Spiti Valley Sprint | A Scenic Drive from Mud Village to Kaza

The Journey so far-

Day 3 – 7th October, 2011 | Mud Village – Pin Valley – Kaza

After some quality time at Mud Village in Pin Valley with children and other locals, we started towards Kaza first to get some Pet Puja (brunch) and then to get the tyre fixed. There was nothing much to do apart from enjoying the vistas – barren, beautiful, colourful and what not. We enjoyed every bit of the drive throughout the Pin Valley to Attargoo. From Attargoo, we took left towards Kaza (about 19 KMs away) on state highway where we were joined by the Spiti River again alongside highway. As we bypassed the turn/ Y fork towards Lingti Valley (sadly due to less days in hand :() the views started to widen up more and more. It was a feeling of being in heaven and nowhere else. The whole journey upto now produced some marvellous views of Spiti Valley and there was nothing much but to capture them in the camera.

Soon we reached Kaza entrance gate, where on the left there was Maruti Suzuki Workshop 😀 … Hats off to the guys for opening it earlier his year I guess as working in such extreme conditions is some challenge. However, I am not sure if it remains open in the winters or not. As the cars are not allowed to enter Kaza town, we parked our car at the bus stand. The highway was running staright upwards from the bus stand towards Ki – Kibber, Rangrik, Losar, Kunzum Pass etc. But, for us our hungry stomach was shouting for some good food. I had heard lot about Khyoma restaurant but at that odd hour of the day they only had Thupka to serve which we didn’t want. We explored town for more restaurant and most of them had closed the kitchen for paranthas and stuff, only thupka or nothing. Meanwhile, we bought some juices, chocolates, wafers etc. to keep us satisfied in such long drives 😀 … As we were strolling back towards the car we found one shop serving Chole Bhathuras 😀 … Without wasting a second we ordered four plates and they were quite decent in taste.

It was time to check out some mechanic to get the puncture fixed. Everyone told that we will find one ahead of Petrol Pump of Kaza on Kaza – Losar road. Since, we were running out of fuel as well so we decided to refuel on the world’s highest petrol pump as claimed by Indian Oil Corp. The machine installed at the petrol pump didn’t have the meter for amount to be paid. It just shows the quantity which you need to first note and then using calculator find the cost of the fuel you took 🙂 … Seems quite old one. The guy at the petrol pump told us that mechanic is just 100 meters ahead and we need to take a sloping down road where he had a huge setup. He tried level best to find the puncture but no luck at all. After about 15-20 minutes of inspection again and again nothing was found and he filled the air to the required pressure in all tiers. We were quite confused too but at least mentally satisfied that there was no puncture. We had plans to stay at Tabo on the way back the very next day, so decided to take bookings from PWD Office at Kaza. After doing all formalities we came to know that there is only one room that can be offered to us at Tabo and no room available even at Poh PWD rest house. They asked us to check with some other GOVT. department (I forgot the name) whose office was also close to PWD Office just at backside of Kaza Petrol Pump. There as well we had no luck because the officer who had to approve the bookings was out of town. After wasting quite some time in running office to office, it was time to leave for Ki – Kibber and finally our stay at Losar.

End of this part!!!