Mission Spiti 2015 - Day ZERO

Day ZERO

Jun 01, 2015 – Jun 19, 2015

Planning – Opposition – Rebellion – Packing!

In a way, we now feel, that the Kashmir Winter 2014 Self-Drive Trip changed the course our lives were being led. It renewed the sense of reason for traveling in our lives. It encouraged us even more to get back to exploring this beautiful country which can never stop surprising you. It also drew immense awe from family & friends which motivated us even more to keep doing such cross-country drives.

BRO Works Today for Your Better Tomorrow

This Journey is dedicated and attributed to the thousands of proud Indians who work for the majestic Border Roads Organization, who keep their lives in extreme peril away from their hometowns and families to do what no other organization in the world does – make most treacherous roads for us mortal travelers; for the elegant Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force and for the mighty Indian Armed Forces, who sacrifice their today for our tomorrow.

Mr Sachin Goel - the Man of Steel

 This Trip is credited to the mighty power, stamina, skill, calmness, maturity and wisdom of my elder brother – the one and only – Mr Sachin Goel, who in my opinion, has the steel not only to drive from Delhi to Munsyari or Sangla in one day but also has the steel to drive a 2WD SX4 with both rear tyres punctured from Kaza to Rohtang in 8 hours. Sitting with him does not, even for a second, scares you due to his driving – such is his skill – be it NH1 or NH05 or NH22.

Mr Ankit Goel - the Dreamer & the Planner

This Tour is courtesy the day dreams of yours truly Mr Ankit Goel, who in my opinion, starts every tour in his dreams; follows it up with Maps – both Paper & Online; meticulously re-searches and re-plans with bcmtouring, maps, excel sheets, email and telephone; gets inspired by fellow crazy travelers around this world – yes, travelers not tourists – and then finally instigates, inspires and excites co-travelers like his brother or friends to just leave the familiarity, comfort and safety of home.

Obviously, these travails would not have been possible without the travel bug provided by our father who took us on self-drive road trips during every vacation, our grandfather who used to drive his Fiat/Ambassador camping around Kashmir during 1970s and our great-grandfather who had left his home after marriage in 1920 for London to pursue Civil Engineering and returned only 4 years later to join the Victorian Engineering Services to build the Road from Jammu to Srinagar from 1924 – 1936 where our grandfather was born.

Last but not the least, this mission would not have been accomplished without the esteemed permission and support of our marvelous mother and our wonderful wives.

Although crossing Satluj at Wangtu had been a suppressed wish since May 1998; one fine day in April this year my brother exclaimed at my state of boredom or loss of reason in life “You don’t worry. Plan the Spiti Trip. We are going to do it this June”. This statement instilled some confidence in me while I started chalking out a travel plan. The Itinerary was already planned since many years. My research took me to gather all the Accommodation options available on the route apart from other nitty-gritty travel items.

Two weeks before the trip was to start, we happened to meet my brother’s fellow IITian – the same BRO Ex En in Delhi and on looking at our map, he recognized places named Pooh & Kaurik because, as he later told, that Pooh-Kaurik Road is of quite an importance and is always in the spotlight in BRO discussion rooms. One week later, he was called upon to help expedite opening of Rohtang La. And voila, the next day, we were confirmed by him that Rohtang had been opened and Kunzum will be cleared in a couple of days.

This time, I did not have to do a lot of research on www.bcmtouring.com because I had already done a lot since past few years. I just knew that we had to leave. We faced immense opposition from our family (esp mom & wives) but eventually we could prevail their fear. Over the last week, whatever time we could take out from our busy schedules, was spent on checking & testing the car and packing the things that we might have been missing in our Checklist. As our favorite mode is, we had not made any bookings anywhere.

This is how our Itinerary looked like:

Day 01: Delhi – Chitkul

Day 02: Rest

Day 03: Chitkul – Sumdo (Kalpa, Shipki La, Kaurik, Nako)

Day 04: Rest

Day 05: Sumdo – Mud (Gue, Dhankar)

Day 06: Mud – Langza (Demul, Komic, Hikkim)

Day 07: Langza – Kaza

Day 08: Kaza – Kibber (Tashigong, Gette, Chicham, Ki)

Day 09: Kibber – ChandraTal

Day 10: ChandraTal – Manali

Day 11: Manali – Delhi

Even on the last day, I politely advised my brother to take it easy and not target Chitkul on Day 1 (like I had done for his Munsyari trip in Jun 2014). He silenced me by reminding me that if he can do Delhi to Munsyari in a single day, then the same is true with Chitkul as well. “After all, its the same 600 kms; so Shimla will be our 09:00 Breakfast Bhimtal and Rampur will be our 14:00 Lunch Almora.” I smiled.

This is how our Itinerary actually got executed:

Day 01: Delhi – Sangla

Day 02: Sangla – Chitkul – Recong Peo – Kalpa

Day 03: Kalpa – Recong Peo – Pooh

Day 04: Pooh – Khab – Shipkila – Sumdo

Day 05: Sumdo – Kaurik – Lepcha – Kaza

Day 06: Kaza – Ki – Kibber – Dhankar – Kaza

Day 07: Kaza – Langza – Hikkim – Komic – Chicham – Kibber – Ki – Kaza

Day 08: Kaza – Kunzum La – Rohtang La – Manali

Day 09: Manali – Delhi