Exploring Chandratal – Delhi to Manali

Hey guys I am glad to be back from the trip. The trip had everything almost one can imagine which nature has on offer… Heat, Sun, Deserted Land, Flowing Violent River, High Snow Clad Peaks, Snow, Heavy Snow fall, Rain, Freezing Winds, Great Valley…you name something and it was there…The adventure soon became the survival and fight against a probable death. It feels great to be alive for sure and witness the limits of your body and soul.

Suddenly you feel importance for the people who care for you and you see the importance of your life not for yourself but for the ones who are a part of it. Every single human who met us on the way asked not to attempt and said if you have a keeda for dying then go for it else try out kaza/kunzum as the road is more adventurous at the moment but going Chandratal is calling death. But, our guide said nothing will happen just follow my footsteps and next morning we went for it. After so much that had happened the very day, Chandratal still eluded us 0.5 KM away and it was that our guide who was able to make its banks as first(doubtedly) of 2009 because we met so many people on the way who only said that, “don’t attempt it, we came back” and I can feel why they said so. 5 of us went to vist Chandratal 2 of us only saw it from 0.5 KMs, 1 broke at battal and 2 after trekking 5-6 KMs from battal in the middle of nowhere left stranded waiting for us to come back and save their a**** Right now I don’t have all the pics with me but will soon upload the entire travelogue by this weekend as this one is the most special of the entire life. At the end, all I can say is that Chandratal is not an easy ball game. Right now just enjoy this teaser but keep a close eye. Apolozies for delaying the Charisma The bottom line of the trip is I (rather we) shouldn’t be Alive 😉

Hmm..so finally the wait is over have the pics and will get on with the travelogue now… also I will be adding the list of things to avoid at the end of the travelogue and how to learn from our experience to avoid what all happened to us…clever people are those who learn from other’s mistake..so calling all clever one’s to learn from ours :D…

Day 1 – June 03, 2009 | Delhi to Manali

It was 3.30 AM in the morning and we, five in number, in a santro, with high spirits started for the hunt to satisfy the prolonged desire to see Chandrataal and our FIRST ever TREK. The trip meter is down and set to zero and with tank full of fuel we left @Gurgaon from my cousin’s place. I knew it would be a long drive for sure 14-16 hr is what we expected for us to reach manali and get some rest. First stop was supposed o be Karnal the “Zilmil Restaurant “, since it was too early so they were serving only Paranthas viz. mix, pyaaz, paneer with lots of white butter spread over it, delicious, isn’t it?…and glass full of TEA…. ahh! I love it “A Glass full of Tea”…. It’s just bcz me being highly addicted to TEA….hmm…so after getting our tummies full of those PARANTHAS we went ahead….

Smooth and Clean…

We opted for Delhi-Kalka-Kiratpur-Bilaspur-Mandi-Manali route…so when we were about to reach Kalka we just poked someone for the the way to go…and he said take this left turn for kiratpur and we thought this is extremely lucky, the left turn had no signs and it was like a gully [small road only]..maybe there could be some other road as well or I thought me must have missed the board…anyways journey gets under way…the route was beautiful although confusing a bit with lack of sign boards and plenty of two ways, adding to the confusion ?…also the entire route till bilaspur was pretty much in OK condition but at few places it was very bumpy and the road was also small..and I thought the little santro was dying with all much weight..it was HOT…..but the beauty of the route was just amazing…driving on the circumference of Shivalik ranges seemed to be a joy in that heat as well…the enthusiasm was very high..And why it would’nt be, it was, after all, the first unorganized and unseen adventure…

Dheeraj Sharma

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The monster dragon reptile…it was way bigger than her sisters found in our city… ?

Enjoy the beauty in the pic itself…

Beauty was more or less the same everywhere till bilaspur and we hit the all wanted shade in the mountains..the nature became more and more interesting as we kept driving into the hills far away from the home land….we met the Beas river which was all dried up near the lower hills but kept on getting violent more and more as we move up… I feel the water was not yet release from the DAM where photography is prohibited ;( … here are few more pics of the way being followed….

The water is so calm here….

I wish I owned that place…also wonder how someone built it…. :confused:

Ahh… that’s beautiful isn’t it? A hanging bridge above a VIOLENT RIVER…..

