The team consisted of one Compass 4×4, three 2WD units, and two Traikhawk 4×4 SUVs.
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Prologue
As the first light of dawn diffuses through the misty window panes of Tara Homestay and a smell of fresh snow permeates through the window, just opened to check the weather outside, I wake up to a cold chilling breeze only to get mesmerised by a white and misty Pin Valley stretched out to the almost invisible Parvati range. Soon the chill in the air brought me back to my senses reminding me it was about -8°C last night in Mud and we have miles to go through snow and rain before we could reach Kaza. Seems just yesterday we have been yearning for a white Pin Valley while planning for Bhaba Pass trek in pre-COVID era.
A white Pin Valley
Trailhawk’s date with snow
How it all began
It’s needless to say, and perhaps a bit of a cliche, that Spiti is a cherished destination for any travel enthusiast or anyone who loves mountains. However, I always believed, that, unlike any other travel destination, Spiti is not something just to be ticked off from a bucket list. Spiti is all about getting immersed in a quintessential Spitian experience – perceptible in its small villages, in its hard-working and ever-smiling people, in its picturesque but treacherous mountain roads, in its struggle for daily life in the most inhospitable terrain and harsh weather and of course, in its unique culture and local cuisine. We always yearned for such an experience and never wanted to rush through a Spiti trip. But after years of wait, when we could not manage that ever-elusive time and as the first wave of COVID strikes at the misplaced invincibility of mankind, we are compelled to put up a compromised plan for Spiti in May 2021 leaving the true Spitian experience for some other time. But the 2nd wave compelled us to push it to Oct 2021. For some hotels, where the cancellation window was closed, we moved it to Oct 2021.
Come 15th August, Jeep Freedom drive with Eastern Jeeper’s Club, when I shared my idea of going to Spiti with fellow Jeepers, many were interested and eventually 6 of us teamed up to go to Spiti in mid-October.
Preparation & Planning
My Jeep was in good condition and 3 weeks before the trip I took it for a full check up. Accompanied the technician throughout the service so as to brush up my DIY skills which may come in handy in a remote area. This includes fuse, battery, air filter, suspension, tyres etc. It will be too long to elaborate on what tools we carried as there are excellent posts related to those. But some of the important things are 2 L ad-blue cans, 20 + 5 L Jerry can, windshield washer with antifreeze to sustain subzero temperature, 1L coolant, duct tapes, Funnel with spout, critical fuses, changing tent, few spanner and tools, WD40 and working lights.
In our team, there will be 2 JC Trailhawks 4×4 (including mine), 3 JC 2WD and 1 JC 4X4 . 3 Jeepers will start early and 2 of us with Trailhawk and 1 from Noida will join them in Kalpa. Since October has always been an unpredictable month, especially the latter half, initially I planned to do both inbound and outbound journeys via Shimla. But now with a team of 6, we decided to complete the full circuit via Manali. The trip itinerary looked like the following:
- Day 0: Depart in the evening after office. Night halt in Aurangabad, Bihar
- Day 1: Aurangabad to Agra
- Day 2: Agra to Kufri
- Day 3: Kufri to Kalpa – Join 3 other Jeeps who were leaving early
- Day 4: Kalpa-Giabong/Ropa Valley-Khab-Nako – 6th Jeep to join us at Powari
- Day 5: Nako-Gue-Tabo
- Day 6: Tabo-Mud ( 5 Jeeps to stay in Dhankar as rooms are not available for all in Mud, I am the only one to stay in Mud as my booking was shifted from May)
- Day 7: Mud-Dhankar-Kaza ( meeting other 5 at Dhankar and proceed towards Kaza). Visit Key and Kibber
- Day 8: Langza-Hikkim-Komic , explore Kaza
- Day 9: Kaza-Tashigang-Chicham-Losar
- Day 10: Losar-Chandratal-Batal-Manali
- Day 11: Manali-Noida
- Day 12: Noida-Varanasi
- Day 13: Varanasi – Kolkata
Of course, we all knew how Spiti can spring up a surprise any time and all of us were mentally prepared for any such thing.
