15.06.2023 : From Noida to Katra - Driving distance covered 662 km in around 11 hours with breaks for breakfast and lunch of 45 minutes each.
16.06.2023 : Trek to Vaishno Devi shrine - 13 km trekking to shrine, helicopter ride to Katra on way back.
17.06.2023: Katra to Srinagar - Driving distance covered 230 km in around 9 hours with breaks for breakfast for 30 minutes (many halts for passing of army convoy) and 20 km in Srinagar.
18.06.2023: Srinagar - Around 30 km for local sight seeing.
19.06.2023: Srinagar to Kargil - Driving distance covered 190 km in around 6.5 hours, another 20 km (to and fro) to Hunderman LOC view point.
20.06.2023: Kargil to Leh - Driving distance covered 197 km in around 6.5 hours.
21.06.2023: Leh local sightseeing - 68 km
22.06.2023: Leh - Khardung La - Diskit - Hunder - Turtuk - Thang - Diskit - Driving distance covered 304 km in 12 hours which includes time when we were stuck at the mountain stream.
23.06.2023: Driving distance of 158 km from Diskit to Pangong Tso covered in 7.5 hours.
24.06.2023: Driving distance of 160 km from Pangong Tso to Hanle covered in 5.5 hours.
As usual we got up early and I came out to have early morning look of Hanle. After a few minutes Suresh, Jayanti and Vishnu came out. They were leaving for Umling La, the highest motorable road dethroning Khardung La. I took a family picture of them and sought permission to publish it on my blog which they graciously granted. They gifted me some mangoes of Mallika variety from their garden. They carried those with them and distributed those among workers working on the road in remote areas. We parted ways hoping to meet again.
We were served a freshly prepared breakfast early in the morning and bidding farewell to the lovely host family we started at 6:15 am. We travelled back to Loma Check post via the excellent road. Then as we started towards Tso Kar on the way to Manali, road condition deteriorated immediately.
At around 10 am we reached Tso Kar. It is called Tso Kar, meaning "White Lake" because its shores are marked with white salt of the water deposits. Until a few years ago the lake was an important source of salt, which the Changpa nomads used to export to Tibet. It is also recognised as India's 42nd Ramsar site. A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance for the conservation of global biological diversity and for sustaining human life through the maintenance of their ecosystem components, processes and benefits. There were tents for accommodation of tourists by the lake side. We stayed there for a short while enjoying the scenery and resumed our drive.
Snow started appearing and we started climbing mountains again. We crossed Lachung La at noon and than Nakee La and entered Himachal pradesh navigating the Gata loops, a series of 21 hairpin bends. While crossing Gata loops we faced traffic congestion and had to wait for around half an hour for it to clear. Reached Sarchu at around 2:30 pm and stopped near a roadside Dhaba. After the early breakfast we did not have the opportunity to have anything and the simple meal of Rajma Chawal with a side dish of cabbage tasted heavenly.
In Himachal the mountains were covered with snow. After almost an hour, we crossed Baralacha La, one of the toughest passes in the world due to its difficulty to cross as well as dangerous conditions such as deep snow and extreme cold. There are many land slide prone areas with stones hanging precariously. At one point a falling stone narrowly missed the vehicle in front of ours and we had a heart in the mouth moment. Baralacha La means the pass where many roads meet as cross roads from Spiti, Ladakh, Zanskar and Lahaul meet at the Baralacha Pass. The two headwaters of the Chenab River, Chandra and Bhaga, originate near the Baralacha Pass. The Bhaga river originates from Surya taal lake, which is situated a few of kilometres from the pass towards Manali. The Chandra originates from a glacier in this region. The native name of Chenab, "Chandrabhaga", represents the union of Chandra and Bhaga rivers downstream.
After a day of exhausting journey crossing many passes with bad road condition with water gushing at many places we reached the picturesque village Jispa on the banks of the Bhaga River at around 5:00 pm. The scenic beauty of the place, surrounded by snow-capped Himalayan mountains, glacial lakes and Buddhist stupas makes Jispa an ideal place for camping and trekking. There are many tent sites and a few hotels. We decided to halt here for the night and checked into the hotel Bhaga River view offering magnificent river view.
Our plan was to cross Manali next day and halt at some less crowded place before starting for Delhi. But in the hotel we came to know that Manali Chandigarh highway is blocked between Pandoh and Mandi due to landslide. It was raining heavily in Himachal and there was alert for heavy rain for next few days. So we faced the possibility of getting stuck. We decided to wait till morning to see whether we should proceed or to stay back in Jispa till road clears.
26.06.2023
We heard that generally road blockade gets cleared after few hours and thought we would cross the blockade area to avoid getting stuck up. After taking breakfast at the hotel we left Jispa at around 7:30 am. Moving on good road passing through pretty villages we reached Atal Tunnel, an engineering marvel, at 9:20 am. With a length of 9.02 km, presently it is the world's longest single tube highway tunnel at an altitude above 3,000 m(10,000 ft).
It was a rainy day and we stopped at Solang valley Cafe and homestay for a cup of hot chocolate. We were reminiscing about our Kullu - Manali trip many years ago looking at familiar sights.
After crossing Kullu we reached the township of Bhuntar where a policeman told us that the roadblock was not cleared and there was no scope for blockade removal before night. We decided to go to the blockade site at Pandoh and assess the situation. On the way we crossed Pandoh Dam. After reaching the blockade site at around 1:30 pm we saw long line of vehicles. There were some alternate routes but none of these seemed safe and we turned back planning to stay in Bhuntar. However we started looking for hotels on the way and at a place called Nagwain checked into Hotel Shailraj with another splendid view.
It was late afternoon and after taking our lunch we just enjoyed the view and relaxed waiting for news about the road block. In the evening we got to know from twitter handle of NHAI that the road was opened. The highway was visible from our hotel balcony and we observed flow of traffic. Meanwhile Vishnu contacted us to enquire about road blockade. They stayed in Sarchu previous night. That day they also reached the blockade site and went back to Kullu for night halt.
Planning to start early in the morning to avoid traffic we went off to sleep.
27.06.2023
We left hotel at 4:30 am. The road block was cleared and there was not much traffic. So we could cross the site without any hassle. The newly constructed highway offered a smooth ride with amazing scenic beauty this time Sutlej river giving us company.
But there was another part of the highway cut by water due to which we had to take a detour via another steeply inclined curvy road made worse by rain. It was cloudy and we did not stop till we crossed over to Punjab at around 8:30 am. At Roopnagar, just before reaching Chandigarh, we stopped at Heritage Haveli, a sprawling highway restaurant for breakfast. It had a lively ambiance with lots of tourists and upbeat music. After a hearty breakfast we were back in road.
After Ambala it was the familiar route of NH 1 passing through Kurukshetra, Panipat etc. Meanwhile we got to know from Vishnu that they started at 2 am from Kullu and were ahead of us. Reaching Murthal around noon we stopped at Royal dhaba for an early lunch and after a simple lunch started again at 12:45 pm.
It took us another 2 hours to reach our Noida home at around 2:45 pm at the culmination of a trip full of adventure and natural beauty which would always evoke myriads of memories and feelings.
From Google Maps
25.06.2023: Driving distance of 248 km from Hanle to Jispa covered in 11 hours.
26.06.2023: Driving distance of 199 km from Jispa to Pandoh covered in 6.5 hours.
27.06.2023: Driving distance of 475 km from Pandoh to Noida covered in 9 hours.
