12th August 2014
At Tabo, two Israeli girls joined us. They were heading to
Dhankar and somehow they came to know that our destination and they decided to
hitchhike.
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| Road towards Dhankar |
A detour from Kaza-Tabo road takes to Dhankar village. At
the end of the village is Dhankar monastery precariously perched on a hill
overlooking the confluence of Spiti and Pin Valley rivers.
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| Confluence of Spiti and Pin Valley river |
It was late noon and we were hungry. We gulped down chow
mein which was the only item that was available. After a quick visit to
monastery, we directed our attention towards Dhankar Lake. That was the main reason
for our Dhankar visit. We had made some theoretical calculations of sun
direction near the lake and found that afternoon was the best time to take
photos of the lake!!
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| Dhankar village |
Locals mentioned that the lake was at the other side of the
hill. It was hard to climb directly due to the steepness but walk a roundabout
way to reach the lake. “An hour of walk should take you to the lake” was the
words from local people. We promptly followed their direction started to climb
up.
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| Near the lake |
We gained altitude very soon and Dhankar and its monastery
were way down below. The entire valley opened up as we climbed up. My speed was
slower than usual. May be I was not acclimatized. For about 25 minutes we were
walking completely away from the lake. That was to avoid the steep climb. Then
the track turned towards the lake. After walking about 40 minutes, we reached a
plain area and within few minutes Dhankar Lake was visible. We had made it in
pretty good time!!
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| Almost near Dhankar lake. Krishna walking ahead |
It is a small but pristine lake. A small gompa was constructed
next to the Lake. The water was kind of greenish. Apart from a herdsman there
was no one around the lake. And we spent good amount of time enjoying the beauty
and taking snaps.
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| Dhankar lake |
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| Dhankar lake photo taken from the top |
Here is the snapshot of our trek. I tracked using my GPS
device.
Labels: Himalayas, lake, Spiti, trek