VLOG of Kolkata to Kufri
Day 0: 11-10-2021: Kolkata to Aurangabad
Journey begins
On the first day of the Durga Puja festive season in Kolkata, we started our journey. As usual, the streets of Kolkata were decorated with banners, lights and pandals. Traffic was quite well managed as additional controls have been put in place in view of the festive season. Crossing River Ganges over Vidyasagar Setu (aka 2nd Hoogly bridge) during Puja is a spectacle by itself with river banks on both sides flooded with hues of festivity as one of the longest cable-stayed bridges in India, stands tall, lit up in a myriad of colours. By 6:15 PM we were on the Kona expressway after crossing the 2nd Hooghly toll.
Jeep Trailhawk 4×4 – All set for the trip
On to NH19
Just like last year, there was a restriction on heavy vehicular traffic between 4 pm to 4 am due to the festive season. Hence we did not encounter much traffic. We crossed Satragachi flyover and exited from Kona expressway taking a right to merge onto NH19. Crossed an uncharacteristically empty Dankuni toll at 6:50 PM and then took a 20 min break at CCD, Gobindapur.
Leaving West Bengal
After dinner with a sandwich and coffee, we continued our journey, crossed Palsit toll and reached Saktigarh. For Bengalis, Shaktigarh is a very common travel stop and needs no introduction- in short, it’s the land of Bengali sweet ‘langcha’ as you can find both sides teeming with shops having names accentuated with ‘langcha’. Crossed Durgapur toll and passed through Durgapur flyover at 9:10 PM leaving Junction mall and City center on our right side. We got some traffic while passing by Asansol – but nothing to worry about.
Jharkhand with a bang
At 10 pm, we crossed Barakar river and entered Jharkhand. Just after entering Jharkhand, we decided to take a short break. After crossing the empty Nirsa toll with no queue, we pulled over to the road flank and parked our car. But as I was parking my car, the TPMS sensor went off and to my dismay, I found that the rear right tyre got punctured. I was about to take out the puncture kit when I noticed a tyre repair shop hardly 50 m from where we were parked. The guy came and found the leak, caused by a broken pair of scissors, lying on the road flank. It took about 25-30 minutes for him to repair the puncture.
Entering Bihar
As we continued our journey, Jharkhand roads seems to be excellent to drive on. Undoubtedly, we missed the view of the spectacular Jharkhand landscape. We passed through Topchanchi, Bagodar, Hazaribagh toll and reached Chauparan at 1:40 AM. Road started to degrade a bit along with diversions as we moved towards Chauparan. Chauparan is the land of Khirmohan – teeming with shops selling Khirmohan on both sides (albeit to a Bengali having unadulterated love for Rasgullas, Khirmohan won’t have much appeal). It’s the Jharkhand equivalent of Shaktigarh. To my surprise, I found that construction work is still going on for the flyover which we saw last year as well. At 2:10 AM we crossed Dobhigaya checkpost and entered into Bihar. After crossing Aurangabad (Soukala) toll at 02:35 AM we reached Hotel Vaishnavi Heights at 3:15 AM.
Hotel Vaishnavi Heights is a hotel located right on NH 19 with very easy ingress and egress which makes it a favourite pit stop for travellers. Idea is to have some sleep, freshen up and wake up the next day with full energy to go to Agra and beyond.
Day 1: 12-10-2021: Aurangabad – Agra
Entering U.P.
After a refreshing sleep, we wake up to a bright and sunny morning. Had our breakfast and started from the hotel at 9 AM. Crossed Jawahar Setu over River Son in a breeze. Road surface is good, traffic is sparse. As we started driving towards Sasaram, the landscape started to become dotted with small hills surrounded by deciduous forest. Sasaram is the place that has the tomb of Sher Shah Suri, the man responsible for building the old GT road, the erstwhile version of NH19. Refuelled from the last IOC pump, just before Sasaram toll and crossed Sasaram toll at 10:00 AM without much ado. I noticed a perceptible change from last year that most of the fuel pumps are accepting UPI transfers or wallets. We passed RPS food plaza which is a good stop for lunch. Crossed Mohania toll and entered UP after crossing Karmanasha check post. We are relieved to see that the work on Karmanasha nallah had been completed as we cruised through. We took a tea break near Chandauli about 55 km from Varanasi. Roads are excellent throughout — no complaints whatsoever. And most importantly, did not face any traffic on tolls – the decision of crossing the stretch at morning time paid off well.