Now what’s this? We all know it’s WINDMILL… we always get these…

Next stop was at Mandi – “Rotis” the restaurant, we had lunch there and it was nice apart from the rest room which was just one and always having the sign not vacant…but we cared about food…it was worth a stop..even the scenes from the balcony were great…and more over it was just on the highway itself..so didn’t have to face the hassles of the city…. Now to my cousins surprise we hit the so long tunnel of AUT….yes it was very long and all of them seemed to be very excited seeing such big one for first time….the dampness which creates the coldness in that stretch is simply great…but nevertheless all of us enjoyed till the very end… it is worth a visit..here is a pic when we shoots out of the TUNNEL…

Now as we entered the highlands the nature started to show its nature by making us feel its cold and pleasant mist in the air created by the violent BEAS River flowing aside the road…. I bet it’s 100$ drive in an amusement park, if ever they offer this service… ;)..just try to feel what we felt in these pics…

Dheeraj Sharma

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Now we can see Kullu….it just looks great…

As we passed the kullu I think I missed the by-pass..so we entered the kullu…and there was a red light and I was about to cross it as I thought it’s just for the people crossing the street the cop instructed me to stay back and stop..so I did and then aside us someone instructed to get back as it’s a one way and you will create a JAM, it was a very ugly surprise as again either there was no sign board or we again missed it…backing up at hills is always a concern for me and when people are so f****** idiots that no one is ready to give the space when it even existed…all want to be Schumacher at the very moment and steal that ever slightest bit of inch from you…to add to the problem all my 4 passengers were somewhat like Nawabs with none bothering to get down and stop people from fitting their a***** in between so that they can avoid JAM….when I saw no respite I said to myself enough of this let’s move to front and wait for the consequences….nothing much happened when traffic came from the other side but devil was all around that place for us..as it got green signal and we tried to move I hit very slightly a mud-guard of a three wheeler and he stepped out and I tell you, he created a scene out of nothing…he was not even ready to move aside and didn’t let us move as well…we asked him so much that at least get aside and let other people pass by..But he was like “koi nhn, lagne de jaam” (no problems let the jam be there, I don’t care..)..He kept saying tell me what to do..After seeing that shit enough and being asked to pay 350 Rs for the damage..I just lost a bit…The anger was reaching heights and was about to erupt…but I was like let’s not create fuss and avoid it…none of the two cops bothered to entertain the situation…when finally I had to pull that thinnest piece of mud-guard shit from my hand and bend it to make it look as it was earlier…see it was just my hand which fixed and I am not Arnold ;(…. Then we put a 100 RS note in his hand asked him to shut up and move aside…i don’t have words to write here for that idiot…it was nothing but a mere bent which one shot of hammer would have fixed…any ways forgetting the scene we move ahead and on the way we saw some cool firangis near kullu airport..eye’s treat.. Then nature started to get into the evening shift and we enjoyed the views of sun and shade on the high hill leadin to manali…

Simply awesome…..

Oops we got the moon as well…

The sun is setting and we are almost there at manali…

We reached manali @18.30 PM….it’s was so much crowded and there was no place to park the car…and the on-way nature of the road created all so much problems for me…but we managed to reach the person AVINASH gave reference of…thanks to him for that….we arranged the trip to chandrataal there we booking of transport, guide and food for 2 nights and three days..he asked us to stay at old manali and to be honest I dint have any clue of that place even visiting manali once before…somehow I managed to take the car to most diffiquilt part of the journey at the top in old manali…and I swear it was the most diffiquilt drive I ever had with so much jams…centimeters of space only to get thru and all the locales shouting and behaving as they are god seeing the number plate of delhi….vo kehte hain na jiski laathi usi ki bhains….it was same for every locale there….but nevertheless it’s part of india…now the fever is getting to world as well especially Australia….somehow managed to park our car in a plot near cottage…. Anyways old manali was very calm and clean and firangan chicks were like treat for the eyes….i never saw such beautiful faces in among them….simply great…the cuisines had everything if you are a foreign cuisine fan…so we got a chance as well to wash our hands with something different prior to disappearing into the non habituated part of the north… we had some dinner and went to get some sleep in the cottage as it was decided that we have to leave at 4 AM. Btw we also got sometime to get some last photos of the day….the night shots…although they aren’t that good but OK to be remembered of…

Moon at its gloryamong the clouds…

A far away snow cladded peak….

So gaya ye jahan…and it was dark everywhere…and we also slept…

Next will be the Day-2, which had more fun and more pics and some many first time experiences so guyz keep watching…

The Journey ahead-