[droolingvoyager]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

It's worth noting the importance of the Manali - Leh
Ref:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milita...n_Ladakh_(1948)
Autobiography by Lieutenant General (Retd.) Srinivas Kumar Sinha: http://books.google.co.in/books/abou...d=vHglFDHJi78C

thanks for the interesting prelude to manali leh road, extremely interesting. I remembered Ram Dhari Singh Dinkar's Aag ki Bheek Poem

आँसू भरे दृगों में चिनगारियाँ सजा दे
मेरे शमशान में आ श्रंगी जरा बजा दे
फिर एक तीर सीनों के आरपार कर दे
हिमशीत प्राण में फिर अंगार स्वच्छ भर दे
आमर्ष को जगाने वाली शिखा नयी दे
अनुभूतियाँ हृदय में दाता, अनलमयी दे
विष का सदा लहू में संचार माँगता हूँ
बेचैन जिन्दगी का मैं प्यार माँगता हूँ


and Mahadevi Verma's great poem -

Mujhe tod lena vanmaali, Us path par tum dena phenk.. Matrbhoomi par sheesh chadhane,, Jis path jayen Veer anek...

[TheHkrish]

Thanks Anandh, for the patriotic angle (Loved it) and the wonderful description.

It inspires us noobes to take on Leh as time permits.

Keep it coming..

[Heavy Horse]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

Ladakh is beautiful, has a lot of rare wild life, etc and it's fine to go there to appreciate all that. But the real life is tough in Ladakh, even more so for the forces. It's extremely hard for those working in the forces or the BRO. Harsh conditions, hard work, no family life...

Anand congratulations on many fronts. Your patriotic zeal and heartfelt emotions, you technical expertise, physical fitness, narration and photography, planning skills, courage and faith in your 8 year old Tuscon. Truly inspiring.

[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by amrisharm

1) the tool box in red that you carried seems to have everything one needs, can you give me more details of that please like brand name and price.

The make is "Genius" - it's a Taiwanese brand. I got it for Rs.5300, will post a picture of the model number and other details.

Originally Posted by A.G.The Rambler

These are the famous Green Apples. They are sweet and great to eat.

Ok. Good I tried :-)

Originally Posted by samarth.bhatia

Excellent narration Anand!

This means "Nazar lagaavega joota khawega", which relates to the ëvil eye. Interesting to see it done with text + images mix :P

Looking forward to reading more. And awesome preparation for the journey

Cheers,
Sam

Oh, wow, the pictures and text together!!! Well spotted, I missed that. Thanks for the compliments.

Originally Posted by droolingvoyager

thanks for the interesting prelude to manali leh road, extremely interesting.
...

Mujhe tod lena vanmaali, Us path par tum dena phenk.. Matrbhoomi par sheesh chadhane,, Jis path jayen Veer anek...

Thank you. Very well put.

Originally Posted by TheHkrish

Thanks Anandh, for the patriotic angle (Loved it) and the wonderful description.

It inspires us noobes to take on Leh as time permits.

Keep it coming..

Thanks. Looks like things are only improving there so you will have wider time window to visit in the future.

Originally Posted by Heavy Horse

Anand congratulations on many fronts. Your patriotic zeal and heartfelt emotions, you technical expertise, physical fitness, narration and photography, planning skills, courage and faith in your 8 year old Tuscon. Truly inspiring.

Thank you very much!

BTW, I will write the remaining parts soon.
Thank you all .

[Rahulk76]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

T

Oh, wow, the pictures and text t\BTW, I will write the remaining parts soon.
Thank you all .

Excellent.. the thread i have been waiting to read.

PLEASE post soon the next chapters.

[K a s h]

Lovely narration Anand! Starting to feel bad that me & Digital Vampire missed this trip :-(.

[Raps]

Hi,

Wonderful, As I keep reading TL's about Ladakh and every time I get to see something new and bookmark the same. This will help me plan for the next year.

Expecting your next set soon.

Cheers,

[anandpadhye]

After Baralacha La, we continued towards Sarchu. We passed through "Killing Sarai". I had read a lot about this place on team-bhp as well as bcmtouring - how dangerous it can be if water levels are high. But there was absolutely nothing there. No water, no vehicle, no nothing!


Soon we met the Chandrabhaga river (which flows into J&K where it is called Chenab). The road kept running along the river for quite some distance...all the way till Sarchu and then even further till we hit Gata loops...

First view of Chandrabhaga:


Where the road ran parallel to the river but at a distance, the Chandrabhaga seemed like a mysterious gorge:


Double click to appreciate the panorama of Chandrabhaga


Various colors of Chandrabhaga:


Another pano...


