[akaush]

Laluks,

Nice you started this thread. We had amazing 7 days with you guys till Kaza. You didn't add VB in our Innova. I will be adding a few pics, hopefully from Day 3 onwards.

[JeepCaptain]

Originally Posted by laluks

Ladakh,

The Land of High Passes
The Roof of the World
Between the Earth and the Sky
The Coldest Desert in the World
Highest Inhabited Land in the World
Altitude of 9000 feet to 25000+ feet
The Northernmost State of India
...

To the travellor Ladakh is the land of numerous landscapes - Magnificient mountains, Glaciers, Snow capped mountains, Colours, Sandy deserts, Golden Dunes, Scorching Sun, Chilling Winds, Blue Waters...

Ladakh has its own definitions for everyone. And for me Ladakh is beautiful, vast, and a humbling experience. Getting lost and being miniscule in the vastness of mother nature, touching our inner self and trying to realise what we are is indeed a humbling experience.

I would like to reiterate what I had felt after my first trip in 2009 to Ladakh this time around too. We have not conquered anything; we all just became a part of nature for some days, and tried to overcome the difficulties as a team, and share the joys together.

Wah Wah! The long waited Travelogue is finally out!

Dearest Lalu, Thanks a lot for initiating this. Wonderful pics and excellent writeup. It was great to be part of the team and this trip was indeed the greatest and most memorable for me!

All thanks and praises to none other than HVK sir aka HV Kumar for organizing plannning and executing the trip and making it a huge success.

More updates to follow from all bhpians including me who were part of this Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition!

[laluks]

VB will be our Special appearance later in the story

[mjothi]

Wow, Lalu.

I use to envy HVK mostly and wonder how he got so much days on hand for these expeditions. Now you join the list

Keep it coming.

[kesri]

Great start! Nice pictures!! .... plan to hit this thread frequently as it evolves over next many days!!!

[laluks]

On Day 02, 13.08.2011 the convoy forms from Delhi.

Already Discovery Bolero, AP Swift, 4x4 Bolero Stinger, Innova and Baby Alto was in Delhi. HVK's Scorpio was the last to arrive in Delhi, due to my committments at work. They had their own share of travel stories all the way till Delhi.

Before I go on to the events of Day 02, let us hear the stories of their drive till Delhi too, along with HVK's take on the expedition and drive.

[spadix]

Originally Posted by laluks

Over to HVK for the Planning of the drive, Team forming and his account of the first day's drive.

This is going to be an amazing travelogue, Lalu! Thanks for all the hard work and beautiful pictures.

And having done Mumbai - Gurgaon recently as part of my Hyd - Ggn relocation drive, I can only marvel at your Day 1. Mumbai to Behror in one day! WOAH! I think it took me roughly the same amount of time (22 hrs) spread across 2 days but what's more amazing is how you managed it in just one day, that too with so many stops for taking pictures etc.

HVK's planning and execution skills are the stuff of legend, so I keenly look forward to his posts, as well as more photographs from you.

Last but not the least, congratulations for a trip well-done!

Regards,
spadix

[akaush]

Here is an overview of what the other cars were doing while HVK and LaluKS were traveling from Mumbai / Bangalore.

Doc Raman Kumar reached Delhi couple of days before the trip started. Pawan (my cousin), Raman Kumar and I went around delhi in preparations for our trip. We did a couple of trips at Stikage shop in Delhi to buy tents, sleeping bags, shoes and other accessories.

Vyas in his Alto reached Delhi a day before everyone was supposed to meet in Delhi. Parveer Dave also took a flight to Delhi from Ahmadabad and reached on 12th August.
Bhaskar and Vineet reached Delhi on 12th late night, facing some horrible traffic from Faridabad till Pahargunj.
Doc Raman Kumar
Vyas
Parveer
Bhaskar
Vineet
all stayed in Pahargunj hotels.

Jeepcaptain and his team had also reached near Delhi airport, we were all in touch with each other. Little did I know at that time that he is Jeepcaptain on team-bhp. I am sure Jeepcaptain will comment more on their and Shiyas's journey to Delhi.

In the meanwhile, we were getting regular updates on HVK's location, he informed us he was running late and asked me to ensure every is together somewhere on GT road by 5 am. We all planned to meet at Karnal Bypass at 5 am.

What really happened and where did we finally meet, is a story which would unfold the next day.

