[SDP]

Day 4 - 4th Jun 2018.. continued

Chicham bridge - Kibber - Key Monastery

3:45 pm - We start from the hotel again for circuit #2. In the morning, we had crossed the bridge over the river and gone right for Langza-Komic-Hikkim. In the afternoon, we cross the same bridge and go left for Kee-Kibber-Chicham.

A beautiful village just across the river:


Okay! That looks like a riverbed access road. Noted!


The Key Monastery soon comes into view. Looks beautiful from that angle:


The road goes through the village at the base:


Surprised to see an old-age home in such a small place. Is it Key or Kee? Seen both the spellings used in that area:


Green paddy fields. No clue what they grow there:


We skip Key Monastery and go ahead. Will cover it on the way back.

Over lunch, we had heard about these 2 girls who have been doing the treacherous roads on an underpowered Scooty/Activa:


We head towards Chicham village. It looks nice from distance. So much of greenery is so rare here:


Rijul put a large gap between the 2 vehicles. We came to a fork and couldn't see the Gypsy. We went right and climbed a bit. A nice huge bridge came into view. Ah.. that's the Chicham bridge. I could see the Gypsy on that route. So we have missed the turn:


We trace our steps back, take the left fork and crossed the bridge:


Climbing up a bit provides a unique perspective. Did you notice that the car is again squeaky clean? Yes, it was cleaned again during the lunch break. Hats off to the support guys:


I take a ride in the Gypsy to the higher vantage point we had been to earlier.

A short clip of the Kodiaq crossing the bridge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbtCKqNv_CE

The road to Kibber is tricky as a lot of construction material has been dumped on the road. Finally, I could see the village in the distance:


We navigate through the narrow gullies and park where we get a spot. The local monastery is at the highest spot in the village. Why are Gods and their places so remote and inaccessible? Maybe because most people don't value things which are easy:


The climb is a bit tough and Ajit opts out of it.

But, when you reach the top, the amazingly beautiful color palate of the structure makes the effort worth it:




Large prayer wheels in the yard:


Nice view as well! See the red A-Star down there? The Kodiaq was parked very close to that and I had climbed up all the way. BTW, Kibber is at the same elevation as Chandrataal. But after spending 2 days in this climate, the body has gotten used to less oxygen and could manage:


On the way back, we saw a board for Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary. Except for a vulture and a few blue whistling thrush, we have not seen any wildlife during this entire trip. I was not really hoping to spot the snow-leopard, but spotting an ibex would have been nice. Anyways.

We head back to Rangrik. Our last destination for the day would be the Key Monastery. Once we hit tar road, the Kodiaq made rapid progress (again no pun intended ):




We spent a good amount of time at the monastery:




A butter lamp that has been kept burning for years...


..and the reason behind it:




Cute and innocent smiles!

[SDP]

Day 4 - 4th Jun 2018.. continued

Spiti riverbed

Remember the pic in the last post which showed a trail one can use to get onto the riverbed? We traced back to the point and went down.
The sun was already setting and the valley was getting engulfed in shadows. The Gypsy and the Kodiaq descended to the river bed without any issues. The river has very little water. Most likely that's because it hasn't snowed much last season and there is not enough snow-melt to feed the river. Anyways. We crossed 2-3 small water crossings:


Prem asked me if we wanted to explore further. There was anyways not a lot to do after going back to the hotel, so I said yes:


We saw a slightly bigger water crossing with some mud and ruts around the access point. I got down and explored on foot:


The mud was not hard and my feet were easily sinking in it. Would we get stuck? Prem crossed in the Gypsy easily and even he was not sure whether the heavy Kodiaq would be able to manage the mud part. We deliberated for a minute or two. What's the worst that can happen? We would get stuck. I asked Prem if there is a tow-rope in the Gypsy. There was none. But our hotel is nearby and we could get help with a recovery vehicle if needed. But, that would be a quite a scene. So? What the heck, you live just once!