And the mountains along:


We reach Sarchu. BTW, as we cross over from Himachal into Ladakh, BRO's project Deepak hands over to Project Himank, which owns and maintains the roads in Ladakh. Himank : what an apt name! Truly The Mountain Tamers




We had lunch at Sarchu and moved on, so did Chandrabhaga:






We hit the Gata loops:


The Gata loops reminded me of the Kashedi and other numerous ghats on NH-17 and around in Konkan. The only difference being the altitude. Tucson smoked heavily as we exited each corner...And for almost every loop there was an off-road short-cut. I wanted to try at least one, but on close inspection, all of them looked quite steep and rough - beyond the capabilities of the Tucson. And being a one car team, there was no backup vehicle to rescue, so had to drop the idea. What a pity. So close and yet so far...I need to go back there in a Jeep, a real Jeep - with 4L and diff locks. The Wrangler or Discovery . Hope I make it soon...

To be continued...

[Top-Gear]

AWESOME thread! Sir, I bow to thee! I salute your preparations - of yourself and your worthy steed; your patriotic fervour and the genuine emotions.

Great narration, beautiful pics. The armchair traveller in me finds nirvana on the T-BHP travelogues, and this is one rocking travelogue - inspiring, educating (the write up on the Manali-Leh road and the link to Lt. Gen. Sinha's autobiography were really heartening) apart from being food-for-the-armchair-traveller-soul.

My resolve to one day drive to-through Ladakh gets stronger!

Rock on!!!

[s_pphilip]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

Today, we can drive from Manali to Leh in a day and when we reach there we have a guest house/hotel reserved for us to retire and wake up the next morning to talk about AMS and shower laurels on our SUVs for their supposedly AWD/4WD drivetrains. But it sends shivers through my body when I think how it would feel to walk across those mountains at 14000+ feet altitude on foot for 21 days in a row to reach a place where you are not invited for a party or a wedding, you are actually invited to fight and die if necessary. Hats off to the Gorkha Rifles!

Wow I loved the patriotic angle to this thread, really inspiring and when I do plan this trip, it would be to pay homage, thanks for unfolding this thread with details, lovely pictures & history inter-spaced.
Keep it flowing, already hooked and eagerly waiting from the time you announced, have been closely following the updates on your other Tucson related threads.

[Ricxx]

Mod Note : Post EDITED. Please avoid typing with excessive dots.........like................this.

Thanks

We just got back from Ladakh and it was the best life experience. Your pics are amazing and capture the beauty of the terrain. Thanks! The snow look so good, seems like we have to do Ladakh next time i June to enjoy this white scenery.

[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by Rahulk76

Excellent.. the thread i have been waiting to read.

PLEASE post soon the next chapters.

Thanks Rahul. Yes, will update soon.

Originally Posted by K a s h

Lovely narration Anand! Starting to feel bad that me & Digital Vampire missed this trip :-(.

Thank you.
"K a s h, hum teeno ek saath jaa pate"

Originally Posted by Raps

Hi,

Wonderful, As I keep reading TL's about Ladakh and every time I get to see something new and bookmark the same. This will help me plan for the next year.

Expecting your next set soon.

Cheers,

Thank you. Even I feel like going there again. Many places we could not cover...

Originally Posted by Top-Gear

AWESOME thread! Sir, I bow to thee! I salute your preparations - of yourself and your worthy steed; your patriotic fervour and the genuine emotions.

Great narration, beautiful pics. The armchair traveller in me finds nirvana on the T-BHP travelogues, and this is one rocking travelogue - inspiring, educating (the write up on the Manali-Leh road and the link to Lt. Gen. Sinha's autobiography were really heartening) apart from being food-for-the-armchair-traveller-soul.

Thank you. To be honest, as me and my friend found on this trip - anybody can become a great photographer in ladakh. Just take any camera, point it in any direction and click, you will end up with a fantastic picture. That's Ladakh. But for me, some of the most important attractions were our men in uniform, the caravans of those green Ashok Leyland Stallions that were omnipresent - they were always driven so gracefully and with utmost discipline , we did not click their pictures as we were not sure if it was the right thing to. But one thing for sure, now that I am back in Pune, I really miss them on the road.

Originally Posted by s_pphilip

Wow I loved the patriotic angle to this thread, really inspiring and when I do plan this trip, it would be to pay homage, thanks for unfolding this thread with details, lovely pictures & history inter-spaced.
Keep it flowing, already hooked and eagerly waiting from the time you announced, have been closely following the updates on your other Tucson related threads.

Thank you so much. Glad to see you share the same feelings.
Will post the rest soon.

Originally Posted by Ricxx

We just got back from Ladakh and it was the best life experience. Your pics are amazing and capture the beauty of the terrain. Thanks! The snow look so good, seems like we have to do Ladakh next time i June to enjoy this white scenery.

Thanks. Yes, we were lucky to experience snow because we went in June. But we missed the apples and other local fruit. The "eating" season starts in September I was told. So there is a reason to go there every month, which brings something special of it's own...

[R2D2]

Anand, superb travelogue. Thanks for sharing!

[majumon]

Excellent write up and superb photos. Its really very inspiring to read such wonderful journeys and they are sowing seeds in my mind to prepare for one such wonderful life time journeys. Thank you so much and wishing you many more wonderful trips.

[roshan_cruise]

Excellent writeup and awesome photos.

Keep updating the thread,bro. Please don't leave us hanging.

Waiting for my time to come to do a Leh-Ladakh trip for the first time.