[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by Fauji

I have only one word to express on the TL. FantasticI second HVK when he say, this is the best TL with so much details on Raod conditions. Yours along with Tanveer's should become a bible for anyone venturing into the region.

Thank you so much for the kind words.

Originally Posted by Fauji

Only one question - How come you missed the best armed forces museum in the country which is in Leh? Even Delhi does not have one.

We did miss out on all the museums set up as a tribute to our brave soldiers, whether in Leh, Drass, Kargil or elsewhere. One more good reason to go back to Ladakh. As I said earlier...

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

We missed a lot of places, indeed, including the Drass War Memorial, though our salute to the Indian soldier is always a whole-hearted one. One trip doesn't cover Ladakh, obviously, and travelling there is an addiction that just begins with the first trip.

[SS-Traveller]

The road from Namashang La to Sumdo was narrow but well-surfaced. These trucks coming up that road forced me to reverse into a rocky slot on the side of the road.


I was a little worried about the road condition between Sumdo and Morey Plains via the Tso Kar route, and asked the truckers - and found that they had travelled via that route itself. That put some of my fears to rest.

The road after we turned left at Sumdo, going towards Tso Kar. Frost on the meadows on the side of the road














Polakongka La


Some parts of it are tarred surface too

[SS-Traveller]

The vistas on the way are so fabulous in this sector that we are really taking the slow car to Tso Kar. So here it comes, partly frozen!

[SS-Traveller]

Has anyone noticed faces on the mountainside in Ladakh? Here are a couple from the stretch between Tso Kar and Morey Plains.




This narrow strip of tarmac after Tso Kar led us all the way to Morey Plains. Freshly made surface. This road is of great importance for army supplies reaching the sensitive Chumur and Hanle areas from the plains. We noticed lots of trucks carrying construction material, especially iron girders up this road.


And thus we reached Morey Plains and turned left towards Jispa




Sometimes there is tarmac and sometimes there isn't...








...but the "isn't" part wins hands down!
Sand? Gravel? who cares? H-4® was built for such territory. I left it in 4H in 3rd gear, took it up to 40 km/h, pointed the nose towards the flattest terrain with least traffic, and sat back to enjoy the scenery.












End of Morey Plains. Loved the inconvenience...


...but this Dzire didn't. Last I saw, the folks were giving the underbody a very close inspection.

[SS-Traveller]

One more face on the mountainside, this time just after Morey Plains


Soon after Morey Plains end, is this amazing landscape of rock carvings










And then began the rock-and-rolling road to Pang and Lachulung La (more pics in subsequent post)

[DKG]

Beautiful photographs, simply amazing ! This place really is nature's art gallery !!

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by DKG

Beautiful photographs, simply amazing ! This place really is nature's art gallery !!

Thank you, Deepak-ji, and here's wishing you all the best too, for your own trip to the area starting today. Hope you get loads of pics from there.
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The road to Lachulung La


















Then comes Nakee La...








...followed by the Gata Loops...










...and the rest of the road to Sarchu.

[SS-Traveller]

At Sarchu

I am not a pet-owner, but I understand if a lot of folks love their pets as much as any human member in the family. But it riles me no end if I find a pet-owner giving a hard time to his/her pet. This Safari had a boot full of luggage and 5 persons on board, on its way to Leh, with the dog cooped up among the luggage. A dog's life, if you can call it that!


Tents at Sarchu. If it wasn't so important that we find a brick-and-mortar building to spend the nights in, I would not have minded spending a night here. The surrounding vistas are breath-taking.

[SS-Traveller]

The road from Sarchu to Barlacha La in pictures

Barlacha La presented perhaps THE most fabulous and picturesque roads of the whole trip, though the gigantic snow walls and pristine whiteness can only be enjoyed till the end of June (after which the snow melts and looks dirtier due to the pollution from the passing traffic). Enjoy the pics.























































The last two pics are my personal favourites. Comments welcome.

[SS-Traveller]

The road after Barlacha La was quite uneventful, except this water crossing about 25 km before Jispa. It was a raging torrent of water in the late afternoon (around 5:45 pm), and just to be prudent, I crawled across the stretch without any drama on 4L. Once across, we stopped to photograph a group of bikers crossing the stretch.












Doesn't make a difference to this behemoth though!


The rest of the road to Jispa








Padma Lodge at Jispa - well-recommended by BHPian airwolf9211. We arrived here around 7 pm, and thoroughly enjoyed the stay for the next 2 nights.

Padma Lodge Jispa
Mr. Bir Singh, Owner
NH-22, Leh Manali Highway
Distt. Lahaul-Spiti, HP-175131
Tel: 01900-233211 / 094180-33211 / 094187-19313
Email: thakur_beersingh at rediffmail dot com
Tariff: 1000-1500 INR per room, depending on location & view.

[SS-Traveller]

Our first puncture of the trip - repaired on our own at Jispa. The front right tyre lost half its pressure overnight, but the leak was plugged and the tyre re-inflated without removing it from the axle.


