Manali-Kullu-Shimla Road Trip Dec'14

[ToughGuy]

Prologue

I was planning for a week long road trip to Mount Abu-Udaipur in December'14 end but due to leave issues this trip was rescheduled to second week of this month. Me and my wifey was all set to start for this trip on 6th of Dec but due to some urgent work at office trip was postponed to 7th Dec'14, something stuck my mind overnight and I changed my plan, we started our journey to hills with only one thing in head "Snowfall" with this word only one place hit my mind "Manali".

Day-1 & 2

Date of Journey: 7-12-2014
Start time: 4:50 AM from Dwarka New Delhi
End time: 4:00 PM at Manali HPTDC Hotel Beas
Total time: 10 Hrs 50 Minutes
Breaks: Two numbers 30 minutes each
Route taken: New Delhi - Karnal - Ambala City - Shambhu Barrier- Kharar - Rupnagar - Kiratpur Sahib - Swarghat - Bilaspur - Mandi - Aut - Kullu - Manali

Even with short notice of time we managed to pack our bags just in nick of time and started our week long road trip to Manali-Kullu-Shimla, with no booking in hand and no plan whatsoever we headed towards beautiful hills of Himachal. Our first break was at Sukhdev Dhaba for breakfast and second break was at Hotel highway treat near Sunder Nagar.

Road condition from Janakpuri District to mukarba chowk was pathetic due to ongoing flyover construction work, from Mukarba chowk to Shambhu barrier road was fantastic with few diversions en-route due to ongoing flyover construction work, from Shambhu barrier to Kharar road was narrow and slow, from Kharar to Kiratpur Sahib road was superb and fast, from Kiratpur Sahib to Bilaspur drive was painful due to numerous potholes and heavy truck traffic of ACC plant, after Sunder Nagar onwards road condition changed dramatically and was quite fast, from Kullu to Manali route was most scenic and again fast due to newly laid tarmac.

Found HPTDC hotel Beas along highway it has it's own private parking, nothing much to write about this budget hotel, this hotel is at walking distance from Manali mall road and had small rooms with balcony facing river Beas.

On Day-1 evening we strolled around Mall road Manali in the evening and booked HPTDC tourist bus ticket to Rohtang pass for Day-2. Why Bus? due to bad weather condition forecast of Rohtang and advice of Hotel staff.

To start with please find pics from Day-1 below:

Odo reading at the start of this trip



Our first break at Sukhdev Dhaba Murthal for breakfast



Mukarba chowk to Shambhu barrier road was fantastic with few diversions en-route due to ongoing flyover construction work



Kiratpur Sahib to Bilaspur drive was painful due to numerous potholes and heavy truck traffic of ACC plant



Second break was at Hotel highway treat near Sunder Nagar.



Maggi breaks usually are quite refreshing for me on my long drives



After crossing Aut you will find these blissful road



Explorer-1 enjoying this beautiful drive along with us, our faithful companion



Mesmerising view of river Beas which travel along with us most of the time



Kullu to Manali route was most scenic and again fast due to newly laid tarmac
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[ToughGuy]

Day-1 and Day-2 of log contd...

HPTDC day long tourist bus service to Rohtang pass charged Rs. 350 per head, bus started from Manali bus depot at 9:00 AM and returned back at 5:00 PM, we covered Rohtang paas and Solang valley on Day-2 after advice of bus staff we hired windcheater, gum boots & gloves set from Kothi at Rs. 250 per head which proved quite useful later on.

As usual Rohtang paas was full of tourists weather was quite merciless here spine chilling wind with dust storm blowing, headache started soon after couple of Km's of walk and I became breathless due to exertion. After roaming around a little bit we returned to our bus in an hour or so had a fantastic veg thali in lunch at Chamba dhaba, Marhi for Rs. 120 per plate.

My visit to Solang valley was quite disappointing without snow I found this place worthless to visit, cable car at valley was charging Rs. 500 bucks per head for to-and-fro journey to some view point above which I felt useless considering state of affairs around.

Explored local Manali market in the evening which I found quite small, had dinner at HPTDC hotel which ends our day-2 journey.

Trip meter reading after covering Delhi-Manali stretch



HPTDC hotel Beas, located near government bus stop Manali



View of rives Beas from our hotel room Balcony



Mall road Manali



Fantastic road condition with couple of bad stretches between Manali to Rohtang pass, any vehicle can do this stretch with little bit of care



Manali-Rohtang pass route was quite scenic



Kothi village, views from here was breathtaking



One more scenic view from Kothi village



First view of Pir Panjal range after de-boarding our bus at Rohtang pass



After couple of Km's walk we find snow
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[ToughGuy]

Pics contd from our day-2 journey

After couple of Km's walk reached up close to snow



Found quite tough to walk on snow with gum boots which lacks proper insulation



Walk upto snow was quite slippery and scary, lesson learnt "good snow shoes are must for even these small adventures"



Numerous taxis and private vehicles are lined up to serve tourists



Prayer flags at Rohtang paas



Village Marhi midway on Manali-Rohtang paas route, it has few dhabas



Frozen waterfall on Manali-Rohtang pass stretch



Dull and tourist less Solang valley desperately waiting for snow fall



View of mountains from Solang valley



HPTDC hotel Kunzum located right on mall road Manali
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[TSIVipul]

Finally, the tough guy is back and he is back with an another travelogue.

