Julley!
A beautiful monsoon day out here in Manali! We kinda got bored from everyday rains so we planned an expedition to the Himalayan desert. The dry potion of Himalayas where there lies no rains just the direct snowfall in the winter season. Monsoons at lahul Valley of Himachal Pradesh are usually dry just few rains and that's it.
It was around 7 AM early morning when we reached Solang. A place famous for its winter ski activities and Lahul was just an hour away from here. Special thanks to the advancements in the infrastructures and roads that the longest tunnel was built in order to save around 5-6 hours of travel time.
Earlier all the people who were willing to visit lahul had to cross the mighty Rohtang Pass which is considered to be among the worlds highest mountain motor able pass.
The magical story about the lahul valley is that it'sa sort of a dry desert less dey than the leh Ladakh region. Less vegetation is seen beyond the Lahul valley due to high altitude and NTZ ( Non Tropical Zone) The whole region is usually covered under a thick blanket of snow and the old pathway through Rohtang Pass was only accessible for six months only in the summers.
The tunnel provided a relief even to the locals that they can now cross the regions a just and hours time. So were we today going to explore a different world. In the past I had came to Lahul region quite a few time but it feels heavenly and different all the times! Though due to extreme climatic conditions even this pathway gets closed due to heavy snow in the winter season but is usually cleared out due tot this place being at a lower altitude than the top of rohtang pass were firstly we had to reach the top from Manali side and then descent to the backside of the Mountain which was quite a task and the place was around 5500m above the sea level.
The peaks of lahul Valley were seen quite visible from this Place. Sikhar Beh and Makhar Beh... This was the last photograph that I took before crossing the tunnel.
You can notice the greenary at this place.. Same time, same day !
Entering Lahul
Just right after corssing the south portal of the Tunnel the view just looks something like this.. The greens turning into the yellows and slowly the soil changing its colour to the desert sand.
After just crossing the tunnel even the whole climate got changed just because of the high Himalayan Peaks of Pir Panjal which stops the monsoon winds letting it enter to the Himalayan desert region which makes this whole region cold and dry. And at the time even the winds from the Lahul region usually gets trapped in the High Peaks of the Pir Panjal Himalayan range and beyond Lahul region starts the Zanskar Valley. The zanskar Range. The Last Himalayan Range.
The reason why I always love to explore such places is that inspite of these locations being situated at a very harsh climatic conditions and being motor able allows the explorer to explore the unseen sided of the Himalayas. The region being closer and between the last Himalayan mountain ranges has its unique beauty.
This village is know as Sissu. Very few houses... And during winters it all gets covered under a thick blanket of snow that lasts for months and months. nearly ranging between 5-10 feet of snow on the plains and on the mountains peaks they stays untouched. Unclaimed.
I saw this magical phenomenon and captured it. There were around 3 Waterfalls forming from the top of the Peak till the bottom and everything was quite visible.
There were greens there were whites there were the colours of Nature and the air as fresh as it could be. Our journey was to reach Jispa. A site well know for camping which was our destination till now.
As we were getting closer to the lahul valley more calm the environment was becoming. No houses no cars. Only a few ones!
Just the rive rightly caring the glacier water along.
9AM Tandi Bridge.
Around 9 AM we reach Tandi Bridge which is also famous as a Sangam where the two rivers meet and even there are two roads at to the place, one that leads the way to the western Himalayas and one which leads to the northern Himalayas of Lahul Valley.
And this time we the second one towards Sarchu and Baralacha La pass. The Nothern Higher Himalayas.
There were tiny streams everywhere beyond the certain point. Just right after crossing Tandi the roads too a sharp right and it was quite steep. At every single turn were were gaining our altitude. And were were getting closer to 5500m.
Even the vegetation was changing at few miles. The soil seemed to be getting dry and the rocks felt more like the pices of Hard cliffs.
The huge and huge pieces of Rocks maybe could be some mystery of this Mysterious place!
11AM
When we finally reach Jispa! And the place looked something like this! A lot of stories will be on the way stay tuned. !!
So thats all for today guys! I hope you liked it. 🙏
Thanks for your precious time. 🙏
Love from the Himalayas.❤️