Our stomachs didn’t seem to agree with our tongues and some of us woke up with a bad stomach ache. After the tiring ride of the previous day, the energy in the camp was a bit on the lower side. A bowl of porridge and honey also didn’t help sprucing up the energy. Moreover Amal came down with shoulder pain and decided to give the ride a miss. ( He did play the photographer part perfectly though, capturing some blissful moments of our journey through the day).
The going was very slow, but slowly the scenery started changing. We got stunning views of the valley, the sun peeking from behind the mountains, shining on the river, meadows on both sides and the occasional flock of blue sheep roaming in the mountains seemed to help us get in the groove.
Our destination was Kaza with a slight detour to Dhankar monastery. The slight detour was a journey of 8 km which served mesmerising views along with a side dish of gruelling gradient at each turn. Counting down the kilometres at every milestone, we finally reached the monastery (rather a cafe with the view of the monastery). We parked out bikes, sat in the Sun, gorging on delicious pita bread sandwiches and viewing the monastery from the distance. Our stomachs full, and with no intent to spend more time in entering the monastery, we decided to take the route that skirted it at the base and roll along to rejoin the road back towards Kaza. I know, I know, all the climb just for some pita bread sandwiches :P . Well, what do I say, we are connoisseurs of good food !!
The ride to Kaza got better with time except for the last climb towards our hotel - Snow Lion. The owner served us some nice piping hot food ( sabji and roti) . Thanks to the spare day that we had in Kaza, everyone got done with their laundry and had a nice afternoon nap. Late afternoon everyone finally found their way to the common corridor, chit chatting and waiting for the evening tea.
Deepti and Rinchin decided to drop by to meet Manjiri and Sumedh ( Deepti and Rinchin both work in Kibber with the NCF, for snow leopard conservation and they had some breathtaking photographs of the big cats) We promised to visit their centre in Kibber the next day, and then left to explore the town of Kaza.
After Nako and Tabo, Kaza was more of a small city, streets bustling with lots of vendors, shops everywhere and cafes doting the landscape. We saw quite a few tourist groups roaming around exploring the city. A chance encounter with the wings of Himalayas (another group) prompted an exchange of recommended dishes at the sweet shop - Jalebi, samosas and gulabjamuns coming to the fore.
With a lot of time to kill, we meandered on towards the river, watching the Sun set over the valley. The mountains behind bathed in the golden light, while purple hues formed in the sky towards the other end. Each one found their own spot to enjoy their solitude and soak in the beauty around us.
The bill at Taste of SPITI - look at the number of icecreams we ate :)
On the way back we stopped at “The Taste of Spiti” a small cafe run by Ishita who also does a lot of volunteering and NGO work in the Spiti Valley. Manjiri wanted to plan her journey post the cycling trip with Ishita and so we barged into the cafe. Pretty soon, we had ordered everything on the menu. Although, the overall food was great, we soon zeroed in on the ice cream with Bailey’s. Within minutes we had finished the entire stock of ice-cream that they had and Ishita had to ask us to come back the next day for the next round. Grudgingly we agreed and walked back to our hotel.
In the evening another tourist group had landed in the hotel. Some of us caught up with them, discussing star trail photography and such. With no early start the next day, we ended up chit chatting about our career paths and how we were, where we were. Amal, who after completing double masters in fluid mechanics and heat transfer, had worked his way through many positions in AT&T to finally retire (from a corporate job) with an aspiration to build a positive energy house back in the USA. He also wanted to go back to school and learn some more ( Some enthu I would say :)) Sumedh and me were pretty much in a similar boat, with software techie backgrounds. Joss, very much like his personality had an intriguing story to tell. An ex army guy , and current VP of operations for a major airlines, he told us about his journey of cycling from Pune to Kanyakumari and back, surviving on just toffee and bread, and some food from temples. He narrated his experiences of his 2 month hike from Darjeeling to Kathmandu, living on rice and the food that they got in the villages. One of the experience was about a time when the villagers had got offended when their group had put a lock on the guest house that they were staying in . With Joss around, there’s always an interesting story to be heard.
It was closer to midnight, when retired to our rooms for the night. A rare late night during the expedition.