"My Unforgettable trip to Kinnaur"
Being Himachali boy i am always get excited when me and my friends plan a trip to my place where we got full enjoyment along with some sort of adventure of trekking or any thing crazy. It was the day of 24th April 2011 i m just off with my usual daily work suddenly one of my friend "Tinku" call me up and told that dude next week we plan to make a trip to Kinnaur. Every one interested in that and search who is among us who has their relatives or might any working friend their so that we get secure for our night stay. unfortunately we got two known friends who stay in between the journey but not in Kinnaur.
Now day is decided its going to be 1st of may and four day trip with two days stay to one of the district of the Himachal Pradesh. We five friends Tinku, Shekhar, SushiL, Shiv along with me decided to leave early in the morning 9am on due date. So day has come and everyone met at the Boileauganj chowk at 8:30am with their packed bags containing some woolen clothes as this district has a boundary line with the ROOF OF THE WORLD i.e Tibet so its enough to tell how was weather is going to be expected their. So Sushil came with his Endeavor Car and every one was fighting for the front seat for this trip obviously as this is gonna be the thrilling trip ever and no one wanna miss the pulchritude scene of nature.
Journey began at sharp 9 am we cross the Kufri which is 14km from Shimla and now we all get excited as none of us go far beyond this place and i wanna tell u that Kufri forest has rated rank 1st in Asia forest reserve only for the pine tree. During the journey we saw the Fagu & Theog. From Theog which is 35 km far from Shimla there is diversion for the another beautiful place name Choupal but we decided to stick to the plan and when we return and got free time the we will go there too. We came across high mountains covered with mostly of the pine tree and apple trees. Apple is the main farming of this place due to suitable temperature for its normal growth.
The orchards protect their apple flowers by covering the trees with Net as plants now about to give fruits with in 2-3 months and without net protection flowers easily susceptible to he hail come with the rains and might get destroyed result in low apple production. So all mountains look like covered with bandage over them. Now we reached the small town Shilaru where One and Only truff Hockey stadium of Himachal situated it looked awesome we took some pics around it and got ready to move on again. Next place is Narkanda (64 km from Shimla) where one of our friend Ankush work in an anonymous bank we call him to meet us. We reached there at 12:30 and we all took some snacks and some cold drinks and stay their for about 15 min and say good bye to Ankush. Road condition till the Narkanda is not so good but after Narkanda it was awesome till Rampur. At Narkanda we fill the gasoline and move on. After 16 km from Narkanda there is Kingal from where there is bypass BRO road for the military toward Shimla In between we came near Kotgarh which is located on the top of the hills and about 82 km from Shimla we just saw it from the road and Sushil told us that one of the minister of H.P is from here who's father bring the apple seed first time to the Himachal Pradesh he also told us that Kotgarh is the world rank 1st per-capital income village. Now we see the Satluj River flowing opposite direction to us and near by the road during the whole journey. We Reached the Rampur at 3:40pm and took lunch there the only thing must watchable in Rampur is the Old Fort and one budh temple situated near Bus stand. we are still in Shimla district and we have to travel at least 100 km to reach Kinnaur.
Rampur
we move on next place is Juri from where original journey began its the place from where old Sarahan temple is just 17 km we skipped that to as due to journey distance left and because of changing weather. Placed name Taranda from where boundary of Kinnaur start. On one large gate written "Kinnaur mein aapka swagat hai"
Kinnaur
confirms that we are now in Kinnaur but Sushil reveal that there is no Particular place named Kinnaur everyone got surprised...he told that Kinnaur named after the Kinner Kailash (Lord Shiva) mountain the secured place and Kinnaur is the name of district only, not of any place as other district of H.P had..P had. We astonished and thrilled by thinking how the road is built through the rock steep mountains which has road for only one vehicle to pass on bye and little mistake in driving would cost us our lives but our Rocking pilot Sushil drives very smoothly, we stopped at placed named Tranda dhank which is terribly awesome as here road cut through mountains and Sutluj flows down steep about 200-300ft once fall there will be a free fall to death from this place we pass the place by capturing some beautiful & funny pics. during the journey their are many Hydro electricity project working site are easily seen and four mega project are done their. Weather is totally changed suddenly as we are at very high above the sea level so every one put on their woolen or jackets on .
