Exploring Chandratal – Manali to Chattru

The Journey so far-

Day 2 – June 04, 2009 | Manali to Battal

Well this was the day when we were supposed to reach chattru or chota dhara and then expected to trek till battal…we woke up at 3 AM, got ourselves ready by 4 AM only to hear the ringing tones of the person in contact…. meanwhile we got the chance to have some non-desi Breakfastat one of the food shops in old manali…. My friend ordered some unusual cakes and omelet with some unusual bread and again it was served with glass full of TEA :)… we enjoyed the breakfast and got some time to click some flowers…. Wondered I had someone to gift these beautiful colors called life…

Manali to Marhi

Tour operator got late in the night due to work and finally around 5 AM he picked the phone and by 6.30 AM he reached the cottage with all things packed up and we left from there….i knew the JAM at Rohtang would be waiting to kiss us…on the way to Rohtang there are lots of beautiful sceneries to capture and we did just that as we knew on the way back it won’t be possible due to our rotten physical conditions :grin:…. Starting from the base on “MANALI VALLEY”

First stop was planned to be Marhi, to get bottle of rum for the heat in such freezing temperature….although we had my choice called vodka, but all insisted to get the RUM as well

Marhi to Chattru

This was the stretch which would take us into the first time place after crossing Mirhi, none of us visited any place beyond that and even the height or altitude as well. We reached mirhi at around 8.30 AM and believe me wind was blowing with such force as if to take you away with it and it was extremely cold as well. At one of the Dhaba we had Tea, Maggi and bought some chocolates for the rest of the days. Then it was the main purpose of getting the bottle of RUM, which we got from one liquor shop over there. Meanwhile we again got some chance to click some photographs

For me reading so much about the famous Rohtang Jam the anxiety level was getting higher as we wanted to cross it as soon as possible. And it did stick us. There was a big JAM as we approached the Rohtang Pass.

Finally after struggling for an hour we reached the near the Rohtang Pass point and you can see so many cars parked over there right in between the road. It is nothing but invitation to trouble only. To my surprise, as initially I thought JAM would be because of so many people trying to pass the Rohtang and enter the other part of the side but uff…it’s because of parking system. Anyone who don’t find the place to park, leaves his car where he is and get out and go for enjoyment, doesn’t even bothering to give side at least to passerby vehicles, seeing this was disgusting. There were so many trucks coming at that time and each one had to give pass after putting the entire traffic on hold :(. Most importantly, ever sung Rohataang didn’t live up to the expectations we had for it, maybe it’s because of mine austere nature or it’s the wrong time of the year we visited all praised brand of Travel Destinations. It was as if am visitng trade fair, but I feel this where people get to find snow so it becomes like that.

Anyways, we finally crossed the complete stretch of Rohtang Pass and it took us around 3 hours in doing so. The road on the other side was in a little bad shape.

But, yes the other side of the Rohtang was ever beautiful. Now, I can feel why it was praised so much. Morale is not to visit in holidays 😉 we kept running as we were now way behind the schedule because of JAM and leaving manali late, so didn’t click any pics till our next stop. We entered the road towards Chattru by taking the right turn at Gramphu and as soon as we entered the road disappeared. It was complete kacchi sadak. Now, I was praising that I took the right decision of not getting the Santro here. Waters were gushing on the road from the hills as if to take your car with it into the more violent Chandra River. The river is the most violent I have ever scene; it was way more violent than the Beas. Iwould have taken four lives with me if I would have attempted this road on my car. For the entire stretch I only saw pebbles and stones on the path which was drivable and that even the Sumo was also having such trouble negotiating it, but it was running and I can see easily now “SKILLS DOES MATTER HERE” :D. It was not an easy piece of cake which we would have had in our santro. I have the pics on the way back. So we reached Chattru and wanted to have our tummies filled at the dhaba over there.

There were few people camped there as well and all of them were on the way back from battal. We asked the dhaba wala about the chandratal and there was the first warning :D. He laughed and mocked that no one has visited there till now, there is a lot of snow. You guys won’t be able to make it. Try the kunzum, it’s open since yesterday and whosoever is coming from there, are happy to say its great fun right now. So, one good news is that we didn’t have to trek today, so we can tank up the energy for the motive of trip but bad news was no one made it till now, so how come we amateurs can 🙂 Anyways, we had some lunch with the Rajma he served and rice. We had our puris packed from home, so we checked them and were in good condition so tried to get them over with rajma. Then, we clicked some photos around the place.

The Journey ahead-