A peculiar issue (I wouldn't say it was a problem except when it happened the first two times) with the Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) was that it would get triggered and start beeping if we were crossing a stretch of water or snow at crawling pace. There seemed to be a sudden drop of 3-5 psi in any random tyre on the TPMS readout (say, from 31 to 27 psi), and off would start the beep-beep-beep-beep. The first couple of times, I got down to check the offending tyre, and found nothing wrong.

Then it gradually dawned on me that the chilled water and resultant rapid cooling down of the air inside the tyre made the TPMS read a sudden loss of air pressure - and the pressure reading would return to normal and the alert light would go out once we proceeded for a km or two.

[SS-Traveller]

Jispa: 7 pm on 15 June 2011 to 4 am on 17 June 2011




We arrived at Jispa a little before 7 pm, to find rideon already there, having driven through the day directly from Leh. He had made it in about 12-1/2 hours, leaving Leh at 6 am and reaching Jispa about half an hour ahead of us. Going by the time stamps on our photos from the road, his progress from Morey Plains to Jispa was at the same pace as ours, with a constant separation of half an hour - and there was no way for us to know because of lack of mobile connectivity.

Soon as we reached, the hotel staff enlightened us with the news that Rohtang Pass was closed since the previous morning due to landslides, and no traffic was coming through from the Manali side. The one happy news was that the pass would probably open by late morning the next day.

We decided to spend the next day (16 June) relaxing at Jispa, and proceed to Manali only on the 17th. On hindsight it was an excellent decision. The pass did not open till after 4 pm, and one of the vehicles to come through after remaining stuck in traffic for about 7 hours was a black Scorpio from Chandigarh with 2 gentlemen on their way to Leh; they checked into the Padma Lodge, and we exchanged notes about road conditions towards both sides.

Jispa was picture-perfect... (not that my pictures are )








A group of cyclists set up camp in the open field next to the hotel. Supported by 2 vehicles, a group of about 8 Indian cyclists were taking the trip from Manali to Leh. They had their own tents, cook and kitchen equipment, and planned to set up and break camp every day with about 8 hours of riding time in between. Brave souls with titanium butts!


The cyclists' camp at night






A group of bikers also came and checked into the Padma Lodge. One gentleman photographed with(out) his helmet. We had a lot of free time on our hands, you see!

[SS-Traveller]

17 June 2011

The learned opinion at Jispa was that Rohtang is best crossed before 8 am, since the traffic visiting Rohtang top from Manali jams up the narrow roads with irresponsible driving and parking after that. The decision was therefore taken to leave Jispa at 4 am - and try our hand at night-driving in the mountains for the first time on this trip.

Howsoever early we left, there was already pretty heavy traffic on the road - not of people driving cars, but people driving GOATS & SHEEP!








The road to Keylong and Tandi was gravelly, and the few water crossings seemed to have almost no water. We knew this would not have been the case if we passed by this road at 4:30 pm instead of 4:30 am, as the gents in the black Scorpio we met the previous evening at Jispa told us. In fact, around Tandi, the road was in pretty good shape for at least 20 km. Some stretches had double-laning roadwork in progress.








Then the climb up to Rohtang Pass began...

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

17 June 2011: Then the climb up to Rohtang Pass began...

Sorry to have kept you all in limbo for a few days, but here's the first set of photos of the climb up Rohtang Pass from the Keylong side. This section has far less traffic than the Manali side, and since it was early morning, we saw other vehicles only very occasionally. There's less of mud this side, but more of rocks, and if it be one's poor luck to be forced to stop on one of these sections due to downhill traffic barging down forcibly, then clutch burn is the only way to go up (unless one is adventurous enough to reverse on a narrow downhill road). Moi? I switched to 4L and carried on like there was no slope, no rocks, no mud, no Rohtang...














As we climbed higher, there was more snow alongside the road, as well as more slush and snowmelt water draining down the road. Time to stay constantly on 4L in 3rd gear.


























This was one gigantic bump that I crawled over, soon after coming out of a hairpin bend on a steep slope. Rideon's Safari had to depend on momentum to pull him through the slush and the slope, and this one shook him up big-time.


...err - oh, yes, but there was Rohtang in all its true colours on the other side! Tell you about it soon...

[SS-Traveller]

As we continued climbing higher, the road took a turn progressively for the worse. Shot from the front passenger seat of a bouncing car, some of the photos have turned blurry - but I am still going ahead and posting them here to portray a fairly good idea of what to expect.






Pollution watch...


Some 3-4 km before cresting Rohtang top, the road suddenly turned oh-so-smooth and well-laid. The fog was a bother though, reducing visibility to a large extent.
















At and around the top, there are plenty of people trying to entice one to try one's hand at skiing, sledding and what have you.






The almost black dirty snow was a big turn-off anyway


And then we were on our way down - along still-empty roads. It did not strike us initially that we were not seeing any uphill traffic at all, except a few folks walking up.
















And then we were stuck - for a good 4hr 30min.


Here's where we were...


Humongous traffic jam far below...






Reflecting on the worst section of the whole trip...