Tracking the Grey Ghost of Himalaya

Highlights

• Arrival in Delhi (Day 1) - Upon your arrival in Delhi airport/ railway station, you will be met by one of our IWS tour guides. He will take you to your hotel, and en route, he will explain to you in detail the plan. He will stay with you for the entire duration of the trip and he’ll make sure you have a hassle-free and smooth experience! The rest of the day will be at leisure, and you can recover from your journey and prepare for the travels ahead!
• Half-day Delhi exploration and overnight train to Chandigarh (Day 2) - Your IWS Guide will meet up with you early in the morning and you’ll kick off your adventure now. Delhi has 3 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and some amazing monuments and places of historic and religious significance. You’ll be taken around by your IWS Guide and you will be trying to cover all you can in the limited time. You’ll eat some of the best food in this part of the world, and you’ll sense flavours we guarantee you would never have imagined existed. After a soul-filling half day in the capital, by late afternoon, you’ll start off for Chandigarh, a city 280 kms/ 4 hours drive away from Delhi. You will reach Chandigarh by 8 in the evening, check-in your hotel, have dinner, and unwind after a day full of action and adventure.
• Transfer to Rampur (Day 3) - After a good night’s sleep in the beautiful city of Chandigarh, you will start off early today, preferably no later than 8 in the morning, and within an hour you’ll hit the Himalayan foothills. With the northern plains in the rearview mirror, you will spend the next few days in the majestic Himalayan terrain. You’ll have great hill food on your way in carefully planned pitstops where you can stretch out. Your IWS Guide will make sure you get a taste of all the local delicacies, and in a hygienic and safe environment. Rampur is a night halt where you’ll spend your evening going around the small hamlet at 3350 feet/ 1020 meters above sea level, and sleep and replenish at the pre-booked resort.
• Day long drive to Kaza (Day 4) - You will be starting off pretty early in the morning for a 12 hour drive to Kaza. On the drive to Kaza, you will see the landscape shift drastically from the lush green Himalayan forests, to absolutely barren cold desert. You will have the urge to stop your car for some brilliant landscape photography every few kilometres, but you should try and resist this temptation and try and get to Kaza before nightfall. Your IWS Guide will make sure you stop at the best places on the road for some stunning landscape compositions! Kaza is the district headquarters of Spiti. Kaza is where the market is located, ATM, petrol station, shops, tourist information center, bus-stop, cafes, bike rentals etc. Kaza is a bustling tourist town in summers. Most of Kaza is closed in winters. As you reach Kaza, you only have a little bit of travel left. You will get the well-deserved sleep in Gaza after 12 hours long drive from Rampur on the mountain twisties.
• Reach Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary (Day 5) - After a relaxed morning in Kaza, visit the nearby Sakya Tangyud Monastery, walk through the market, interact with locals, have some local dishes, and then depart for Kibber, on the way to Kibber, you will visit the Ki Monastery. It is the biggest monastery of Spiti Valley and a religious training centre for Lamas, and is said to have been founded in the 11th century! After spending some peaceful time in the monastery, you will go further up the road to reach our destination Kibber village. In Kibber you will be assigned to your rooms, and given a brief orientation of the team who would be with you, on field and in the hotel. This Home stay will be your home for the entire snow leopard expedition. On this day you would be requested to take complete rest as the coming days would involve extreme trekking in snow and at a high altitude.
• Tracking the Grey Ghost of Himalaya (Day 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) - For 7 days straight, you will be heading out on the trail of the most elusive cat on the planet, the mythical snow leopard. The team of trackers, porters and your IWS Guide would be accompanying you on this daunting feat of trying to capture the cat on your camera.
• Start the drive back to Rampur (Day 13) - Today, you will bid farewell to the tracking team and the beautiful hamlet of Kibber, and start your descend back to Rampur. Starting very early in the morning, you will drive down to Rampur using the familiar route. On reaching Rampur after nightfall, you will check-in your hotel rooms and have the night to catch up on the sleep and rejuvenate.
• Transfer to Delhi (Day 14) - Today you will move out of the Himalayan hills into the plains and return back to Delhi. By evening, you will be in Delhi, where your IWS Guide will drop you at your place of preference, and bid you adieu for your adventures thereon!