we reach the Karrcham at 7pm it was very cold as compare to Shimla temp at that point of time From here there is diversion to the Sangla Valley but we had to reach the reckongpeo 1st abut 7:45 we reached the Powari which is situated at the base of theReckong Peo and distance between Powari and Reckong Peo is just 7km but it takes almost half an hour to reach there due to bad road which is disrupted due to land slide at various places. So we are here at Reckong Peo. There is very cold first we find the hotel for the night stay then after taking bat with hot water we had our dinner and watch our snaps on the laptop that we take during the journey and discuss how was road and which mountain is awesome and all that we slept after long tired journey. In the morning Sushil Wake up us all at 6am and told come out side to see the surprise we all thought what the surprise he gave us at early in the morning but when we come outside in balcony Man its was Mind blowing view of the great Kailash mountain. We saw that the kinner Kailash and surrounding mountains fully leaden with the at least 100-200ft snow or may be more then that it was and sun rise above the mountains make it like that can not be bound in the words. so every one ready for to take the look of the Reckong Peo the head Quarter of the Kinnaur District So we take the Map out and decide to roam Kalpa, Kothi, and Ribba valley. Everyoneeeeeee ready after taking the breakfast at 9am 1st plan to go to Kalpa which is about 10 km from Reckong Peo and above 3000mtr from sea level it is also called as the Cheeni Gao in earlier times because Chinese trader come here during the Lavi Mela for trading. From this place we are able to see the Shiv Ling which is situated on the top of the kinner kailash mountain and which changes colors with time as sun light falls on it. People use to treak there but it was today trekking project so that was not good idea for us to plan to go there as we had limited time to go other places too. Kalpa is very beautiful village and people are so kind here we took too much photographs of here and stay about two hour in this place and go to next place kothi by walk which is 3-4 km from Kalpa. At kothi there is only an old temple is situated and we came across by the four thickest trees of pine that much thickest trees we never see in our entire life. Every one among us took pic of it. Now we reach the kothi temple and we are not allowed to take snaps in temple place we bow and took blessing of the pandit and return to kalpa weather during entire period is very cool not so much cold but fine. Its about to 1pm now we decided to go Ribba the place of the dry fruit which is 20 km far from the Reckong Peo. So we reach Peo 1st then Powari and from there,there is diversion to the lahaul andspiti (Kazza) we have to follow that path and one thing i tell you that the mountain on which reckong reckongopeo is situated is full of sand and it is sinking slowly downward so the road condition is very bad you may be victim of the falling stones from the mountain in anytime due to which we got struck near Thopan about 1:30 hr due to land slide which kills our precious time for roaming but that is the beauty of the trip when you struck some where,where you can't even got any communication coverage and guess what there is rare parapet protection side way of the road and being congested road it was very dangerous at least 15odd km after Thopan road is fine up to skibba which is 2km from thopan. we reach the skibba at 4:30.at 4:30.at 4:30.at 4:30.t 4:30.t 4:30.:30.bba is located at the bottom of the Ribba we now have to walk at least 3 km to reach Ribba we reach Ribba at 5:15 it is the place of Dry fruits and Santari (Home made wine) we take some dry fruits and little bit santri to make up the mood n talk with the old people of the village who tell many stories regarding china invasion in h.p etc where the road goes and what changes happened recent time here in kinnaur. then we come down to Skibba at 6:30pm and went back to Peo. we reach peo at 7:20pm now we decided to roam the market after freshening. We roam the entire peo watch the ITBP area which is famous for hiding the Sikh bodyguard of Indira Gandhi who shot the other Sikh guard that shot Indira Gandhi. The pandit chaiwala who make the awesome tea in entire peo. Now we ahead to our hotel to take sleep with capturing beautiful views in our mind and Photographs. Now day to be last day of roaming and today we plan to go to sangla valley so we leave the Peo at 10am Sangla is 60-70 km from peo we have to move back till karcham then there is diversion for the sangla valley and you know what the road is too much scary only for the acrophobic persons because it is damn dangerous steep. We reach Sangla valley at 12:45pm which is even more beautiful than Reckong Peo. Its whole beauty overshadow the scenes what we see in Reckong Peo. One must watchable thing here is the Kamru fort which is the place for making strategies against the intruder by the kings in earlier time. Whole beauty of Sangla is amazed us .We move ahead to Chitkul (the last place where vehicle can go) which is about 26 km from Sangla between journey we see the snow just side by the road as we reaching near the Chitkul the we see more and more snow we stop for a while near forest n play with snow at least 45 minutes after feeling cold and expecting more fun ahead we move on and when we reach Chitkul really man it is such a beautiful place that i can never dreamed about the entire trip of Kinnaur is waste if we wont decide to go to Chitkul snow and snow everywhere awesome beyond one side of mountain there into Tibet border, beyond other side Uttarkashi, behind other Kinner Kailash and other Rohru wow you decide where you want to go via trekking but for that you must have the authority letter for that. You here find the dhaba (which is drowned now)which has tag line "Hindustan ka Aakhiri Dhabha". We watch the temple in Chitkul which is under renovation and stay in the only resort there. Next day the leaving morning from the Kinnaur we captured the best memories we ever had and we all decided to visit here with our spouse. during whole back journey we can't fade out the beauty of panoramicinnauroough our mind. one thing left in heart is only to trek the kinnerilash we will do if we got only little opportunity. Kinnur beautiful place to visit & if you visit Kinnaur Please Visit the Sangla Valley and Chitkul if not its like going Chardham without visit the Haridwar or Gangotri.