Introduction
After spending a wonderful time in Uttarakhand in the pleasant month of October, visiting the divine Kedarnath, Badrinath, Chopta, Haridwar, Rishikesh, now was the time to continue on our second half of our journey. This was actually much more exciting than the first half of our journey in Spiti and Kinnaur Valley, the reason which you already know.
So the usual plan to Spiti and Kinnaur Valley starts from Shimla, where to head towards Reckong Peo and then start towards Kalpa, Chitkul. But we were lucky to catch a direct bus from Haridwar to Reckong Peo, which would take the same route but we didn’t have the trouble of booking separate tickets and changing the buses. Very grateful for HRTC for their timely and efficient bus service in the whole of HP and surrounding states.
Journey from Haridwar to Shimla
After boarding the Haridwar-Reckong Peo bus at 7AM, we straight away headed towards Chandigarh then to Shimla. This was a pretty simple and boring journey. The bus was on time and maintained very good speed throughout the journey. We reached Shimla before time and as it was morning time the weather was pretty cool and the whole city was totally silent.
As we reached well before time, there was more than an hour gap for our bus to depart. The crew changed and most of the passengers changed as well. Right around 6 the bus started from Shimla, in the silent and empty streets with clear weather. Other buses to Reckong Peo, from Delhi, Hamirpur, Shimla and the one to Kaza were getting ready for their journey after some time.
Journey from Shimla
The later journey continued with pleasant views of the mountains around Shimla with calm roads with some buses passing here and there. The next half of the journey was boring since the roads were pretty normal and since we were in the same bus for almost more than 12 hours now, we were having trouble sitting in. The bus reached Rampur and we had breakfast as the bus halted for a while.
Journey Post Rampur
The main gist of the journey started after departing from Rampur. We could actually feel the vibes of the real Hindustan – Tibet Highway. This highway actually starts from Firozpur in Punjab, named as NH-5. The road ends at Shipki La-La Pass after Reckong Peo before Nako on the way to Kaza. This was actually built by the British for the trade between India to Tibet. So it’s called Hindustan-Tibet Highway.
The Beautiful Half-Tunneling
Once you cross Rampur, most of the parts are made through Half-Tunneling where the stones had been drilled to make roads on the ends of the huge rocky stone. So, it would be a very challenging and time consuming effort because of which we are able to travel through this route very easily.
One side of the road is huge rock and the other side is a huge cliff with some water bodies sometimes. If by chance a vehicle falls down from the road, forget the vehicle even the body is very difficult to pull out from those areas. Even the roads are very narrow and there is small space sometimes in between for the vehicles to pass and during peak hours, the struggle would be real.
Terrible Road Conditions
Another horrible thing especially on this stretch is landslides. This area is highly prone to landslide and believe me the next trip of our bus to Haridwar from Peo was blocked because of landslide and would be jammed from atleast more than a week, making Kinnaur cutoff from Shimla. The trouble of shooting stones is another deadly risk which makes this road closed at night times.
The Iconic Kinnaur Mountain Tunnel
But the beauty of the surroundings is truly mesmerizing. We were getting closer and closer to the Himalayas and the scenic views would make this journey very special. One feels like capturing photos at each and every turn and view point. You encounter a very famous Kinnaur Mountain Tunnel which is totally made of stone and pretty long as well, making a very special occurrence in the Himalayas. That particular stretch is one of the most sensitive areas of this highway.
The Kinnaur Dwar
After some time we reached Kinnaur Dwar, the main entrance of Kinnaur Valley, one of the least explored heavens of India. The beauty of the surroundings itself made us totally forget the tirey 21 hour bus journey. The roads before reaching Peo were pretty good with the pretty river Sutlej flowing parallel, making the site extremely amazing on a cool evening. We reached Peo by 4 PM and caught a bus straight to Kalpa. Then continued our journey in Spiti Valley ahead.
