[Ashdel]

Just one word "Spectacular ". I always dream of being part of such kind of group journey, however still waiting for my time to come.

[kbishwa]

Originally Posted by abirnale

Epilogue

This has been an epic journey -
Julley!

Heartiest Congratulations! To the the entire crew!

And tons of thanks for sharing! In fact such threads make we Bhpian feel quite special and close to each other.

Narrations were precise and very lively. Photographs were amazing! And last but not least ..kudos to XUV500..and their owners!

Best wishes for many more such trips.

[paragsachania]

Well done Avi and team

Each time I read a travelogue on someone getting Leh'd, I feel like I should do this again.

Glad to see you were able to manage this without getting stuck anywhere - Be that the flooding at Chandigarh or the security issues around this region.

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by dhanushmenon

"I already want to be back there again".
....
Looking forward to more and more journeys to greater destinations, together.

Amen! Let's go when it snows there! Loved your planning and precision to execution! Hats off commander!

Originally Posted by sumitdongerkery

It was indeed very nice to meet you guys in Mumbai and all your excitement was rubbing off.

Thank you Sumit! It was pleasure catching up with you & others in Mumbai. Loved your spirit to see us even when it was pouring on Mumbai roads!

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

As you mentioned, this is every driving enthusiasts dream. I was hoping of making it to the trip when the initial planning was ongoing, however that was not to be the case. Well, may be next time.

Thanks Suhas! There is always next time! I have to do repeat of your GJ trip though

Originally Posted by Ashdel

Just one word "Spectacular ".

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement.

Originally Posted by kbishwa

Photographs were amazing! And last but not least ..kudos to XUV500..and their owners!

Thank you! I only clicked pics using Phones i carried but the more professional pictures - still coming up! Can't wait to see whats in store. A glimpse of that is below.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Well done Avi and team

My wish remains unfulfilled - driving with you! Let's do it!

Here are some more pictures from @ajayclicks camera - breathtaking!

I just got my hand on the dashcam footage and I need to process them into single file, selectively. There is one I have for now -

https://youtu.be/z9Rm8svCCXE

I shall post as I get them to upload to streaming website. Stay tuned.

[AvinashKeezh]

Congrats to the entire team for getting Leh'ed .
This thread is definitely going to be an inspiration for most of us now.
Awesome travelogue, amazing planning & execution and touch-wood no majorly untoward incident.

Avi - did the broken sun-roof cause any issues in the remainder of the trip or did the cellophane tape make-do till you reached back to Bangalore?

Also, great sets of photos - even from phone cameras; expecting mind-blowing stuff once you get hold of the remaining photographs from others .
PS: just saw your last post with some of Ajay's photos - breath-taking to say the least.

Altogether an amazing trip and a wonderful travelogue. Thanks for sharing the details.

[amar.madhavan]

Congrats to the entire team. Spectacular travelogue.

Was there any XUV which was an automatic for this trip ?

- Amar

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by AvinashKeezh

did the broken sun-roof cause any issues in the remainder of the trip or did the cellophane tape make-do till you reached back to Bangalore?

Thanks Avi. We had mild to mediocre rains every now and then. No issues whatsoever. Only the glass is broken so as long as I make a water tight seal on the glass, there is no chance the water will invade into cabin. To be able to identify our cars from a distance, we had made some bonnet stickers - one spare came handy. I applied it on roof and almost fine laminated with ample tape, twice on the sticker. That layer is still holding good. Initiated insurance claim - part is not readily available hence taking time to get it from factory. No third party vendor does just glass replacement.

Originally Posted by amar.madhavan

Was there any XUV which was an automatic for this trip ?

Thanks Amar. No. All were manual. Only one XUV (Ajay's) was AWD. But trust me, at this time of the year, you wont even need AWD. XUV has enough grunt and torque, it will manage all of the passes and roads we took easily. It would be apt to say that car made us feel like ordinary drive except that the terrain and views to our eyes were out of this world!

Look at this video - this is just one of the water crossings and we did it with ease -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgP54-9PeQ0

[romyeo4u]

Kudos to you and the team for the undying spirit of not giving up and making it happen! very true on the worst case logical deduction, when the worst is identified then there is nothing worst left, becomes easy in the decision making process.

[AvinashKeezh]

Originally Posted by abirnale

Thanks Avi. We had mild to mediocre rains every now and then. No issues whatsoever. Only the glass is broken so as long as I make a water tight seal on the glass, there is no chance the water will invade into cabin. To be able to identify our cars from a distance, we had made some bonnet stickers - one spare came handy. I applied it on roof and almost fine laminated with ample tape, twice on the sticker. That layer is still holding good. Initiated insurance claim - part is not readily available hence taking time to get it from factory. No third party vendor does just glass replacement.

Thanks for the confirmation, Avi.
I was planning to go in for the W10, but W8 more than meets my requirements. I am now in two minds whether to select W10 or W8, as shelling out an additional 1+ L just for the sun roof and the few other additional features doesn't sound very logical. Agreed the sunroof has its own charm - but your incident has me worried to an extent of skipping that feature.

[KiranPatil]

Julley Abirnale...
Congratulations for completing this trip successfully. Excellent photos especially that of the Galaxy shot. Excellent and informative thread.

[ajayclicks]

A video while going to Hanle from Tso Moriri via a route that is less frequented:

https://youtu.be/s8AKyjQ4oxQ

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by romyeo4u

Kudos to you and the team for the undying spirit of not giving up and making it happen!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by KiranPatil

Julley Abirnale...
Congratulations for completing this trip successfully.

Thanks Kiran. How was your trip? Looking forward to your pictures and stories.

Few more pictures I retrieved from my DSLR -

Somewhere after Panikhar towards Pensi-la


On the way to Sonamarg -


At one of the cliffs enroute Zoji-la -



After Panikhar -


When so many people clicking pictures, I need not bother clicking


Happy faces -


Mr.D's XUV -



Some more pictures from Jagdeep's lens:











One click from Vijay's phone!

[ajayclicks]

A few pictures and videos from my side:

https://youtu.be/FUykCyrOlN0

https://youtu.be/k4h4ffzbAVQ

https://youtu.be/fy71Gh0uhLM

[VivOverland]

Abirnale thank you for such a detailed glimpse into what seems to be a rite of passage for every automobile aficionado. I especially liked your sharing the mental journey towards your goal. Would love to see more about your return journey, through central India.

I noticed you mentioned a 9 year old joined this trip. How convenient is this journey with kids? I would imagine with proper planning it is quite feasible as you're never more than a few hours away from civilisation, or passing transport.

Kudos for having checked this off your bucket list!

[abirnale]

when we went from Tang Tse to Hanle - those were the most clearest skies and roads relatively smoother and full of dust! Specifically around Rezingla memorial and Tsaga la pass. Could retrieve and upload one such snippet -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m9bgvtVySM

While it feels good to be able to navigate and drive in such terrain, felt bad of spoiling the surrounding for few moments with this dust which is otherwise the "cleanest"! The dust at times was so much that unless kept away from car ahead of you, nothing can be seen!

XUV EcoSense actually keeps recording the path, driving vitals all around but since the mobile did not have connectivity the logs were not backed up. Only few were retrieved. Here are some -





Another significant observation is that - most of the places MMI navigation (default from XUV) had almost correct data. The names of the places were correctly indicated with different spelling than rest of the world uses The case in point is if you have created a list of Lat-Longs prior to embarking on the trip, MMI maps can be depended on as opposed to Google maps which does not work without connection. Downloading offline mas needs specific areas to be marked - exclude borders and so on.