Pune June-3 and 4

 These are the two last days of this entire road trip…Dadu is highly excited to go there! So am I as I can see my pet cat Mini once again!

 

On the next morning, we left to see the famous crater lake of Lonar and then to Pune. The lake at lonar was fabulous and awesome the crater is almost 1/2 km in diameter! Almost 200ft in height! Imagine the impact which must have happened when that asteroid must have come and hit the surface of the earth. Even foreign scientists are showing interest in this phenomenon.
After this we reached Pune at almost 5:00 in the afternoon.

 

The crater lake at Lonar

 

Daityasudan temple at Lonar

 

Leaving the Tiger's territory : June-2

We went for one last trip to the Jungle. I was again with Kaka and Mausi. We had exhausted all our luck the previous day in seeing the Leopard and today only Mom, Dad and Dadu spotted things of interest. They saw two tiger cubs of 18 months and a dancing peacock.

We started driving towards Pune after having breakfast and halted at Seoni for night. On the way to Seoni we took a detour to see the marble rocks of Bheda Ghat.

The tiger cub

Nilgai

Dhuandhar falls in Jabalpur

 

Bandhavgarh the land of the tiger!!!!!! May-31 to June-1

We left lucknow and went to Baandhavgarh national park. It took us till night to reach there. We had planned to take two rounds of the jungle in an open jeep. To spot the animals we need to get up at least by 4:00 in the morning. So we went to sleep by 10:00. I was full of excitement and anticipation and I couldn’t sleep a wink! In the morning I went in the jeep with mom and dad. We spotted three tigers in just four hours.

Only someone who has actually seen many jungles can appreciate our great luck! In the evening, I went with Kaka and Mausi. In the first three hours we spotted a stand-off between a tame elephant & a male tiger! Imagine the luck!!! At almost five minutes for the park to close, We heard the alarm calls of a monkey( when any herbivore animal spots a carnivore it sounds the alarm) By the sound of it, our guide could tell that it was a call for a leopard near by and thanks to our luck, we spotted the leopard almost 4ft. close to our jeep! It had a male spotted dear in it’s mouth and it was carrying it between its forelegs.

Apart from big cats, we also a varitey of animals and birds.

 

Jungle fowl

Spotted deers

 

A leopard with its kill

 

 

Changeable hawk eagle

 

 

Lucknow, the place of my birth! May 26-May 30

We left bareily by 10:00 in the morning. We directly went to Lucknow and arrived at home by 5:00 clock. When we were around 50 Km from Lucknow, I expereince the first dust storm of my life. It was very sudden and very furious. We could hardly see anything.

Papa, mother, Dadu and I stayed back in Lucknow for a few days while Kaka & Mausi left for Khajuraho the next day and then to Bandhavgarh. At lucknow, we lazed around and had fun. We also saw the Lucknow zoo & the science museum. While Kaka saw a fight between two tigers and a tigress along with her cubs in the national park

Old Bareily May 25nd

We left the city of Delhi early in the morning. We went directly to the city of bareli in U.P. Nothing interesting happened in this trip except a big traffic jam on a railway crossing. Bareli is an old city with nothing much of tourist attraction. We had dinner in a posh restaurant and then Papa and I went walking to buy some medicines. On the way we saw a stall that said it was the most famous"kulfi" (A type of icecream) in Bareily. Of course we had to try it so that could later compare it with that in Lucknow :)

 

Back to crowded roads of the plains

Delhi hi once more!!

So we left Swarghat early in the morning and left to the highly crowded city of Delhi. Once again, we stayed at the same D.L.F. Guest house and went to leave Chetan Dada and family over there. Ate at Mcdonald’s and went to sleep.

Manali and The gigantic dam of Bhakkra!!! May 21st – May 23rd

May-21 : Right this is second day in Solang nala. It is around 18 Km from Manali and really beautiful with a beautiful river and forest.
I thought that this would be a quiet day. But, accidentally we saw a board mentioning zorbing in the meadows near the river. I knew about this sport of zorbing. It originated in New- Zealand. In it, we are enclosed in air filled ball, and let down rolling down the hill. I and Dadu went inside one & rolled down. A fabulous experience, believe me! In it for one second I would see Debu upward and at the next moment below me! At the end, I had landed upside on the side of the zorb, which was facing the ground!
We also went for skiing but there was a huge traffic jam leading up to Rohtang and we tried it on a patch of rough snow.I didn’t enjoy it.At the evening, we went and had trout fish at a restaurant called the Johnson’s restaurant and bar. Had a wonderful game of Foosball and I ate some veg pasta.