I requested Ajit to stay on the ground as I wanted the car to be as light as possible. Crossed the muddy approach cautiously, but kept enough momentum. Once in the water, it was a piece of cake. Just a river bed with pebbles. No grip issues. No hidden rocks. No surprises:


Crossed over to the dry patch, turned around and again got into the water:


Near the exit, the water is a bit deep and the nose dipped a bit:


Slowly came out on the mud with a steady throttle. At the absolute last moment, felt like the car lost traction and maybe the AWD kicked in:


That's the first round. Me being super careful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu-DDOY0b9Y

The giant Alaskan bear is surprisingly capable in mild-to-medium off-road situations. Once we established that the Kodiaq can do that stretch, it was time for some fun rounds.

Ajit took the bear for a spin. He already knew that there are no nasty surprises lurking beneath the water. So he maintained good speed.
Result was some nice splashes!






Ajit at the wheel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHNggj5PH3IThat's

My turn! My turn!


See that communications tower in the background? That's the same one we have seen just outside our hotel:


Not sure if you can make out from the pic, but there was a broad grin on my face:


Yippee!


Once out, the alloy and the sidewalls were super-clean, but the tread was all covered in fine wet sand:


Nigam and Joshi saw us from across the river and soon joined us on the riverbed in the white Kodiaq.

It was getting dark and we called it a day by following the Gypsy back to the main road:


That was just too much fun!

Back at the hotel, we had a local dish called Sidu (no connection with the ex-cricketer and current politician who is as famous for a road-rage incident from early part of his career as his witty comments during cricket commentary). Served with love and care:


It was sort of our last day as the return journey would start the next morning. So to celebrate the success of the expedition, a specially baked cake was cut:


Although I was itching to drive the Batal-Chattru section on the return lap, most of the guys had enough of bad roads over the last 3 days and were keen to go back by the Shimla route. That route is longer, but significantly better roads. Shankar and team had been working on that option and making stay and food arrangements on that route throughout the day. He managed to get 17 rooms in Kufri and it was decided that we go back by the Shimla route.

[SDP]

Day 5 & 6 - 5th & 6th Jun 2018

Day 5 -> Rangrik - Kaza - Tabo - Sumdo - Nako - Khab - Pooh - Spello - Reckong Peo - Rampur Bushahr - Narkhanda - Kufri

Day 6 -> Kufri - Shimla - Solan - Chandigarh

The exhaustion from the 4 hectic days finally hit me at the end of day 4 and I was a bit down. After a couple of pieces of starter and half a slice of pizza, I retired to my room. Not sure why, but couldn't sleep well and barely got about 2-3 hours of sleep before the alarm rang. Today's journey is a long 415 km to Kufri and I had to do my bit of the driving load. I somehow knew that the overall fatigue is going to hit me hard sometime during the day. So I decided to drive in the morning and cover as many km as possible. That means some serious concentration. Strict focus on the road and less on the scenery around. No photography breaks either. Shankar was expecting blasting related delays en-route and Nako Helipad was supposed to be our lunch spot. We started at 6:15 am from Rangrik. At 8:45 am, after covering 120 km, ours was the first Kodiaq to reach the helipad! The road is tough on the nerves with vertigo-inducing really deep valleys hugging the route all along. At Nako, we paid a quick visit to the lake and then surged ahead. At Khab, the Indo-China border is barely 10 km away. Around 11:30ish, at our lunch stop at Spello, after covering about 200 km, I gave up the driver's seat. Managed to catch some sleep post lunch. Hours later, snacks break at Bushahr. The supremely service-oriented folks at Neo Nabh were not ready to prepare even simple egg burji and insisted that Chinese menu was the only option at that hour. I had something from that menu and regretted. The route ahead was 100% twisty hill roads. As I had anticipated in the morning, I had developed a nasty headache by then and the lips were almost torn due to dryness. Sitting in the back was another bad idea and my head started reeling. I tried the tusks on rear headrests while trying to sleep, but those things are hard and I stopped using them after getting hit on the ears on a really bad road patch. I somehow made it to Kufri without throwing up, but almost lost balance once I got off the car. All I wanted was sleep with nothing moving around me. Barely got out of my shoes and crashed on the bed. A few hours later, after a nice warm bath, things started to look better. It was past 11pm and I was ready to skip dinner, but the folks insisted that I join them in the dinner hall. It was raining heavily. Somehow located the dinner place and then the chit-chat went on till well beyond 1 am.

