[Swifdeep]

Hi rkbharat,
Great photography, am looking forward to the rest.
While all the photos were worth appreciating, one photo got me going. For lunch!!!

Have rated a well deserved *****.

[nishsingh]

Loved the travelogue! Finding a replacement for the SX4 isn't too difficult I think...get another SX4. At least that is what I would do when mine becomes old. Immensel faithful with the large boot, easy ingress/egress, the awesome ground clearance, and low maintenance... what else does one look for in a travel sidekick?

[Jeash.vk]

Great photos Rajiv. Though there was an absolute lack of words in the posts, the photos in itself spoke thousands of words. Great great photography. The beauty of the place being complimented by the beauty of the shots. Truly amazing. Thank you for the share.

[rkbharat]

Originally Posted by Jignesh

Hello Rajiv,

Wonderful pictures. Rating the thread with 5 stars is the minimum I can do to appreciate the beautiful pictures here.

Hope you remember that your Kinnaur 2013 thread has motivated me to do a similar circuit next year (2014) but now with this Kashmir travelogue I am confused on where to go next year.

Anyways eagerly waiting for complete set of pictures, your detailed / crisp narration of the places & your experiences.

Thanks,

Thanks Jignesh. If you are planning for 2014, then I am sorry to say that I am going to confuse you more soon

Originally Posted by abirnale

Heaven, sure everyone wants to see! It's my dream to spend a full month roaming in the northern and eastern india someday with my family in a reliable car. Your travelogue just encourages it So thank you for posting the details and your experience.

I think I too can rely on SX4 to do such stretches! And by the way, your pick of SX4 watching over green and lake is now on Maruti Suzuki's facebook page of SX4.

Thanks, just hit the road and enjoy the places, plan well and turn back when you think that its enough.

As I mentioned earlier SX4 built like a tank, can take you to places you can not even imagine. Abuse it to the max to make it happy

Originally Posted by Swifdeep

Hi rkbharat,
Great photography, am looking forward to the rest.
While all the photos were worth appreciating, one photo got me going. For lunch!!!

Have rated a well deserved *****.

Thanks, hope you had nice lunch

Originally Posted by nishsingh

Loved the travelogue! Finding a replacement for the SX4 isn't too difficult I think...get another SX4. At least that is what I would do when mine becomes old. Immensel faithful with the large boot, easy ingress/egress, the awesome ground clearance, and low maintenance... what else does one look for in a travel sidekick?

Thanks, but now we need more space and a mandatory 4WD

Originally Posted by Jeash.vk

Great photos Rajiv. Though there was an absolute lack of words in the posts, the photos in itself spoke thousands of words. Great great photography. The beauty of the place being complimented by the beauty of the shots. Truly amazing. Thank you for the share.

Thanks

[rkbharat]

Preparation: Was very minimal due to our recent trip to Kinnaur in March. Winter was not a problem as we were not expecting much cold so it saved us from carrying heavy woolens. But we piled up more food materials just in case if we get stuck somewhere. Support tools and accessories are now part of all the trips, so no worries there. All in all Prep was the easiest part of this trip.

You may call me little hyper but I did bought a big hunting knife and an axe for this trip, for multiple purposes other than self defense :P. We only used the knife to cut watermelon .

Even car did not required any pre service, other than the replacement of Horn, which again failed in the middle of the trip.

I only booked hotels for Day 1 and Day 2 and JKTDC, for Aru I left it to Jagjit(owner of Aru Eco Resort). As we always expect the plans to change I took the risk of finding something on the spot. And because we were visiting places less flooded by tourist, chances of getting it was quite high.


Day 1 and Day 2

Day 1
Gurgaon - Panipat - Ambala - Rajpura - Jalandhar - Pathankot - Jammu By Pass - Udhampur - Kud : Around 710 Kms

Day -1, we heard the news of terrorist encounter in Pulwama region and I had my heart sinking a bit. I never felt scared of these incidents in past but this was for the first time I was exploring Kashmir with family. I remember last time when we were on our way to Ladakh, just before Qazigund, we heard news of a big Bomb blast at Lal chowk but that didn't scared us a bit.

But this time it was little scary as Pulwama was in our plan (and finally we did that as well). After talking to friends and acquaintances there, we decided to move as per plan.

