Hills - Narkanda.

Some pictures Enroute




Looking at this you'd all say I was running a Wide Body Kit bike, and yes all my folks behind said the same thing, so the next day we decided to move this wide body to a saddle and wrap them with Bungee Cords










Day 1 ended at Narkanda at 18:30 hours, crashing straight to bed.
Stay - Hotel Narkanda Hills

I am attaching all the links I can, Hope this helps people plan their stay well.

[contact.nitin7]

Day 2

Plan - Narkanda to NAKO (18:00hours)
Does everything go as planned - stay tuned.

We pushed from Narkanda after getting a tank up at 10:00
There is IOC petrol pump at the junction, we decided to fill it full and push, we were already late.




after riding about nearly for 2 hours - we had to take stop at LUHRI hydroproject planning stage because of blasting going on.
stop means a photo op -
well we took a dozen of them posting just one for the name sake



after the short break of nearly 15odd mins, we started again headed towards Rampur Bushahr.
After riding for about 50mins to an hour we were greeted by a humongous crowd at the Temple of the City, which celebrates some sort of a festival after the HOLI, and there is a MELA in the temple and its ground, may the lord himself save you from that mayhem.
It was burning HOT during the day, and the crowd didn't let us move an inch for a good 5-7mins, slowly the military truck was making its ways so we got an opportunity to move slowly in the forward direction, me and Atul who was right in front of me started crawling our way out of that, and also realizing the burning smell coming from the clutch.
Somehow we managed to cross the whole mayhem in 12-13mins of crawl rate and took a stop right where the diversion for Reckong Peo starts, at this junction there is a City College which is a girls college in the morning and boys in the noon.


After a pleasurable stop of 30 minutes we all decided to push - so as to make it in time for the evening, we were already late and now this JAM/Local festival has caused us another hour and a half extra.

[contact.nitin7]

The roads are maintained by BRO and the black top made is so enticing that given an SBK you could do a knee down all throughout.

The sight of elusive snow is now getting closer.

It was noon and we were a tad bit tired, needed a small break but looking out were not able to find any good spot to sit and eat, we all decided to stop at the Y axis at reckong peo which on the left takes you Kalpa and on the right you push towards NAKO.



q



waiting for about 15-20 mins here, we gulped down some water and protein bars and started to again head out for NAKO, we took a quick Maggi break at one point after this pivotal right we made for NAKO after an hour of riding - I vaguely remember the place at Bhabha Nagar I guess.



30mins for the Maggi/Omelette's brake - I'd say, we pushed for Nako.

It started to get dark now, and we had very little to make it to NAKO, I stopped a few times just to take some pics which were en route NAKO - solely because I did take the same pics 10 years ago and wanted to document the stark difference Nature has gone through in a decade.






10 years ago this looked completely diff -






From the base we were able to see the Nako Village on top -


We managed to reach Nako at around 19:30 hours and then crash for some time before we all sat together to have dinner.

As for a teetotaler, post-dinner I headed up for the roof to take picture of the night sky - this was shot at exactly 00:00 hours





At the end of day2, we reached - NAKO, and where I was supposed to be very happy, I was indeed a little sad to see such a stark difference in 10 years - of what has happened.
Spiti was supposed to be completely white, and here we have reached NAKO, there is snow only on the sides and that too is vanishing.
Lake was frozen 10 years ago and today it had very less water.
picture credit goes to my friend Lovish from xBhp who lent his camera in 2012 for me to document all these pics.

[contact.nitin7]

DAY 3

The DEJAVUU , but with a twist, 10 years and what Global Warming has done to the planet.

Did I mention we stayed at - Tashi Guest House

The whole night, in my heart I had this feeling of what has happened to the place I loved so much, had done Lahaul Spiti twice before and this time it was completely different.

Day 3 started with getting a glimpse of the Snow Capped Mountains sitting on the isle of the NAKO Lake



After spending some time at the lake in solace, we started to get ready to make ourselves ready for a long day and ride for KAZA

See you soon again NAKO



111km to be covered in 3hr to 25mins by google maps







We started off from Nako and wanted our first stop to be at SUMDO, the ARMY Canteen that offers breakfast with samose, chai and jalebi at a nominal price.

