Travelogue: A family trip across Kinnaur and Spiti

Yes photologs are time taking to write and to attch picture properly there. Even placing photos properly between the lines are difficult. But you are brilliant in presentation man!!

We would be patiently waiting don't worry but won't like half cooked items

Kshil,
Being a computer man, could you tell me how to attach these photos to the write up for a layman like me?

Jaydeepy, honestly don't have idea how Dinesha is managing it with attachments, whenever I tried with attachment, I didn't find a control to put the snap in a location I want to. I rather upload snaps in IM (Time taking as you have to upload one by one) and then link the thumbnails with the post. That's really time taking but if you are interested, I could explain you, though not sure if it's at all simple.

I too would like to know how Dinesha is doing it here. Writing in between attachments in one post.

But off course I am interested to know how you upload the photos & then link it with the concerned thumbnail. That way a computer illiterate person like me would learn a lot from you.

It is fairly easy. Once you upload the image. Place the cursor at the place you want the image inserted. Then select the required image from the "Attachments" button from the Menu on the formatting bar.

Second and easier way is how Matka has loaded the picture inline in second page of this thread.Upload the image in the server and provide the link withing "[img][/img]" tags.

(Cont..Day 2)
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Destination for the day was Sarahan.
Apart from NH22 there are other two routes to reach Sarahan.
a)Narkanda-Baggi-Khadrala-Sungri-Taklech-Dharanghati-Mashnoo-Sarahan
b)Narkanda-Thanedar-Kotghar-Bithal-Rampur

The first route passes through one of the most scenic region in entire Himachal. Kshil took this road last year and he has posted this in his trip report about the route and the view.
“I chose the route that British people started using to avoid hot Sutlej Valley and later established as a preferred alternative as part of Old Hindustan Tibet Road. The route was from Narkanda to take Baggi, Khadrala, Sungri, Taklech, Dharanghati, Mashnoo to reach Sarahan. The Baggi to Sungri Stretch was extremely rough and surely didn't get any kind of maintenance for atleast a year though buses ply in the section. From Sungri road becomes suddenly better and it was quite good road till 10km ahead of Dharanghati. Dharangahti - Mashnoo was complete offroading through dense forest region, an amazingly charming journey though and from Mashnoo to Sarahan again it's a well tarred road. The whole section all along goes through higher ridges and utterly devoid of any traffic. You would get awesome vistas with aweful roads.”

For somebody starting from Narkanda heading toward Sarahan for the day, this route would be an excellent option. Our route for the day was going to be via Thanedar and Kotghar which meets HN22 at Bithal (between Sainj and Nirath) and about 25 Kms before Rampur.

The approach road to Hatu peak forks out from the Narkanda-Thanedar road. After the descent from the peak we turn right and proceed towards Thanedar.


We stopped at a isolated place before Thanedar and enjoyed our lunch.


A piece of advice if you want to take this route better carry packed meals (or have it at Narkanda) as there are no decent eatery on this route. Well we did have foresight of the packed lunch but thankfully my wife had packed some Parathas from home a day before.


We proceed towards Thanedar –Kothgar road. The drive through this road is excellent. PWD is almost done with the bitumen work on this stretch. Smooth and wide road covered with pine forest all alone.






Thanedar and Kothgar is famous for its apple orchards, we are greeted by them as we approach the area.


Fruit bearing apple trees are covered with the net to protect the produce from the hailstones.


Small, raw apples little bit bigger then full grown cherries at the time of the year. Come August-spetember the whole landscape and will have red hue.


(Cont... Day 2)

(Cont..Day 2)
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This building at Kothgar belonged to Satyanand Stokes born “Samuel Evans Strokes Jr. ”

Strokes storey is quite an interesting one. Samuel Evans Stokes was son of a very successful businessman who pioneered elevators in USA. He landed in Kotgarh in 1904 as an American Missionary to spread Christianity in the area. However the beauty and the culture of the region had an profound effect on him and he converted to Hinduism and took a Hindu name Satyanand Stokes. He found the climate and soil conducive for apple cultivation and in 1919 he planted trees on his 200 acres estate and they began bearing apples in 1925.The natives took to growing apples soon and today it has spread all over the Shimla hills. The Apple boom has improved the economy of the entire place.

View across the Sutlaj river.


NH22 towards Rampur meandering along with Sutlaj, soon we will be on it..


We descend down the mountains toward Rampur.


The last stretch is quite narrow but in good shape. There is very little traffic in this road.


This road meets NH-22 at a small village called Bithal located between Sainj and Nirath about 25 Kms before Rampur (Elev. 880 mtrs). This stretch between Bithal and Jeori is very hot and humid.

We cross our first of many Hydel power project tunnels as we pass Rampur.



The days trip has taken its toll on all of us. Heat and around Rampur made it worst.We took a break at Mahalakshmi Temple near Rampur before moving towards Jeori.



