SPITI VALLEY - MY EXPERIENCE OF DRIVING IN THE HIMALAYAS - NASHIK TO RAMPUR BUSHAHR - 1/3

I read somewhere that Spiti is called "A world within a world". I cannot find a fitter description for this magical place.

Our Spiti trip planning began nearly a year in advance. The only decision taken in the beginning was that we would be doing the entire trip from Nasik, Maharashtra by road. We didn't want to miss traversing many Indian states en route in order to save time. 

It was 6 of us who finally left for the trip. The convoy included 04 bikes (3 RE Himalayan and 1 Thunderbird 350) and of course my mighty and trusty Mahindra Thar.

Before I proceed with the blog, there are a few points I would like to highlight:

1) First and foremost, a big thank you to BRO, ITBP and every other organisation that is involved in keeping Spiti Valley accessible and hospitable. They are doing an amazing job in an unforgiving and treacherous area. Hats off to them!!
2) The pictures credits go to all my co-adventurers Makrand, Ganesh, Shaunak, Gaurav, Harshad and myself. Thanks for sharing and immortalising the journey with me guys.
3) The videos have been shot on Transcend Drivepro 230 Dashcam, installed on my Thar's windshield. Read my review of the Dashcam by clicking here and you can also buy the Dashcam from www.amazon.in, from where I got mine.
4) I have tried to make this more as a photoblog. Please don't hesitate to contact me for any information that you need regarding our trip.

But I am jumping ahead. The actual planning began about 6 months before the trip. The plan was to cover Spiti, Leh and Ladakh, since we were going with our own vehicles and realistically, we probably wouldn't go back with them again. So why not cover the entire circuit while we are there?

The plan we made looked something like this:

But after talking to many experienced travellers and researching online, we realised that we were being over-optimistic with the time-frame for completing this trip. Secondly, the trip from Chandigarh to Chandigarh was 19 days. After including the 6 days of driving from Nashik - Chandigarh and return, we were looking at a trip of nearly a month. None of us could afford to take out that much time from work.

So we became a lot more realistic and decided that we would have to compress our trip and maybe skip some of the major landmarks. But God has His own plans,  and a couple of months before our trip, permissions for visiting Hanle (the new highest motorable road in the world at approx. 19,300 ft.) were closed, all thanks to some idiot bikers who visited this military sensitive area and posted pics online. So one of our major reasons for visiting Leh was ruled out.

Also, Ganesh the "wise one" in our group repeatedly told us that it is better to experience one place completely, rather than rushing through and not enjoying any place completely. Due to this, we decided to limit our trip only to Spiti.

Our revised schedule for Spiti circuit 2018:

One of the blogs that really helped me in firming up the itinerary was "An experience called Spiti in a Mahindra Thar" on Team-BHP.com. You can also have a look at a blog by Travel Triangle, which was quite informative.

Being true to our adventurous spirit, we did not make any hotel bookings. For travel from Nashik to Chandigarh, the plan was to drive as much as possible in a day, with loose targets for night stay. We started early every morning and drove till evening with short breaks in-between. But not even on 1 day did we drive after dark. We would stop in the closest city at dusk and then continue the next day.

For travelling in Spiti (Chandigarh onwards), we fixed our schedule and night halt locations, but again did not make any hotel bookings in advance.

You can read my blog on my preparation of the Thar for this visit here. A blog from Vargis Khan "How to Prepare your Car for Spiti Valley?" gave me a comprehensive list for preparation of my Thar.  

And we are off...

Day 1... August 4, 2018 - We drove from Nasik to Chittorgarh on the first day. We had covered a good 700 kms. in the day, thanks to good roads and average traffic. The only place I will advice to be careful is the Maharashtra - MP border. There was a big traffic jam here. We were advised to go from the wrong side of the road to access the lane for personal vehicles. We did that and got out in 15 mins. Otherwise our time lost could have been in hours. 

We reached Chittorgarh at 05:30 pm and checked-in to Hotel Nandan Palace.