[doctorque]

Due to work commitments, we (Mumbai Roadsters 2 swifts) could only leave 12th Aug evening. That meant that even after doing a non stop Mumbai-Delhi run we would still be a day behind the group. After having all sorts of traffic problems we could only cross Dahisar check naka by around 7pm on 12th Aug. After driving non stop (with out sleep) from there on we reached Delhi at 8pm on 13th, 25 hours later. The idea was to catch up with the team at Tabo by 15th August night..

[v&v]

Wow this is going to be interesting. HumbLeh'd II i am glued to it. Also i would like to keep a track on details from till kaza which we plan to do soon.

@laluks - the first photo of Tso Moriri is simply beautiful.

[rahul_sinha]

What a trip! Not only the people participating are varied (from Kerala, Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi) but even the steeds (Alto, Innova, Scorp, Swifts).
Mindblowing stuff. Hope there is a full convoy pic en-route to Ladakh.
But you guys should put up the story/pics daily

[ASHISHPALLOD]

This is going to be really interesting.

Waiting for more to unfold the story.

[laluks]

@SDP, Fauji, amitwlele, BulZire, mjothi, kesri, spadix, v&v, rahul_sinha, Ashish - Thank you.

The feat by Swifts and Alto shows that determination, passion, perseverance, experience, teamwork can make a lot of wonders. It by no way means that the route was easy. More about that as the story evolves.

HVK does Mumbai Delhi stretch quite often, that he was mentioning to me that this was indeed very bad timing, and for me this itself was a great leap.

Pictures wise, almost 80% of the clicks are from a moving vehicle, as we were driving time bound from start to end each day.


I am waiting for JeepCaptain to put forth the experiences of bringing his Discovery Bolero to Delhi all the way from Kerala. Also for HVK's account of the planning.

We have heard from Mumbai Roadsters and Innova in the below posts.


It's a great feeling to write this log and relive the trip of a lifetime.


We had a great Polish travellor and friend of JeepCaptain -TS with us, who had visited Leh as early as 1976. Talk to him, he knows India better than many of us. His last visit to Ladakh was in 2009. He has travelled to about 83 countries. In honour of him the expedition was named Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition. More on this by HVK and JeepCaptain.

[hvkumar]

Thanks, Lalu, for such a great introduction to our driving odyssey.

Jeep Captain fired the first salvo sometime in February when he introduced me to his friend - a certain Polish gentleman who is one of the most prolific globe-trotters I have ever come across, TS in short. TS had been to Ladakh first time in 1976 - yes, that was approximately the year in which Ladakh was first opened up to civilians - and he revisited it in 2009 and wanted more. So we decided to plan a mega drive to Ladakh covering all the sectors.

The group started forming - most of us were friends in team-bhp.com, Face Book or in real life too. As Lalu mentioned, our trip planning began in right earnest at least 3 months before the D-Day and that meant discussing routes, duration, driving conditions, medical issues, things to carry and car preparation. At one point, we had expressions of interest from over 60 people, but finally the list settled down to the 28 who made it finally. Of the team, just 4 of us - me, Jeep Captain, Lalu & TS - had been to Ladakh before - and for the others, everything was new, unexplored and unique.

The dates for the trip were finalised much in advance so that everyone could plan their holidays, leaves and work/ personal commitments. The Face Book group (specially created for this trip) started humming with activity as we discussed every issue threadbare. Every member of the team got to know each other virtually and by D-Day, everyone knew each other so well as though they had been friends for life.

This was a trip of tremendous contrasts - our eldest team member was 81 (EIGHTY ONE years old) and youngest 23 (Twenty Three). We had 4 senior citizens. We had SUVs like the Scorpio & Bolero and "Baby" Altos, and none of us had any doubt in our mind that all our cars could make it.

Although I have driven to Ladakh thrice before, this trip was unique because I was exploring new places that had been opened up to civilians recently - like Turtuk, Batalik, Chushul, Hanle - and we decided to g to every part of Ladakh this time. We wanted to avoid Rohtang Pass because of the enormous difficulties with landslides and blockades in the Manali-Gramphoo route and decided to go via the sylvan Kinnaur & Baspa Valleys of Himachal instead. For the return trip, we did not want to use the Leh-Srinagar route but wanted to try out this new difficult road through Sach Pass from Lahaul Valley via Pangi Valley to Chamba Valley (Dalhousie).

[LongDrive lover]

What a start Laluks. This sure is going to be one of the most admired TL on this forum. Great people, amazing trip, skillful narration of the story, and with so many SLRs around, and that too when Laluks is NOT driving but navigating, then, what to speak of the wall paper quality pics!! Hooked to it.