Chandratal is a lake with alluring beauty situated in the Lahaul Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh. The charm of this magnificent lake cannot be delineated in words, array of snow burnt mountains reflecting themselves in the deep blue water makes the view awe-inspiring. Chandratal word is a combination of two words Chandra(moon) and tal(lake) hence this lake is also called by the name “Moon lake”. Situated in the midst of Spiti valley this splendid lake beholds number of mysterious stories and the enchanted beauty of the Himalayas.
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| Scenic view of the majestic mountains |
The cultural innocence of the place and astonishing beauty of the nature will become part of your eternal memory. Number of travel junkies every year who cannot control their adrenaline rush prefer to take the adventurous treks over the Rohtang pass to admire the beauty of this magnificent lake. This place is not only visited by the local tourists but also visited by the tourists across the globe. The highway to Chandratal is not even metaled it runs through the stony roads full of pebbles and mud which makes it hard to ride on and hence the cabs are very expensive.
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| Snow burnt mountains |
Our trip to Chandratal
The summer vacations were too boring and only last 3 days of the vacations were left. Me and my friends wanted to go somewhere but we were not able to decide the place because of the short duration of time. I went home and surfed through the net, I came across a number of places but only one place fascinated me the most and this place was Chandratal situated in the Spiti valley. The place was decided and now the second thing was how to reach this beautiful place. We had two options, either we could go for the self drive car option or we could book a cab. As all my friends are adventure junkies so we all decided to go with the 1st choice of self driving a car through one of the most bad and stony roads of Spiti valley which none of us had ever visited. We got the car at a price of 5k for a day and for two days it was 10k, the plan was set and the permissions were taken from the SDM office. We decided to head out for Chandratal from Manali at 5am, early morning.
The morning in Manali was fresh and calm, but the adrenaline inside us was gushing. We left from Manali at 5:30am crossing the town market towards our ultimate destination. The sight we witnessed after leaving Manali cannot be delineated in words. The panorama of the place was stunning, the scenic beauty of the villages like Kothi, Marhi and Gulaba on our way was awe-inspiring.
The lush green emerald mountains and the trees covered with the morning dew added further to the beauty of our journey.
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| Picturesque view of Rohtang pass |
After an hour’s journey we reached Rohtang pass where we stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the coldness of glaciers. We captured some beautiful pictures of Rohtang pass in our cameras.
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Glacier caves in Rohtang |
The journey was sober and easy till now, but the tough part was yet to come. Rohtang pass is at an altitude of 3979m from sea level, the journey to the top of Rohtang is comparatively easy than moving downwards from Rohtang.
The roads were in a great mess and loopy structures of the road further added to our problems.
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| Roads in terrible condition |
But the beauty which we were witnessing made us forget everything about our problems.
After an hour’s journey we reached the place named gramphu, the two bifurcating roads leading from that place caused us a slight problem in identifying the correct way.
We stopped there for a few minutes and than one HRTC bus arrived, we asked for the way and the driver suggested to follow the bus. After few hours we reached the place called Chatru which had a few stalls where we freshened ourselves and had some food and snacks.
The places were so deserted and the land was so barren that sometimes we were confused that if we were on the right track or not? But after a few hours of journey we reached the place called Batal which was somewhat 14 kms from Chandratal lake.
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| Frozen lakes on the way |
We already had a booking of 2 rooms in Batal guest house, so we stopped there for a few minutes and enjoyed the scenic beauty of the cold deserted land that our eyes were witnessing.
While we were capturing the images of the place, our eyes caught something strange coming towards us, for a few minutes we could not figure out what it was but as it came closer we could make out that it was a left drive truck with a very unique number plate.
We interacted with the family that was in the truck and they told us about their journey from Russia to India, they told us that they have crossed Mongolia, China and many more countries and they had a long journey ahead. The most interesting thing that amazed me was that their 3 year old son was also born during their journey.
These are the few things that really inspire me to travel .Traveling to the distant lands without knowing the consequences of what is going to happen next is such an experience that no one can forget, where you meet unknown people from so diverse cultures, but having one thing in common, that is, the urge to explore the new places and make them part of your eternal memories.
After that we left for chandertal which was at a distance of 14km from Batal, when we reached there my eyes were stunned and I was amazed because I had never seen such a beautiful thing in my life. The deep blue water of the lake cascading the reflection of the snow burnt mountains was a true example of nature’s elegance and the gentle breeze further complimented the whole moment.
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| Deep blue water of Chandratal lake |
While everyone was capturing the images I gently sat near the lake feeling the calmness and peace which that place was offering me, at that point of time I thought that it was one of the finest decisions of my life that I chose this place. After few hours of sight seeing we set up the camp and as everyone was tired enough we went to sleep.
This was our short though sweet trip to chandratal which I will never forget in my life.