NH22 beyond Jeori towads Karchham we head that way tomorrow, today we climb towards Sarahan.


(Cont... Day 2)

(Cont..2)

We reached Jeori around 5:45PM. It looks like some local festivle was going on there and they were taking out procession of local gods.



View from the road as we climb towards Sarahan.


By the time we reached Sarahan it was 7:00 PM. My GPS navigator says we are at 2200 Meters.The fist view of Bhimkali Temple is quite impressive.


We checked into Hotel Srikhand , this HPTDC hotel is located in excellent location.




After a quick rest we go out to explore.
These night shots are taken without the tripods so excuse the camera shake during long exposures. None of us had energy to run back to hotel and climb the stairs to fetch it..



Entrance to the main temple.


Mata Bhimkali temple lodge.


After a while We returned to our Hotel, took our dinner and retired in our room for the night. my wife and Kids were fast asleep as soon as they hit the bed. I woke up in the middle of night because of loud noise from rain hitting the corrugated roof of the hotel. It was raining cats and dogs outside and the light went out at around 1:30 AM. My son is very scared of darkness so I pulled out and switched on the Chinese rechargeable torch that Bhagwan Singh (famous Sleeping-bag guy in Chirag Dilli, Delhi) has arranged for me for 200/-. I hoped the torch will work for five hours as promised. Thankfully power supply was back around 3:00 AM.

I tried to go to sleep for few hours before my alarm goes off at 5:30 AM.

Leave Shimla at 8:00 AM
Arrive Sarahan at 7:00 PM

Stayed at HPTDC Hotel Srikhand (My Rating 4/5)

Other Staying options
--------------------
Sarahan
• HPTDC Hotel Srikhand: Online Booking at Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation
• Bhimkali temple -Sarahan Temple lodge-01782274248


Narkanda
• Harsh Villa, (Home Stay) Can be booked from HPTDC Site. Contact: 9817555777 / 9882147045
• Hotel Hatu (HPTDC)
• Hotel Mahamaya Palace -Narkanda 01782-242448, -242648 , 09418042448, 09816948668

Thanedar
• Banjara Orchard Retreat, Banjara Camps: 941807180, 01782-222265

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(Cont... Day 3)

Thanks for the info. I did not know about the second temple.

Jaydeepy, if you are ready to upload the snaps in IM server, going into Photo Link in top, then there are couple of ways, one how Dinesha mentioned, linking the uploaded image to your report or rather better, (My preference) link the thumbnails of the uploaded snap in your report. Linking thumbnails, according to me make it more readable and ofcourse better for many readers who still doesn't have high speed internet as page is loaded relatively faster.

You check out my MP Trip Report, you would understand what I meant.

Trip Report - Bandhavgarh-Amarkantak-Kanha-Bhedaghat-Pachmarhi-Pench

If you want to know how that can be done, or even easier without uploading it in IM separately how it can be done, both are explained between post 33 and 37, in this thread here.

My question is, do you need to upload it seperately in IM for doing this or if I try to achieve it by directly uploading it from computer as attachement shown here would also yield same result?

Once again extremeley well composed write-up Dinesha. I am glued here. The night shots are amazing!!!

No you do not need to upload separately. Once you upload the image as attachment use the "Attachments" button (Next to Smiles) to place is with the texts.

Kshil,
Can this route be done in Hyundai Verna or SX4? I would love to take this route if its alright for the car.
Rest of the places in Kinnaur and Spiti is doable in car. I saw a Honda City in Pin Valley.

Dinesh

Dinesha I have not done this route for which you are asking but unless there are no water crossings on this route, you can do it with the person having hill driving experince. We did shimla-kaza-manali in our santro car and were just faced difficulty while crossing streams on road.

Between Narkanda to Baggi and Sungri, awefully bad road or rather no road, if your car can negotiate that, you can manage in a small car, locals do that in small cars like even Maruti 800. But passengers would surely have a very tough time. But no water crossing when I gone.

In both side of Dharanghati, the road is extremely narrow and again it's stones simply, not road but drivable. From Dharanghati to Mashnoo it's landslide prone and in case of heavy rain you may find this region with muds and slushes.

Between Sungri to just before Dharanghati via taklech and from Mashnoo to Sarahan the roads are brilliant even better than NH22.

Look at below thread, I too posted a few pics and you may get few interesting info on this old HT road.

The old road from Narkanda to Sarahan

Narkanda to Baggi, Sungri and Rohru is an extraordinarily scenic drive. We attempted this last year in April but the road deteriorated so badly halfway to Rohru that we had to abort and return. I intend returning there some day to complete that stretch and other new ones disclosed in this fascinating trip report by DineshA.

It is true that the locals do this and worse roads in HP in Maruti 800, Alto and similar vehicles!