Kaza – Losar –
Kunzum La – Rohtang La - Manali
The night seemed
still young with no power. My brother took bath, as was my wish and advise.
Today was to be the most difficult drive in our trip as well as in our lives – rather
his life. It was 04:08 when started the car and made our way through the dark
silence of Kaza towards Deyzor. To our surprise, the other party was loading
the car and were supposed to leave in few minutes. My brother had told them
that we are together on our road to Manali but nobody will wait for the other.
If you are able to leave early – leave and if we are ready earlier – we will
leave.
As soon as we
crossed the Spiti bridge to reach Rangrik, there was a slight light that
appeared on top of the peaks. The sky had a peculiar color between black and
blue which, obviously, we cannot describe in words. And, with that growing
light in the Spiti Valley, we started our most photographic day in our drive.
We stopped at many places for the clicks with me quickly getting out of the
car, taking the shot with the car and jumping back inside. We did not want to,
no matter what, lose the early departure advantage. Soon the RJ-27 Innova
overtook us smiling.
|
After Rangrik |
|
After Kyato |
|
Before Losar |
Clicking &
Driving, we crossed Kyato to reach Losar in time at 06:15. The Tashigan Guest
House, an associate of Jamaica, was the only one that seemed to be working so
early morning. Walking in, we again met the 5 DL bikers with Support Innova
staying there for the night before. Also we met the enthusiastic docile young
Couple from Bangalore whom we had met at Ki Gompa 2 days back helping explain
the Buddhism & Gompa concept & history to the large Caucasian group
whom we had overtook inside the Gompa. They were on their way to trek
ChandraTal and my guess was that the Losar stay must have helped them
acclimatize. We had a hearty toast-chai breakfast at Losar when the temperature
was still negative along with some khakra and dry fruits before proceeding
ahead.
|
Approaching Losar |
|
Entering Losar |
|
Breakfast at Losar |
|
Upstream with Spiti |
|
Objects in the Mirror are Closer than they Appear |
|
The River is our Map, The Rocks our Milestones The Grass makes our Bed, The Pebbles make our Road |
Maneuvering
& Video-taping, we finally reached atop Kunzum La at 08:00 sharp thereby
giving us the feeling of an accomplishment not only w.r.t. our capacity but
also our timing. After a long session of photography and relishing the
achievement, we took back to the road. Although, not
really to our surprise, there was no actual road after Batal that we could see
or figure out or follow. It seemed like we were driving through the river. In
places, the rocky trail took us away from the river but then it again brought
us back to the pebble bed – no, the rocky bed. For the first time in our trip,
we were now driving downstream with a river – the Chandra River originating
from ChandraTal which means the highest point of our trip was Kunzum La. At a
point after Batal, we actually had to pull the car to complete stop because we
felt confused as to which trail to take but our far-sight and fore-sight helped
us take the right trail each time and proceed on the right path. Soon after
Batal, a local Bolero driver coming from opposite side waved us down and
advised us in a jiffy “Chhatru ke baad 2 bade Naale hain. Rukna mat, jaldi
Cross karlo. Paani khoob badhta ja raha hai.” On asking how far from Chhatru,
he said “Hmmm, 10 km baad – aage”.
|
Climbing Kunzum La |
|
A Little More |
|
Just Around the Corner |
|
Kunzum La |
|
Kunzum La |
|
Kunzum La Accomplished! |
|
Looking East from Kunzum La |
|
Approaching Batal |
|
Leh 565 km from Batal |
Today, as I
write this log, the next 4 hours of that drive, seem to me as if I lived
through them in my dream. And I feel moved – my eyes stare at oblivion – my throat skips
and swallows – I forget whether I am breathing or not – when I reminisce those 4 hours through which my brother treaded the Batal –
Gramphoo road. Contrary to my habit and need of putting everything in words,
for once, I will not write anything about it. I request everybody to just watch
pictures and our videos and then get inspired to drive through that path. I
still get shocked and I believe I will continue to get appalled all my life
looking at what we could achieve.
The terrain
changed gradually after Batal but changed drastically after Chhatru when we
started climbing. To answer our hunger pangs, we had decided to stop for Lunch
at Gramphoo but as we joined the main Manali-Leh Highway, there was not a
single person from whom we could even ask directions for. So we had to proceed
to Rohtang La where we hoped we could get something to eat.
|
Water Crossing |
|
Glacier Science Laboratory at Chhota Darra |
|
Chhatru |
|
Approaching Gramphoo |
|
BRO Welcomes you to Rohtang Top |
As we drove
towards Rohtang, the Road looked very bad and felt very bad to drive on – still
the traffic was thin limited to that going towards Keylong or Leh. I advised my
brother in the movie Lakshya’s style (where Om Puri advises Hrithik Roshan
before the final Mission): “Agar Kachchi Sadak khatm hojaye aur Black Top Road
aa jaye to fauran laaparwah na ho jana. Yeh Off road dobara palat kar zaroor
aayegi”. He burst into a laughter and I felt happy at being able to relieve his
nerves at driving such a terrible road even after Gramphoo. However, Our
happiness vanished as soon as we crossed Rohtang after having lunch. The road
became butter-smooth but the traffic merging at Solang diversion was too much
to handle for the little road and the resulting jam was longer than what seemed
to be eternity. The smoke from the vehicles gave me the cough which no high
altitude or low temperature could give me.
We felt quite
uneasy with the punctured tyres but had the pump and the courage to drive on by
filling the air and not getting it corrected at the Manali Fair. Inside, the
actual reason, that we knew was that the puncture actually could not be
repaired. It needed replacement. Period.
As we spread our legs at the Greenfields, the
RJ-27 Innova caught up to us and we had an hour long chat relishing and
reliving the day. After bidding happy and see-ya-soon goodbyes, we had a nice
meal of Paneer-Roti-Dal-Rice and retired for the day. We had parked our Car on
the road itself so that we could leave early at 04:00 again. I had decided not
to take bath again.