On the banks of Baspa - The Amazing Sangla Valley

We started from Shoja around 10 o clock after a nice breakfast. The kids were not very happy to leave as they had fallen in love with the place and with the dogs there. We drove through the Jalori Pass, got to the other side and proceeded further. The landscape initially is one of coniferous forests, pines, firs etc. After some time the terrain changes and you start seeing mountains with no trees on them. Only grass grows on them. We saw a charming mountain stream running alongside us and we stopped and wet our feet in this stream. It was a nice experience.

Right from Shoja till we came to this place, there was no river or stream around and I was missing that. Then the stream appeared and after some time we were in the Sutlej Valley. Sutlej appears here and it has a muddy color to it. The crystal clear streams of Tirthan or Baspa, which we would encounter later, it wasnt. I told Gayathri that it could be that the river was flowing over a muddy area which gave it this color. The terrain around it also becomes a bit barren with mountains having nothing on them. The whole area has a muddy look to it. There are a few towns on the shores of Sutlej and we stopped in a town called Rampur for our lunch at a HPTDC hotel. Our driver went off to fix some problem which he had discovered in the Scorpio. He said he would be gone for atleast an hour. We told him that we would have lunch and wait for him. We neednt have worried. The hotel guys served us so slowly that the driver fixed the defect, came back after an hour and waited for us !!!

We started around 2:30 from this place and our progress was OK for the next hour or so. After that we hit a dam site where lot of work was going on. The roads were mud roads and with the traffic around it was difficult to keep the window opened here. It was so dusty that it reminded me of the city !! Around this area is where the Baspa river merges with Sutlej and loses its identity. We had to take a right turn from here in order to get to Sangla. The progress till this place was painfully slow and once we turned right our speed picked up a bit but we got into othe problems !!

The road leading to Sangla is narrow and as I had said earlier all roads here are ghat roads. So there were times when a vehicle would come in front of us and depending on the mood of the drivers, one of them would have to back up so that the other can go thru. We thus played 'pehele aap, pehele aap' with a few vehicles !! On the way we saw a bunch of 'chirus'. These animals are a cross between yak and cow. Initially I thought they were yak but the driver said they werent and upon closer inspection could see there werent yak. We also saw some wild horses. They looked like a cross between horse and donkey !!

We crossed the Sangla town and were going in the direction of another town called Racham. On this road, you need to take a deviation, which goes to your right and downhill and this leads to the Banjara Camps tents which are on the banks of the river Baspa. It was around 7:30pm when we reached here. We were shown our tent. It was a spacious one with three beds in there. They also provided me with an additional mattress as we were four of us. These tents have attached restrooms and also have a water heater. It is a bit cold in the tents compared to a normal room but they give hot water packs to keep yourself warm in the night. Added to it you have a razai and a woolen blanket. So if you cover yourself with a razai and keep the hot water pack next to you, you will end up sweating in the night.

The Banjara Camps at Sangla is located at an outstanding place. The tents are on the banks of the river Baspa. (You neednt worry if the river will overflow and enter your tents !! The tents are at an elevation compared to the river) There is a path which leads to the river. One one side you have the mountains with lot of greenery and on the other side you have black mountains with snow covered peaks. Once in a while these mountains are covered with white fluffly clouds which add to their beauty. All through the night you will hear the gentle murmur of the Baspa river as it glides over the smooth pebbles which lie on its path. You can also see a couple of glaciers and a small village at a distance.

The bonfire was started around 8 o clock and I went to join it. People were playing anthakshari and I started singing some songs that I knew. Anthakshari is a good way to make friends. People are united quickly in music that anything else. If you sing a couple of songs which they like, they tend to like you as well. This had happened in Sikkim last year and it happended here on two nights. Another hint: Sing Kishore Kumar + RD Burman songs and you will be a well liked guy almost immediately !!

In Banjara resorts the food is generally served in a central dining hall, which allows people to interact with each other. During dinner, which was very tasty, I spoke to people who had come from far and wide and realised that most of them have come from the same far and wide place, Mumbai !!! This trend continued for the next couple of days, of people arriving from Mumbai. For a second I felt like a Mumbai duck out of water !!! There was one family from Banglore and they, Sunil and his wife, happened to be close friends of my former boss. As can be expected, we wondered what a small world it was !!!Sunil gave a monkey cap for Gayathri and it proved very useful. Thanks Sunil.

The next day would be the wonderful ride to Chitkul.