Day3: Sangla Valley: Chittkul, the most beautiful & last village of Indo-Tibet Border + Signatue Rakcham Walk

Itinerary Followed: 

Day1: Delhi - Sarahan (12-13Hrs) 
Day2: Sarahan - Sangla

Day3: Sangla - chhitkul & Rakcham(4 Hrs) - Kalpa (3 Hrs) 

Day4: Kalpa- Tabo (10-11Hrs) 
Day5: Tabo - Kaza (2-3 Hrs) 
Day6: Kaza -Lasar- Kunzum (3-4 Hrs) - Kaza
Day7: Kaza - Kalpa (12 Hrs)
Day8: Kalpa - Chail (10-11 Hrs) 
Day9: Chail- Delhi (7-8 HRs)

Day 3: We started at 5 AM in the morning (1 hr drive) to Chhitkul, the journey itself was giving the glimpse of the pictureous village we were about to reach!!


On the way to Chittkul





Ont the way to Chhitkul

At the very first sight of it, I actually had to pinch myself to believe my eyes.The snow covered speechless white mountains on one side creating an effect as if you have reached end of the world, green mountains one the other side signifying the life in this serene place, river Baspa flowing by the side of it, the farms at the center of those huge mountain and a small village amidst of this heavenly beauty is Chhitkul!!

Dead End, with Snow Covered mountains

Other Side of the Village

At that vary moment I regretted my decision of not coming here the previous day and spending some more time, imagining that sunset would have been an amazing sight. Nevertheless, we spent our time walking around the village speaking to our guide and understanding life and routine of the village. After spending 2 hours there we had our breakfast in the open watching the sun going high up in the sky.

At around 8.30 we started our journey back, headed towards Rakcham village, to do the famous Rakcham walk. The walk was supposed to take 4 hours and we wrongly assumed that it will be a“Walk”.

We realized that, soon we will be out of Gas, so told our driver to go to the nearest petrol pumps to get some fuel, but all in vain as there was no gas in the petrol pumps because of the landslide petrol tankers could not cross tapri. Our last hope was to get some gas at Reckong Peo and we kept our fingers crossed for the same.

We started our walk at around 8.30AM, the surrounding views made us awestruck. The flat brown farming fields, surrounded by the huge mountains, the criss-cross river flowing at the far sight. It was kind off easy walk through those fields.


@ Rakcham Walk

Suddenly out of no where, we entered into the jungle of tall pine trees, having a thin stream of water flowing by our side… As we continued walking we entered the fields of dried plant and as soon as you cross that, there lies the wide open field with Baspa River covering its significant area. We took a halt there for few minutes as our guide told that the walk from there is going to be little tough. It was far more than “little tough” for people like me who are non-climbers rather non-walkers ;-). From there on Bapsa(river) accompanied us through the entire walk.

Baspa: Wide and Open

From there onwards either it was a steep climb up or a steep climb down, through the path full of small & big stones. The landscape was mesmerizing and drastically changing every 15 mins, but it took a troll out of us, so much so that avoid little longer route (going up and then coming down) we took a broken smaller route to save our little energy.

Rakcham Walk

The narrow stone path was broken in the middle, there was a steep valley under that broken route which can be easily seen through the huge crack in the path. We stuck to the mountain and crossed through that gap, to add to our accomplishment, our guide told that he has never ever took anybody from this route :-) :-)

After a few minutes walk, we had to cross a steep, melting glacier. Underneath which a river was flowing and the snow was loose and slippery at places. We had to cross that one by one so that not much weight is on the snow at once. I was dead scared at that moment, we had no option but to walk on the glacier and luckily we crossed it quite comfortably.



The Glacier: though it not looking scary in pic but its very steep ;-)

After crossing the glacier we halted by the riverside, under the shadow of a tree to have lunch, much needed doze of energy and then resumed our walk. Finally at around 2.00 PM we reached the Batseri village, it was a sign of relief. At around 2.30-3.00 PM we reached our camp sight.

Took some rest there and after a refreshing Hot water bath, we started our ride towards Kalpa. As soon as we crossed Karcham the worst patch of road so far, greeted us. The roads are ruined by the JP’s Power Plant Project so much so that the car can’t be driven on a speed more than 20Km/hour and believe me I am not exaggerating not even by 1%.

Finally after two hours of bumpy ride we reached RecKong Peo. A range of snow peaked mountains surrounding us and right at the center of those peaks there lies the “Kinner Kailash peak”, in shape of “Shiv Linga”, covered with snow and rising little higher from the neighboring peaks. There is a 3 days round trek which takes you to the Kinner kailsah, where devotees offer their prayers to the Lord Shiva.

Kinner Kailash Peak: Right in the middle

First thing we did, was to look for the petrol pump (@ Reckong Peo), and luckily enough we got the petrol. As we had to travel to Kaza so the helper filled our tank full unlike few others. We were sorted for next two days’ fuel supply.

We reached our hotel at around 6.30PM with zero energy to do anything including dinner. Lying on the bed watching the sun to set through those orange peaks was the best one could have done and we exactly did the same.

We just ordered few Manchurian and noodles to our room (which tasted real bad) and went to sleep.

More exciting Days to come..