Beas river

View of Friendship peak from our hotel

A cute house in the middle of nowhere

Mom and Dad gobbling Trout

May 22-23 : From Manali we went to Swarghat. A highly uninteresting journey, we finally reached the place. There after few hours of resting, we left to see the nainadevi temple and the famous Bhakkra dam. At the temple, we boarded a ropeway to go to the top of the mountain, where the temple is placed. I enjoyed it a lot! I was feeling a bit sad for Siddhu because he and Chetan Dada had stayed at the hotel to watch TV. Then we went to see the grand Bhakkra dam. A wonderous experience really. As you know this dam is simply gigantic!!!

All the way to solang nala.May 20th

The day was new. The weather was clear to start with but it became cloudy by the time we reached Kunzum pass and it was raining by the time we reached Rohtang pads The distance was only around 210km, but due to the steep turns & bad roads conditions, it took us almost 8 hrs to complete the trip. The following photos will prove this to you… The two passes had just been cleared 2 days back and very few vehicles had started crossing it. Pass was supposed to officially opened for vehicles after a few days. The road (or whatever was there of it) was really in bad condition after the Kumzum pass and at places was it was quite precarious.
As you may have observed, there was snow all over the road & streams used to pass from these roads. A vary tiring day, on the way, we gave lift to a doc. We reached Solang nala almost at 8:00 clock in the evening. It was the dusk of course. We then relaxed in a hotel called hotel Iceland and had a hot, spicy and delicious pizza and then slept.

 Early morning in a village on route from Kaza to Kunzum

 

Spiti valley is one of most sparsely populated places in Himachal. Most villages have a population of 30 to 150 people. But all of them have electricity and schools are there within 4-5 Km
Village folks waiting for a ride to go to Dhankar monastery for the big Buddh Pournima celebrations


























The road get totally eroded or washed out during winters and has to be repaired every year

Kunzum pass (approx 4560 meters)

Kaka's Pajero makes a big splash

The road was still not opened officially and snow clearing was in progress at places

Just approaching Rohtang pass (approx 3950 meters). On the other side of the pass (within 1 Km) there was huge crowd of tourists. Good that they did not think of coming this side :)

 

Dankar lake & Pinn Valley, may19th

The day was fresh and the weather was perfect. While Chetan dada & family along with Kaka & Moushi, were planning to go see the famous Ki monastery, Papa, Aie , me & Dadu were going to see a lake which is on the top of mountain besides Dhankar monastery. The climb up the hill was quite tiring for me. But thanks to Papa, I got acclimatized and completed the remaining portion easily. Besides the lake, the soil was a bit soft, as the lake had just been over it and then evaporated. This was the most enjoyable part in this trip. The soil was soft in the lake bed and we saw tiger like pugmarks. We were sure that these were the pugmarks of the famous and elusive snow-leopard.We took pictures of the marks so that we can show it to some wildlife experts later and get confirmation. We saw smaller pugmarks also which probably were made by the young . These marks were not very fresh.
As we went closer to the lake, the pugmarks there seemed fresher and fresher. It appeared as if they had been playing in the water with the supervision of their father. Not only that, we also saw the bones of s yak, which had probably been eaten by the leopard. I even collected one of these bones.
We also went to see the Pinn valley. The monastery in it had become new due to reconstruction. The Pinn valley still remained as beautiful as ever. On our way to see these places, we gave lift to three women. On the way, I observed something very beautiful of the snow clad mountains at a moment they don’t appear to you and at the next the mountains ‘move’ like a curtain as the car goes forward! Revealing the magnificent snow behind them.

Dhankar lake

Our steep climb up the mountain of the Dhankar lake

The Tibetan Wolf Pugmarks we spotted along the lake. We initially thought it was Leopard's pugmarks.

View of the Key Monastry ( Chetan dada took this)

 

Tabo, Dhankar & Kaza may 18th

So the next day had arrived and we were planning to do another ambitious trip to Kaza, wich is 140 km away from Nako. On our way, we saw the Monasteries of Tabo And Dhankar . In the way to Tabo, we got stuck in a landslide. Thanks to the three army Jawans and contribution by us, we could clear a way through the landslide.

