Soaring with the eagles : The ice road to Gangotri

[silverado]

Originally Posted by Slick

Superb travelogue and makes me an even bigger fan of the safari.

Definately, Tanveer needs to be credited big time for making TATA SAFARI an aspirational vehicle.

Every trip of tanveer is an education in 4WD driving, you definately get to learn something about 4WD driving in most of his travelogues.

Its very intresting to know that someone dared to use a EECO for these roads, was it because there was White Elephant as backup?

With property prices going high in mumbai , why not buy a SAFARI instead of a 1 BHK

[tsk1979]

the next obstacle is not one truck but two

the situation here is a bit tricky.
Like long lost lovers, the trucks have entwined, and are not letting go.
This is going to be a long afternoon...

The weather is getting worse

No snowfall per se, just light snowflakes
We just while our time


And try to see if the trucks will move


the road is incredibly narrow, and the trucks are stuck. However, after a lot of heaving and puffing, they break loose.
Now the BRO truck arriving towards us has to pass the eeco and us

We sit and wait.


The BRO truck parks on the edge. There is hardly any space for the eeco, but being narrow it barely squeezes through.

I am apprehensive though. There is no way I can make it through.
Anyways, I engage 4L, and start moving.
Due to road banking and slick ice, the safari keeps trying to rub against the truck.

We stop, reverse, and take a line much towards the light.
We are almost clear of the truck, when he decides to get impatient, and guns the engine.

Its bald rear tires slide sideways, and the side of the truck rips open the rear quarter panel!

In almost 4 years of ownership, the white elephant gets her first major wound


The trip has turned from adventrous to horrendous

[advaitlele]

First wound in four years; and it looks bad.
First scratch on a car is a very emotional thing I agree.

Keep it coming Tanveer. As many have posted you have made Safari an aspirational vehicle. Tatas owe you much. Thanks for the 4wd sessions . Keep it coming.

[rkbharat]

nice updates Tanveer, that is one bad wound to the White Elephant

[W.A.G.7]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Its bald rear tires slide sideways, and the side of the truck rips open the rear quarter panel!

Originally Posted by tsk1979

The trip has turned from adventrous to horrendous

Ouch. That's a bad scratch. Hope the white elephant recovers quickly. But an amazing travelogue nonetheless. Fantastic pictures as well !!

[madhkris]

Fantastic travelogue. Please add me to your Fan base. Just love the pics. Sorry to hear about the wound. Has it been treated now? Please continue.

[MaverikMahesh]

tsk1979,

I really envy you. I just managed to finish reading your European travelogue, you are already deep into another! How do you find the time? Wish i could emulate you

Too bad about the gash on your truck, consider them wounds of war. Beautiful travelogue and pictures. Keep them coming

[vinayrathore]

Hey Tanveer! Quite sometime since you updated this thread!

[born_free]

The road leading to Gangotri has been destroyed by recent floods in uttarkashi.
A bridge on the national highway collapsed due to flood at 4 Kms from uttarkashi.

There have been loss of human lives, as many housed were swept away.
3 more bridges connecting two banks of river in Uttarkashi town are also gone.

My parental house falls in affected area, fortunately for us it was saved being located at higher ground.
My sister's car was saved by a whisker as the road on which it was parked started to collapse due to flooding of river.

A picture of destruction. I had used this bridge while commuting to school.



Another video showing a house falling into river. Our house is also located on same road but at opposite side at higher elevation.

Caught on camera: Two-storey building collapses in Uttarakhand Video: NDTV.com

[tsk1979]

Sorry for the late update.
Anyways, this is the concluding post!


The crash left us very very disheartned. In almost 4 years of ownership, this was the first time such a major shunt had happened. Of course, minor dings and dents are a part and parsel of NCR driving, but something like this... was a disaster.

But there was not much time for brooding. It was getting dark, and the road had gotten icier. The bikers picked their bikes from sukhi top, and after that we followed them, just in case somebody needs assistance.

the biker here is Abhishek. Its was his first time in snow. His comment "Itni to Rajasthan me Rate nahin hoti" or "I have not seen this much sand in Rajasthan as there is snow here". As you can guess, he is from the land of sand. Before the trip everybody was pulling his leg, and scaring him about black ice. Infact, we nicknamed him black ice. And guess what, he was once of the very few guys who did not have a fall. One of the best riders I have ever seen. first time on ICE in a thunderbird, and no falls.


Treacherousice


As soon we we cleared the snowfields, a biker ahead(I think it was Dhariya?) signalled with a hand raised. And guess what, a full grown leopard was running across the road.
Few years back we had seen a baby leopard near Jalori pass, but this was the first time we were seeing a full grown cat in the wild. And what a site it was.

And then, few kms before Uttarkashi, we had to stop. A bike had broken the gear lever after a fall. It was time for illumination, as repairs were carried out.


We reached Uttarkashi around 8:30ish finally.

The adventure had ended, and it had not been a pleasant experience. However, I guess when you travel a lot, the law of averages catches up with you.

I have since gotten the tear repaired(it cost 1000 out of pocket).

Nevertheless, this was a trip... one of a kind I guess.


It taught us a lot of things. first and foremost, respect ice. ITs not your friend, it may look pretty, but its dangerous.

And on this note, this log ends.
Thanks for reading

--------------------THE END--------------------

[adc]

After converting and posting all those images for the Arunachal travelogue and greenery and tropical forest landscape, I was looking out for a pure "snow and ice" travel story - a kind of absolute mountain ice travelogue! And I knew exactly with whom to begin the search with!

Great travel, of all the Himalayas this is one part still left for us to drive and travel to - next year this tops the list.

Originally Posted by tsk1979

As soon we we cleared the snowfields, a biker ahead(I think it was Dhariya?) signalled with a hand raised. And guess what, a full grown leopard was running across the road.
Few years back we had seen a baby leopard near Jalori pass, but this was the first time we were seeing a full grown cat in the wild. And what a site it was.

One cannot explain that feeling as much as one tries. Last year, during Valley of Flowers trek, saw a leopard just metres in front of us going down the forest canopy from one side to another in chase of a monkey.

It was one of the brilliant sights ever seen by me! The monkey moving jumping down from one tree top to other a breakneck speed and the leopard following it. All there for 2-3 seconds, but a sight never to be forgotten.

[supertinu]

Looks like somehow I have managed to miss this travelogue all together, but with that comes the benefit of getting to read it all at one shot without waiting for updates .

I am not going to spend too much time praising your writing skills which in my opinion are more or less unparalleled on TBHP. But this was really one crazy adventurous trip. First time i am actually seeing any pic of Gangotri and seeing it in blanket of ice makes it look heavenly. Sorry about the side rip. It hurts like a wound but the feeling of getting car back from body shop is amazing having recently witnessed it on my Figo after a small incident.