Day 11: Chandratal is just one more mountain away.
8th August, 2011
The day had perfect start to it. Before even brushing I got loose motions. Don’t know how to move on today and to add more things to it, rain started pouring in at Kaza.
So now we had to wait till the weather Gods come in our favour.
I till then took some medicines and got rest everything done. Packing, checking out, bill… stuff like that.
In an hour the skies got little clear and the rain also stopped. We had also finished our breakfast here so it was now time to move on.
It was close to 9am ones we exited Kaza.
The air around was still quite cold so we took one break at the first village we came across for tea and coffee. The place also had a clean loo and by the weather I think by loose motion froze inside 
Anahita bought some chocolates for the local kids and they happily posed with our bikes.
It was time to move on to Losar now.
But before we reached Losar we came across a stream and stream crossing in this cold weather is just what you need to get your heart beating fast. Super fasttttt….
Getting my feet wet so early morning was not something I had anticipated. But I think my body is used to it by now.
We reached Losar, removed our shoes and had some bite here. The usual stuff, maggi and eggs and thin soup.
By 1am we crossed Losar after making the entries in the register. Took some photos as this is the entrance of Spiti Valley if you are coming from Manali side.
Here onwards the road started to gain a little height. There was no drop in performance but as I was on low gears the low coolant thing was an issue. So I took more breaks and we reached the Kunzum top in 45mins to an hour.
Took some photos here and immediately started heading downhill to the Chandratal junction.
In less than 30mins we were 5kms before Batal where a turn takes you to Chandra Tal in about 10-12kms. And the road is not just narrow but some curves are blind and very much on the edge.
One mistake can be very fatal. So we rode very carefully. And to our luck in just 2kms we got one of the biggest streams I have seen on this trip.
Crossing it took a while as it was not very straight. And at the end the road quickly goes up so you can’t even take a breather as you go across.
After covering this obstacle, the rest of the patch was mostly downhill. And in couple of kms we were on flat road.
Ones we reached the North face tent stay we went in and checked out the place and price. Also what all they give for wind protection and the cold in the night.
But then thought of just checking out how far the road goes and till where we can get the bikes near the lake. Also if there were more tents ahead.
We came at a point where the bikes couldn’t go ahead. So now we were confused whether to go back and trek in the morning….or skip the place and head to Batal directly as it was quite freezing out here. The winds were running quite strong.
After a big argument and debate we decided to check in to those North face tent, have some food and come back at this point. Park our bikes at the start of the trek and hike all the way to the lake.
All packed.
Now the bigger problem was that we didn’t know how far exactly is the lake from this point. When you know some distance I think the hike becomes little easy. Its like you know where you have to it.
But we were walking in blank.
And the first couple of kms were quite up hill. The ascent was slowing us very much.
We took many breaks as possible to catch a breath. And the joke was that as soon as a small mountain use to come by we were believing the lake must be just behind it.
In this way I think we covered 4-5 hills, but no lake in sight.
Finally after an hour the first sight of the lake hit our eyes.
I noticed in this season Yes its possible to get the bikes all the way to the lake. We did cross a bulldozer who was at work, trying to make this possible.
We took n number of shots here.
Chandertal is really quite scenic. You can actually tent here and stay if you are carrying all the equipment you need to sustain for a night.
As we started to see the light fading away we decided now its time to head back to the tents.
Return was fast. As most of the patch is downhill so in just I think half an hour we were back at the place where we had kept our bikes.
By now the weather was very cold and I don’t know what it affected on by bike but it just couldn’t start. There was ignition but the rpm refused to go above 1. After 2-3 times hitting starter also it did not woke up.
Then finally it started but I had to open up the throttle fully to get it above 1 rpm. And then in 2 minutes it heated up to ride normal.
We reached back to the North face tent in 2-3 minutes and just went for the Rum.
Our food was also ready so we were sitting in the dinning tent.
Had food and drinks together and the vegetables were cooked neatly despite of this cold weather around us.
By 10pm we went in our tents and the caretaker gave us sleeping bags, blankets and light for the night inside the tent.
I don’t even remember that I removed the shoes before sleeping.
This was one place where I didn’t care much about hygiene.
I was able to get some sleep and also took some medicines for the muscles which were so dearly used up today evening. Hoping that no pain should start tomorrow morning.
Today’s experience taught me some new things on preparing for such events.
I love the way father Himalayas teaches me new things on my every visit to his feet.
Tomorrow the smooth and buttery roads end 
Manali is where we end the day.
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