Next day morning, had a relaxed start from Kufri as Kufri/Shimla is much closer to Chandigarh than Manali. Took us a while to navigate through the thick traffic in Shimla, but we made it to Chandigarh on time for the flight back to Mumbai. The flight got cancelled. We stayed back at Chandigarh and flew to Mumbai the next morning. But I won't get into all those details. Instead, I would like to wrap up this travelogue with a handful of pics from day 5 and 6.

No journey is complete without good company and these guys made the Spiti Expedition thoroughly enjoyable.
From L to R - Joshi, SDP, Ajmat, Ninad and Abhishek:


Denver was kind enough to join in:


Said goodbye to Rijul at Kufri...


..and to Prem at Chandigarh. Fantastic guys, both of them:


Ajmat doing the SRK at Nako helipad:


And that's me signing off!


Thank you Škoda-India for the Kodiaq expedition to Spiti valley. The Kodiaq definitely deserves a pat on the back for not only surviving some of the world's most treacherous roads, but conquering them with ease. Thanks Shankar and his team at NYKA for taking fantastic care of us throughout the 7 days. And finally, thank you Rush for the opportunity!

My first self-drive trip to the Himalayas! Going to cherish that for life!
Thanks for reading. Cheers!

[Aditya]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!

[jayeshdamle]

Looks like an amazing experience you guys had. Have been a fan of Skoda since my Superb, what a gem of car. Wonderfully written travelogue.

[procrastinator]

Just finished reading the thread in two hours and must say
Kodiaq's water wading and landscapes shots are droolworthy.
Excellent coverage SDP!

Can we request Ajmat's viewpoint on Kodiaq's abilities and driving experience?

[parsh]

Stupendous log SDP. I am sure you must have got hell of an experience through this treacherous route.

Guess the route is much better now than in 2012. It was horrifying to say the least when our Innova went through the same complete route right upto Chandrataal, and last village of India Chitkul and back to Noida in one piece unscathed. The whole family was on edge of seat with the treacherous route throwing surprises all the way. This was way beyond the Ladakh routes even worse than the Zanskar valley route done in 2013.

[sparky@home]

That was an excellent travelogue; I enjoyed every bit of it with those wonderful photographs. I had read about this trip in other Auto Magazines, but those were very dry reports and nothing to write home about. A Team BHPian’s report as usual is five star. Cheers.

[Bluebird_7]

Wow ! That was quite a fun drive. I saw you guys when i was on way to Chandrataal from Kaza doing spiti. I also remember one of the Kodiaq on flat-bed truck, what went wrong there ?

[SDP]

Originally Posted by Bluebird_7

Wow ! That was quite a fun drive. I saw you guys when i was on way to Chandrataal from Kaza doing spiti. I also remember one of the Kodiaq on flat-bed truck, what went wrong there ?

Saw a few MH registered cars. What were you driving?

2 Kodiaqs lost one tyre each during the Chhatru to Batal stretch. It was risky driving to Chandrataal with the space-saver spare. So one of the two Kodiaqs donated one good tyre to the other one and was taken to Kaza on a flat-bed.

[Bluebird_7]

Originally Posted by SDP

Saw a few MH registered cars. What were you driving?

I was driving a Blue S-Cross.

2 Kodiaqs lost one tyre each during the Chhatru to Batal stretch. It was risky driving to Chandrataal with the space-saver spare.

Got it ! I guessed an electronic issue that point in time.

[Viraj_Guru]

Awesome travelogue SDP, read every bit of it and enjoyed those wonderful photographs.

Originally Posted by procrastinator

Can we request Ajmat's viewpoint on Kodiaq's abilities and driving experience?

It's already there on Kodiaq official review. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offici...ml#post4411883

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by Viraj_Guru

Awesome travelogue SDP, read every bit of it and enjoyed those wonderful photographs.



It's already there on Kodiaq official review. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offici...ml#post4411883

Believe me, SDP has put his heart and soul into this and look at this amazing result!

I also have a lot to comment, there were so many stories/ anecdotes. Will write on this shortly

But anyway - Hats off to SDP! We used very little of the Skoda media stuff, so all this is pure Team-BHP work!

[ShubhGo1987]

Hi, SDP wonderful travelogue and kept me mesmerized as well. After this drive, what do you think is the Kodiaq a better option compared to Fortuner?

