Spiti Valley (day 4-7)

DAY 4:
After getting the permit which allows to pass through this part of the valley (near the China/Tibetan boarder), we left Kaza and went after a short ride to the Kungri Monastery in the Pin Valley (part of a national park). The monastery isn't very nice, a new building, but the landscape is nice (photo 1).
Afterwards we went back to the Spiti valley and visited the Dhankar Monastery (3887 meters high, photo 2) and situated on a extreme position above a mountain which isn't very compact, it's in danger of collapsing... But Fredi enjoyed it, he got in touch with a strange creature in this monastery (photo 3). From the village above the monastery we had a nice view towards the Spiti valley (photo 4). From the main village it's possible to see the position of the monastery (photo 5 on the hand side).
Finally we drove to Tabo, another village in the Spiti valley and famous for its Tibetan monastery (photo 6) which is a UNESCO world heritage. From outside it isn't any interesting, the treasure lies inside with old and rich wall paintings.



DAY 5:
From Tabo we drove up to Nako Village which has a small lake (1 and 2). This village is very authentic and rural; nice houses (photo 3 and 4), everywhere animals around (photo 5) and friendly people, like this 86-year old grand-father (photo 6)! Afterwards we continued our drive and stopped at the junction of the Spiti and Satluj (which comes directly from Tibet) rivers (photo 7). The Tibetan boarder was just about 10 km away, very close, but military presence was high. Otherwise we got more traffic on this day and often we had to wait because of works in progress.



DAY 6:
We slept in Kalpa (altitude 2960 meters, photo1) which lies high above the northern side of the Kinnaur valley and from there we had a nice view towards the 6000 meters high mountains on the other side (photo 2). After a 5 hours drive we arrived in Sarahan (2165 meters) which has a nice, old temple (photo 3, 4, 5). On a walk we climbed higher up and had a nice view of the mountains at sunset time (6, 7).



DAY 7:
The last about 150 kilometers from Sarahan to Shimla were stamped by a very bad and bumpy road. There wasn't anymore anything interesting, just quite a lot of traffic (especially many trucks) and as the day before the places got busier and more Indian (dirtier for example...). We only passed 2 Yaks which relaxed off the road.



During these 7 days we saw an amazing landscape, changing a lot, on a high altitude and nearly no tourists (in total less than 20 people). A fantastic adventure in an incredible country.