We were stopped by the road gods in only 30 mins of riding, the place called - "Dhar Khirpichi", had major landslides in the winter the road was completely disseminated into dust

so while the BRO and people cleared the road to be motorable in 15-20 mins, i took the opportunity to take some pictures








and after 15-20 mins of break we headed staright for sumdo, the black top was enticing and we maintained around 80-90kmph post the Dhar stretch, reaching SUMDO at 10:41.



It was around 11:30 we finished up our breakfast around 3/4 samosa each person and 2 chai with some jalebi.

Next Stop - Gue Mummy Lama Temple
supposed to be a temple where they have kept a mummy - The Mummy Mummy waala mummy

** will try to find a photo of it, a friend has it on the phone.
Got it -






some pics while we took rest









The Gang



Some camera shots -

[contact.nitin7]

DAY 3 - Continued

Today - We had a lot of time at hand.
We took a long break of nearly 50 mins chit chat - protein bars snack time.



while I took some pics from the camera that I wanted to take back home and may be print them for my wall.



It was time to push from the GUE Mummy Lama Temple and head for our next stop which will be at TABO for a lunch, Last we visited this place was a heaven for having food, good cafe's, lots of small food joints, and lip-smacking momo's.



We make-do with the time we had and reached TABO at 13:00 hours, and those plain straight roads were like heaven on earth at straight stretch were topping up the Xplulses at 117kmph and we wanted to go even faster.

We were shocked to see the village was deserted, the current occupancy was nearly about 40-50 people in town, we did manage to get some water and not-so-good momo's from a road side vendor and we regretted that later.
We did ask for some tea and biscuits, which was some relief later on, while my toli-of friends sat for their whatever kind of luch we had, i sneaked out to grab some more snaps at the helipad.



Not so good to be posing in front of the camera, I very shy-ly asked a passer by local to help me with a picture.
and that's my best



Had a gulp down with the lunch thought, and some tea, we started to make our way to KAZA now.
Strangely, we all started from NAKO and had nearly half tank all except the ADV390, now that we were here at TABO, we were all down to reserves except me, I was still 2 bars.

so we all decided that we'd try to stay as much together as possible, but the terrain in challenging sometimes you all can keep up with each other, sometimes you cant.

At the stretch of Dhar Gangchhumi, you look behind you see the whole town and the road in front of you where you get the glimpse of snow and mountains that surrounds the MUDH village .



and



This was the point where my clutch cable broke off, well I did have an extra clutch cable tied and the tools with me, but I am left behind from the group because of taking pictures, and I had to go faster than everyone because i have to make up for the time lost and then wait for them time and again.
So decided to move on without the clutch wire repair work.





Owing to this thought in my mind all time that it is broken what shall I do if there is snow on the road, i let myself tell the stupid one that if there would be the group would be waiting, I'll switch cables there.



Go the Stupid me understood this and pushed of faster to catch up with them, I found them all stopped at
Samling / Lingti, Base of pin valley national park gate.

Taking pictures of a frozen waterfall, it was already -3 there and the water wasn't flowing


Took a few snaps and pushed for KAZA, now the fuel was down to the wire, I was nearly reaching the Last Bar, and I wanted to reach KAZA and get fuel now.

I kept hyper-milling and pushing the bike at the max FE level I could 2:30 we reached KAZA, three out our folks the ADV, and 2 x pulse folks got the fuel and went to check out the place we wanted to rest.

Since this would be our place to stay for the NEXT Three days we wanted this to be good and have good time here.

I reached the Petrol pump and took the fuel and some pictures , of-course I was alone, 3 were gone to to the hotel and 3 were lagging behind, I was in the middle, I wanted to make the most of my time.



I found this as an opportunity to get the clutch wire repaired and my stand welded, unfortunately there was a power cut now, so welding can't be done.

So there was a mechanic I saw, I asked him if he could lend me the tools i'll change the clutch wire, just didn't want to unload everything and take the under-seat tools, anyhow. He said he'd do it for 40bucks

Who'd say NO to that, I told him take 50 and chill. he fixed the thing in like 8mins, and i was back at the pump.