[ajmat]

It was a one in a lifetime experience and I will be back. Let me add a few points from my perspective and some non-official stuff!

Originally Posted by SDP

A few days later, I came to know from GTO that fellow Mod Ajmat (Ajit) is also joining the expedition. Good!

Škoda invited Team-BHP to participate in the Kodiaq Expedition and paid for the travel expenses.

I guess that I got lucky as most folks were not able to spare journalists for this trip. One Bangalore based group sent their most junior folks for the drive. One was doing his first review and the other was doing his second review. Test drives will never be the same for them after that baptism of fire!

Originally Posted by SDP

The plan and the preparation
. Chandrataal is equivalent to the Pangong Tso in this circuit and is almost at the same elevation (~4250m). Just like Pangong Tso, it's not recommended to stay overnight at Chandrataal, but as per the new plan we were going to do precisely that, and that too pretty early in the expedition. So, the new 6-day plan was more demanding on the body.

This night was going to be the killer event, it was a bit like anticipating a horror movie, you dont want to but you got to!

The basic plan was to fly to Chandigarh and then drive onwards.

In order to arrive with the others and not waste time, (am certainly glad that I did considering the long drive ahead!), I had a 3.00 am start in order to link up with the Mumbai folks, (am certainly cursing that I did considering the long drive ahead!)

Ajit reminded me about Diamox for AMS and I picked up a pack immediately. The dosage has to be started 2 days before reaching high altitude places and I took the first tab on 31st May morning. The first tablet hit me really hard.

Considering yourself lucky, add a 3.00 AM start and enjoy the result!

With less than 24 hours left for the flight to Chandigarh, I got the Spiti Expedition Advisory in an email. It talked about potential sub-zero temperatures and advised to carry thermals, gloves, a double layer jacket & a monkey cap. I rolled my eyes and wondered if any participant would have time to shop for any missing things at that hour:

I was lucky, I happened to be tanking up my wifes car (why do they always love husbands to do these things for them) when I got the mail. Luckily I was opposite a Decathalon and picked up the cap and trekking shoes - the latter were invaluable in keeping the cold at bay as although traversing river crossing for some shots.

.

Chances of experiencing the acceleration on open roads would be slim. Would the low-end grunt be enough to handle tricky inclines and medium-sized rocks in off-road situations?

I think I did seize that opportunity on the approach to Kaza

Or can it take the road less traveled and handle treacherous conditions where full-size body-on-frame SUVs thrive? Would Škoda's first (almost) full-size SUV/crossover offering come out shining on top in the Spiti Expedition or would it be forced to do the walk-of-shame and go back home on a flat-bed?

Lets just say that the Skoda PR folks were jittery after Day 2 in Chandratal - To quote, if we have known about these roads, we would have thought again about this trip. However, the elation after the cars made it back was unmatched.

Originally Posted by SDP

Day 1 - 1st Jun 2018

[b]
Once we landed, we were quickly whisked away to an airport lounge for the briefing and light snacks. Collected nice looking baggage tags with my name on them and a proper ID card with route and other details on the back. Nice! Denver welcomed the team and quickly handed over the briefing to Shankar Ganesh - Škoda's expedition partner from NYKA. Other key personnel like Ashish Kaushik (Škoda Communications), Deepak Jammwal (Škoda - Logistics) and Abhishek Dixit (NYKA - Shankar's right-hand guy) were also introduced.

At that point, I threw the Diamox away, the advisory made it out that we needed it. Shanker said only if the doctor advises. I eat an apple a day, so the doctor was away - go figure!
The Skoda folks also warned us, the Kodiaq is not an off-road car but it can take rough roads!

Our Kodiaq had barely 8000kms on the ODO:

We later found out who drove it first!



I went straight to the rear passenger seat to snooze for a while but it was difficult with the sunlight and traffic

Originally Posted by SDP

Day 1 - 1st Jun 2018 - Continued

Ajit and me switched places around 4:30 pm. After the small spell of rains, the sky actually opened up a bit and even the road conditions improved.

It was slightly scary considering rain after a dust storm meant greasy roads but the Kodiaq held on. Traffic was horrible though.

