The Kinnaur Journal - 1200 Km, 10 Days, 1 High Altitude Trek, 1 Last Village at the Indo-Tibet Border, 2 Mesmerizing valleys, 2 Enchanting rivers, and Unlimited memories.
INTRODUCTION
Beautiful, Marvellous, Magnificent, Mind-blowing, Appealing, Incredible and many more adjectives - We have heard that each of these are aptly applicable to a place called Kinnaur.
There are innumerable photos spread over the vast kingdom of internet confirms that these adjectives are just. They were certainly enough to allure our wandering soul into the lap of greenery and gorgeous mountains, and we fell for it.
The planning for an exclusive Kinnaur trip began in April and we read everything available on the internet - especially the two incredible websites Indiamike and BCMTouring. These are two websites where abundance of worthy information are shared by the proficient and trained roamers. They did not lose their temper by the idiotic questions asked by me.
So the plan looked like as below, with sufficient buffer time, covering the entire stretch of Kinnaur.
Day 1: New Delhi > Kalka (Overnight train journey)
Day 2: Kalka > Shimla > Narkanda (Overnight at Narkanda)
Day 3: Narkanda > Rampur (Overnight at Rampur)
Day 4: Rampur > Jhakhri > Jeori > Sarahan (Overnight at Sararan)
Day 5: Sarahan > Nathpa Dam > Wangtu > Tapri > Chooling > Karcham > Baspa Dam > Sangla > Rakchham (Overnight at Rakchham)
Day 6: Rakchham > Chitkul > Nagasti Camp > Rakchham (Overnight at Rakchham)
Day 7: Rakchham > Sangla > Baspa Dam > Karcham > Powari > Reckong Peo > Kalpa (Overnight at Kalpa)
Day 8: Kalpa Local Siteseeing (Overnight at Kalpa)
Day 9: Kalpa > Reckong Peo > Karcham > Jeori > Jhakhri > Rampur > Narkanda > Shimla > Kalka (Overnight at Kalka Railway Station waiting room)
Day 10: Kalka > New Delhi
DAY 1, JUNE 15, 2012 - THE BEGINNING
New Delhi > Kalka (302 KM)
Earlier in that day we came to know from the website of the Indian Railways that our train, the Howrah-Delhi-Kalka Mail is running 4 hours behind its scheduled time, and we were a little worried as we had our connecting train from Kalka to Shimla at 6:00 AM in the morning. So we decided to call the enquiry office at Kalka railway station to find out the regular procedure. The person on the other side of the phone told us not to panic as the train normally waits for 2 hours in case of any delay. At 4:30 PM we were informed by a text message that all our railway tickets were confirmed. It was a huge sigh of relief.
We arrived Delhi Junction railway station at 8:30 PM and after a hither and thither we were informed that our train will arrive at 10:30 PM, so we have to wait for 2 hours at the railway station. This railway station is one of the busiest stations of this city with 1,80,000 footprints and 200 trains. So naturally there was no empty seat and thus we remained on our feet for the entire time.
We had a light evening snack and packed our dinner from Mc Donalds. We already had a word with our driver confirming our journey plan and the delay.
Finally, after a long wait Kalka Mail arrived and we boarded the train. It was 10:00 PM, and the train departed in next 15 minutes. By that time we finished our dinner, the train had crossed the suburbs and we can feel the acceleration.
I did not get sleep that night as I was excited about the next day. To my utter surprise the train had made up with the delay and reached Chandigarh at its scheduled time. At Chandigarh 8 coaches are separated and the rest of the train move up to Kalka, which is situated at a height of 2,152 Ft.
However, our luck was not great all the time. The ascent from Chandigarh to Kalka is steep and the engine of Kalka Mail developed some fault, which led to a delay of 45 minutes. We reached Kalka at 5:30 AM. We enjoyed our first instalment of the morning tea at the railway platform and boarded our connecting train, the Shivalik Delux Express. Shivalik Delux runs on the Kalka-Shimla heritage route, and moves between the magnificent pine forests and crosses 102 tunnels, the longest one at Barog to reach Shimla.
