Thursday, August 2, 2012

Bike Tour - Sarahan to Sangla Valley, Chitkul & Kalpa (Day 2)

The day started with cozy weather covering entire Sarahan valley under clouds. It was difficult to come out of bed early in morning so we started the ride comfortably at 07:00 AM.

It was nice to cut the dense clouds in Sarahan and Ride ahead. Moreover downhill drive was free fall as there was almost no traffic.

Drizzling did not leave us and continued this day as well. However this day's attraction was the spectacular terrains of Kinnaur Valley. We came across all those scary and haunting terrains of Kinnaur which I had seen till day in photographs only. Slippery roads under rain made our ride more fascinating on these terrains.


Though I am well versed with narrow roads of my hometown Chamba but Kinnaur is unbeatable. The narrow roads on high hills made me cold blooded couple of times. But since I was aware that this is once in lifetime trip, we took some risk and stood at very narrow roads under hanging rocks to capture some nice memories.


While we were enjoying our ride on mud, narrow roads and scary terrains, well before a small station "Tapri" the road was blocked due to landslide and road maintenance. We were forced to wait here for at least half an hour when we finally crossed it.

Tapri was the first stop for breathing and break fast. The clouds had scattered and day had grown little warmer by now. Rest of the work was done by freshly made hot parantha and steaming dark red colored tea.

With nice feeling after lovely breakfast at "Punjabi Dhaba" we moved ahead towards Karcham, the point where we had to divert towards Sangla Valley and Chitkul Village. Somehow I was enjoying the rough tracks with my RE Classic 500. The machine was rocking on each and every patch of the rough track.

As we moved ahead of Karcham towards Sangla Valley, the uphill terrains filled completely a new energy in me and it was spectacular to ride on those mysterious terrains and curves.


Riding uphill against gravity in low oxyegn, we finally landed at Sangla Valley. The spectacular views of Sangla Valley made me stop at some of the very narrow corners to collect nice photographs. The green lush valley with various colors of house popping out of the pine tree jungles was a breath taking view to witness. Clouds wandering over it made it stunning combination of colors.


Since our target was to reach Chitkul by noon and we had plan to have lunch at Chitkul so we rode ahead without spending much time at Sangla Valley.

The road took 360 Degree turn when mettled road abruptly disappeared. We were riding off road in the middle of fields and jungle often. We crossed very first water stream crossing well before Chitkul in the middle of dense forest.


This was one of the corner of this world where I wished that this road should never come to an end. The valley was spectacular and riding was easy with no traffic on it.

As we were nearing Chitkul, the dense forest had started disappearing slowly and mountains have started widening from all sides. Before I could realize that we are about to enter Chitkul, a small Restaurant little far from road signaled that we are about to reach our destination. And yes one turn from that point and a board welcomed us. We could see the entire chitkul village from this point and believe me it was soothing to watch. Fully lush green and wide open valley with handful of houses, it was really heartening to see people living in such remote corners of the world.


Finally we got into our senses after digesting the beauty of Chitkul and rode into the middle of the village to find out some eating point or Dhaba. At the end of the village, we landed at a house cum guest house cum restaurant where both husband and wife were owner cum cooks.

Those delayed Maggi servings and Coffee was nice experience to fill in the kitty of memories. Immediately after long lunch break and lazy times, we rode back towards Sangla and Karcham so that we can finally reach Kalpa which was the last destination for the day.

Soon we reversed entire distance from Chitkul to Sangla and Finally Karcham. Now we had to move towards Kalpa. Suddenly, the road was spectacular to ride along with the river. But the joy of riding on such a superb road was short and we were finally again in the middle of rough tracks. Since our last destination Kalpa was not far, we rode happily.

Like our Day 1 destination Sarahan, Kalpa was also 15 kilometers off route from our main route towards Kaza. But since I had heard lot of great about the place, we did not mind to ride those 15 kilometer. Once we diverted from Powari towards Recong Peo and Kalpa, the ride was exactly like Sarahan uphill ride except the fact that Day 2 road was open unlike Sarahan which was fully covered under trees.

Recong Peo was way above what I had an image of this town. This small town was spectacular to watch and riding in the middle of this town is worth remembering. After taking multiple zig zag turns on hill we reached Kalpa. The very first thing I noticed was that the town was completely clean and organised. None of  water streams were crossing over the road. This was stunning to watch.

We were determined to stay at Himachal Tourism Hotel, Kinner Kailash. So we rode to the hotel and finally got the best of the room with spectacular view of Holy Kinner Kailash from room.


9 comments:

  1. This is awesome,,, keep on writing and riding

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  2. CAN U ADD MORE PHOTOS PLEASE?

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  3. postingan yang bagus tentang Bike Tour - Sarahan to Sangla Valley, Chitkul & Kalpa (Day 2)

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  4. I often wonder, how come you bikers manage the petrol ? You hardly find petrol pumps on the routes? How far you can carry excess petrol in the cans ? I am keen to do Sangla by road.

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  5. that's quite a journey through the incredible landscape of Himalayas...I am sure you would have enjoyed it a lot..

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  7. Hi bro...I love all ur blogs and pics....I want ur contact no bcoz me and my frnds are planning to visit Leh Ladakh on bikes and our target is "Khardungla Pass"...So, we want some information and important tips to which can help us in reaching there easily and safely......Hence, share ur no wid me....Appreciate ur quick response.....

    Adil

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  8. Beautiful pictures, I am planning to visit this April. Do you think it would be manageable in April and wouldn't be too cold ?:)
    Also please visit my blog for your valuable feedback
    http://datravelography.wordpress.com/

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