Resort AmPm at Pandoh would be the first regroup point for the entire group. It is supposedly 5 hrs from Chandigarh. But we had lost time in the traffic jam and later due to the dust storm and the coffee break. Ours was the first Kodiaq to reach the resort at 7:45 pm. It is a place with nice interiors and we enjoyed some pakodas and coffee.

The Pakoda and the chicken had enough oil to fill the Kodiaq sump but we were not complaining as we were hungry. We had planned to skip and drive straight on but when you see the Skoda advance party waiting to guide you in, you cannot refuse!

I typically do not enjoy driving in the night due to poor visibility, but the Kodiaq's headlights are very effective, both the low beam and the high beam; and inspire confidence in night-driving.

I am so thankful that you drove at that point, fatigue kicked in and I dare say, you heard me sleep!

Originally Posted by SDP

Day 2 - 2nd Jun 2018 - Continued

Chhatru - Batal

The trail continues to be dusty. That's Himadri hanging out of the sunroof for a perfect shot:

There were some jokes that the driver dared not turn his head left and get a full frontal contact!

Rocky hill on one side and the steep drop to the river on the other side. We have to be super careful while crossing vehicles moving in the opposite direction. At one such instance we ran out of luck. A Force Traveler coming at us forces Ajit to go to the extreme left. There is a medium-sized mound with a couple of sharp stones jutting out. With barely 4-5 inches between the two vehicles, the Traveler guy asks us to move ahead. We hit the mound. My heart sinks with the thud sound. There is no space to step out and assess the damage. I am expecting a scratch and a nasty dent on the fender.

At that point, something flashed on the MID that something was amiss. I could feel something was amiss when the steering was juddering away.

Couple of Innovas from the support team return to the spot. The entire boot of our Kodiaq had to be emptied out to access the space-saver spare:

If we had a five seater version, we would have had the luxury of a full sized spare.

I speak with Ashish and check if there are spare tyres/wheels that the crew is carrying. He confirms that there are spare tyres, full size ones. We will have to reach Batal somehow and then figure out the next steps.

We later found out that the spare wheels were a couple days away. They had left the factory and had yet to reach Mandai. They arrived during our final day in Kaza

Before starting from Batal, I used a washroom and then used the water from a drum to wash my hands. Simple thing, right? The water was so cold that it stung my hands like needles. I immediately took out the kerchief and wiped the hands dry. Surprisingly, my fingers kept on hurting for the next few minutes although the hands were completely dry.

I kept a bottle of hand sanitizer with me - invaluable

We drop the stuff in our respective tents and join for snacks and dinner in the main tent.

We seemed to be popular with people trying to bum a ride! We found a couple of French intruders happily eating our snacks. Shanker's team were too polite to tell them otherwise. They did cross the line when the lady asked Shanker for Hot Chocolate after midnight.

We then encountered this girl with a permanant smile. First we see her struggling with a guy and an Enfield Bullet. Then we find her bumming breakfast off us with a permanent cheesy smile all the time. We then see her walking off in a huff on the way to Chandratal with the "boyfriend" in tow. During the stop in Losar, she emerges from Shankars Innova (story is that she needed help after some accident - reality was that she found us a more comfortable ride. Shankar agreed to help her get to Kaza). At Kaza, she had plans of bunking with the sole lady in our team. That was the last straw and Shankar despatched her to Kaza with a driver. That was not all, she pleaded with the driver for some money which he gave (the locals have large hearts!). She was full of air and expounded the theory that "Kindness is the new Currency", however it was all one-sided. We did have a lot of laughs over her in the following evenings.

All hoodies, jackets, scarfs, woolen caps, buffs, gloves were out by this time:

The scene was a bit like in a Game of Thrones battlefield, folks gathered around a fire in a damp, dank area, too cold to talk. The only people with energy were Shanker's team!

Originally Posted by SDP

Day 3 - 3rd Jun 2018... continued

Chandrataal - Kunzum pass - Losar - Kaza

11:30 am: Back at the parking lot, the technicians had scanned for error codes and had found nothing wrong. One guy tried a few more things, but the AC wouldn't revive:

My guess was that it was a temperature sensor issue, we later found that our outside temperature read -10 degrees less than other cars. I have asked Skoda to let us know root cause. The team there were big on scanning and not on diagnosis

Some switchbacks from Chandrataal are tricky and need 3-point turns:

This was where the Yeti was at its best!