To Be Continued ...
From India
2INTRODUCTION
Beautiful, Marvellous, Magnificent, Mind-blowing, Appealing, Incredible and many more adjectives - We have heard that each of these are aptly applicable to a place called Kinnaur.
There are innumerable photos spread over the vast kingdom of internet confirms that these adjectives are just. They were certainly enough to allure our wandering soul into the lap of greenery and gorgeous mountains, and we fell for it.
The planning for an exclusive Kinnaur trip began in April and we read everything available on the internet - especially the two incredible websites Indiamike and BCMTouring. These are two websites where abundance of worthy information are shared by the proficient and trained roamers. They did not lose their temper by the idiotic questions asked by me.
So the plan looked like as below, with sufficient buffer time, covering the entire stretch of Kinnaur.
Day 1: New Delhi > Kalka (Overnight train journey)
Day 2: Kalka > Shimla > Narkanda (Overnight at Narkanda)
Day 3: Narkanda > Rampur (Overnight at Rampur)
Day 4: Rampur > Jhakhri > Jeori > Sarahan (Overnight at Sararan)
Day 5: Sarahan > Nathpa Dam > Wangtu > Tapri > Chooling > Karcham > Baspa Dam > Sangla > Rakchham (Overnight at Rakchham)
Day 6: Rakchham > Chitkul > Nagasti Camp > Rakchham (Overnight at Rakchham)
Day 7: Rakchham > Sangla > Baspa Dam > Karcham > Powari > Reckong Peo > Kalpa (Overnight at Kalpa)
Day 8: Kalpa Local Siteseeing (Overnight at Kalpa)
Day 9: Kalpa > Reckong Peo > Karcham > Jeori > Jhakhri > Rampur > Narkanda > Shimla > Kalka (Overnight at Kalka Railway Station waiting room)
Day 10: Kalka > New Delhi
DAY 1, JUNE 15, 2012 - THE BEGINNING
New Delhi > Kalka (302 KM)
Earlier in that day we came to know from the website of the Indian Railways that our train, the Howrah-Delhi-Kalka Mail is running 4 hours behind its scheduled time, and we were a little worried as we had our connecting train from Kalka to Shimla at 6:00 AM in the morning. So we decided to call the enquiry office at Kalka railway station to find out the regular procedure. The person on the other side of the phone told us not to panic as the train normally waits for 2 hours in case of any delay. At 4:30 PM we were informed by a text message that all our railway tickets were confirmed. It was a huge sigh of relief.
We arrived Delhi Junction railway station at 8:30 PM and after a hither and thither we were informed that our train will arrive at 10:30 PM, so we have to wait for 2 hours at the railway station. This railway station is one of the busiest stations of this city with 1,80,000 footprints and 200 trains. So naturally there was no empty seat and thus we remained on our feet for the entire time.
We had a light evening snack and packed our dinner from Mc Donalds. We already had a word with our driver confirming our journey plan and the delay.
Finally, after a long wait Kalka Mail arrived and we boarded the train. It was 10:00 PM, and the train departed in next 15 minutes. By that time we finished our dinner, the train had crossed the suburbs and we can feel the acceleration.
I did not get sleep that night as I was excited about the next day. To my utter surprise the train had made up with the delay and reached Chandigarh at its scheduled time. At Chandigarh 8 coaches are separated and the rest of the train move up to Kalka, which is situated at a height of 2,152 Ft.
However, our luck was not great all the time. The ascent from Chandigarh to Kalka is steep and the engine of Kalka Mail developed some fault, which led to a delay of 45 minutes. We reached Kalka at 5:30 AM. We enjoyed our first instalment of the morning tea at the railway platform and boarded our connecting train, the Shivalik Delux Express. Shivalik Delux runs on the Kalka-Shimla heritage route, and moves between the magnificent pine forests and crosses 102 tunnels, the longest one at Barog to reach Shimla.
To Be Continued ...
From India
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