Date: 15 July 2025
Route: Marhi → Rohtang Pass → Koksar → Gramphu → Sissu → Shooling
Start elevation: 3,360 meters or 11,020 feet ASL
End elevation: 3,200 meters or 10,500 feet ASL
Distance: 55 kms
Time taken: 8 hrs
Road: Smooth tarred roads all the way till destination
Connectivity: Jio (Prepaid/Postpaid) and Airtel
It was the day when we had to brave the first of the five passes for this roadtrip - The Rohtang Pass. I was equal parts excited and equal parts nervous; it was a nice feeling to be experiencing. The weather had opened up in the morning, the skies were blue and sun light was a welcome change from the previous day gloom. By 0840 hrs, stomachs full and bills paid, we were ready to roll.
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| The bill at Chamba Dhaba |
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| The longer we climbed, the closer we got to the clouds and the sunlight seemed to be getting weaker |
I was expecting the road from Marhi onwards to be deserted and bereft of any humans save for an occasional shepherd appearing in the distance as we hadn't crossed any tourist the day before. But today too we had intermittent company of Oil Tankers, Bolero 4x4 Pick-Ups and ATVs (Paragliders going to the top for launch) racing ahead. Most of them were friendly and would stop by (as we paused for a breather) saying, "Bas top aa gaya, iss kainchi ke baad hi to hai."
Needless to say, the top never came after the agli kainchi; in hindsight now, I can recall talking to truckers in the days ahead during our meal breaks, almost all of them downplaying the difficulty and altitude in a bid to make it seem (or hear?) easy to us. Oh the sweet ways of us humans!
By 1230 hrs, both of us had made to the Rohtang Top; it was cold and windy and most (if not all) of the shacks were covered by tarps owing to little footfall.
I have hazy mental images of my final ascent to Rohtang; the coulds hanged close to the ground, the visibility remained low, it looked surreal with no one around but for burly bovines (I believe they were Yaks) lazily grazing the scanty grasses around. I had shrugged at the possibility of them charging towards me in hostility, but thankfully, none of them seemed to mind the unfamiliar visitor!
The ride to Rohtang was, as with all the time on this journey, tough but very, very beautiful. There were patches of serene green grass punctuated by beautiful wild flowers of a million colours skating the shoulders of the roads. I made it a point to sit near them as we during the numerous breaks that we had taken. To watch and hear the oil tanker trucks pass us ever so often with their engine houling away to extract the last molecule of oxygen to power its way up was thrilling; in their wake, they left trailing whiffs of (mineral?) oil which dissipated as soon as they had appeared. It was a magnificent experience.
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| The board announcing our arrival at the top! |
We were still not hungry and decided to have our lunch at Gramphu or Koksar as there would me more filling (and better) options there. The top is almost flat and we were happy to no longer having to strain our legs to push the bikes ahead. What we saw next almost made my jump in joy; there were switchbacks after switchbacks but only downhill!
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| The roads leading to Gramphu; one can see numerous cascades in the distance joining the Chenab. Every frame was beautiful beyond imagination and I could do nothing but try, in the most desperate attempt, to soak it all in! |
It was time to descend; it was a heady feeling to simply steer out bikes with no pedal inputs. Throughout this journey, we would wait for the climbs to get over so we could savour the descent after. The whole seciton was quite dangerous and had to be attempted precariously; for starters, I had a difficult time keeping my eyes on the road for the whole valley looked out-wordly-beautiful. The switchbacks were sharp on this one and we had to take pauses while going down to let the hydraulic disc brakes cool down lest they give up on us and take us plunging into the Chenab!
None of us was complaining (far from it!); it was one of the most magical moments of my lifetime and the fact that we were going just a little over running speeds, made it all the more slower and it felt as if time itself had slowed down just. It all felt like a blissful trance; one that you're in control of.
We descended in no time and had reached Gramphu by 1345 hrs. Stopping for lunch in one of many dhabas there, I had my fill of delectable Rajma-Chawal. I couldn't have enough of it; I, for all the love of this world, wanted to have some more but riding a bicycle with one's stomach splitting at seams is an experience I'd rather not have and decided against it.
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| A Plateful each of Rajma-Chawal and Dal-Chawal. Goodluck trying to find someone who looks at you the way these steaming Pahadi Rajma do as you take off your gloves, lean back on your chair and give your derrière a much needed rest! |
Lunch done, bottles refilled and nature's calls heeded to, it was time to move. The roads till Koksar is well paved and one rides along the valley with Chenab on his Left mostly. For the most part, the route is flat, save for some rolling inclines that are not tough at all to handle. The difficult part for the day is mostly done. Koksar sees vast cultivation of Cabbage and Potatoes and we could see green fields flanking both the sides of the road as the villagefolk hunched over as they tended to their plantations. These fields are mostly irrigated by sprinklers and on a couple of occasions the arc of their water would spill over to the road, splashing some onto us as well! The whole experience was exhilerating, to say the least.
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| The beautiful roads to Koksar We were soon to arrive at the North Portal of the Atal Tunnel |
By 1500 hrs, we were at the North Portal of the Atal Tunnel; the intersection was abuzz with tourists and was a welcome change to see so many people after almost 2 days. We stopped here and took a while to comptemplate and decide the next course of action and it was decided to head past Sissu and get the next suitable accomodation that we could.
We rode for 11 more kilometres till Shooling which is situated 5 kms after Sissu, The road to Shooling is no different, smooth with rolling inclines again (but steeper ascends than before), and a lot more traffic. Having taken a stop for tea and then some more to catch our breaths, we passed Sissu and could spot the famous Sissu waterfall from the road! I would love to hike to the waterfall someday and experience it up close. By 1700 hrs, we had zeroed in on a homestay (for Rs. 1100 per night per head inclusive of Dinner and Breakfast) and decided to call it a day. I took good use of the daylight and the electric geyser to quickly rinse my salt cacked liners in detergent and hung them out to dry.
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| The roads overlooking our balcony |
The time till dinner was spent bathing, lazying, charging the gadgets and getting things in order. We also went to to the PHC (Onkar had an aching knee), but to no avail; There was no one there. The food was a simple and homely affair of Rice, Dal, Roti and *drum rolls* cabbage sabzi. It was nice and satiating. We hit the bed but not before capturing the crystal clear night sky that we had a full view of.
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| Our room in Shooling |
The room was nice and comfortable; I had slept good.
Tommorrow we were to reach Jispa.
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