As mentioned earlier, the roads were narrow and we had enough skirmishes with folks having right of way. The HP drivers are reasonable and it's give and take. In the case of others, they will not always budge. Usually, a convoy takes precedent. As we were being "dust-roasted", if i catch up with the convoy, we get covered in dust, if we keep our distance, we lose the convoy. The rear sweep car driver kept hitting at me for being slow (also we had no spare so we needed to be careful!)

Zigzag. At higher altitude, cars are known to lose some power due to less oxygen and I did notice some loss of power while climbing up the Kunzum pass. Nothing too serious. Just have to give a little bit of more throttle:

Turbolag was more apparent and you needed to rev the engine to engage the Haldex at times when needed

Tourists playing in the snow:

Playing? They were posing!

Just when I was thinking that we are done with our day's quota of strange but beautiful landforms, a new one came into view:

At this point, the visual highlight of our trip followed through the canyons!

The Kodiaq was ripping through the landscape, when we heard the message on the walkie "Team-BHP guys, the hotel is on your left when you see a tower on the right."

The conversation was more like this - The scouting team saw me "paddling with joy"

First the the communication was in Hindi - never registered!

Then someone told them speak in English, - still did not register

Then they shout "Team-BHP"

Oh - its us!

To be fair the walkie talkie was kept in the driver seat pocket so it was muffled.

Just in time! We saw the communications tower and the Grand Dewachen hotel. Good that we heard the message, otherwise we might have missed this place in Rangrik and gone ahead to Kaza, which is about 6 km away:

Without a sign, it did not look like a hotel and looked more like an institution. Inside, it was a different story.

YD from Shankar's team

She was the light at the end of every tunnel.

At near midnight, she was there to welcome us in Manali, ditto Chandratal, Kaza, Kufri. She was even there for us in Chandigarh when we were stranded.

The stay in Kaza was relaxing and well earned. Shankar's team took over the kitchen and ran the whole place. It was nice and homely.

Originally Posted by SDP

Day 4 - 4th Jun 2018

Rangrik - Langza

Everybody was free to plan their day the way they wanted. Our plan is simple. Breakfast at 7:30 am. Langza-Komic-Hikkim in the morning. Return to the hotel for lunch and some rest. In the evening, step out again for Kibber, Chicham bridge and Kee monastery.

The first thing that I noticed in this car was that the bass sounded way better than our earlier car. Also the auto-hold functionality was working in this one. I had seen Ajit using the parking brakes when starting on inclines and had wondered if we were doing something wrong because of which the auto-hold wasn't getting triggered.

This was a newer and most probably the India spec version. 367 was an early press car. The Cappuccino Beige car was unexpected even by the Skoda team - it turned out to be a quality validation vehicle sent by the factory. It came without some of the gizmo's like park assist.

I swear I saw his Gypsy slide at a few corners. When it looked like he would just run away, I stepped on the gas and chased him

Yes, he was drifting. Another one of his moments was when we left the Kunzum Mata temple, while we took the road down, he merely shot down the banks of the hill, poor Ashish was bouncing away in the back.

We traced back the route just a little bit and saw the Hikkim village - the one that claims to have the highest post office in the world:

The post office is one of the farthest structures from the road and its a steep descent all the way down:

The climb up from the Post Office left me half dead for the rest of the morning - I was okay in high altitudes until I decided to climb an incline. As for the Post Office - quaint but they had run out of stamps!

Quick lunch and slept for an hour.

We needed that power nap!

Originally Posted by SDP

Day 4 - 4th Jun 2018.. continued

Over lunch, we had heard about these 2 girls who have been doing the treacherous roads on an underpowered Scooty/Activa:

They were sweet! They had rented this Activa from Manali and it was governed at 30km/h. We saw them in the morning around Komic. If the scooter did not climb, one of them got off and walked. Healthy!

While SDP and I had a lunch and a power nap in between, these poor girls powered on to Chicham bridge and were on the way to Key. Hats off to them!

