REDiaries: weekend

It was one the most thrilling and beautiful day I will remember. I was entering Spiti Valley, where riding was like a dream coming true. After spending a night at Kalpa, Himachal Pradesh I kicked off to Tabo. It is a small village located in Spiti Valley at an altitude of 3,280mts close to Tibet border, north of Sutlej river. Ride to Tabo was mesmerising, terrain was changing from green to deserted to mysterious. I was only accompanied by my Enfield and river flowing parallel by my side on these roads. I could clearly feel the lonliness and peace of the place, riding my Enfield was like meditating with its thump. I was getting closer to Spiti, but was stopped by a landslide somewhere closer to Nako, waited almost 2hrs to move. Nako village located near Indo-Tibet border in region of Kinnaur district and is known for its lake and a monastery.

After spending an hour at Nako I continued to Tabo, but Gue is going to be my next stop. Gue is a small village which is famous for the mummified monk, Sangha Tenzin. I spent an hour at Gue exploring and continued my ride towards Tabo. Tabo is merely few kilometers from Gue and ride was not much eventful apart from the scenic deserted land of Spiti Valley. It was 5pm I touched Tabo around checked in to the hotel. There are plenty hotel and home stay accommodation at Tabo. Tabo is famous for oldest functioning Tabo Monastery in India and caves. The Monastery was founded by the King of Guge Kingdom of Western-Tibet Yeshe Od and the great translator Raichen Zangpo and is famous for paintings, murals and sculptures. The Monastery is also called as Ajanta and Elora of Himalayas. I roamed around few hours in the campus of Tabo Monastery and headed to caves. They say monks used to meditate in caves which can be seen on the hills of Tabo. It was a good day spent on roads and the village, Tabo. Next day I continued my ride towards Kaza with lots of good memories from Tabo.

Somewhere closer to Nako.

Beast.

Mysterious land.

Roads after Kalpa.

Eyecatching sign boards can be seen.

This sign board was thrilling me.

Before Pooh at India Army Tea shop.

Kazigs.

Beautiful Nako Village.

Nako Lake.

Prayers engraved on stones around Nako Lake.

Spotted Yak on my way to Tabo.

Gue Monastery.

Mummified monk Sangha Tenzin.

Tabo Monastery campus.

Prayer wheels at Tabo Monastery.

Tabo village.

Caves at Tabo.

Entrance of Tabo Monastery.

Kedarkanth holds a place in my trek to do list and decided to summit it solo. I started the journey from Vikasnagar which is at a distance of 166kms from Sankri village. Sankri is a small village from where the trekking route to Kedarkanth Summit starts. I kicked off around 5:30am towards Sankri and it was bit cold. Ride to Sankri was comfortable as roads are in good condition and offers beautiful scenery of hills and villages. Riding continuously for couple of hours I touched Netwad, where I was stopped by forest dept. for registration to enter in Govind Wildlife Santuary and National Park. From Netwad it took half an hour to reach Sankri.

In Sankri had my brunch and word with locals about the trekking route to Kedarkanth. From Sankri summit is at a trekking distance of 9kms and which I decided to cover in two days. On this trekking route there are no shops and accommodation option, so carried my own tent and packed eatables. I started to trek around 11:30am but was stopped by hailstorm and rain. I spent around half an hour waiting under the tree for rain to stop and continued my trek to Juda Ka Talab. The Juda Ka Talab is a small lake at a distance of 4kms from Sankri and campsite for day1. Trail to the lake goes through dense forest with beautiful view of nature and mountains. The trail was bit tiring for me after the ride and with a bag of 8-9kgs on my back. On my way met a local guy, Sandeep who was trekking to Juda Ka Talab and he helped me by carrying my bag in steep portion of the trail. It took 4hrs to reach Juda Ka Talab and where I pitched my camp facing the lake. There was a group who already camped around the lake and Sandeep was their guide. It was around 7 in the evening Sandeep came and invited me to have dinner with their group. After having dinner, I headed to my camp and it started to rain again. It was a cold night and somehow managed to sleep.

Day 2 was the summit day and I decided to summit the peak from Juda Ka Talab and be back by evening. After a cup of coffee I started towards the peak, which is at a distance of 5kms from the lake. Trekking route goes through forest and is not steep till base-campsite. The base-camp for many trekking groups is at 2kms from Juda Ka Talab. From base-camp climb starts getting bit steep and trail was covered with 1-2feet deep snow. It was hard to walk in snow till knees and with the chances of hurting my knees. I made it slowly and followed foot marks of other trekkers to avoid sinking my feet in soft snow. While climbing few moments came when I felt like quitting and head back to camp as snow was getting deeper and climb was getting steeper. But only thing kept me moving was the view from the top. It took 2 hrs from the base-camp to the peak. I was tired,exhausted and all drenched but view from the summit worth all of it. I was lucky as the weather was clear and could have the clear view of Himalayan range like Bandarpunch, Chaukhamba, Black Peak etc. I spent around 45mins on summit and started descending. Descend was easy compared to ascend as I preferred to slide down on snow, which saved my lot of time and effort. On my way back to the lake I met few guides and they invited me for the lunch at base-camp with them. I spent around 2 hrs in base-camp with local guides and relaxed. After spending few hours at base-camp I headed back to Juda Ka Talab. I met few trekkers from Hyderabad who were camping around the lake. We had long chat around campfire and gazed stars. After having my dinner with the group, I headed to sleep as next day was going to be long. I got up early next day and packed my stuff and headed back to Sankri. From Sankri I rode back to Vikasnagar with lots of good memories and experience.