Mission Spiti 2015 - Day 01

Delhi – Shimla – Rampur – Choling – Sangla

I had set the Alarm for 02:45 so that we could leave by 03:30. I am not sure why I couldn’t have a long sleep and I could keep in my bed only till 02:15. I went through the routine and after wearing the shoes, I knocked on my brother’s door at 03:00. He was fast asleep and I decided not to bother him. He had been through a lot of work pressure for the past 2 weeks. After checking last minute packing, I started loading my bags in the Car along with the Water Carton and Parantha Rolls. I must have lost track of time when I felt surprised at watching my brother strolling down with his suitcase. Quickly grabbing some toast bites with cold salt Lassi, we pulled out of our Gate at 03:45. Facing heavy truck traffic at the Azadpur Mandi, we took to the by-pass and were speeding on NH-01 through the early dawn when we kept to the left on the Ambala Intersection at 06:15 sharp towards Zirakpur.

Cyclists before Ambala

No sooner that we had crossed the Himalayan Expressway Toll Plaza, we were greeted by a heavy downpour. As the temperature dived on the Dashboard Reader, my brother suggested having a quick look at the rear left tyre. On getting out for a moment in the rain, I confirmed that the air pressure seemed lower than what it was 3 hours ago – we decided to get it checked at the first town on the way where there was no rain. Solan was not under the weather still we sheepishly postponed it to Shimla (remember we had to cross Shimla by 09:00).

Feeling the urge of nature, my brother decided to pull over just before entering Shimla at a hotel where I decided to enter first to start a chit-chat about directions to Shimla by-pass NH-22 however I guess he was used to such tricks and after 2 sentences, on requesting for Wash Room, he guided us thus so without any frills. It was 09:00. We proceeded quickly through Shimla traffic and pulled over at a Puncture Shop on the by-pass itself. Shekhar, the owner of the shop, was absconding and then 10 minutes of rolled parantha breakfast later, we spotted his phone number on the shop banner. He promptly appeared out of nowhere after receiving my call (Damn! Why could we not call him earlier?). He easily alleviated our fears proclaiming “Saab, Valve leakage tha. Maine kas diya hai. Ab koi Problem nahi hogi. Puncutre nahi hai!” I said “Pucca?” He said “Haanji” I said “Aapne Paani se toh dekha hi nahi?” He: “Saab tension mat lo. Aaram se jao” I: “Arre, humein Chitkul Kalpa Tabo Kaza jana hai” (I had developed this style of destination statement over past 2 weeks because nobody in our professional or social or friend or relative circle understood completely what Kinnaur or Spiti Valley meant or where they were. Only some of the enlightened Delhiites knew about Sangla where Banjara Camps has a good campsite.) Shekhar said “No Tension. Sab Thik Hai” On offering his services’ compensation, he politely asked me to pay just Rs 20/-. It was 09:35.

Cyclists before Narkanda

Shimla by-pass took us more time than estimated and although we were earlier glad about keeping our schedule when we entered Shimla at 09:00 but Shimla was not just a milestone to be crossed in a second (like the JEE train velocity questions). Shimla was a behemoth to be crossed in more than an hour. In fact only when we crossed Dhalli, that we actually felt confident that we had crossed Shimla (by-pass seemed so long). It was after Dhalli that we first encountered the milestone which was our regular companion now - Kaurik. The traffic now seemed more due to two factors – the roads were narrower and the day was 10 hours old already. My brother alighted at Hotel Mahamaya Narkanda for a picture. I again went in for a chit-chat telling the manager about our stay here in 1998 and our breakfast here in 2013. He seemed uninterested at his most so I came straight to the point “Wash Room kahan hai?” He showed me the finger – in the direction of the door. I got reminded and thence found my own way to the shady water closet. Quickly getting the picture, we whirled away with the light flowing cool breeze towards our next destination Rampur.

Hotel Mahamaya at Narkanda

Vultures feasting on a Carcass

It was a mutual decision to brake at the Indian Oil Pump that appeared before Rampur. As our watch showed up 14:15 and I got back to the car after paying the Fuel Bill, I saw my brother finishing his 2^nd parantha roll for Lunch quipping “Sit Down fast. I’m driving. You can eat after the car is on the way.” This is how, we could keep up the speed, which is arguable and open to criticism as our first day did not look like a holiday but like a rally. What is unarguable though is that we were enjoying it to the fullest!

The Jeori Green BRO Board welcoming us to the Project Deepak held less excitement for us and as we slowed down to cruise through Wangtu (thereby relishing the feelings), I am not sure whether our nerves started getting relaxed on keeping up the schedule or finally about to cross the Satluj OR they started getting more excited on finally about to cross the Satluj! I still get teary-eyed at thinking about the moment when we could finally cross the Satluj at Wangtu after 17 long years of wait. I can not explain our feelings in words. Please tell me – are we the only ones who can be so crazy that we can get teary eyed over a simple bridge crossing? I suppose if a wish is suppressed in a travel heart for 17 years, it can make that heart crazy and emotional.

Kinnaur Dwar

The first profile photo-shoot of the trip happened at the Kinnaur Gate and the caravan of Drive Videos followed thus. The first video after crossing Wangtu was dedicated by my brother to our father who is the reason for our craziness for travel to non-commercial destinations. He is the reason for all we are today. He had the guts to take us in an 800 from Manali to Chail in a single day back in 1992. He had the guts to take us afar from Shimla to Narkanda and Sarahan way back in 1998. It was our misfortune that he could not take us across Wangtu because of the broken bridge then. My brother pledged that he would repeat this trip with our father and our eldest brother very soon who were right now at home juggling with our workload.

NH-22

NH-22

It must have been 16:30 when we were maneuvered onto the link road which we didn’t realize. On getting stuck at Urni with the oncoming traffic, we were confirmed that this is a 23km link road (in place of 8km NH) and we could find a puncture shop at Choling where this link road will rejoin the NH. Yes, our left rear tyre seemed quite deflated and possibly punctured. It was not until Choling that I actually started cursing the Shimla puncture guy. We should have been wary of the puncture shop because after opening earlier punctures and fixing 5 punctures improperly, the boy confirmed that he was there for just 10 days filling up for her uncle who had gone to the town to get some supplies. Was this a bad day for us? Should we not start any trip on Saturday? Keeping these thoughts aside, as we lapped up 2 more parantha rolls, we arrived at the Karchham Intersection by about 18:45.

Karchham Dam

Karchham Intersection

As we clicked on the boards, a local villager asked for a hitchhike till Sangla. He had missed his last bus and was coming from a wedding. Contrary to our usual policy, we invited him to the back seat, probably because the atmosphere had changed and there was trust in the air. He kept talking enquiring about our hotel stay. On getting delayed at Urni, I had been suggested Kuppa Hotel Rock View by a close friend which we didn’t like too much for the first night. Before deboarding, the villager had divulged to us that he owned 2 hotels in Sangla (Prakash Regency and Hotel Prakash). After visiting Mr Tapan Basu at Igloo Camps, we decided to check into Prakash Regency which as per the locality seemed quite expensive but was quite comfortable too. The hitch-hike paid its fruits in form of discount. Ordering Chilli Paneer, Kadhai Paneer and Dal Fry; we relished the stay there wondering whether we had done the right thing to drive into the night (one of our important rules for any road-trip). After all, we had no choice – Good that we dropped the idea of continuing to Chitkul.