Departure from Kaza: rendezvous with snow...

Next morning was again a cold one.. dint feel like getting out from under the 2 blankets and sleeping bag.. Manik got up early in the morning and went for a walk outside..
the early morning sky..

sky as clear as my camera's lens..

Finally we got up, got ready and left.. first destination was Komic. we took the turn for Komic from the main road. it is a steep uphill climb.. but after driving around 7kms we were stopped by a small sort of land slide.. the road was covered with big stones and as low as our car was, it could not cross over.. what a waste of time (and a costly one too as we would later realize)..
view of the valley from from we turned back..

more frozen water..

then we decided to cross the bridge after Kaza and go to the other side from where we could click a pic of the Kye monastery..
the straight road after crossing the bridge..

yup i could not resist the temptation to floor the accelerator..

after driving a few kms we were stopped by this..

this was some water on the road probably from a drain which had frozen to ice.. people were crossing it in the tire tracks..

we got out a decided to walk till the place from where we could click the Kye monastery..

all the drains were frozen..

lage haath macros bhi kheech lete hain..

after crossing the ice we reached Rangrik village..

a buddha statue on top of a hill..

we also had a zoom lens..

view of the Kye monastery..

some more macros..

Clouds beginning to settle. but we dint notice that.. mother nature was giving us our warning but we dint read the signs..

we turned the car and started back for Kaza stopping again and again to click photos.. the bridge..

view from the bridge..

we got some fuel at the petrol pump in Kaza but only little more than that sufficient to get us to Powari (today was the day of blunders and we had to make very basic ones also..)
some monastery before Kaza..

Plan was to have breakfast in Kaza and also call home. we had not called him after we lost the mobile network after crossing Pooh. as we were entering Kaza, we saw people around us were in great hurry. a bus was standing and people were quickly throwing their luggage in and boarding it. also many taxis and private cars were rushing out. well as i said, we were oblivious to any signs today.. so we went in, found a PCO and called home.. the connection took as much as 10minutes to connect per call.. finally we got through.. i told my parents how disappointed i was on not finding any snow. As we stepped out of the shop we got the surprise of our life.. very fine white colored powder was falling from the sky.. the ground was of sort of white color..

oh my god.. it was snowing.. the first reaction was of thrill.. we tried to click many photos.. we had finally managed to find snow..

then suddenly (and thankfully!!) the sense kicked it.. now all signs were visible and coherently telling us one thing: run!!! beginning of snow here meant possibility of higher roads closing in the route ahead. we forgot the food and the photos and turned the car around and hurried.. the news from the horizon was not very encouraging..


the road was by now covered by a very thin layer of snow.. although the grip was still good, hard acceleration/breaking caused the wheels to skid..

there were patches of white on the mountain tops also..

on one side my heart was wanting the landscape to be absolutely white, on the other side i was wishing that the roads remain open.. we still could not resist the temptation of stopping to click photos..

wildlife crossing..

things were getting worse..

the turn for Pin Valley.. once we even considered going to Pin Valley and staying there at night.. thank god we dint do that..

brown turning to white..


As we got nearer to Tabo, the snow stopped. We thought we had outrun the snow and were out of danger. So we slowed down again and took more frequent breaks. Bad decision..

frozen water fall..

no snow..



following the pigeons..

now relieved that we were clear of the snow we took out the food we had in car and ate something for the first time in the day..

but after few kms the snow came back and this time with full fury..

this time it was here to stay.. the vistas were turning white faster..

at the check post at Sumdo, the road was covered with a proper thick layer of snow..

as we left Spiti and entered Kinnaur..


now it was getting really difficult to drive..

i applied the breaks but the car continued to move in the same line (and right towards the edge of the cliff on the corner!!!).. i felt i was a goner for sure.. even thought of opening the door and jumping out..

then magic happened.. i felt a series of jerks in the break peddle and the car slowed down and turned where i wanted it to turn.. first i felt i had broken something.. then i remembered my car had ABS (so this is how it feels like).. saved!!! thank god...

the white vistas i so wanted to see..

apple trees, all dried up in winter..

crossed some village..


now came the real challenge.. the ascend to Malling.. the descend had been a piece of cake when we had come from Nako.. now we had to climb all the way up..

visibility was at all time low..

the road was now covered with layers of snow.. it must have been snowing here for quite some time now.. fresh snow had melted and now solidified as ice which has now been covered with more snow..

locals had instructed us to put the car in first gear and just keep on climbing.. no sudden variations in speed, no breaking.. sudden acceleration was causing the wheel to spin.. we got stuck 1-2 times.. one of us had to get out and push the car.. the progress was slow and it was already 4pm.. not many hours of sun light (what ever was left in the fog anyways).. after climbing for many kms we came across a few cars coming down. these were MUVs with 4 wheel drives.. one vehicle even had chain on the tires.. they had climbed from the other side but with 4x4 it would have been easy.. told us to drive cautiously.. when we were 4-5kms away from Malling, we encountered a corner which was followed by a straight stretch of road which was climbing up a bit steeply.. we had to slow down on the corner due to which we lost momentum and then on the climb our car just refused to move forward.. having front wheel drive was not helping much either.. the wheels were just spinning in the snow.. we pushed and pushed but no luck.. then came a truck.. the people from the truck also helped us push the car.. the car moved ahead but again got stuck as soon as the people stopped pushing.. damn!! the truck could not wait anymore.. the weather was not any better.. they dug some mud from under the snow and put it on the snow and the truck was able to climb up.. left with no choice we turned around and started for the village we had just left behind.. we were so glum that we dint talk much on the way back.. there was also this tension of how much time we will have to be stuck here..


we reached the small village again.. this was the first time we noticed its name (one which we might not forget our entire lifes..).. Chango..

the village was absolutely desolate.. the fog and snow added to the eeriness..

we finally found a shop were a few people were sitting next to a fire.. they told us that there no hotel or guest house will be open in this season.. there was a guest house of some irrigation department about a kms from there.. it will be open.. they also gave us the phone number of the person who could locate the caretaker for us.. we reached the guest house and as expected it was locked and the caretaker was not there.. it was getting dark and there was no way we could go further in that weather.. also with all the snow around, it was getting very very cold..

i just hoped that we get some accommodation there or we will be in a pretty bad situation.. we called up the caretaker from the house next door.. a stroke of luck.. we got through and he came.. following were the conditions he gave us the guest house on
- no water (all water frozen)
- no toilets (again in them water frozen). do what ever you want in open and wipe with snow
- no electricity (gov cuts the electricity when it snows)
- no food (he will provide us the kitchen but will not cook for us)
- we had to cook our own food. if we wanted we could get maggi from the village
- he will provide us as many blankets as we want
again no choice.. on requesting many times, he agreed to atleast cook some rice for that day, which we gobbled down hungrily.

tired from all the physical effort of pushing the car and mental effort of worrying, with 2 blankets and a sleeping bag to keep me warm, i got into the bed.. we knew we were stuck for long and all the mistakes which we had made kept coming in front of my eyes.. had we reached an hour earlier we would have crossed Malling.. if only we had noticed the clouds or the people rushing off.. if only we had not wasted time in going to Rangrik.. if only we had not slowed down after Tabo.. cursing myself, i drifted into a deep sleep..

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