Yet another high altitude Himalayan treasure, the Chandertal Lake, source of the Chandra River, lies high (roughly 14,000 feet) beyond the main Kunzum range in Spiti Valley and is accessed via a fairly treacherous and bone-rattling dirt track. About three kilometres from Batal where you begin your ascent to Kunzum Pass, the ‘road’ veers off from the Manali-Kaza route at a rusted sign announcing you are some 14 kms from the lake; of which only 12.5 kms is jeep-able. Save for a couple of near empty camp-sites, there appeared to be little sign of life as we competed with a rapidly setting sun to reach our destination. We won. I have photographic evidence.
Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu, travel enthusiast and the author of Adrift: A junket junkie in Europe is the youngest of four siblings born into an aristocratic family of Punjab. Dogged in her resistance to conform, and with parental pressure easing sufficiently over the years, she had plenty of freedom of choice. And she chose travel.
She was born in Shimla, and spent her formative years at their home, Windsor Terrace, in Kasumpti while schooling at Convent of Jesus & Mary, Chelsea. The irrepressible wanderlust in her found her changing vocations midstream and she joined Singapore International Airlines to give wing to her passion. She has travelled extensively in Asia, North America, Australia, Europe, South Africa and SE Asia; simultaneously exploring the charms within India.
When she is not travelling, she is writing about it. Over the past decade or so, she has created an impressive writing repertoire for herself: as a columnist with Hindustan Times, as a book reviewer for The Tribune and as a contributor to travel magazines in India and overseas. Her work-in-progress, the documenting of colonial heritage along the Old Hindustan-Tibet Road, is an outcome of her long-standing romance with the Himalayas.