It had now struck 3:00 and the folks at the back didn't show up, I got worried, I sat and started to the direction I came from, going about 5kms I saw the Impulse guy come up, so I and he turned back for KAZA now, and get fuel as he was literally running on fumes, we came and stood waiting for the rest 2 - Atul and RachitKDogra on his GS310.
I had now struck 3:20 and we were getting worried, I asked Nardev(impulse) guy to wait here at the pump and call me in-case they come, since he didnt have any-fuel, he had no where to go, and the pump - remember there was no electricity. So he calmly sat and camped with the bike, I again started in the direction I cam from going again 5-6 kms only, at the same spot i found Nardev, I caught with Atul Modi and he explained that the GS had run out of fuel, so he turned midway back to go and check out the story what happened the GS was now nearly 17kms far from KAZA.

Me, being me , very confidently told Atul, - "I have tank full, I'll give the fuel to GS and we'll be here in NO time", with out realizing that we do have a bottle, but we don't have anything to extract the fuel out from the bike, how will we get it out.

Again I and Atul bhai turned to go for KAZA, now when we reached the light was back up, so we all got the tank up and found a 2 ltrs empty coke bottle to fill it up, then it was decided since ATUL knows where exactly Rachit bhai was, he'll go and the rest stay here only.
We decided to wait for them at the pump only.

Atul left the place at around 3:50 pm and 4:30 they both showed up at the pump, and what a sigh of relief.

The guys who went to see the place were not happy with the place and were furious when they cam back with the hospitality of the people running it.
So they decided to change the place of dwelling for the next few days and shortlisted a home-stay - Sonam HomeStay


One of the best places to stay - the hospitality of the family has been the best over the next couple of days.

Room and view respectively.





and to end this day some more pics!
See you tomorrow for Day 4

[mohansrides]

Great pictures sir.

Given the logistics and the circumstances, I’d say that you have put in enormous efforts for these pictures. Great job. And thank you for taking the time to document this trip. It will help a whole lot of us.

Spiti remains a dream for most of us. With roads becoming better, that dream may be closer than ever now.

[contact.nitin7]

Originally Posted by mohansrides

Great pictures sir.

Given the logistics and the circumstances, I’d say that you have put in enormous efforts for these pictures. Great job. And thank you for taking the time to document this trip. It will help a whole lot of us.

Spiti remains a dream for most of us. With roads becoming better, that dream may be closer than ever now.

Thank you so much !!
It is easily doable now.

I wanted to share some pictures that were shot at the same place 10 years back that time the stretch was not doable at all.












Presenting Day4 in a while.

[contact.nitin7]

Day 4 -

Now we had 2 days at hand and we wanted to explore around and see what all can be done here.

Today's Agenda -

(As Planned) Kaza >> Chicham Bridge and Beyond

It was -14°C last night, and while taking pictures i looked something like this.
my breath froze taking the milky way shots at night.

-14°C is NO JOKE, I tell you, Dont try going out at night, esp for photos.





Early Morning we all woke up pretty early, around 6AM it was bright and sunny already, didn't believe my eyes, how early the sun came up.


Went to the terrace to take a few snaps.



After this headed straight getting freshen up and then checking the bike, we were running continuously from past few days and didn't check the bike enough, yesterdays' terrain was tough and challenging, esp the road that was nearly destroyed right after Nako.


Also keeping in mind that the Altitude has severely changed, we needed to do a quick check up of the Bike.


We opened up the bike and fetched our under-seat tool kit to do basic adjustments

1. Chain Cleaning and Tightening
2. Air Filter Cleaning
3. Tyre Pressure Check
4. Clutch and Accelerator cables

Major checks are these, problems we found -

1. Chain required tightening and thoroughly cleaning, so last time at KAZA, yesterday we got around 2 ltrs of diesel for this purpose, we cleaned our chains with it.
2. We found that due to altitude change the engine has shot some bit of engine oil back in the air-filter box, drained it out.
3. Air Filter was full of loose dirt that the bike picked up in all those areas where roads were being cleared out after landslides.
4. and Most Importantly, checked Air pressure, remember how you see Chips packet filled up with air, on the hills. the air pressure came out to be 43(rear) and 37(front) , then we had to reduce it to 23 and 33 (front) and (rear) resp.
5. I changed my clutch cable so that was fine, other's cables were fine too.

Now after this work on the bike, it was already 09:47 by the watch, we started to get ready and as planned leave for Chicham and go as far as we could and come back.