Looks like Polo is munching miles at a quick pace - great going.

I was really missing you buddy

 

[ToughGuy]

Finally, the tough guy is back and he is back with an another travelogue.

Looks like Polo is munching miles at a quick pace - great going.

I was really missing you buddy

Thanks TSIVipul for your encouragement, your words keep me going.

Yes Polo crossed 72K mark and eager to cross 100K mark

Missed you too buddy

 

[Highway Ranger]

Nice pictures, ToughGuy! Dream destination!!!

 

[ToughGuy]

Nice pictures, ToughGuy! Dream destination!!!

Thanks Highway Ranger

 

[AppU]

Dream destination!!!

Lets plan to make it real

 

[ToughGuy]

Day-3 of our journey from Manali to Kullu

We started day-3 of our journey by visiting Hidimba Devi Temple



Worship place of Veer Ghatotkach located nearby



Soon we started our journey towards Kullu town



Road between Manali to Kullu was quite scenic and fantastic



HPTDC The Sarvari, one of the best property of Himachal tourism in terms of hospitality and VFM



Local Kullu market, we just walked around to understand the culture of this place



Raghunath temple, unfortunately the Idol of Lord Raghunath was stolen a day before :(



Shobla multiplex and food court was located in Shobla hotel compound
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[ToughGuy]

Day-4 of our journey Kullu - Manikaran - Kullu

Trip meter at the time of start of day-4



Road from Kullu to Manikaran was in good shape, except few patches



Explorer-1 posing along river Parvati which followed us till Manikaran



Narrow curves were barricaded properly on this route



Approach to Manikaran Sahib gurudwara parking is narrow but manageable



Guru Nanak Dev ji came to this place in 1574 Bikrami with his disciples Bhai Bala & Bhai Mardana.



It is also believed that there is no need to pay a visit to “Kashi” after visiting this place
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[ToughGuy]

Day-4 of our journey Kullu - Manikaran - Kullu

The springs at Manikaran come out to surface with pressure and are very hot



he water is so hot that rice for the “langar” is cooked by putting it into a linen-bag and dipping it into the boiling water



The water of the spring is also supposed to have curative powers and considered extremely auspicious



After spending a hour or so at Manikaran Sahib we headed back to Kullu



Trip meter reading after reaching HPTDC The Sarvari Kullu, covered 84 kms on day-4
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[ToughGuy]

Day 5: Kullu to Shimla

Route: Kullu - Mandi - Sundernagar - Ghaghas - Sararh - Nalwar - Niharkhan basla - Darlaghat - Lahdi - Kharighatti - Ghanahatti - Shimla

Found heavy truck traffic till Lahdi stretch of 10 kms was narrow near Darlaghat if I recall correctly the place, had no advance booking on this trip so plan was to park Explorer-1 in public parking and search for hotel on mall road itself. Unfortunately just a day before our visit cart road portion near high court caves in.

Trip meter reading at the start of day-5 journey



Three kms long Aut tunnel connects Kullu-Manali with rest of the country



The old highway got submerged by Beas river after this dam was built over it at Larji



Bad road stretch after crossing Sundernagar



Blissful road started after leaving Manali-Chandigarh highway after Ghaghas



Beautiful view of mountain range



Explorer-1 too was enjoying this scenic stretch



Beautiful road continues and made our journey merrier
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[ToughGuy]

Day 5: Kullu to Shimla journey continues

This route was quite scenic near Shimla



Cart road caves in near High court which leads to diversion



Shimla Muncipal corporation parking for general public



Hired porter from hotel to carry luggage upto room



Found this Hotel Sangeet near High court end of Mall road



Nice clean rooms with excellent service



Got good off season discount too



Weather was quite good when we reached Shimla



Witnessed this beautiful sunset from Mall road Shima



Spent the evening roaming around Mall road which was less crowded for a change
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[ToughGuy]

Day 6 & Day-7: Shimla

Since early morning of day-6 weather started taking turn, non stop heavy rain shower started and it's continued all throughout the day and snowfall started from late evening which became quite heavy from day-7.

Please find below pics from day-6 and day-7 of both rainfall and snowfall :)

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[ToughGuy]

Day-7: Shimla to Delhi

As the weather condition started deteriorating with the start of heavy snowfall from morning we decided to head back Delhi. Before start of our return journey please find below last set of snowfall pics of Shimla.

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