Spiti Valley Diaries Day One - Into The Mountains
Our Spiti journey began early in the morning in the hill station of Shimla. We exited our hostel in the dawn light and had a very pretty taxi ride through the deserted streets. We arrived at the bus station ready to begin our Spiti adventure.
We quickly met the rest of our Zostel crew, boarded our mini bus and began our journey into the mountains!
Chatting to our new found friends, we wound up through the hills, getting deeper into the mountainous landscape of Himachal Pradesh. The villages flowed by and the road became narrower and narrower as we climbed higher and higher.
Shortly into the drive we pulled over next to a small restaurant to grab some breakfast. As we climbed down the steps and into the foyer, we were greeted with our first views of the Himalayas in the distance. The restaurant had been built on the side of the road, facing out across the steep slopes of the valley. Below the restaurant's dining room, orchards of apple trees clung to the valley side, and far off towards the horizon, like the crest of a distant breaking wave, the snow capped peaks of the Himalayas glinted white in the morning sun. As we tucked into breakfast noodles and parathas this was our first glimpse of our destination, we couldn’t wait to get there!
Breakfast with a view!
Bellies full, we headed back on the road and continued our climb upwards. We quickly found ourselves driving at the same height as hovering birds of prey. Orchards lined the valleys and the air was full of the buzzing of bees. On every mountain corner hives were laid out across the roadside with honey for sale, their beekeepers dozing in the nearby shade.
We had a brief lunch stop of delicious thali in a roadside village (excitingly this also included our first yak sighting!) and continued on our way. Our first photo stop came soon after. We were now travelling through the Kinnaur Valley. The road clung to the very edge of the vertical cliffs. The apple trees had been replaced by pine, and the air was noticeably cooler. We jumped out of our van to see the that the road had been carved straight through the side of the mountain leaving a massive gaping rock archway above. This famous stone arch is called the Tranda Dhank. We snapped our obligatory photos, had a quick group selfie and were on our way once again.
As we snaked our way through the valley there were frequent reminders that we were driving along one of the world's most dangerous roads. There were ragged gaps in the road side barriers, frequent memorial shrines and far below on the cliff face and steep walls, shrapnel and debris from accidents. We were very glad of our expert driver Pramod.
Just one of the roadside obstacles we faced on the journey!
Another reminder of how treacherous this area could be, came soon after as our mini bus rolled slowly to a halt amidst a long queue of stationary traffic. We had encountered our first landslide! There are worse places to be stuck than the beautiful Kinnaur Valley. Knowing we could be in for a long wait, we jumped out of the minibus and took in the stunning surroundings.
Thanks Shivam for the photo!
Mountains in every direction rose up and towered above us. Next to us on the vertical mountains, a herd of mountain goats stood nearly impossibly on the steep slope. Unconcerned by the traffic, they continued to munch on the grass and gorse. The goats were obviously part of an owned flock as dotted amongst them were the largest sheepdogs we had ever seen.
The enormous dogs had huge fluffy coats to protect them from the elements and massive terrifyingly spiky collars to protect them from predators.
After two hours a trickle of motorcycles sped past us in the opposite direction, this was the sign we had been waiting for. The road was cleared! According to our tour leader Gyalli we had got off lucky. We had only been stuck for a couple of hours, but a landslide in this remote corner of India could of left us stranded for a lot longer.
As the afternoon wore on the landscape changed again. The pine trees thinned out and were replaced by low scrub and gorse. The mountains grew ever taller around us and those white tipped peaks we had caught sight of at breakfast, were now rising above us. The roads changed as well, gone was the tarmac replaced now by rock and stone. We bounced along through villages that were looking more and more “Himalayan” with bricks and stone replaced by wood and mud. The people seemed to change as well, there were less saris and tunics and more heavy woollen waistcoats and colourful Himachal caps. Alongside the thundering trucks, donkeys plied their way carrying what looked like very unfair loads in baskets on their backs.
We climbed up, and eventually over, a high mountain pass. As we descended into the valley below, the sun started to set. The orientation of the valley was perfect so as we zig zagged down and through the valley, we were chased by the fading light. The sun would disappear behind the peaks, we’d turn a corner and it would blaze out again. It was an incredible drive!
Our landslide delay meant we were coming into our penultimate stop of Sangla as darkness was falling. Despite the twilight gloom, there was no mistaking we were deep in the Himalayas now. The last light of the day was being reflected off of the snow capped peaks that surrounded us. The air also had grown thin. We hadn’t noticed the change, but even standing up after tying your shoe laces gave an unpleasant head rush. Sangla was a brief stop to stock up on any supplies we needed as for the next two days we would be staying in the much smaller mountain village of Chitkul. Supplies brought and darkness fully descended, we got back into the bus and rattled off on the final leg of the days’ journey.
We arrived into Chitkul a few hours later and checked into our dorm rooms at Zostel. Up in the mountains it was so much colder than sea level, a little less than a week ago we had been in Chandigarh where the temperature pushed 40 degrees celsius, here in Chitkul it was hovering around the 0 degree mark! Bundled up in warm clothes, we all sat in the cosy common room for a late dinner and a communal game of Jenga.
Our first day had mainly been spent on a bus. We had been bounced around rocky roads for over twelve hours, been stuck at landslides and nearly passed out from over exertion at high altitude. Despite all of this, it had been incredible! We’ve never seen landscapes like what we had driven through that day. We have always wanted to see the Himalayas and that dream had very much come true. The scenery had been amazing the company great and the adventure very real.
And this was only day one!
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
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