Hotel Review: Hotel Nandan Palace, Chittorgarh:
Rating: 3/5
Review:

This hotel is exactly opposite the bus stand. So it's very congested area. However, there is basement parking to accommodate 3-4 cars.

We got triple occupancy rooms. The rooms are clean and average size. The bathroom is also clean but don't expect any fancy amenities here. The beds were comfortable and the A/C also effective.

The hotel has a veg restaurant but they serve non-veg in room service. The food served was tasty.

Overall an average stay, good enough for a pocket friendly overnight stay.

On day 2, we left early morning and drove towards Rajasthan. The roads are excellent but the traffic kept increasing as the day progressed. 

Lafa roll for breakfast.. lol

We stopped for lunch in Jaipur and met some fellow bikers and adventurers. After Jaipur, we took the Delhi expressway, which was extremely crowded with 2 wheelers and 4 wheelers driving any which way. We could make it to Rewari in the evening, although our target had been to reach Rohtak.

Hotel Review: Hotel OYO Heritage Haveli, Rewari:
Rating: 3/5
Review:

We found this hotel on the highway. It's a big hotel and we got a good deal on the rooms.

The rooms are small and it was a tight squeeze for 3 persons. It's neat and clean though. The bathroom is also small but has a geyser for hot water.

Dinner was served in the room. The food taste was very average.

On Day 3, we left bright and early for Chandigarh. It was important to reach Chandigarh early to rest and get ready for the Spiti circuit drive, which would start the next day.

Enjoying parathas after crossing Rohtak

We reached Chandigarh around 3 pm. The bikers luckily found an RE service station on the highway itself, on the outskirts of Chandigarh. They stopped for a few repairs. In the meantime, we drove ahead to Zirakpur to find a hotel.

Hotel Review: OYO 14392 Hotel Pearl Wood, Chandigarh:
Rating: 4/5
Review:

This hotel is just off the main highway in Zirakpur area of Chandigarh. It was perfect location for us as we had to proceed along the same highway to Shimla the next morning.

The reception is on the 1st floor and the stairs are very steep. There are a few rooms on 1st floor and few on 2nd floor. The steps to the 2nd floor are equally steep.

We stayed on the rooms on the 2nd floor. The young boys working in the hotel very helpful in getting the luggage up the stairs and again down the next morning. The rooms were large and had A/C and TV. The bathroom was also of good size.

The dinner was served in the room and was very tasty. There is no restaurant, but the kitchen is located on the top floor. Although there is a restaurant on the ground floor of the same building, and a dhaba in the adjacent building. So food availability is not a problem. We even got tea early morning the next day in the dhaba adjacent to the hotel.

Overall a satisfactory stay. 

On Day 4, our actual Spiti drive began. Full of excitement, we fuelled up and started our drive to Rampur Bushahr via. Shimla. But just about an hour after leaving Chandigarh, we came to a standstill. There was a lloonnggg traffic jam, extending up the mountain, as far as the eye could see, aparantely due to a landslide in the night. We decided to have breakfast instead of waiting in the traffic jam and turned back to head to a nearby dhaba. As God would have it, we ran into a helpful local guy at the Dhaba who led us onto an alternate road which brought us out ahead of Shimla. We were able to skip the entire traffic jam.

Spectacular views and having fun along the way..

We reached Rampur Bushahr at 05:30 pm in the evening. Unfortunately, we found it hard to find hotel rooms, as it was crowded. Finally we found rooms in Hotel K C Residency.

Hotel Review: K C Residency:
Rating: 4/5
Review:
This is as good a hotel as you will find in these remote areas. It was new when we visited in August '18 and probably the tallest building in Rampur. We were given rooms on the top floor. There is no A/C or TV in the room. But the fan was sufficient thanks to the cool weather. The view from the large windows was spectacular. 

The hotel has a restaurant and they also provided us room service, but be prepared for long service time. The food was good though. It has enclosed private parking. 

Read about my further drive into the Himalayan wonderland in Part 2 and Part 3 of the blog, coming up soon...