Spiti diary: Dhankar Lake

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.

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.

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!!

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.

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!!

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.

Dhankar lake


Dhankar lake photo taken from the top

Here is the snapshot of our trek. I tracked using my GPS device.

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