Sometimes you need to find the real you. The true you who you truly are.. Same is a journey over-here that I will be sharing with you guys!
A solo biking expedition through the most dangerous roads of the Himalayas, over where over a single nights storm vanishes the roads away in the cold Himalayan Desert there lies the most beautiful Magical Lake. Chandra Taal Lake also referred as the lake of the Moon. Believed by the locals and ancient people there are various ancient stories about the Chandra Taal lake about Angels at this place.
So in search of this hidden Gem in the Himalayas I decided to explore the place myself and cover us all the distance on my bike. A solo Expedition. From Manali Himachal Pradesh to Chandratal Lake Spiti. The total distance form Manali to Chandrtal Lake was around 111KM and the road was something like the one that you will be seeing in this post as you will go through!
The journey from Manali till Lahul Spiti was quite relaxing. The roads were good so was the weather, the lush green mountains and the top of the mountains were covered up with the snow making the view even more relaxing.
Being heard from the people of the Lahul and Spiti, they told that this was the only place where there is a bit of greenery and beyond the village named Tandi the cold dry desert will
start and even the condition of the road will get worse till the Moon Lake Chandratal.
Filled the fuel full as this was the last gas station of the place.
In order to reach at my destination I had to cross several Mountain passes and had to make my way all the way upto the place named Chattru which was a village in Spiti through which the road leads towards the Chandratal Lake.
All my pictured in this post will be in POV as that was the only option through which I could record my journey and share it with you guys. So that you guys could get a true picture of the same and even you could experience the essence of Himalayas.
I even had recorded my whole journey on my GoPro Camera, even will be sharing the videos with you guys in my upcoming posts.
So lets begin by breaking the journey to parts, even I was unaware of the places and even the places did not had any names.. But I assure you guys that I will try my best to share my experiences with you guys!
The Last Greens
Somewhere Beyond the village Tandi
It was around 12:30 in the afternoon when I reached this place form Manali Continuously riding from more that five hours. 6AM in the morning when I started my journey from Manali.
Beyond this point, life felt kind of different, even the roads which were wide enough over which riding my bike felt like playing a biking game not felt a bit more serious and the feeling came into my mind that. Adventure Starts Here.
Where the greens starts to vanish and more adventurous colours starts to pop-up.
The journey beyond this point was a whole lot of different experience for me. It had been more than and hour of so riding all alone in this different sided of the Himalayas towards the Mighty peaks of Zanskar range of the Himalayas all alone.
The road was not a road at all and it was a huge landslide through which a passage was formed over which the vehicles were able to move! The arey beyond the greens even lacks in soil and the whole region looked liked a place somewhere not belonging to Earth by Moon. Maybe that could be one of the reason that the Lake of which I was in search of was names Chandra Taal The Lake of the Moon. As per the Hindi word Chandra meaning Moon and Taal Depicting Lake. Therby Chandra Taal. The Moon Lake.
The journey was still yet a lot yet to cover and It was 1:30 PM in the afternoon as per my plans I should reach Chandra Taal by 3 PM in order to reach back towards the half way Manali to a Place named Sissu where I would stay and next day travel back to Manali.
There were a lot of rivers flowing through the roads which were causing immediate landslides due to loose soil in this area. Which makes roads like these the most dangerous roads of the Himalayas.
I was actually having fun riding over such adventurous roads but at certain points it was really very dangerous as the whole road was covered all the way with the huge rocks and water flowing and especially for a guy being all alone in the place there was even no scope of help if needed and a solo rider has to manage everything all by himself that I truly believe brings closer to oneself and a person knows more about himself in such situations.
The journey felt like that it was just me who was in search of the Moon Lake Chandratal because till now I had not seen even a single person or a single vehicles on this road, which increases my enthusiasm and my mind started to question that I the road open? Has there been a landslide.. Have I been stuck in the Dry Desert But without thinking much about thoughts like these I just focused on my journey and the miles that I have to complete.
Still Today I remember each and every point of my journey which was the most adventurous one I had ever been. All alone in the Himalayas.
It felt like that every Mile that I covered just increased the altitude / elevation and I was getting closer and closer to the summit of few peaks. Through which there was this magical trail or the road that let to the Chandra Tal Lake.
After quite a while riding all alone I saw another guys travelling towards Chandratal Lake carrying all of his stuff on his bike and riding solo like me. It just increased my motivation and gave me a boost. We all cheered both of us and drove away!
I knew that It would be quite difficult reaching the destination at time as per the condition of the road having all rocks and water flowing and even at certain points I had to wait till the time when the water level gets decreased so that I could cross my Bike through!
I just had a hope that I would reach on time and would even get time to spend over there and relax. I was literally starving and all tired biking more that seven to eight hours straight. But there was a hope. A hope that kept me going!
There were various signboards stating to drive slow and warning people about the dangers of the place and over speeding!
After riding through the road quite a while I reached at this point where two three roads combined.. Not sure but maybe this place was Chattru through which there was a trail towards the Chandratal Lake.
There even were various cards travelling towards the opposite direction that led to some other place and my was towards the other side. At the point reaching Chattru I felt like that now there is only a bit of journey left and I could reach my destination on time and would get. a chance to see the magical lake for the first time in my life.
The road beyond Chattru was very different as at certain points the road became quite broad and at certain point it became quite narrow. At certain point the road was all covered up with the flowing water and at certain point it was really very dry totally covered up with the tiny rocks.
I even met up with a foreigner couple who too came to explore this place and were on their expedition. The weather being totally clear even made this expedition more adventurous as the mighty peaks of the Zanskar Range of the Himalayas were visible.
At this point it was actually a glacier through which was this pathway. We had to cross this huge glacier of ice in order to reach towards the other side.
This patch of Glacier was around a Mile and had melted half the way just leaving the left overs of the snow and ice.
Falling of rocks was also a major adventure and risk that I encountered during this expedition as this whole area was prone to falling rocks and we have to be very careful throughout as there was no scope of help in case of emergency due to the remoteness of the place.
I was kind of getting closer to the place as per being told by the locals that after crossing a iron bridge It would nearly take half an hour of so in order to reach till the lake. By which reaching this place increased my excitement and all my tiredness just got covered up with the excitement that I had.
I nearly got really very excited that I was literally in a full form of reaching the place no matter how! The last patch of the road was even quite adventurous that had several patches and most part of the road was broken all the way.
Around 3:12 PM I finally reached my destination, all tired and the level of happiness at its peak. It was dream come true moment guys! Visiting my dream location through the most adventurous and dangerous roads and returning back half the way on a single day was really quiet challenging for me... It reached Sissu at around 11 PM that night and I was all tired, The most tired I have ever been throughout my life was this day! But these are the things that makes me alive! And thats Adventure!
The Chandratal Lake
So thats all for today guys. I hope you liked it.
All these photographs were captured my me using my GoPro Hero 6 Mounted to a chest mount throughout the journey.
Thanks for your precious time.🙏
Love form the Himalayas.❤️
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Thank you so much @ybanezkim26 and @pinmapple for mentioning and stopping by. I am
very glad that you liked my post and mentioned. Means a lot.🙏
Many greetings and blessings from Himalayas🏔. Have a nice day 😊 And many congratulations to the others members mentioned over the post. 🙏
What a brutal experience !!!! to do that route between mountains and those landscapes must be crazy. I also travel but backpacker type, I gather to be able to have my own Motorcycle, meanwhile as they say out there "the important thing is that at the end of the day, the wind hits you in the face" Greetings @pranavinaction
Thanks for passing by @oscarvzla To be very honest the experience by as tiring as it could be! But the views were just absolutely amazing.