Caught up on some much-needed rest yesterday at Spilo, a one-road village by the Sutlej, ahead of Rarang.

Spilo wasn’t on our plan, but our plan changed right from Day 1, so this Mountain Walker trip has been an adventure so far – we are deciding where to halt by around 5 pm every evening and then The Wayfarer (Abhinav Kaushal) starts calling up friends to find places to stay the night.

The Wayfarer has grown up in Shimla but most of his childhood and college friends are from the Kinnaur region. As a result, every town and village we are visiting, we get to meet and spend time with his friends who in turn introduce us to others and we learn about the area and the region and make plans afresh.

Yesterday evening, after several such conversations, we decided to head towards Nako instead of going back towards Reckong Peo where you get good hotels and inns. Heading out of Rarang, we figured out Spilo was the only real option since we would get there just about sun-down.

We got clean rooms and clean sheets at Thakur Guest House, and chicken-curry and rice from a dhaba – nothing else required really.

This morning we had aloo parathas and bread-omlette and chai and off we are now… To reach Nako before sun-down.