With lots of excitement and apprehensions we started our drive on 8th June from Gurgaon at around 5:00 AM. The target was to take our first break at McDs after Rajpura. Drive from Gurgaon to Ambala to Rajpura was fantastic, except that Nariana is getting messy again. Some of the over bridges are in this section are functional now, saving the pains of diversions, but there are still many to handle.

We have done this section so many times that now I can even remember some of the bad patches and bigger pot holes on the roads , not that there are many.

At Mcds we stuffed our tummy, used the clean washrooms and got something packed for Nandini on the way. We wanted to take as less stops as possible today as it was long drive and I wanted to reach our destination in Day light. To keep Nandini engaged we keep Games, Tablet, puzzles etc in the car. And in between we played the word games which was a real fun

After passing through the messy Jalandhar by pass and Mukerian crowd, our next stop was at JKTDC retaurant near Chak Dyala as we started feeling hungry and restless. Had our food and we headed non stop for Kud.

Section between Rajpura and Pathakot has improved alot barring those bypass mess near Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Mukerian. It was delight to drive on those roads. We took Jammu bypass instead of Samba-Udhampur as bypass is very good and places for food, hotels etc. Its little longer than Samba-Udhampur but I am sure it takes same time to reach Udhampur.

We reached Kud at around 6:30 PM, drove straight to the Parking of JKTDC Guest House as I have been to this place many times before. Its an idle place to take a night break for a drive to Srinagar. Weather was hot and bad during day and we had AC running in the car all the times up to Udhampur. It started getting cooler beyond udhampur when we decided to feel the hills and opened car windows.

Check-in to our room was quick. Its not a very sophisticated hotel, just basic rooms and minimal to no room service. But it was just a night stop for us and all we needed was food, clean bed and clean toilet. If you prefer a little high end hotel, there is one little ahead of Kud, between Kud and Batote, but last time they asked us 3K for just the night stay, that too when it was all empty .

Anyway it was an event less journey for Day 1 and thanks to god, day 1 went well without any trouble.

Day 2

Kud - Batote - Doda - Kishtwar - Chingam - Sinthan Pass - Daksum : Around 230 Km

Today was the start of the fun part of the trip. Nandini was little unhappy yesterday as we had no fun and were driving all the time, so I promised her that we will have lots of fun today, but then mother nature had something else for us in store. In the hills its the nature who decided the fate and I guess this day was not our day, at one point of time I was so frustrated that I wanted to turn back.


More on that next..

Kud Market


Garden of JKTDC GH


Wonderful flowers


My Monkey


Views from GH


Nandini was fresh and cheerful as always. There is one wonderful thing I do all the time when I feel little low on the long drive. I ask Nandini are you ok and she relpy back with loudest of his voice OOOOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKKKK and that keeps me moving




Kishtwar, unfortunately we could not spend much time here, but I will spend atleast a day in Kishtwar next time


Around Chingam




The only place where we could stop on our way to Sinthan Top, rest all was flooded with pot holes and water canals.





Finally at Top





And then you see black tar road on the other end. I was like somebody injected a dozen power injection on me. I was expecting another 3 hours of torturous drive, but we were ripping at 60-80 km/Hrs on those roads.


She has some fancy for sheep/goat kids :P


A stop before our final run to Daksum

[rkbharat]

And a quick video with few time-lapse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhJYm...5NWpzutgOVhZDg

[Dodge_Viper]

Brilliant pictures Rajiv. Dal lake picture is the best of lot. Time to introduce something which is above 5 stars .

Delhi side folks are really lucky, heavenly places are soooo close, just hop in a car and do a trip .

[akabhp]

Hi rkbharat, awesome pics there buddy...
I am sure you had a great time on this trip, I just love the pics of your trek route at Gaganpatri, Meadows at Aru and Dal Lake and sure you have a very cute daughter. Your photography is awesome man. Rated the thread a well deserved 5 stars.

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by rkbharat

As I mentioned earlier SX4 built like a tank, can take you to places you can not even imagine. Abuse it to the max to make it happy

I have been using SX4 since march 2011 and haven't inconvenienced me ever in a major way. Just few punctures and that is all But my intention to ask was - will it be also reliable in those high altitude, rough terrain as well? But i think it should be fine looking at your trip! And for you as next car, how about an XUV500? And don't sell that SX4 even though you get a new ride...!