Starting from Aurangabad
Crossing Jawahar Setu
Behind the wheels
Change of Plan – masterstroke or harakiri
We reached Daffi toll at 11:50 AM after crossing River Ganges at Varanasi over Vishwasundari bridge. We chose to skip Satkar family restaurant near Daffi as it was too early for lunch. Our plan was to take Agra Lucknow Expressway via Kanpur. Road condition between Varanasi and Handia is as smooth as it gets. However, going forward we could not locate good eateries on the left side — maybe we have missed. After Handia, near about 1 PM , we reached a fork from where the road branching out right is the Allahabad-Varanasi road going to Allahabad city and NH19 goes straight towards Kanpur as Allahabad bypass. As hunger was becoming unbearable, we decided to halt for lunch in a shanty roadside dhaba (Prativa dhaba) which was extremely high on price and abysmally low on quality.
Whilst at lunch, we tried to re-invent a decision already made and weighed our options vis-a-vis Lucknow and Kanpur route. And, ignoring all experience and conventional wisdom, we overturned our earlier judgement and opted to take the Lucknow route (not sure whether a bad lunch is an insinuation for the change). Only time will tell how it turns out to be.
Crossing river Ganga towards Varanasi
Allahabad bypass
Scenic NH30 to Raeberaily
At 2 PM we started again and after another half an hour we took a turn towards NH 30 which is a scenic 2-lane road without a divider. But we find that the road condition has deteriorated from what it was last year. It has developed umpteen wear and tear on the surface with some shallow craters. The greenery on both sides though is a feast for the eyes. Then comes Kunda bypass which is another excellent 2 lane stretch to drive on immersed in greenery. At about 3:30 PM we reached Unchahar. The Unchahar flyover, which was under construction last year, has been completed. We passed through the Unchahar flyover overlooking giant NTPC towers on right. Had a snack break at Batohi after crossing the flyover. This is a bustling place with food stalls selling different varieties starting from Golgappas to ice creams. We tried multiple things and resumed our journey at 4:15 PM. As we drove along, we could spot white ‘Kash’ (Catkins scientific name Saccharum Spontaneum) on both sides of the road resembling quintessential Bengal landscape during Durga puja. Contrast of Red Trailhawk in front of us driving through the white ‘Kash’ looked amazing.
Red & White
Traffic Turmoil
We reached Civil Line chowk at Raeberaily at 4:50 PM barely avoiding a wrong turn towards the flyover to Kanpur just before the chowk. After crossing the chowk, we took a left from the roundabout towards Lucknow. Initial 20 km road from Raeberailly towards Lucknow was in bad condition and nowhere near what it was a year back.
As we moved towards Lucknow, road condition improved. We reached the toll plaza at 5:30 PM and re-fuelled at an IOC petrol pump 30 km before Lucknow. The sun has set and street lights are on, as we approach Lucknow. As the dusk fades away and we approach Lucknow, the crowds on both sides along with the congestion started to increase exponentially. Soon we encountered complete standstill traffic at VIP road in Lucknow. It was a harrowing experience and its already 7:50 PM when we eventually merged into Agra Lucknow expressway (ALE).
In the hindsight, we realise how miserably we failed to assess the Lucknow traffic and the fact that it’s been a year since we came by this route that too in the morning time.
Reaching Agra
Once at ALE, ride is as smooth as ever. We took a 15 min break in one of the rest areas of ALE and reached our hotel at DoubleTree Hilton in Agra at 11:20 PM. Took a sumptuous Mutton Biriyani dinner to forget Lucknow’s traffic experience and then called it a day.