Rijul put a large gap between the 2 vehicles. We came to a fork and couldn't see the Gypsy. We went right and climbed a bit. A nice huge bridge came into view. Ah.. that's the Chicham bridge. I could see the Gypsy on that route. So we have missed the turn:
Attachment 1773817

This was the scary part, making a U turn on a limited width road with the Kodiaq. The thin air meant you needed to revv the Kodiaq in order to get traction. SDP was on hand to ensure I did not drop off the edge (my left foot hovered over the brake pedal!). It was a five point turn!

The climb is a bit tough and Ajit opts out of it.

I spent time talking to Prem- The villagers here grow potatoes, peas and some other vegetables. They also breed Yaks. Each Yak sells for Rs 56000. During winter, they are cut off and need to stay indoors. Mentally, must be tough. He remarked these folks are physically tough. Sure enough, I observed a 4 years old girl climb the wall into her house. she then reaches and pulls her baby 2 year old brother with one hand in one pull!

We head back to Rangrik. Our last destination for the day would be the Key Monastery. Once we hit tar road, the Kodiaq made rapid progress (again no pun intended ):

With Riju guiding us, we were forced to make quick progress!

Cute and innocent smiles!

SDP has a way with kids, these chaps blew me off

Originally Posted by SDP

Day 4 - 4th Jun 2018.. continued

The giant Alaskan bear is surprisingly capable in mild-to-medium off-road situations. Once we established that the Kodiaq can do that stretch, it was time for some fun rounds.

Ajit took the bear for a spin. He already knew that there are no nasty surprises lurking beneath the water. So he maintained good speed.
Result was some nice splashes!

Lets just say that we enjoyed this a little too much. One the other hand, we at least gave the cleaning crew a little less work

Although I was itching to drive the Batal-Chattru section on the return lap, most of the guys had enough of bad roads over the last 3 days and were keen to go back by the Shimla route. That route is longer, but significantly better roads. Shankar and team had been working on that option and making stay and food arrangements on that route throughout the day. He managed to get 17 rooms in Kufri and it was decided that we go back by the Shimla route.

Another factor going in favour of returning via Batal-Chattru was that the Rohtang Valley was free of cars on Tuesday due to a ban on cars from Manali on that day. However, in addition to the bad roads. What really was a sticking point was whether we would reach the airport in time from Manali.

Originally Posted by SDP

Day 5 & 6 - 5th & 6th Jun 2018

The plan was to drive in convoy to Tabo where there is a border checkpoint as we traverse the inner control line. One needs to only register your car and driver + phone number. We were about 8 km from the China border heance the controls

At Nako, we wasted some time fooling around as we were ahead of schedule

At Nako, we paid a quick visit to the lake and then surged ahead.

A total waste of time and breath. Powai /Ulsoor lake is more scenic!

Around 11:30ish, at our lunch stop at Spello, after covering about 200 km,

Shankar's team find a dodgy restaurant, clear the staff out and take over. Thats all we needed. Good food and a place to sit and they delivered

I gave up the driver's seat. Managed to catch some sleep post lunch. Hours later, snacks break at Bushahr.

It was Rampur

The supremely service-oriented folks at Neo Nabh were not ready to prepare even simple egg burji and insisted that Chinese menu was the only option at that hour. I had something from that menu and regretted.

You were not the only one, 90 min before Khufri, I handed the car to Prem - first time he had driven the Kodiaq but he was took to it and excelled in his car control!

The flight got cancelled. We stayed back at Chandigarh and flew to Mumbai the next morning. But I won't get into all those details. Instead, I would like to wrap up this travelogue with a handful of pics from day 5 and 6.

To cut a long story short, our Mumbai flight was hijacked and diverted to Pune as that particular flight had a technical problem. Since Pune airport closed at 6 and they had some sort of VIP on the flight, we were the scapegoats. The Jet folks were stressed, dealing with belligerent passengers . They offered some accomodation in some vague hotel. The good folks at Skoda kept calm. They made a quick call to Mumbai to book us un a decent hotel in Chandigarh and rebook our flights at the back end for the next morning.

It was a good thing as we got to spend another evening together. After a good rest, we hopped into some autos to a Dhaba for some butter chicken







Anyway, thanks to Denver and the Skoda Team, Shankar and the NYKA team, Prem, SDP, Joshi and the other journalists for making this a memorable expedition