Thanks for the details and nice pictures there again! Have fun.

[adc]

Originally Posted by rkbharat

which finally converted to : Gurgaon - Kud - Sinthan Top - Daksum - Ananthag - Aru - Gaganpatri/Arampatri - Srinagar - Dudhpatri - Yousmarg - Jammu - Gurgaon

Brilliant images each and every one of them, a 5 star travel thread without a doubt!

You really do bring back great memories from 2011, and still more nothing like a great family trip. Dudhpatri and yousmarg are there among the destinations, but Margan top and Inshaan skipped for?

[rkbharat]

Originally Posted by Dodge_Viper

Brilliant pictures Rajiv. Dal lake picture is the best of lot. Time to introduce something which is above 5 stars .

Delhi side folks are really lucky, heavenly places are soooo close, just hop in a car and do a trip .

Thanks, and we are still hoping to drive down to coastal regions soon, but we just can not drive there like that

Originally Posted by akabhp

Hi rkbharat, awesome pics there buddy...
I am sure you had a great time on this trip, I just love the pics of your trek route at Gaganpatri, Meadows at Aru and Dal Lake and sure you have a very cute daughter. Your photography is awesome man. Rated the thread a well deserved 5 stars.

Thanks, will post many more pics from that part

Originally Posted by abirnale

I have been using SX4 since march 2011 and haven't inconvenienced me ever in a major way. Just few punctures and that is all But my intention to ask was - will it be also reliable in those high altitude, rough terrain as well? But i think it should be fine looking at your trip! And for you as next car, how about an XUV500? And don't sell that SX4 even though you get a new ride...!

Thanks for the details and nice pictures there again! Have fun.

I have done, Ladakh, Zanskar, Kinnaur (twice), Tirthan Valley, Jalori Pass, Daranghati on SX4 and never had any trouble at all, except for front and rear ramp clerance angle.

Zanskar was the toughest 500Km of drive on absolutely no roads, but it managed without a hiccup.

I am almost sold out to Safari Storme 4WD, but not finalized yet. Keep both the car will not be possible, due to space and maintaining them.

Originally Posted by adc

Brilliant images each and every one of them, a 5 star travel thread without a doubt!

You really do bring back great memories from 2011, and still more nothing like a great family trip. Dudhpatri and yousmarg are there among the destinations, but Margan top and Inshaan skipped for?

Thanks Guru ji .
We skipped Waran this time. As we were driving for Day 1 and Day 2 all the time, we wanted to take a good big break. so instead we decided spend whole day at Daksum. That gave much delight to my kido as she could run around and play for some time.

We will do it next time in October.

[adc]

Originally Posted by rkbharat

We skipped Warwan this time.

We will do it next time in October.

Very good! Indeed early October would be the better month for that area, though quite cold it will be. Will throw in a few more names in the mix for that trip other than of course Bangus and Gurez!!

[rkbharat]

Originally Posted by adc

Very good! Indeed early October would be the better month for that area, though quite cold it will be. Will throw in a few more names in the mix for that trip other than of course Bangus and Gurez!!

We are planning like this, thought nothing confirmed

Gurgaon - Pathankot - Pooch - Rjauri - Bufliaz - Mughal Road - Peer Ki gali - Shopian - aharbal - Verinag - Vailoo - Warwan - Aru - Trek to Kolai Glacier (if possible) - Lolab - Sadhna Pass - Teetwal - Bangus Valley - Kupwara - Rajdhan pass - Gurez (and places around) - (few other places)-Anantnag - Daksum - Sach Pass- Gurgaon

we have to visit Srinagar for a marriage and want to visit Universtiy area for autumn colors

Pheww, already dreaming

Let me know if you have some more recommendation

[jacs]

Rajiv - Beautiful shots there, really enjoyed reading this travelogue. Your kiddy's expression is enough to convey the excitment of this trip. Day by day, my confusion is getting bad on planning a north trip. One month will not be sufficient to cover the wishlist.

[madhav14]

Fantastic..Fabulous..Fantabulous.

Awesome photography man. Especially the water pics with long exposures. This travelogue is giving me feeling that Kashmir is one place that every one should definitely visit in their lifetime.

Rating the thread a well-deserved 5 stars. Glued to this thread. Awaiting for further details on the trip.