Lesser Known Valleys in Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh India

This time in May 2018 me and my travel partner who also happens to be my wife decided to see inner beauty of kinnaur with "NO" tourists !!! and voila we decided to take a ride to kinnaur district in Himachal Pradesh

Day 1 We took a volvo from mandi house, delhi (8:00 P.M) to shimla (7:00 A.M) You can book your ticket in advance from the himachal pradesh state transport website http://online.hrtchp.com/oprs-web/guest/home.do?h=1 Catching a bus from Himachal Bhawan is a good idea as you can buy good warm stuffs and shoes from Himachal Bhawan at any day with cost effective prices.

Day 2 We reached shimla with no prior hotel bookings and found out shimla was jam packed with tourists , however we still got a decent hotel at a cost of Rs. 2200 for night. Decided to take rest in the day.In the evening went to mall road for shopping  followed by drinks and dinner and at the same time did bookings for bullet to be able to leave early morning. After dinner and strolling we walked to our hotel and around 10pm Ramit came to deliver bike from  Rental Packs, Shimla http://rentalpacks.com/ , very good guy charged only Rs. 1400 per day with very good quality carrier his number is 7018899027 you can contact him directly and give my reference for discounts.

Now that I have my companion bullet 350 for the next 6 days we have to decide the places which we wanted to travel in the next few days.

Chilling before the journey @Mall Road Shimla

Best Restaurant/Bar in Shimla

Day 3 We woke up early morning and decided to go to Chitkul, which is 250 kms from Shimla, It was a long ride and the views were spectacular. We took our breakfast at famous Himalayan Dhabha aka Negi Dhaba and had wonderful Paranthas and Coffee

Famous Negi Dhabha @Narkanda

Paranthas @Negi Dhaba, Narkanda

Enroute Chitkul 

Worlds Best Traffic Jam

Enroute Chitkul

We move on to our journey ahead and took the road towards Kinnaur, from Narkanda there is a drop in elevation from 2700 metre to 900 metre so you will feel a bit hotter but it will change as soon as you cross Rampur. After crossing Rampur you will be welcomed by the beautiful valley of Kinnaur. When we reached Rampur it was raining heavily but we kept on driving, just before Jeori it stopped raining and we had our lunch.The owner of the dhabha was a great guy and fun to talk to.

Dhaba Owner 

 After bidding goodbye to the Dhaba owner we went ahead and entered Kinnaur in few minutes

Kinnaur is so Welcoming 

Eye of Kinnaur !!!!

Finally at around 5 pm we reached Kupa a village which is 3kms before sangla and stayed at Hotel Lake view resort (Rs. 1500 per night) I dropped my partner to the room and went to Sangla for buying "essential" items like whiskey and chakna (snacks served with liquor) 😀😀😀 

Hotel Lake View, Kupa

Trying to Capture Moon, it was quite windy 

Hotel Owner's apple orchard

Day 4 After morning tea and breakfast we decided to explore chitkul which is 25 Kms from Sangla we reached chitkul in an hours’ time and had tea there then we decided to visit the ITBP checkpost beyond which the citizens are not allowed, we had a long conversation with the jawans and also had tea with them. While coming back from the checkpost we stopped at the banks of Baspa River and headed for lunch at a nearby rooftop restaurant 

Govt. School Chitkul

Customary Last Dhabha Picture

Architecture at Chitkul 

At around 3 pm we started moving back and still confused where to head after chitkul in the meantime lets enjoy the road from chitkul to karcham

We finally decided to go to Reckong Peo for getting permits for Shipki la , a high altitude pass 4720 meter  which connects India and Tibet (china) but the SDM was on leave and the DC has no powers, Met with ITBP officials also who informed me that it will not be possible for them to provide the permits as there is ongoing tension between India and China. It was a heart break but we decided to  move on

Reckong peo

Market Reckong Peo

SDM Office Reckong Peo

By evening we reached beautiful and serene and untouched village Kafnoo. On NH5 there is a cut from wangtu going towards Kafnu. The trek for Pin valley starts in June and July from here. There is only one hotel in Kafnu named Lake view resort  and the owner is a famous guy in the local area, has won best farmer awards many times. Prices of rooms starts from Rs. 1500 to Rs. 3000 depending on the views, we settled for  big and spacious room costing us Rs. 2000 per night.

Bhabha Valley

Bhabha

View of valley from the top 

Architecture at Yangpa Village

Cricket Tournament at Kafnu

Lake View Resort Kafnoo

Day 5 In the morning we visited Yangpa village and had tea and breakfast there with locals and tried to understand the road construction status connecting spiti valley from Kafnoo. As per locals the DPR (Detailed Project Report) has been approved by the govt. and it will take around 5 years for the construction of the road. Next confused decided to call up Saurabh Bhaiyya https://www.instagram.com/saurabhsabikhi/ and asked for suggestions and he said you can head towards very less travelled and beautiful Ropa Valley which is 120 kms from Kafnoo, The road conditions is not very good but still manageable in RE

As soon as we reached village Giabong we got to know that there is no hotel and going back was not the option, a local farmer came up to us and offered his home for the stay and also gave the option for opening of the Forest Rest House (FRH) for us,we chose the latter as that was much convenient and easy for us as there was a restaurant sort of arrangements for the villagers near to the FRH who arranged for our dinner, and we had awesome Dal and Rice freshly cooked for us dinner.

Forest Rest House Giabong

Beautiful Ropa Valley

Day 6  In the morning got ready early as we targeted to reach back to Narkanda, It was a pleasure drive with scattered rainfall in some areas, Rampur as usual was very busy with lots of traffic on the road. Reached Narkanda by evening and went straight to FRH, Narkanda. Care taker recognized me instantly and started chatting about my travel.He said he had visited Ropa valley and Bhabha Valley three years back and find it really beautiful but was saddened that no tourist visit these areas and only visit Chitkul, Kalpa. Had drinks in the evening, as I was exhausted , followed by dinner at Negi Dhabha

FRH Narkanda

Day 7 In the morning we took it easy and left the FRH at 11 am had breakfast and went straight to Hatu Peak, the  roads were in ok condition however the rash driving by the local drivers makes it difficult. Sat at Hatu temple for a while and started to go back to Shimla

Hatu

on the way stopped at Kufri for lunch and some shopping. Finally we reached shimla in the evening handed over the bike to Ramit who was astonished to see the odometer which showed 1200 kms, he said you people did 1200 kms in only 6 days. After bidding goodbye to Ramit we boarded volvo from Shimla Tunnel to Delhi.As it was a weekend the bus was empty slept on the whole seat for the night and reached delhi in the morning.

Enjoy the Video on the link to witness the beautiful ride 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ajTdqOAlenk

All the images and videos are clicked on Samsung S7 Edge

If you have any queries regarding the routes, bookings etc. you can msg me on  https://www.facebook.com/sukant.shukla.live.young.live.free
also you can follo me on insta   https://www.instagram.com/ghumkkad_kahin_ka/?hl=en