2017 Mahindra Himalayan Spiti Escape Part 5: Spiti Valley Explored

Day 5

“So then. Everyone ready to explore what Kaza and the surrounding villages have in store for you?” And the unanimous chant - ‘YES LEAD!’ - sounded like we used to wish our teachers in school - ‘GOOD MORNING MA’AM!’ At the stroke of 9am, radio checks were in order and no one needed a second call. That was a first for this trip. Heavy breakfast in our tummies, we marched out of the off-road track that led to our hotel.

Our first stop would be on top of a mountain that is at an altitude of approximately 15,000 feet, and no road reached that point. The drive before the road ran out included several stretches which feature in Raid De Himalaya - one of the toughest rally races in the world. At the end of the tar-less track, our convoy started to climb a mountain in a direction that had faint tyre tracks. Once everyone joined the climb, a radio call from Lead came in to enlighten us why we can see those tyre tracks ahead. “This is the fourth year in a row that we’ve has taken this path to reach the top of a mountain which oversees the highest inhabited village in the world, Komik.

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By the time our Scorpios went through a range of gear ratios, it was the impressive 4x4 low mode that took us up to the gathering point effortlessly. Although I had been making a lot of notes about the place and not much about the car I was driving, I was slowly starting to understand why the Scorpio was made. More on that later. At this height, we could see snow-covered mountains in all four directions. Closer than those were the sandy kinds and some of them were covered with the shadow of clouds. It was like a picturesque painting that had come to life. Epic!

After an hour of echoes that comprised of expressions like ‘Oh my god, that’s beautiful!’, ‘Oh wow!’ and ‘I love that view!’ we climbed back down to visit the monastery in the Komik village. There were two of them - old and new. I visited the new one and after appreciating the same sense of calmness inside the premises as I did in the previous lot, I found myself sipping on the worst cup of tea that I ever had in my life. Mind you, that tea didn’t hold its crown for long! Another surprise in store for us was a light session of sleet fall, which helped us shift our attention from our tortured tongues.

Next in line was a visit to a village called Hikkim. People claim that it is home to the highest post office in the world but that fact needs a bit more clarification. You see, there are many post offices around the globe which are located at a higher altitude than this one, which is at 14,567 feet. But the one in Hikkim is operational throughout the year, while others shut when the weather turns nasty. Everyone posted at least a couple of postcards, including me. 

Unfortunately, I wasn’t in a state to trek down to reach the post office. Suffering from an excruciating headache, I stayed put in the Scorpio and drank some more water. It was my co-driver who did the posting thing for me. While the one I wrote to my father in Delhi has reached, the one for my wife here in Navi Mumbai is still awaited. Several others from the group received theirs soon after they got back.

Back up from the post office, the very next question that excited all our brain cells was when will we have lunch. The feeding halt was temporarily erected for us at the banks of the Spiti river. Once we reached there, we were welcomed with a florescent orange-coloured juice which is made from a berry-type fruit that grows on local sea-buckthorns (a type of hardy bush). While we enjoyed the refreshing taste, we were all in shock to learn that a three-course meal awaited us. 

For our entertainment, a folk dance performance was also organised by the hotel owner, who also took care of the catering. While some from our herd couldn’t control their excitable limbs and joined the pro dancers to match their moves, most of the super-active males broke out a game of volleyball on the other end.

Thanks to the drop in altitude my headache was gone. I did get in a hand or two with the game but soon found myself being sniffed on by a St. Bernard. I’d never seen one so huge outside of a TV. Many joined in to trouble him, while he wagged his tail to impress everyone who had a food-covered plate in their hands.

Gulping done, our herd was reunited once again for a quick crash course on what was in store next. “We’ll be crossing multiple streams of the river Spiti in our cars. Engage 4-low on river beds and before you enter water, ensure the car is in first gear and let the pedals go. You take care of steering it out of the other side. The 4x4 system will give you enough low-end torque to make sure you don’t get wedged-in. Clear?” Of course! I am. My version of that crash course would’ve been something like, “4-low is the way to go. The end.” But some still had question marks on their faces. While those were being addressed, the media teams were taken to the track. We spread ourselves over different sets of water-less riverbeds to capture those splashy moments.

Most of the streams were a piece of cake to get through but there were some deep patches which we were conveniently detoured from by the car that has always been ahead of the entire convoy - Advance. It seemed everyone followed the tips on not getting stuck in rivers word by word as everyone drove out without a scare. While those experienced drivers from the support team showed off the Thar’s capability, most of the adrenaline junkies had already declared the river crossing the pinnacle of the trip.

At the end of the river crossing track was a road that connected us to our next scheduled stop for the day - the Kee monastery. However, not everyone came there. All those who either couldn’t take another monastery visit or were just too tired chose to go back to the hotel. Many of us did visit the monastery as we wanted to see the biggest of its kind in the Spiti valley. It also serves as a religious training centre for Lamas and that being practiced was an amazing sight. While we were struggling to find more on the monastery, we received a worrying radio call. “The Kaza fuel station will shut operations at 7.30pm. Everyone must fill up for our longest single day drive that awaits us tomorrow.”

It was 6.57pm when our herd from the monastery started to climb down towards the fuel station. Located at a distance of about 15km, the Indian Oil fuel station in Kaza is the highest fuel station in the world. As exciting as that sounded, our minds were totally focused on reaching the station before it shut down for the day. Thankfully, everyone made it and the exciting drive downhill unraveled a new dimension of the Scorpio - even with its scary body roll in quick corners, it grips really well.

After a tank fill-up for everyone, the 15-minute drive back to our hotels was in the dark. With only headlights lighting the way, everything else was pitch black and sort of scary. Dinner was ready and so were we to dive in. During our hogging process, our lead Hari Singh shared the next day’s itinerary. “Team, we’ll be starting at 5 in the morning. We’ll have our breakfast at Kunzum Pass, before we take a detour towards Chandratal Lake. After spending an hour or so, we head back to the road that takes us towards Manali with a lunch halt in between. Sounds good?” YES LEAD!

Part 1: 2017 Mahindra Himalayan Spiti Escape Part 1: Cheerful Chandigarh To Neat Narkanda

Part 2: 2017 Mahindra Himalayan Spiti Escape Part 2: Neat Narkanda To Serene Sangla

Part 3: 2017 Mahindra Himalayan Spiti Escape Part 3: Serene Sangla To Nippy Nako

Part 4: 2017 Mahindra Himalayan Spiti Escape Part 4: Nippy Nako To Killer Kaza

Part 6: 2017 Mahindra Himalayan Spiti Escape Part 6: Killer Kaza To Majestic Manali

Part 7: 2017 Mahindra Himalayan Spiti Escape Part 7: A Day In Manali And Then Back To Chandigarh