Day 4 – Sangla – Trip to Chitkul Village
I woke up to an early sunrise, freshened up and settled down on the chair outside my tent soaking in the fresh air and the beautiful surroundings. Now that it was daylight, I could see just how beautiful the Banjara Camps property was. Living the city life and the rat race doesn’t make you realize just how simple and beautiful life can be. There were apple trees all around and fresh sunflowers. Everything felt so unreal. Heard a little bark and saw Toby the puppy dog walking around. One whistle was enough to have the little fellow come and chill by my side.
After a refreshing cup of chai and breakfast, we were all for the day’s agenda. Today we were going to visit Chitkul village, a driving distance of about 22 kms. But on these roads, even 22 kms took us close to 2 hours to reach. The route was anything but tarmac. Stones, mud and whatever you could think of, but the Scorpios and the Thar remained unruffled, making short work of whatever was thrown at them. The significance of Chitkul is that it is the last inhabited village near the Indo-Tibet border and you cannot go beyond this point without a permit. We reached the Chitkul village only to know that the regular road leading to the river side was undergoing some work, so we decided to take an alternate route that brought 4wd low into play. Once we reached the river-side, Hari, Sunny and Manish wasted no time in taking their machines right into the centre of the river bed and parking them on the rocks. It was relaxation time and while everybody enjoyed themselves, the nice guys from Banjara Camps set up a fantastic picnic lunch by the river side.
After a sumptuous lunch comprising of Rajma chawal, kadhi, hot rotis and topping that up with local fresh apple juice, it was time to click a few group photos and return to base before sunset. The evening was filled with music, drinks, chatter along with some antakshari, the gang singing away into the night. We were to depart for Nako the next day and seeing the expected temperatures on the phone was already giving me the chills.
Contd…
