Spiti Sojourn – Spiti Valley – Part 3 – Local Sightseeing

After a tiring journey from Kalpa to Kaza, we were all too tired, so, we woke up quite late at around 8-9 am. As it was quite late to go anywhere far off, the plan for the day was to visit the beautiful villages around Kaza.

We began at around 11 am.

It was a landscape day and I hardly photographed 2-3 species.

So, the plan for today was as follows
Kaza – Key monastery – Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary – Chicham Bridge – Langza – Komic – Hikkim Post Office

The Landscapes around Key Monastery were breathtaking. There I took hundreds of photographs of the mountains, Monastery and the Spiti river below.

There were a lot of Alpine Choughs around the monastery, so I took a couple of shots of them and they were not bad ( all because of the background).

While we were leaving Key, I was surprised by a group of about 3-4 Snow Pigeons which flew past me. It was a species I had wanted to observe since a long long time. And while I was recovering from it, I caught a glimpse of something humongous flying directly above me – the Most Luckiest Catch of the Trip – a Bearded Vulture!!

Unfortunately, I had the shorter Focal Length Lens on, which I changed just a moment ago to photograph the beautiful Key Monastery, so, I could not manage even a record shot of the Vulture 😭😭😭.

And now it was time to go somewhere where I was most excited to go – Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary. I was pretty excited about it. But, soon it all turned into the biggest unhappiness of the trip because I did not got even a single bird, not even an Alpine Chough, not even a House Sparrow.

But, I took a lot of photographs of the Landscape and the Kibber Village.

Next up was the Highest Bridge of Asia – Chicham Bridge – standing at an amazing altitude of 13596 ft above the mean sea level!!

We spent only a little time at Chicham and moved on towards Langza.

At Langza I photographed Panoramas for the first time and the result was quite impressive.

On our way from Langza to Komic, we met a Horned Lark who was kind enough to provide me with one of my best shots ever.

And for those who don’t know, Komic is the highest village in the world connected with a motorable road (4587 m above the sea level)!!!

The last village we visited that day was Hikkim which has the World’s Highest Post Office in the world (4440 m above the sea level). On the way to Hikkim, I had my second sighting of a Bearded Vulture. Though this time I had the right lens on, but, before I could focus properly, it disappeared somewhere in the valley. So, again I got no shot of it.

After sending postcards to our relatives, we started our journey back to Kaza to get some rest and prepare for an amazing journey to an amazing location tomorrow – Chandra Taal!!!

~Arjun Basandrai

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/birdingwitharjun/

Spiti Sojourn – Spiti Valley – Part 1 – Entering Kinnaur

Spiti Sojourn – Spiti Valley – Part 2 – Entering Spiti

Spiti Sojourn – Spiti Valley – Part 3 – Local Sightseeing

Spiti Sojourn – Spiti Valley – Part 4 – The Moon Lake – Chandra Taal