On 1st July 2010, me and Ashwani finally decided to go ahead with the plan and execute it and we were sure that trip wont be bad even if 2 people cover it. We decided that I will pick Ashwani from his residence @ 3:30 am on July 3rd and will hit the GT Karnal and head towards Shimla.
Day 1
Our plan for the first day was to reach Sarahan which is approx 560 Km from Delhi.
As per the plan, I reached Ashwani's residence @ 3:40 am and we were on GT Karnal bypass @ 4:10 am and were waiting for 3 bike riders(Naveen Chhillar and his friends) who were going for Spiti valley on their machines as our destination for the day was common, i.e.,Sarahan. After waiting for 15-20 minutes(which is fine during these trips), bullets came and we started our much awaited journey. I and Aswhani were going fine in our Red Swift, Lxi @ good speed and hit Panchkula @ 9:15 am and got some snacks(mixture, fruits etc) and started for famous Gyani Dhaba, @ Dharampur for some food. We had good food @ Dhaba and also felt that weather is hot and sun is at peek. At this time, we got the news that one of the bike of Naveen's friend broke down and they would be taking time to get it repaired, and we decided to leave from there as we had only 3 days to cover Kalpa n Chhitkul(which was not easy though). We had long jams before Shimla and felt that to reach Sarahan would be tough. But after crossing Shimla, weather and road conditions changed suddenly, roads were empty, weather turned out to be pleasant and roads were nice, we were cruising @ 70km/hr on those.
We reached Rampur @ 5:30 pm or so and had tank full. By this time me and Ashwani decided not to take a night halt at Sarahan and hit Chhitkul directly which was approx 150 km from Rampur, but guy @ Petrol pump said that road conditions are not so good after crossing Tapri as work is going on river Satluj and we should not take a risk to go to Chhitkul directly. We then decided to continue our journey and thought that we will see what's there for us.
By 8 pm we were in the need of good food and we could not find any dhaba as roads were completely empty after crossing Rampur and there was no one to help us and I was just driving with my head lights ON and those were the only lights available for me. It was scary to drive at such time with no help visible to us. But @ 8:30 we found few people and they confirmed that if we continue our journey to Chhitkul now then we wont be able to reach it before 12 am as road conditions are in real bad shape ahead. They advised to take a halt at Tapri Rest house, managed by HPWD and then start the journey tomorrow. We decided to listen their advise and head towards the rest house, we managed to get the room @ Rs. 260(big room, with automatic geyser and real nice bed), we had our dinner at "Pappu da Dhaba" nearby as HPWD had no provision for dinner(or they already finished whatever they had) but we didnot complain about it and spent our night there.
Day 2
We started @ 5:30 am for our first destination Kalpa, which was 43 km from our rest house, when we started after Tapri, we soon realised the road conditons are in real bad shape and it was the good decision to take a halt @ previous nite. Roads were full of potholes and due to rain all the potholes were full of dirty water, my car was completely looking like a racing car, but I didnot complain, as I was going near to my destination.
We were in Kalpa and sun was shining, we got the glimpse of Kinnaur Kailash and then went to Suicide point(we had no intention of doing it though).
We then visited famous Kali temple @ Recong Peo before heading for our final destination, Chhitkul. On our way we found lots of Apple Orchids, and many other fruits and had real fun in plucking it directly from trees and eating it there.
The scenic beauty started immediatly after we hit Sanlga-Chhitkul road(35 km or so), we stopped many times to click pictures of unexplored destination and had nice waterfalls on our way.
We reached Chhitkul at 2:30 pm and took HPWD rest house for Rs. 300 per day and kept our bags there, by this time there was drizzling outside and we decided to cover Nagasthi Camp, ITBP camp @ Chhitkul, after this camp no one is allowed to go(except few locals, with permissions), we went till that camp which was 3km from our rest house and had fun walking in rain on those barren roads.
and we didnot cross this line.
We came back to only Dhaba available in Chhitkul and had Maggi there and enjoyed it fully as weather was real pleasant and it was raining outside. We then decided to take a walk in Chhitkul village and had nice time in clicking pictures there.
Here are da two wise men who did not cancel their trip because of last time glitches and continued their journey to paradise....
We came back in our room by 8 pm and had dinner and decided to sleep so that we leave by 7 am.
Day 3
We woke up @ 6 am and it was still raining outside, we freshen up ourselves and were in our car by 6:50 am for very extra ordinary journey, i.e, Chhitkul to Delhi(as all of my friends said that its really not possible to reach Delhi from Chhitkul directly and we need to take a halt somewhere for night), as we were just 2 and we determined ourselves to reach Delhi. We hit the road and started our journey, after crossing Sangla, heavy rain started and we took that as advantage because roads were empty and we didnot stop and continued our journey even in rain/bad road conditions.
Once we crossed Tapri, we had real fun in clicking pictures as rain stopped and valley looked much greener then before. We came across some nice tunnels/barren mountains on our way.
As it was Bharat-Bandh, so all markets and roads were empty(no public transport), which was an advantage for us, we had our and our car tank full @ Rampur again and decided that we will definately reach Delhi today. Rains started soon after crossing Rampur and was there till we reached Shimla.
We were in Kalka @ 6:45 pm and decided to have our meal @ Ambala, the famous Puran Singh dhaba and after driving for 17 hours, we managed to reach Delhi with our hearts and mind satisfied with the beauty what we saw in Chhitkul and what we explored during our last 3 days.
For pics, you can visit :-
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=62903&id=1022746787&l=c51dec369d
Vinay Kumar Ashwani Kumar
veenu.kumar@gmail.com natidada@gmail.com
# 9873297344 # 9811750071
