Spiti Valley

I know I have only just posted the last blogg but we have ready internet access here so just getting things up todate.

view from the roof of our guest house in Kalpa

A very common sight in India

We left Kalpa early for a long 7 hour drive heading further north into the Spiti valley. As we left the Kinnau valley the road wound slowly higher and the terrain changed from green wooded hillsides to high desert mountains on either side of the Spiti river, most of the road here was around 3000m and the population mostly buddhist.

Nice garden in Tabo

A very old Buddhist temple in Tabo, the oldest in the world in fact

Dhanka Monastery

Bobby and Vikas on the roof of Dhanka

At what claims to be the highest village in the world

removing shoes for temple visit

Ki or Key Monastery in Spiti

 

Bobby finds some ice

Its cold at 15000ft even when the sun is shinning

A very alpine view after leaving the Spiti valley

Vikas, our driver and guide

Prayer wheels

We spent the next 4 days in Spiti visiting many hillside monasteries and villages, taken tea with monks, sub zero temperatures  and some hair raising roads up to some of the highest villages in the world at over 4500m. Our last day of the trip was to be a 10 hour drive for 200km to Manali  down to some thicker air at around 2000m. Some of the roads were so bad we could only travel at less than 20kmh, more like river beds than actual roads!

Yesterday, the 15^th, we arrived in Manali which is a bit like a European ski town with an Indian flavour, we even had an Italian meal least night, a real luxury!

The view coming down the mountain into Manali

This is the end of our jeep safari but we are continuing with our driver for a few more days to Dharamshala and Dalhousie, we will then travel on to Amritsar and the Golden temple.