5000kms and 12 Passes, a 20 day wild wild ride to the roof of the world!

[tsk1979]

In the beginning. There was Ladakh.
You went to Leh, the capital of Ladakh, and then went to nubra valley. Some stayed there, some returned.
Next day you went to Pangong Tso, and either stayed there, or returned.
Some reached at 10am, and started back by mid afternoon.
Some stayed there and started back by next noon.
A few start back after 8pm, and then again go there the next day.

But I am digressing.
The point was that this was ladakh. A week long trip. Some squeezed in an extra couple of days, and went to Tso-Moriri also.
A few, very few went to Hanle also.

And then there were the crazy ones, who went to chushul, Kyun Tso, and other such places unheard off. The plan was to emulate those if possible, but atleast do Hanle, see Zanskar and climb the mighty Marismik La too!

But best laid plans go for a toss, and this was one such trip. Where plans altered on the fly, where we saw what we did not expect to see, and we did not see what we expected to see.


Thankfully, there are lot of people with tonnes of info . Yogesh, Bharat and others for route guidance, Anup for cooking gas and moral support, and Suman for on the way phone support .
Not to mention, hitanshu for forcing me to go to Kashmir!

Besides that there were the helpful folks at 60kph, esp Jay and Subhash, whose GPS tracks gave me the confidence of attempting Kyun Tso.
Its better to have tried and failed, than not to have tried at all!

Besides the route and all, it was time to prepare the white elephant also, and therefore the half done tires were replaced by German Continentals, filled with slime.
With AT muscle, and confidence of Slime(thanks to Anup), we were ready.
Next came the jerrycans(lot of circus with these before finding the solution), tow ropes(never had to use these!), shovel and Jump start etc., along with Air compressor(foot pump). thankfully the pressure did not even budge by 1PSI over these 5000kms, and I did not have to test my fitness at those altitudes.

But inspite of the best laid plans you should expect the unexpected.
As some of you know, long ago I had slip disk, and sometimes, my back acts up. It had been behaving good for months, and 2 days before the trip, it decides to go for a toss.

On the trip day, with a hot water bottle on my back, and a prayer on our lips, we set out of Delhi for Anandpur Sahib. For once we were on time.... and then nature decided it was time to sink Delh, and we had not even reached vikas marg, the clouds burst. Rain so heavy that nothing was visible, rickshaws flying around, and knee deep water on the roads.

With my back cracking up, the skies exploding, we made out of Delhi on a prayer...

With such a wild start, a wild trip was guaranteed!

[sdp1975]

Waiting to hear more, and the pics.

Always wanted to visit ladakh. Seen some pics of Pangong Tso - really beautiful.

[watashi75]

Another epic story in the making! Productivity of t-bhp members is expected to go down in the coming week.

[Fountainheader]

Awesomeness! Waiting to hear and see more

[tsk1979]

4pm, and we were out on our way.
Target was Anandpur Sahib, just 5-6 hours away.
And then this happened

Black clouds and blinding rain.
Rickshaws were flying, rain so thick you couldn't see, and many people decided to stop where they were.
So you had people stopped in fast lane, middle lane, and also in the waist deep water in the left lane.
Ring road turned one lane due to lot of water.
It was time to wade where noone else did.
And get out of the city.
Surprisingly just out of the borders it was dry, and the ride to Anandpur Sahib was uneventful.

But my back was not uneventful, and the 20kms of slightly bad roads were taking their toll.
It was time to wonder how it'll survive a month of bad road driving!

[14000rpm]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

4pm, and we were out on our way.
Target was Anandpur Sahib, just 5-6 hours away.
And then this happened
Attachment 190317

dude. looking forward for a good travelogue of your super awesome trip.

[Joy]

Great teaser. Eagerly, waiting for... Yeh dil mange more.

[bigmoose85]

My friends are planning for a trip next month. Hope this will be useful for them. Waiting for the reports.

[hellstar]

lovely teaser , cant wait to get the latest updates ... pictures from leh never cease to amaze

[vijaythacker]

ah finally the awaited trip is penned down, tanveer already caught up with your teaser, so start getting down bit more faster and pictures to add the beauty.

[SS-Traveller]

Hey Tanveer, I was looking forward to this travelogue starting up ever since you left Delhi. 20 days of monsoon-time photography must have been fantastic. So let's have the fun begin!

[KishoreC]

Sorry for hear about your back problem.

When it comes to health, I guess you should be giving more priority to your back than completing the trip.

We "Live to Drive". So the first must be of greater importance than the later.

Wish you good luck on your journey and please share both good and bad experiences with us.

[HappyWheels]

Ah, the travelogue.

Go ahead, TSK. Nice teasers!

[KSM-Vtec]

Hey!!! so you have started posting already, thats great.

I am still not out of the hangover of the trip.

[PAVAN KADAM]

A master and his naughty White Elephant goes exploring the Himalayas.

Tanveer, hope your White Elephant behaved during this trip

Good to see this a teaser pics, Please put some more pics, We are waiting