Tabo – This is a monastery, which is built of mud. As photography is not allowed inside, we couldn’t take any pictures of the interior. The sculptures and paintings inside are more than1000 years old and still, they look as beautiful and majestic as ever. The color still looks so fresh that you can almost smell it. Crisp and majestic is all that can be said about it.
Dhankar: - This is another ancient monastery. The interesting thing about this is its magnificent height & brilliant placement on a narrow mountain cliff. There underneath it, the two gigantic rivers of Pin& Spiti embrace each other. A program was going to commence in the monastery just after two days and the preparations were in full swing.

Sunrise at Nako

the cute little village of Nako

Dhankar Monastry

A Pashmina goat


































Compare the size of anthill like structures on the way to Kaza with our car

 

Big plans can fail, May 17th

We were planning to travel directly to Tabo, which is almost 200 km away from Raksham. Naturally, it is a very ambitious plan when you are driving in Himalayas. We took a lot of time for food and driving as the roads were very curvy. Thus, our plan to go all the way to Tabo failed. So in order to spend the night somewhere, we halted at a local Inn in Nako. Nako is three fourth the distance to Tabo. The small but well known lake of Nako, is just in front of the Inn, Siddhu was afraid of lake monster who he believed to be living in the lake. I & papa enjoyed a walk around the lake, engrossed in appreciating the high literacy rate and the brilliant irrigation system in the state . At the night, as everyone was waiting for food, Dadu first went for a long walk alone. When he came back and described his experience I, Mom & Papa also went for the walk. The moon was shinning brighter than ever lighting the road like floodlights. We met some local women, who coming from a long distance after attending funeral in the adjacent village. Still, they were as jolly as ever. One of them, told us that there was a ghost ahead and then laughed ringingly, clearly indicating that she was joking. They even asked us to take them to Bombay.

 

Kinner Kailash from Kalpa

 

The bridge across the Spiti and Satlaj Confluene

 

 

 

HPTDC hotel across Nako lake

 

just staring the glistening waters of a mountain spring at Nako

 

The sunset

 

 

The roar of Baspa…May16th

Our second day at the beautiful tent resort. So the snow on the hills was as fresh as ever & the river was roaring at her loudest. Papa and the others except the Chetan dada family and me are going to Chitkul. So I and Siddhu were getting bored so we & Gauri tai decided to go and have a look at the river Baspa. The river’s very close to the resort, so it was jolly trip down to the river. The rapids in the river were very fast fast and turbulent. I knew this, but I had never , not even imagined that these rapids would be so deadly. I and Siddhu enjoyed throwing pinecones in the rapids and see them float down the river.
When I, Dadu and papa went to do the same, we threw a huge log and enjoyed watching it in the rapids.
The night was same with the campfire and a lot of tasty food J

 

 

Parking lot of Mastrang camp

Siddhu and me

 

just one of the many mountain veiws from the camp

 

Sun rise at our wonderous camp

Into the hills of Spiti & Baspa, May 15th

We lest the hotel early as the drive was going be very long. All of the guys except me & Papa went to eat in a Buddhist Chinese restaurant to eat Thukpa (a bland preparation of soupy noodles).
I and Papa had gone to see Monal in a local but big bird house. Unfortunately, the place was closed as it was breeding season.
On our way to Mustrang in the Baspa Valley, we met a Sadhu who worshipped Ma Durga. He was originally from Chiplun in Maharashtra. He suggested that we stay in a local tent resort. We went to the place and were astonished to see the mighty mountains so close to our tents. We ate some Pakoda as soon we reached there. We lit a campfire and had a lot of fun around it including playing Mafia. Finally we reluctantly went to sleep.

 

Temple of Ma Durga on the way to Baspa valley

Inside the Sarhan village

 

our camp at Mastrang

 

Around the campfire

 

Mt. Hatu, may14th

Title: - Mt. Hatu, may14th
We had decided to leave the hotel at 7:00 in the morning. But, due to delay, we left the place at 7:30. We got to know by the locals, that there is a hillock called Hatu Peak very close to the hotel. We left for the place immediately. The road was extremely narrow while both of our cars were quite wide. Somehow, with a great deal of backseat driving, we finally managed to go until a point, where there was no road… then we trekked to the top.
We then continued our trip to Sarhan. We were hoping to see the famous and rare Monal bird. No such luck, still we saw a beautiful Paradise flycatcher. The hotel was quite rustic and old. We also had a good view of snow peaks and everyone was very excited about it.

Hatu Peak

 

 

My brave Papa

 

Chetan dada and Gauri Tai by satlaj river

 

breakfast with a view!