Our Plan for today as we wanted ->
Leave from Kaza >> Malling Nala >> Key Monastery >> Chicham Bridge and beyond and Back

So we started from KAZA and headed towards our destination points, 8 kms and our fears came became reality the snow that was there yesterday melted on the road and has now become glass - BLACK ICE.
Very likely we could have gone past it, 2 of our riders went past, and the third one stopped in middle, and that was The death of the idea to cross it

We rode, we fell, we helped each other to turn back and those two who went past came back.




That was the time, which told us this may not be a good idea to do right now, let's do this later in the day now.


NEW PLAN>

KAZA - KAKTI - KOMIC > HIKKIM > LANGZA Buddha Statue

We turned around, and then started to move in the opposite direction. Soon snow started to come closer and closer and our greed to fall flat in it too became more evident, now we literally were pushing our bikes fast, we were munching miles on the hills, I remember there was a guy on an Interceptor(YT-> Sunny has plans), we overtook and zoomed away.

Taking several small break here and there for pictures we reached Hikkim's post office.
bought some fridge magnets and stamps and cards we posted, though we never got one that we posted, but yes we did post one at least.

Also one one of friends didn't check tyre pressure and he did that here.















caught










and once this was conquered we sat down there for a cuppa tea, lemon tea, - 50rs a cup but Worth it!!

spending about 700INR on the Chai itself, we though to make a move now we had already been there for an hour now, we start our descend and now it was day - so put our courage back to go to chicham this time , but from the back side.

[contact.nitin7]

Chicham Bridge was a piece of cake, Now one of rider's wasn't feeling really well, so he decided to stay back, but since the Xpulse's were not powerful enough to carry two people - I swapped my xpulse for a GS310 with a pillion to go to chicham bridge and back, and on our way back we would also visit the Key Gompa Monastery.

Going to the bridge was a piece of cake - we both sat on the GS and rolled it up.

Some pics for you to enjoy.

















The Spiti Valley and Spiti River







After we realized all the roads beyond the Langza are closed, anything beyond Chicham is inaccessible, and even going to the MUDH village isn't possible we decided not to pursue the tour further, and it would be wise to turn back and head home now, since we now have an extra day at hand we would not push the bikes and ourselves, we ride relaxed on our way back and explore more places on our way back, have good food and some drinks with Meat esp Pahadi Mutton.

So the Day 5 Day 6 and day 7 - easy return,
Reckong Peo/Kalpa,Narkanda/Shimla etc and Delhi -Noida!

Next post would wrap up our journey at most!

[desideep]

Amazing write up. I wish I was there too.

[praruaaa4]

Pics look inviting for a ride to Spiti. Hope to do a similar trip soon. Good write-up

[contact.nitin7]

Originally Posted by praruaaa4

Pics look inviting for a ride to Spiti. Hope to do a similar trip soon. Good write-up

It has become very easy to it now, all roads and mostly black top - planning to do it bike or car??

Originally Posted by desideep

Amazing write up. I wish I was there too.

It would have been double the fun with you again, even if you were in car and we on bike you would have done better time than us.

[praruaaa4]

Originally Posted by contact.nitin7

It has become very easy to it now, all roads and mostly black top - planning to do it bike or car??

I prefer to do the trip by bike.

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

Originally Posted by contact.nitin7

Spiti in March 2022

Who could say NO to old friends asking for a bike trip, some of them are avid-writers, drivers and riders of this forum, and the rest you’ll get to know eventually throughout the thread.

We 7 people decided to do the Lahaul Spiti Valley, and the preparations started.
Riders - Yours truly - @beingniting | @arjunthakur | @rachitkdogra | @keshavarora | @atulmodi | @diasjacob and @nardevsinghchib - (Nardev was supposed to join us at Zirakpur, he rode all the way from JAMMU non-stop to make it up in time)
.

Thank you so much brother for making the effort to put this on board. My office has been in payback mode ever since we have come back. But my contribution is due and will surely add things from my view here.

Also, we cannot thank you enough for all the effort you put in to click our pictures. If it wouldn't have been for you, I am sure a few of us wouldn't even had a single picture of ourselves.

CHEERS!!

Rachit

[AnandB]

Beautiful stuff. Your and another member's recent Spiti trip has made me make quick plans for my Spiti trip end of this month. As it will be peak Milkyway Core season. Your travelogue will be big help for my trip.