Day 2: 13-10-2021: Agra to Kufri
The Expressways of India
After enjoying an excellent breakfast spread at Agra, we started our onward journey at 9:30 AM. Today we will be travelling via Taj/Yamuna Expressway (YEW), Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) and NH44 (longest highway in India from Srinagar to Kanyahumari). We took Inner ring road, crossed the river Yamuna and merged onto Taj expressway. It’s a pleasure to drive through the Taj expressway albeit a tad boring – but after yesterday’s traffic in Lucknow, that’s a welcome change. We paid Rs 35 user development fee at the first toll. In subsequent tolls we found a refreshing change – at least 2 of the toll lanes have been made Fastag enabled which was not the case last year. We took an exit to Ambedkar road and through Bulandsahar road we took the left exit to the EPE. We need to drive for another 70 km till we merge into NH 44 at Sonipat. EPE is again an 8 lane expressway with a speed limit of 120 km. However, the road surface is EPE is not as good as ALE or YEW. Still, this is an exceptional expressway in India where you can set the cruise at 120. We soon completed 20,000 km for our Trailhawk on EPE.
Taj Expressway
Eastern Peripheral Expressway
NH44
We took the Panipat exit at 1 PM and as we merged with NH44 near Sonipat we were greeted with a series of diversions. But a lot of the work had been completed since last year as the number of diversions were much lesser. Seeing the crowd at Amrik Sukhdev and Pahelwan dhaba we decided to take lunch at Gulshan dhaba. After a sumptuous lunch, we kept cruising towards Panipat along NH44 through some awesome roads. Speed limit is 90 in NH44. After we cross Kurukshetra, we refuelled and also filled up our Jerry Cans. There are many speed cameras on NH44. And Haryana police was stopping those cars violating the speed limit just before Ambala. At 4:20 PM we took the left exit from NH44 at Ambala and turned right to take Ambala-Chandigarh highway. One notable point – no toll was collected in any of the toll booths in Haryana or Punjab.
Lunch at Gulshan Dhaba
NH44 at Ambala before the turning
First view of mountains
After crossing Zirakpur and Dera Bassi, we drove under the flyover and then took a right towards Panchkulla. This flyover is a oneway flyover which one can avail while coming from Shimla to Chandigarh only. Crossed Panchkulla at 5:15 pm. Sun was about to set as we reached the first toll of Himalayan expressway (NH5) and soon caught the first glimpse of mountains at a distance. We took a short tea break. Kufri was still 115 km. In the next few days we will be travelling through many districts of Himachal Pradesh – Solan, Shimla, Kinnaur, Lahaul & Spiti, Kullu, Mandi, Bilaspur.
Himalayan Expressway
Newly constructed Himalayan Expressway is an awesome experience to drive on. It has been completed between Chandigarh and Solan. Solan to Shimla is still under construction. Gone are the days of eternal traffic jams in Kalka and Parwanoo. We kept on driving through the winding roads as dusk sets in. We reached Dharampur toll at 6:20 PM. Our plan was to pick up something from Mcdonalds at Kasauli- but somehow missed it and went ahead. Reached Solan just after 7 pm. Lights from across the hills kept on shimmering in darkness as we drove along.
Himalayan Expressway – Welcome to Himachal
Towards Shimla
Shimla
We reached Kandaghat and went past the fork from where the road on right goes towards Chail. We initially thought about taking Chail route and staying at Narkanda. But it was narrow and not the best road to drive at night – so we dropped the idea. After crossing Kandaghat, we reached the point from where Shoghi bypass forks at right and G-maps was nudging us to take Shoghi bypass. Ignoring G-maps we drove straight as our plan was to go through Shimla city. At about 8:40 PM, we reached a fork from where NH5 continues as Shimla bypass on the right downwards and the road straight (NH205) goes through Shimla. As it was already night time and this being off-season for tourists in Shimla we preferred to go through the city instead of taking the long bypass route crammed with trucks. We continued to drive through the nightscape of Shimla city with sparse crowd and traffic, passing through Cart Road, the tunnel onto Circular road.
