The less trodden path!- 127km from Manali! 1.0

Manali is a hub for adventure activities. It has everything ranging from Skiing in Solang Valley, Rafting on the Beas Kund river, to exploring various Himalayan peaks of Dhauladaar range and Pirpanjaal range. And for me, my second home.This city has given me several unforgettable memories. But nothing cuts close to this ONE memory etched in my mind, from the last time I visited this quiet city, when I was on my way to Chandrataal Lake.

Well, I call it quiet because even after branding it as an adventure hub this city has its own way of making you feel at home with its peaceful and lush green surroundings ringed with high rising tips of mountains!

Chandra Taal is also known as moon lake. An untouched lake, where the government practices the preservation- by enforcing few laws to maintain its natural beauty. No one is allowed to camp in 3 km radius from the site, which has left scope for only one lodging option- on the Chandrataal camping grounds where one can book tents as per needed further ensuring that this lake doesn’t lose its beauty over time.

One can trek up to Chandrataal Lake from a village named Batal-it is 14km from Batal or can hire a sumo/tempo traveler from Manali itself which takes you to the lake and back. And there are only two public buses from Manali one leaving at around 5 am and the other at 6 am taking you to Batal. To reach Batal it takes about 6 hours or more and adds 4 to 5 hours if you trek to Chandrataal or 2 hours by sumo.

Me and a couple of my friends (while we were in Manali), we had an impromptu plan of visiting Chandrataal and hence we booked a tempo on sharing basis, which was ready to take us to Kaza(en route to which is Batal) for 1000 Rs per seat which was a bit steep but we had to adjust as private sumo’s were costing us 11000 Rs per sumo!

The next day we were quite excited to reach Batal and we were worried as the road conditions had worsened since last week. After a steaming plate of Maggi for breakfast(at 5 am!) we boarded our tempo hoping everything would go by smoothly and as per the plan. But little did we know- what this trip had in store for us.

The Manali-Leh highway was a very beautiful road stretching for miles together.The road was winding up and down flanked by mountains on both the sides. After continuing for hours on this road we reached our first pit stop named Chatru.

The village had so many small Dhaba’s and surprisingly very clean public bathrooms for people halting there to refuel themselves as well as de-fuel themselves(!). And to get a 360° view of the village we climbed up a hill to a small temple. The temple was flanked by traditional prayer flags. On these flags are the syllables Om-Ma-Ni-Pad-Me-Hum painted on it. This is a mantra practiced by Tibetans all over the world which is said to bring a sense of compassion. In all they gave a colourful and serene outlook to the temple.

As we proceeded, the roads narrowed down and were very uneven and the gravel and stones were making it impossible for our tempo to go above a speed of 30 km/hr. This apparently happens to be the case every rainy season in these Ghats.

After an hour or so we found ourselves stuck in traffic. So our driver parked the tempo and we got down to see what was all the fuss about. And few mins later we found out the source of this traffic way up ahead –a car which was stuck in a waterfall passing over the road and we could see that many locals had gotten out of their respective vehicles and were helping the car to cross that waterfall (by stepping into the sheer cold water). This is what I like about all the Himalayan people, they are very helpful and patient no matter what type of situation they are in. It took a while for the car to get pulled to the other side.The moment it was cleared the traffic started moving ahead and we drove further into our journey.There wasn’t even a speck of civilization for hours together and the rocky roads were the same- through out, till we reached Batal and everything changed!

To be continued…