Kugti Village...Heard of it Yet?: October 2012

It was the April of 2012, a month before I lost my Bachelorhood, I had to do a road trip or a trek. A trek to a good location was out of question due to most of the upper reaches engulfed by the snow. I had heard of Kugti Pass a few months ago, but that in April was impossible, but a trek upto the Keling temple was a certainty. Opportunity presented itself and we grabbed it with both our hands. Well you gotta appreciate me for rescuing time for writing this blog after such long. How? Better half is back to Bombay for a while..

Few months ago me and Hriday (office colleague) had done a road trip to Khirsu (http://tazzo-khirsu.blogspot.in/), and once again he agreed to join me on another road trip cum trek. Well, both of us love cars and love to drive them fast, go got our music packed our bags and headed straight to Kugti. Before hand we had did a little research on the route, trek and climate. All seemed in our favor.

THE ROUTE

On 28th April, morning 4:30 Hrs loaded my luggage in Hriday’s Ford Fieasta and began our journey. In no time we found ourselves crusing on the highway at good speeds. Our plan was to reach Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, by evening. We had our breakfast, at a dhaba and by lunch time we were crossing Pathankot. Soon we stopped at a quaint place for lunch. The Guy cooked delicious mutton with roti, only to follow it up with one of the worst chicken we had ever eaten. Not to forget the berries we had of the tree here (Sethu). Somehow people dint bother much about them, either they were lying on the floor or dryin up on trees!

Once lunch was out of our way, mountain roads awaited us and these are the roads that excite us the most. Good, decent and bad roads and awesome scenery lead us to Chamba. Buy evening we were at Chamba covering about 640km. Chamba has a massive playground, right at the center of the town and everything else surrounds it. After much researching the place for hotel, we opted to stay in rather slightly expensive Himachal Pradesh tourism Hotel Iravati. Massive and clean rooms, poor chai but yummy pakodas. Soon we got fresh, had bath and went out for a walk. Chamba dint have any fancy restaurants, but lot of roadside eateries. Chomped on a few items and decided to have dinner back in hotel.

Anybody planning on visiting Chamba should know, its worth not more than a day’s stay, post which you might start getting bored.

Somewhere after Ludhiana

Entering Pathankot

Ascent to Chamba just begins

Sethu berry at lunch place

i hope we dint have him for lunch

Some excellent roads on the way - sarcasm!

or was it him we had?

the good mutton curry for lunch

the tricky landslide zone

the bulldozer/crane on a Zzzzzzzz.....

Finally at Iravati - Chamba

the City Playground at Chamba

Kugti Trip n Trek: Chamba to Hadsar to Dharol to Kugti – The Travel

Next morning we decided to leave early, latest by 7 am, because we had to make our drive upto Dharol, via Hadsar and Bharmour and then trek upto Kugti village. Soon we were caught out in a landslide section, where a truck was stuck in the mud slush. Soon it cleared, and we safely negotiated out way out of it. Then came a turn, where a bulldozer seemed resting after a tiring days work, it was actually toppled on its side due to a heavy load it was trying to clear.

A tragedy struck soon after, we were driving next to a river, behind a tractor. It stopped for no reason all of a sudden, and started to reverse. Since it had stopped suddenly, I braked quite close to it and its back scratched the front chassis of Hridays car. By the time we got off he zoomed away. That being their local area, we decided to not get into any arguments and moved on with a grumpy face. By midday, we reached the dirt track which leads to Dharol, the last point upto which one can drive. I hear they are making a road upto Kugti village. Mind you this quaint sober place is full of pilgrims, while the Manimahesh Yatra is in season, so check when you plan to visit this place.

As soon as we drove a while on the dirt track, I sighted a Yellow Throated Himalayan Marten at a distance. Short stop, took some pictures, running after a bunch of it, took some waterfall shots at a distance, and continued our drive towards Dharol. On reaching there, unpacked all the un-required things from the car and changed to our walking gear. Clouds had grown dark and drizzle was about to begin. We had nice onion Maggie, and started our gentle walk to Kugti.

By 2pm we started or trek to Kugti. It was drizzling a bit, all the way. The ~6km was is very gentle climb to Kugti village and not tiring at all. It was around 3.30 we reached the Kugti village school and soon after we were standing right outside the Forest Rest House (FRH) of Kugti village. We were gambling on it being free, so we can manage to stay there. Else there are lots of homestay options available in Kugti. But during peak season one certainly needs to pre-book the FRH in advance from Bharmour. Hriday stayed back and I ventured in to Kugti village to get hold of caretaker of the FRH. Once I got hold of him, after initial reluctance he decided to let us stay at minimal price, while also offering us dinner and breakfast.

After some photoshooting around, it soon got dark. We rested, soon the caretaker bought us simple dinner and we were off to sleep.

the yellow throat-ed Marten

a pair running away

the dirt track from Hadsar to Dharol

Had some maggie and headed for trek

the trek route & river Budhil carving the valley

the forest rest house at Kugti

and the views from the FRH

Kugti Trip n Trek: Kugti Village to Keling Temple – The Trek

Next morning we woke up early. Our plan was to trek upto Keling Temple and return back to Kugti and head to Hadsar and reach Dalhousie by evening. Caretaker offered us nice sabzi-roti breakfast with chai and started walking towards Keling village. The trail is pretty straight forward and always stays to the left. If one gets down towards the stream and crosses it, could head to Manimahesh lake.

Unfortunately, since we had no guide no idea of peaks we saw. It was while we were on the trail, we met two people heading towards Keling temple. They overtook us and stayed in sight for quite some time. Soon a gorgeous Dog joined us and started escorting us to our trek to Keling temple.

Keling temple is located at a height higher than Kugti village. The rather gently climbing trail now starts climbing very steeply, with switchbacks to reach Keling temple. At this point I left Hriday and the two men, behind, exactly where the trail starts climbing. I hit my rhythm, and dint find it suitable to stop for a breather. It took me about 20 mins to cover this very steap climb to Keling temple. There was no one at the temple, just me and the Dog. After a while I managed to sight Hriday resting at a point, and the two men half way of the climb. Soon one of them arrived claiming to be the Pundit (preist) of the temple. In a while Hriday arrive. We took a breather and took some shots. The dog had to get its reward for keeping us company, so fed him a packet of biscuit.