Re: An Unlikely Pair (Safari & Gypsy) do a 6600km circuit Mumbai Srinagar- Leh - Mu Day 10: Leh – Kardungla – Deskit – Hunder – Deskit
We woke up by 6.30am to find 4 missed calls from Jay early morning. I called him back and he informed me the fuel tank cap was missing from my Gypsy. I did have a spare from my previous gypsy so I went down and plugged that on as a makeshift for now. This one was very old and the rubber gasket around it had hardened. We got ready and decided to first go and buy for an OE, little realizing that today was a Sunday and the MASS was closed. We drove around to see if the other spare parts shops had that and at 8am in the morning we found a shop just opening which had a Minda make which I picked up. Then we were off to Khardungla.. We met hardly any traffic coming in the opposite direction and were amazed to see a group of foreigners (mostly women) cycling their way to the top. We reached the top with a visibly upset Jay who was waiting for us since the past 45 mins. Had Maggi and tea at the canteen there, did our snaps next to the Khardungla sign board and then proceeded. It began to drizzle on the way down and you could suddenly sense the urgency of the cabbies as they began to fly down the road overtaking us from both sides.
We reached Deskit after a really beautiful drive thru straight flats between a valley. There is a beautiful Gompa with a statue of the Buddha perched high up above the top, in a manner that he oversees the entire town. We found a Stallion parked there and shot some photos posing inside the cabin as no one was around. In fact little did we know that the jawans were watching us goofing around from a distance. When we reached the Gompa we chatted up with one of them to discover that the army does not treat its personnel any different from how the politicians treat our cops. Apparently there was some army general who was planning on visiting the gompa with his family and these guys were waiting for him since morning standing there in the cold. We moved on from there and checked in at a small hotel in Deskit. Since we were just 2 each in a car we decided to take the safari to go visit Hunder to see the Bactrian camels. We set off in the safari after a late lunch and were met by a mixture of heavy rains and a sandstorm. We passed the Deskit petrol pump (if you can call it one) and were soon in Hunder. While there was no sign of any camels or the camel safari we did meet up with another bunch of army personnel in a MM550 and a Stallion that were waiting for that same general. Nitin decided to check if the camels were around at a distance and set off for a walk in the rain while we waited in the comfort of the safari. At 6pm the jawans had enough and decided to push off from there thinking that their general wasn’t showing up for the day. Within the next 5 mins they came zooming back with the MM550 doing a donut in the wet sand before coming to a halt. The man and his family arrived in an army Xylo, the guy did not even step out of the car, briefly spoke to his personnel and pushed off from there followed by the convoy.
Meanwhile even Nitin was back and we made our way back to the hotel. Jay was tired and complaining that he wanted to sleep and would crash once we reached. Ha ha so much for planning ahead. We had driven for 10 mins when we came across a sight that is hard to forget. There was think mud flowing down the side of the mountain, spreading out across the road and then flowing down into the valley. Up near the peak of the mountain the rain was melting the mud causing it to come down like a waterfall. If anyone has seen the movie Volcano you will be able to relate to the manner in which lava flows on the road to this scene. While we took stock of the situation we saw an army Stallion coming up from the opposite side. This would be a good indication of how deep the mud was, I thought as i watched him enter the mud. Then to my surprise the truck shuddered and halted. Then in a frenzied motion he reversed zigzagging out of the mud, did a U- turn and scooted off. That set all of us thinking and we began to explore our options. Jay suggested we wait until the rain had stopped. I was fairly certain that we could make it thru given a.) we were going downhill and b.) there was a hard surface ie the road below the slush which would allow us traction. The only thing that could potentially stop our progress was if we beached ie if the slush was deep enough to hit the front of the vehicle, thereby stopping all progress. So we decided to check the depth of the sludh by poking around with a tire spanner. While we were doing that we heard a sickening sound of a rock coming down thuck, thuck, thuck, thuck ....... Looking up we saw a small rock plummeting down ahead of us. If that wasn’t enough, exactly above where the car was parked the mountain gave way to slush and we had a fresh stream of slush headed straight for the safari. I yelled to Jay who had gone ahead to check the slush to return immediately. He came sprinting back out of breath. We had Nitin and Suraj hop off to reduce weight, gunned the safari, engaged 4wd low, selected 1st and crossed the slush on the 320 NM of torque and a prayer. There were moments when I felt the car bogging down but Jay’s skilful driving pulled us thru. The slush was deep alright with the sideboards covered with mud. Full marks to Viru (the safari) here!! All signs of sleep had vanished and Jay was ecstatic and kissed the bonnet of his vehicle. We reached the hotel and Jay hired the steward to give the safari a well deserved wash before crashing for the night. Some pics to follow
Last edited by Rehaan : 3rd September 2011 at 14:18.
Reason: As requested
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