[arjithin]

Start time: 7:30AM
End time : 5:30PM
Route taken: Ropar - Chandigarh - Delhi - Agra

Since we saved some hours yesterday, we decided to visit Chandigarh which was not in our original plan. We reached rock garden way before the park opened, so had breakfast while we waited. Left Chandigarh around 10AM and rest of the drive was uneventful. Got a car wheel alignment done at Agra.

Beautiful roads of Chandigarh


Rock garden






Somewhere before Delhi, this huge landfill was spotted

[arjithin]

Start time: 9:30AM
End time : 8:45PM
Route taken: Agra-Gwalior-Sagar-Narsingpur-Chindhwara

Went to visit Tajmahal (our last item in the itinerary) around 6:30AM. Took the help of a guide which was a waste of money. Left Agra after breakfast. Our progress was slow due to so many cattle on the road (mostly in MP) and religious processions on the road. Was in a dilemma to take Chindhwara or Seoni route to Nagpur, but decided for Chindhwara based on fellow bhpians suggestion and it was a good decision - Roads were good even-though 2 lane. Found a good hotel at Chindhwara and decided to stay there instead of pushing further to Nagpur.

[arjithin]

Start time: 5:30AM
End time : 1:45AM (next day)
Route taken: Chindhwara-Nagpur-Hyderabad-Bangalore

No of kilometers: 1248
Final day of our trip. We reached Nagpur around 7:30 AM and quickly crossed over to the south side of city. reached Hyderabad around 3:30 PM and decided to reach Bangalore late in the night. Post Ananthapur we encountered heavy rains and had to stop the car multiple times due to water logging and low visibility. Last 200km to home took more than 5 hours to cover.

Driving 1250 km in a single day - a new personal best for me.

NTPC power station at Nagpur


Center of India - Zero mile stone


Final odo reading after reaching home - covered ~8000 kilometers in 18 days !!.


Car decorated



Thank you for your time and hope you enjoyed the pictures !!

[arjithin]

Some small but significant information

• Total distance travelled - 8000
• Tolls paid ~5000 (of which Rs 3309 was on fastag/NHAI toll booths)
• Diesel cost - Rs 29000 ( Diesel price was highest at Diskit - almost 6 Rs higher than Bengaluru price)
• Average mileage for the whole trip - 17.01 kmpl
  
  
• So much of road construction work happening in J&K. I expect that in the next 3 years road conditions will improve vastly across the region and with Tunnels for Zoji La and Rohatang pass available, tourist inflow will increase multifold
• We were advised by many people NOT to park our car near the mountain side if mountain is prone to landslide
• We covered the bonnet and front side of the car at Tangste, Hanle and Tso kar using whatever available and parked the car with rear facing wind. This should help cold starts.
• Any car with high ground clearance (fully loaded) can do this circuit. We find Altos, Santros and Gypsies the most in those region, and Xylos, Innovas and Mahindra pickups mostly as taxis. Most of the Altos were running with downsizes tires to increase the ground clearance
• With extra food, water bottles, luggage for 2 weeks and extra diesel, car will get loaded up much heavier than expected. Our rough calculation was 3 Pax and 2 pax worth of items.
• Strongly suggest a sump guard from our experience
• Most of the shopping was done at Leh and Keylong markets
• We bought a carton full of Apples and ate it along the way
• None of us took any medication. We drank a LOT of water (6L per person per day) to prevent AMS
• Water bottles are available everywhere. Buy as a carton (15 numbers) from small shops than buying from hotels. Use the carton to store the empty bottles and dispose it responsibly.
  
  
• My respect to Army men increased multi fold after seeing what they sacrifice for us to have a peaceful life. SALUTE TO INDIAN ARMY
  
  
• Give way to local taxis as soon as you spot them in your rear view mirror.
  
