Julley!
29th June 2023
15:52
Location: Somewhere between Pir Panjal and Dhauladhar, the Himalayan Mountain range.
On our way towards an unknown, mysterious expedition to an unknown location... Just getting lost somewhere in the Himalayas...
Overview
As in my previous post, I shared various posts regarding the unknown expedition of which I was a part, which was about wondering and exploring various peaks of the Pir Panjal range of Himachal Pradesh, India's Himalayas.
The mountain ranges of the Himalayas mainly consist of various ranges, of which the range on which I was was just a location between the magical Kullu Valley of Himachal Pradesh, which is between the two mighty Himalayan ranges named Dhauladhar and Pir Panjal range, and the location over which we decided to explore was the Centermost point between the two Himalayan ranges of Kullu Valley.
It was around 3 p.m. in the afternoon when we reached this location. It was all foggy, and the fog over here was literally the clouds as we were at a great altitude near around 4200m above sea level.
It was our second day of our expedition, as the previous stories I have shared in the precious posts as In this expedition, I tried to take and capture a ton of photographs of every single mysterious thing and every single mysterious place, which made it difficult for me to share the whole expedition in just a single post, and even then, it would be a lot lengthy and the photos would also be a lot.
So I decided to post this expedition in parts so that even you guys would also stay tuned for the next part to come up with amazing and mysterious stories and experiences from the Himalayas.
Just right back when the clouds Disappeared, which were in the form of clouds, and the sun came up, we came across this magical, mysterious place. The word mysterious I am using is just because of its presence over here. On day 1 of our expedition, we completely covered up the NTZ zone and were above 4000m above sea level, a place that was not suitable for vegetation except the harsh green grass and wildflowers, which can tolerate the extreme climatic conditions like extreme cold and extreme sunlight.
There were all meadows after we crossed up NTZ, and where we encountered this ravine, I was just totally shocked as the rocks over her were kind of properly cut and were extremely huge, as if it used to be a Castel over here. We were just hiking over the ridge of this mountain range when we came across this.
Though when we were planning this expedition, we were told by the locals that there will be a portion like this and we have to be extremely cautious and careful of every single step we take. The local people and guides even told us that there are many stories related to this mysterious place in history, which I would be talking about later in the post.
That's the beginning! Nearly a half-kilometre straight hike over these huge rocks, and these rocks were not only still but also empty inside; there were deep empty spaces under these mighty mysteries rocks.
For a while, we were just thinking about where we should start, as these rocks were so mighty, and except for crossing them, there was no option at all to cross this part and go beyond, as there was just this ridge that we had to cross.
Here is a POV view of the place from the edge, guys. I am sure that you guys can get a bit of an idea about the location.
The Wishing Stone
During our expedition, I even saw many piles of wishing stones. As per the locals, if any person makes a wish over these places, they make a pile of stones like these, and when their wish gets fulfilled, they have to visit this place again and be at the same pile of stones.
It is also advised that any other person who is an explorer should respect the beliefs of the ones who have kept few wishes and should not touch the pile of stones of the person.
I had also seen a few piles of stones on my other expeditions in the Himalayas; one that I properly remember was when I was on my expedition to Bhrigu Lake, Manali, where I saw a place full of piles of stones, and they were really a lot, guys.
What locals believe and think about this place?
According to the geography of a place like this, there are a lot fewer chances of the presence of such a location. Even that made me think about it, guys. As we were just walking over the ridge and over the lush green meadows, all of a sudden, clouds formed a fog, making it all foggy with zero visibility, and when the clouds passed by, a mysterious light ended up over our sight.
There are various stories about the place, and a few of the local people believe that this used to be the "CHAKKI OF PANDAVAS" ancient Hindu gods who, at the time of their "VANSASA" built various things like these, and even in the mountain peak closer to this on the other mountain range of Pir Panjal Rage, there is also a "ROPA" of "PANDVAS".
It’s really very hard not to believe these words, as locals believe, as these rocks were really very different from the ones formed naturally, though due to the melting of snow and all other processes, they do take place, but the presence of these rocks is just at a certain portion of the whole mountain range.
The shepherds tried their best to use places like these to protect themselves at the hard times on the mountains. As seen in the picture, under the huge rock, a few of the shepherds once in a while had formed a natural shelter to protect themselves, and they even wrote a few of the things on the rocks with charcoal that they got from burning the wood in order to protect themselves from the cold and hasty winds.
It was really difficult for us to find and make our way out of this magical world. We were just literally holding the rocks and were crossing the whole rock slowly, and as if we could see under us, it was all empty and all dark. It was hard to figure out the depth.
There were piles and piles of rocks over one another, which could be seen from the empty spaces over which we were walking and making our way out. To capture this photograph, guys, my legs were literally shaking because of the fear of falling into this mysterious world.
That was all we had covered till now, at this certain point where I looked back and clicked this picture. It seemed like all those mighty stones were a Lego game that once, in ancient times, someone had played and was now left over.