Reaching Kufri
From circular road, 14 km before Kufri, we took a left turn downwards to Dhalli bypass. We reached our hotel Sterling Kufri at 9:20 PM. It was 9° C in Kufri and soon we started putting on warm clothes. Sterling is located just by the side of highway, has ample parking space and offers an excellent view of the mountains and valley.
Day 3: 14-10-2021: Kufri to Kalpa
Adventure begins
After breakfast, we put the stickers on our car. Both the Trailhawk siblings were looking gorgeous – ready to take on any roads. We topped up DEF, windshield washer and started from Kufri at 10:45 AM. Today we will go via Theog-Narkanda-Kumarsain-Rampur-Jeori-Bhabanagar-Tapri-Powari-Reckong Peo and then finally to Kalpa.
A room with a view
View from Kufri
Trailhawk siblings ready for adventure
Drive through apple orchards and pines
VLOG of Kufri-Kalpa-Nako
NH5 and apple orchards
It was a lovely sunny morning and a bit warmer too with the outside temperature already touching 19℃. Today we will be driving through the magnificent Indo-Tibetan highway which was regarded as the deadliest road till sometime back. This entire stretch of road extends from Shimla to Shipki La near Khab in Indo Tibetan border (erstwhile NH22) though the old alignment was till Kaurik in Sumdo. This is now renamed NH5. As we drive through NH5, we could see the snow-capped mountains at a distance. Kalpa is about 213 km from Kufri at an altitude of 9700 ft. and we expect approximately 6:30-7 hrs to reach Kalpa. Few kms from Kufri is the town of Theog. There is a bifurcation after Naya bazaar where the road on right goes towards Rohru and NH5 continues towards the left. We could locate the point where a gravel road on left goes down sharply towards Zostel where we planned to stay initially but dropped the idea due to time-consuming ingress and egress. On the right, there is a sharp hairpin going upwards. It’s a clear blue sky and not a drop of cloud in the sky – we were enjoying every moment of the drive. As we drove along we could see many apple orchards on the slopes of the hill covered with white nets to protect them from hailstorms. We can see crates full of apples being loaded into trucks indicating that apple harvesting season is here and, of course, Kinnaur apples are famous. At about 11:40 AM, we passed Matiana, a small town, known for its apple orchards.
Apple orchards after Matiana
Narkanda
Soon the landscape of Narkanda started unravelling before us. Both sides of the road are dotted by groves of Pine and Deodar more than ever. We reached Narkanda at 12 noon. Just at the point where NH5 turns left, we could see a road going straight towards Hatu peak. We kept on driving on NH5 as snow-capped mountains become more and more pronounced. As we cross Narkanda town, the landscape becomes more and more accentuated with coniferous forest, oaks, maples and tall pine trees that seem to stretch out to the sky, blocking the sunlight. We felt ecstatic driving through such picturesque landscape and winding roads.
Passing through Narkanda
Sutlej
We went past Kumarsain at 12:30 PM and started our descent towards the Sutlej valley. After Kingal town, we took a short break and resumed our journey at 1 PM. As we descend through a series of winding loops, we could finally see a greenish Sutlej River on our left at a distance. Soon, we started driving by the right bank of Sutlej. 20 km before Rampur, we came across a hydel power project and encountered some bad roads for the first time. We passed through Nirath village and soon reached Rampur. Rampur is the 2nd most important town in Shimla district and at a much lower altitude than Shimla. We went past the famous Hanuman statue and then stopped at Cafe Sutlej by HPTDC for lunch at 2 PM.
Break after Kingal
Driving by Sutlej river
The Dog on a bike
Towards Rampur
In front of Cafe Sutlej
Post Lunch Session
Though the food was excellent in Sutlej cafe, the service was extremely slow. We started from Rampur at 3:30 pm. Faced some traffic jam as road work was going on. We have plans to top up at the last fuel pump before Kaza at Powari ( about 15 km before reaching Kalpa). But sometimes Powari outlet runs out of fuel early. Hence we topped up fuel from a BP outlet just after crossing Rampur.