• After 4PM, temperature and sun light reduces very fast. Shadows of mountain fall on the road and driving will become difficult
  
• Almost all the packed foods like chocolates or lays swelled as we climbed up towards higher altitude due to reduction in atmospheric pressure
  
• Do not take camel safari @Hunder if you have back pain
• The sump guard incident at Pangong gave us the bitter realization on how far away were we from help if at all we needed some. Rough calculation showed that if car breaks down in those remote areas, 2-3 days are minimum needed for help to arrive. Recovery time may depend on many other factors like parts availability, type of problem etc.
• Better to have Nitrogen filled in all tires, which will help keeping a uniform tire pressure in varying outside temperature. We were lucky not to have any punctures or Nitrogen top up in between.
  
  
• The following translation will help next time if you speak to a local person or taxi driver on road conditions
  First class or good road means good single lane bitumen road where one can do 40-60kmph
  Acha road means single lane bitumen road with broken sections often
  Bura road or Kachha road means NO Road.
  
  
• Expect 2 weeks to recover from the hangover after the trip and get back to normal life
• Expect to be giving same "trip updates" to your friends, family and circle for one month after return
• Expect 3 months for the sun burns to disappear
  
  
  
  

[ampere]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

Any drive log on Leh I bet will have : Lots of drives, Lots of local food, a lesson in country's geography and culture (thanks to a cross country drive) and of course many many snaps!

This one in right there ! Congrats on the completion.

[arun_josie]

Nice pics and a neatly composed travelogue with all required information for such trips. It again rekindles my dream to drive across leh/ladakh.

[bhp_maniac]

Going through a Leh travelogue, especially one from the south always ignite the same emotion foremost, jealousy Quickly enough though, it returns into another inspiration to do this one heck of a drive. Great travelogue and equally awesome pictures Wishing you many more happy miles ahead.

[Rajeevraj]

Great travelogue Jithin. Nicely narrated and great pictures. Especially liked the small but significant thing summary at the end. Thanks for sharing.

[Jeevan Sukumar]

First of all my hearty congratulations for your achievement. A very great and informative travelogue with amazing photos. And I am in need of advice from you since your achievement is my greatest dream. Wishing you all the best for similar achievements.

[Amit_Kapoor4750]

A very beautiful travelogue with amazing pictures. Every travelogue to those mighty mountains makes many of us to be a part of the league of the lucky wanderers who can show off their lovely and capable vehicles with “Got Leh’d” stickers on the rear windshield.

[arjithin]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

It again rekindles my dream to drive across leh/ladakh.

Originally Posted by bhp_maniac

it returns into another inspiration to do this one heck of a drive.

Originally Posted by Jeevan Sukumar

And I am in need of advice from you since your achievement is my greatest dream.

Originally Posted by Amit_Kapoor4750

Every travelogue to those mighty mountains makes many of us to be a part of the league of the lucky wanderers who can show off their lovely and capable vehicles with “Got Leh’d” stickers on the rear windshield.

Thank you for your kind words.

As I mentioned in one of the above posts, we will only see tourist inflow increase multi fold every year due to better roads and increased accessibility. The feel of isolation/loneliness is equally important to make such a road trip special. Hope you can plan & complete your trip soon.

Happy to help in anyway.

[snaseer]

Thank you for a wonderful travelogue with beautiful pictures. Rated 5 *****

Very rare to see an Ertiga doing this circuit as it has been classified as MUV.

Did you see any other Ertiga in that location?

[i20ian]

That is a fabulous writeup. Detailed and at the same time to the point accompanied by great pictures. Hats off to your preparation and determination to make it happen. That sticker back on the car.. "Been there.. Done that" gives volumes of inspiration to people like us. That is indeed a dream come true.

[rajeev k]

Read it in one go. Fantastic.
Got a feeling of experiencing the drive, through your narration and pics.

[trtraj]

Wonderful, But the continuous drive you mentioned is little scary, The smaller but very important tips like keeping yourself hydrated are very important.

Thanks for sharing the experience. well written !!