It seemed like these stones were properly cut down by someone in ancient times, or it may have happened because of the harsh climatic conditions, like these rocks being laying under a blanket of snow for more than half of the year.
At this point, where we were right now over here, it seemed like these rocks were in piles one over another and were many in number, as seen in the picture too, as if these were stacked one over another.
Few of the huge, mighty stones were so smooth that they were about twenty to thirty feet in length.
Doesn’t it look like the rock seen in the picture, the smaller one, had been separated from the huge one, and though the rock has not fallen, it stands still straight but sideways, which makes the pathway to cross the huge stone so difficult for the ones hiking without the rock climbing gear.
Even if we had not had any sort of mountaineering gear like ropes, it would have been a positive thing for us and would have made it easier to cross the rocks.
As in the picture, we were literally struggling, as in our fort we had huge rocks, and under us were deep pits, of which no one had any idea about the depth of the pits that were under this mysterious path of the expedition.
The mighty peaks of the Pir Panjal Range of Himalayas were seen all covered under a white blanket of snow, beyond which lies the cold Himalayan desert, the Zanskar Range of Himalayas.
At a moment, it seemed like this was going to be a never-ending journey, as it had been more than two hours since we struggled to pass the mystery castle or a mystery...
The sky just looked like that; it’s infinite as the fog. What we saw in front of us was just the clouds that we saw from the lower altitude, and at every single step we took, the view was just breathtaking. The whole Kullu valley was visible from the top, as earlier I said that we were just right between the two main mountain ranges, one Pir Panjal and the other Dhauladhar, of Himachal Pradesh.
THE STACKS
Just one after another was something that didn’t stop capturing viewers eyesight!
After covering up about sixty to eighty percent of the journey through the huge rocks, now we could kind of see the open sky in front of us. We were just so energised after the open area with less rock, as we were just so tired hiking through the mighty rocks with our heavy backpack loads for the expedition.
But at the end, we saw something different, something crazy—the stones one after another! as if they were all stacked one over another!
It was not just a single stone or a few of them, but wherever we saw them, all the rocks were stacked over one another. Even the size of these stones was so huge that I don’t even think any human being could even lift them!
After looking at the mysterious things over here, they kind of prove the ancient stories of this location true. Which stated that there used to be an ancient Chakki of Pandavas in the ancient Hindu Gods time... And many stories also state that once there was a fight between the good and the evil, in which they used these rocks as weapons. Another story also stated that there used to be an ancient castle over there that slowly broke down.
As seen from the vision of ancient stories, the chakki of Pandvas is also kind of true, as the huge rocks were in that shape only but were a long way from the size of a normal chakki, or the ancient gods used to be of that size. I even saw a few of the rocks in the shape of a bathing area, which kind of suggests that this was a residential area. One thing was sure: this was around 6,000 years old.
Even it made us think, or it would to anyone, when after crossing the NTZ zone where the trees usually do not grow, we will just find grass meadows with wild flowers and rest all you will see will be snow and forested land, and how all of a sudden, right when the clouds come in front of us and when they get wiped off, there lies this vast, kilometre-long stretch looking like a different world.
The rocks were all in a proper cut until the very end and were all stacked. Is there any sort of geographical natural phenomenon there where the rocks just automatically break in the middle, and even that too in a similar kind of size? Do let me know, guys, if anyone of you has any such ideas about it in the comments section.
The mighty peaks of the Dhauladhar and Pir Panjal mountain ranges were all covered under a blanket of snow. Just imagine how heavenly it would be if a castle used to be over here. How peaceful would it be, and how magical would the views be.
Here are a few more clicks of the location and the rocks. Not much to say, guys, so I just clicked many photographs.
It took around four hours for us to cross the whole and most difficult portion of the expedition until now, and beyond this, who knows? But it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment for us, like crossing over the huge rocks, under which lies maybe a whole different world or a mystery, as per the ancient saying of the local people and shepherds who used to visit this place quite often.
Still, even after crossing, most of the portion of the place and the rocky part wherever I saw were still the rocks and the mighty peaks all covered up under snow, even in the months of hot summers. I just wonder how these and the huge rocks would be under the heap of snow all covered in white.
We were also so tired, and it was around 6 PM in the evening, and we even needed to find a good spot for our tent so that we could relax, be safe, and even protect ourselves from the harsh cold winds blowing from the mighty peaks of Dhauladhar and Pir Panjal, on which we were just right between the two. I even noticed a sudden drop in temperature; it was around 4 degrees C, and in the town from where we came, it was above 20 degrees C.
All these photos are in RAW format and unedited so that you guys can get the exact same true picture of the location as what my camera captured.
All these photographs were captured by me using my iPhone 12.
A POV view of our journey when we reached the top and were now ready to go beyond.
So thats all for today guys. I hope you liked it.
Thanks for your precious time passing by. 🙏
Love form the Himalayas ❤️.