Girlie Road trip. Day 7 Kaza – Hurling -Spillow -Rampur
Today was a rest day for my camera, and a revision day for the places of interest that we had seen 3 days earlier.
We were on the return trip from Kaza on the same route that we had driven on few days ago.
I looked out in silence at the mountains wondering what message they had for me. How they made me cry many tears of relief for no specific reason at all. How they made me value my breath and would never let me take my precious life for granted. How the so called civilized mankind has lost this pure pristine connection with nature. How incredibly silly our day to day worries seem in comparison to our position in the cosmos. How humbling it is to be amongst the mountains with no idea of what can happen next. How the mountains can seem serene at one moment and windy and snowy and treacherous at the next. How simple life really is and how easy it is to become full of bliss like the locals when you are connected with nature. How people used to live in caves, worship holy relics, and write chants on the mountain slopes on the stones. How the river bed keeps changing it’s size, shape, form and colour, depending on the melting snow.
How the snow creates amazing designs, up and down and all across the landscape. How the colours of the mountains change at different times the day to different shades of the rainbow, depending on the play of light and shadow. How the landscape seemed bare and stark a few days ago at the end of winter and how there are small bursts of greenery in the terrain, smiling at us in defiance to the cold weather. How easy it is to get lost in the sheer magnificence and the ever changing natural beauty around us.
Again and again I appreciated and was grateful for this amazing tryst with unspoilt nature. How lucky we were that roads were built and Spiti was open to outsiders like us just 30 years ago. How blessed we are to live in a country that is so diverse at every corner. How Spiti valley must have been when there were hardly any roads and bare necessities were transported on the backs of animals. How the locals survived the tough weather conditions with a smile and bare necessities … The list of amazement went on and on and I just enjoyed my speechless and my silent time with myself and the wonderful mountains.
Some people are beach persons, I know that I am a mountain person!!!
We again passed a natural rock formation in the river bed that looked like a giant Frog complete with a painted big circular eye on it.
The red colour on some bushes reminded my friends of my red coloured hair and I had to keep debating in fun to disagree on the texture or shade of it.
The Spiti river started from the mountain tops and this trickle of small waterfalls will slowly increase as the snow melts to the welcome rays of the sun. Soon the flowing river will also increase in size and spate.
Our driver said that they have a Ration card system where they get basic provisions at subsidized rates once in 6 months, which they store to be used later. Sometimes the snow accumalates so much outside the door that they prefer to stay within their homes. The types of ration cards may be called the BPL card or the Antjothia card depending on the financial situation. Sometimes even well off people with good apple orchard business, use political influence to get cheap rate commodities from their BPL ration cards.
There is an Indira housing scheme that gives assistance to build and repair houses in the rugged terrain.
Previously many foreigners used to come as tourists to Spiti, slowly the percentage of Indian tourists is also rising.
We passed the Lari horse breeding farm, which used to be quite an important centre when horses were used as a mode of transport in the days when there were fewer roads and lesser vehicles in Spiti.
Our first stop was at Hurling for breakfast and hot tea, yet again we had to make do with pathetic dirty bathrooms.
We drove on roads that were filled with small stones of different sizes in the early mornings, that must have rolled down the hills in the night. I came to know that later there is team of workers whose job it is to ensure that the roads are cleared of stones.
Sometimes when there are big landslides and the roads may be blocked by huge boulders. The only option then is to wait for the Border Road Organisation officials to clear the place, and there are chances of even being cut off from the world for sometime. In fact a few days after we left our guide Rameshji was stuck with another group in the hills because of a major landslide. We were lucky to get clear roads in this trip.
Our driver told us that having big male bulls was an asset, as they were mainly used for ploughing the lands.
I just passed time along the Zanskar range of mountains in silence, when suddenly we saw a one lone ass standing at the edge of the road as if in deep contemplation to do or not to do something!
We then got excited and started waving and soluting handsome army men at a Military convoy of around 12 trucks, that passed us as we waited in the sidelines.
There were spots where the travel seemed risky with broken caved in roads. At many places we had to slow down our speed as there was civil work going on for tarring and widening of the roads.
Our driver said that so many times there would be stopping of traffic when road blasting work goes on. Also there is a great risk of skidding in case of the rare rain in cold weather leading to icy frozen roads
After all the up and down rides we finally got out of the Spiti valley check point and suddenly we seemed to be back to civilization. We also saw moving cranes and work on progress on the very dusty
Roads that seemed to have caved in at some places. When I looked at the many
workmen, toiling riskily in the hot sun in the edge of the road, without any protective gear, I just said a silent prayer of gratitude to the effort of the countless unknown workers who have laboured hard to give us this safe road trip after all these years.
We were now at the Kinnaur Valley and I even saw a board stating that – You are travelling on the most treacherous road in the world.
Suddenly at a place called Spillow most of us got back our phone connectivity and we were able to talk to our loved ones at home.
We also stopped some local women and got our pictures in their typical green coloured Kinnaur caps. We relaxed by for lunch and started a new hunt for the most handsome person spotted on this trip…it was a good topic for getting some good laughs.
We passed the Pangi Nullah waterfall and the Kanchan dam and the troopers eagles outpost and the Jsw hydro electric plant. Suddenly most of us were deep into the mobiles, catching up with the world after a break of 5 days.
Spiti had more personal interactions with each other, and absence of technology of mobile phones was actually celebrated by us!
We passed the town of Jhakri which has a training Institute for people who want to join the military career.
On the way back we just had to stop at what looked like a small Cave tunnel on the road. We started taking some good pictures in spite of the regular stream of traffic and then we got more ambitious. To fulfill one wish of one friend of dancing on the road, we all started dancing to the song ghoomar on the road, and giggling and stopping when the vehicles whizzed by. Yes friends make you do crazy stuff which will be more cherished memories as compared to normal stuff.
We were back to complete civilization as we passed the Air Force training centre at Jeori.
Our final stop for the day was at Rampur, with a tiring walk up-to four floors in our hotel overlooking a wonderful view of the Sutlej valley and the Himalayan mountains. As we sat at the edge of the balcony without the railings, looking at the view, we really felt one with the setting sun.
We were all just so happy to have the luxury of clean running hot water, and a rejuvenating shower after almost a week in wilderness.
I just had to enthrall everyone with the surprise of the evening.. A skit in appreciation to every single member of our group. So more dancing to the ghoomar song followed and all were in high spirits for our exciting safe return from the Spiti valley.
And yes, two of our group members who got stung by the stinging nettles at the river bank, were releived by my multi purpose cream – my dear one and only Boroline.
I had a new roommate to sleep with and had a lot of catching up to do I gave another smile of gratitude to the Lord, before I went to sleep that night.
So in 2018, do notice these simple smiling moments. Have a smiling day.
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