[di1in]

Thanks, everyone for the feedback. We completed the trip and got back to Kerala on 16th night.

We started from Chavakkad beach on 26th night and proceeded through Bangalore -> Hyderabad -> Nagpur -> Gwalior -> Chandigarh and then Manali. Fun routes and great food at the Dhabas. We only stopped at Bangalore to pick up a friend and at Gwalior to freshen up. We planned to halt at Nagpur but the city was under lockdown when we entered so we quickly scooted out.

At Manali we went off-road to two kind of deserted areas with a friend's Thar who knew the route. We then hiked to Grahan village, as well as to Kheerganga with stops at Kasol and Tosh. Amazing and serene places these were -- Grahan much more than Kheerganga due to tourist volume. Washed the car once in Manali at a local place.



On the way back, we went through Mandi to check out Shivaratri celebrations. We didn't stay at any hotel and drove continuously (5 drivers made this quite easy). We started on Thursday and reached Bangalore on Saturday at noon.

Travel was uneventful except for a speeding ticket at Bangalore in an unmarked road (lots of fellow travelers were asking the cops to show the board but we were too tired).

Got a disinfecting + waxing done at 3M in HSR based on the TBHP thread for that place and photos by BHPian Jaggu. They didn't clean the underbody though, as he said it's not coming off. By this time, our PCR tests had come back negative but we quarantined for a week to be safe anyway. We then proceeded to Kerala.

Then there was a police checking at Tamil Nadu right before we crossed to Kerala, where all KL plate vehicles were being stopped and completely checked. A lady police officer was shouting at us for not stopping quickly enough (we tried politely telling them that we were taught that vehicles in traffic are supposed to turn on the indicator and slow down on the highway instead of slamming the brakes because an officer waved us to stop).

The officers then proceeded to get us to dump all our luggage on the road and even got the clothes out.

A few minutes later, the female officer scurried away when she saw that the male officer was by this time surrounded by 5-people worth of a pile of dirty clothes, underwear, socks, muddy shoes and wet towels from our laundry sack. Once the scene/scent/aroma got to him, the officer said it's ok and quickly walked away while asking his cameraman to remove the last few photos xD

We then continued our journey, and reached Kerala just in time to get hot Parottas, black tea, and more.

Got the whole trip on 2k on my Jeep's dashcam, now need to find someone to digest through 100+ hours of video.

Once in Kerala, I went through 3 places to get the underbody cleaned. The first two places said high-pressure water wasn't affecting the stuff on the underbody, and that it looked like I dunked the Jeep in paint of some sort.

The third place was a lorry cleaning place, and they did 4 washes and and one hour on just the underbody with me hovering by. Tried mixes of different stuff they use to clean lorries with (I was praying the dreaded Jeep wheel sensor alerts wouldn't start gong off after this).

In the end, the stuff stuck to the underbody started dropping of like paste, and eventually it was all cleaned up. Paid him extra for his time and got back home.

[ccnarayanan]

Very nice travelogue.

Could you also share the trip details.. when you left, how long it took to cover various stretches, and also any surprises you encountered, particularly in snowy / mountain areas.

[di1in]

Originally Posted by ccnarayanan

Very nice travelogue.

Could you also share the trip details.. when you left, how long it took to cover various stretches, and also any surprises you encountered, particularly in snowy / mountain areas.

List of learnings & surprises (for inexperienced me):
1. One of our plans was to outrun Google Maps because of the wrong assumption that Google Maps calculated distance based on speed limits of 60-80kp/h. In reality, wherever we sped up to above limits, there were minor changes in the timing given by Google Maps. The only exception was on the Bangalore to Thrissur route where we saved roughly an hour. Lesson: While trip planning, cut short the estimate by Google maps on highways by a max of 5-8% if going reasonably above limits with No Dangerous Driving.
2. Driving at night with polarised glasses is a great way to get rid of high beam headaches as long as the tinting is light.
3. Fuel efficiency: the Jeep Compass seems to have the sweet spot at 90kp/h. With a load of 5 people (440kgs) and a very tightly filled boot (no idea about weight there), we got 20.4kmpl for a 200km stretch where we maintained this speed before it got boring.
4. Infotainment issue: Jeep didn't know what caused it, but our infotainment system froze on one day. Even switching off the car and turning it back on didn't fix it. Jeep suggested disconnecting battery wires, but we didn't do that as we were running. It got fixed by itself a few hours later but by then phones were almost drained out as it didn't charge them either during this time. Lesson: Don't skip the battery bank even when you're sure you'll have a car all the time.
5. Diesel pumps: Staff at the pumps between Telengana and Gwalior used the wrong fuel dispenser twice and doused the back of the vehicle with a lot of diesel from the larger truck/lorry filler before they realized what's happening.
6. Nitrogen: Kept air pressure constant throughout the trip, didn't need to top up.
7. Wash: it's better to wash sooner than later when you get the white/gray dust during the climb up to Manali before it settles into pseudoconcrete.
8. Dashcams are mandatory. One case where a biker did some stunts and brake tested right in front of us. His pillion rider pointed to the dashcam and then they drifted off to the side of the road and stopped bothering us.
9. 4 wheel drive without clearance still helps: off-roading wasn't as easy as it was for the Thar team, but it still got us through most of the route with just scrapes on that flexible lip upfront. Were we lost was when a 4x4 low would have come in handy but my Limited doesn't have it. On the other hand, it was a dream at the snow areas as well as the muddy off road stretches where the snow had melted. We had a few cars slipping by with one high-end car burning up the clutch as well as skidding heavily. We didn't know the track was that bad until we noticed all this drama outside. "AUTO" active drive worked well for these cases.
10. Windshield heater's worked very well, it's good to let fellow drivers know it so that they don't go conventional and rub the windshield with a random towel thus greasing it up.
11. Climb up the hairpins were easy with the right gear and going steady as she goes. It's a mess and bad passenger experience too when the driver tries to shift up the moment they get a stretch and shift down at every turn which happens a couple of times each minute.
12. Hiding a water bottle is a great idea on long trips because occasionally someone will try to stretch the next pitstop after the last bottle of water is dry, and sooner or later we reach ranges where there are no shops.
13. Switch off passive entry when parking at remote areas. Once while we were walking away, a kid came up to grab the car handle and the vehicle unlocked without the driver with keys knowing about it.
14. Water bottles in the rear seat tend to find their way to the floor.
15. Water bottles on the rear floor tend to roll their way to the front floor. This we know can jam up the brake, clutch or accelerator pedal even if the driver was careful about keeping his floor clean.
16. Surprise: didn't know there were petrol pumps with armed guards in the North. For a moment I thought we had driven into a bank's parking area at night.

Will add more as I remember them.