View of Sutlej from Rampur
The Forecast
As we drove along we started discussing news we heard from locals while we were at lunch – there is a snowstorm alert between 17th to 19th i.e. the time when we will be in Kaza or in-transit to Mud or Kaza. If the oil tankers cannot come to Kaza due to snow, then our backup plan of 25 L reserve fuel will come in handy. At least we would be able to retrace back if the roads are blocked beyond Kaza. Since all these are in the realms of possibility, we stopped and continued to enjoy the landscape.
Welcome to Kinnaur
Textured mountains with golden rays of sun falling on them coupled with picturesque slopes dotted with apple trees and conifers, makes the drive magical. We started encountering some bad patches of the road once in a while. Crossed Jhakri at 4 pm and reached Jeori after 20-25 mins. From Jeori a road on right goes towards Sarahan which is famous for Bhimakali temple. After crossing Jeori we encountered a shooting stone area. At 4:40 PM we crossed the welcome arch and entered Kinnaur district leaving Shimla district. It’s another 73 km to Kalpa from here.
Half-tunnels of Nichar
As we entered Kinnaur we are greeted by the most scenic roads. As we drive by Nichar, we could see the famous half-tunnels which never cease to astonish the travellers. It is amazing to see the tunnels which were carved out of rocks while building the road many years ago. Throughout this cliffy stretch, the rocks formed a canopy over the winding road and makes it a spectacular drive. The falling droplets from overhanging rocks rolling down the windscreen seem to be symbolic of Trailhawk’s tears of joy.
Half tunnels of Nichar
Sangla and Karchham
We crossed another bridge and reached Bhabanagar close to 5:25 PM. The entire valley is in shadow now as rays of the setting sun is blocked by the high mountains. The valley has now become a bit narrow as we start to descend. We reached Wangtu close to 5:40 PM. There is a proposal to build a road from Wangtu to Kaza thus cutting down the time to travel to Spiti and improving overall connectivity. There is a Karcham-Wangtu hydel project of 1000 MW on Baspa river. We did so many criss-crosses over the bridges that I was unable to keep count. After crossing Tapri HP Petrol pump, we crossed over the river twice in succession through 2 bailey bridges near Chooling. It was almost dark when we reached Karcham where on the right there is a bridge over Sutlej river which leads to Baspa valley having some most scenic locations of Kinnaur district – Sangla, Rakchham and Chitkul.
Between Wangtu & Tapri
Last fuel pump before Kaza
The route winds along the Sutlej going upstream along its left bank. We crossed the Sutlej over the Shongtong bridge and reached the HP Fuel pump in Powari. Though we have fuel, we thought of topping it up. It’s already 6:25 PM. But since diesel supply is limited, they are giving a maximum 500 or 1000 rupees worth of diesel to each car. Our tank was almost full and hence that should suffice us. After refuelling, we started again. The road now bifurcates left and upwards to Recong Peo, located at an altitude of 7500 ft, the administrative headquarters of Kinnaur district, and NH5 continues along the river. We took the left and drove towards Peo. Further up from Recong Peo is Kalpa (know as ‘Chini’ village before 1962) and the highest village further up is Roghi which is known for stunning views of the Kinner Kailash peak. En-route Roghi one can visit ‘suicide point’ which is a vertical cliff extending to a valley.
Joining the Team
We crossed Reckong Peo and reached Kalpa. There were two alternate paths leading up to Hotel Grand Shamba-La at the top — our stay for the night. We took the steep narrower one on the left which would be difficult if some vehicle descends from the opposite side without looking at the dipper. Hence, it is better to take the road on the right. Anyway, we reached our hotel at 7 PM. Grand Shamba-La is a quaint hotel decorated in Tibetan style with comfortable rooms and good food. But the parking is quite problematic unlike some other hotels in this area. We did some catching up with our friends after dinner and then called it a day.
Keyword: Six Jeep Compass SUVs go on a 13-day road trip to Spiti