[H0RSEPOWER]

Thanks a lot for sharing this amazing travelogue. This is surely one of the most picturesque road trip reports of Spiti that I have seen so far! And the narration was also superb! Hope you would add many more happy miles with Fern.

[gururajrv]

Those pics of the Thar near the lake and river banks reminds me of Mahindra's "We Live Young, We Live Free, We Are The Living" tune from their ad

Amazing thread, fantabulois pictures!

[karthikd21]

Fantastic narration of the amazing trip @TurboNath. Proud to have been part of this trip with like minded individuals!

[trippytragopan]

Originally Posted by inmotioninc

I absolutely agree 100%. I always feel a bit sad when I see vehicles going off-road in Ladakh/Spiti just for the fun of it. Off the top of my head I can think of a few ways how it will destroy the local ecosystem.

Indeed. In 2021, local administration of Lahaul and Spiti district had to ban the car rallies to avoid any disturbance to rare wildlife of the region.

The movement of heavy vehicles through the sanctuary area not only disturbs the natural habitat of the wild animals but also adversely affects the procreation of snow leopards, which have been declared a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Moreover, the state and Central governments are making efforts for the conservation of wildlife through different projects and programmes. The sighting of a snow leopard is the main attraction of winter tourism in the Spiti valley, which is a substantial source of income for local residents.

Not just snow leopard, this cold desert is a host to diverse and rare fauna like:
Himalayan Ibex, Himalayan Blue Sheep, Red fox, Himalayan Snow Cock, White breasted stone / beech marten (aka Himalayan Weasel), Eurasian Lynx, Tibetan Sandgrouse, and Woolly Hare.

https://raachotrekkers.com/spiti-sno...kinnaur-spiti/

[predatorwheelz]

What praise can I heap that the others have not done already? I guess only thing to be said is I need to do Winter Spiti immediately, and I need a drone!

But seriously. The drone shots are superb, and even the ground shots have been taken with much planning and superbly edited.

One question. Where did Blue mountain put you up in Kalpa, Tabo and Kaza? Are these homestays or regular hotels? Asking because this time of the year it is expected that tourist influx will be less and the regular places might be closed.

[Samfromindia]

Originally Posted by predatorwheelz

But seriously. The drone shots are superb, and even the ground shots have been taken with much planning and superbly edited.

Yes the drone shots are amazing. Just wondering aren't there any restrictions over there flying one ? On my recent Rann of Kutch trip, I was informed that they are prohibited as its located close to border area. In many places like Mandarmani, the police may harass tourist unnecessarily for flying a drone if caught.

[benbsb29]

I caught up with this travelogue a bit late, as I wanted to read it in one go. Thanks a lot for sharing. Loved the writeup, pics - both the drone shots as well as ground level shots, and the brilliant video right at the start.

Looking forward to more.

[scorched_earth]

Many thanks friend for your post, I liked the way you narrated your experience along with the photographs. I am glad that you got such good support from Mahindra, and why not; these are excellent marketing events for companies. Isuzu, Duster, Thar, Jeep - I see so many of these convoys on highways.

Let us know how your experience was while travelling with a convoy of 3 dozens of cars. Was there too much of micromanagement or did it offer enough freedom (the implicit intent of any roundtrip)?

I see several of my friends have commented on the impact of consumerism on the Himalayan ecology. I don't think India can afford what the Government of Thailand did in Maya Bay; further putting tourism tax (on vehicles or tourists) will also not help because tourists in these locations are generally inelastic to price rises.

What will work is only self-regulation.
I generally visit Himalayas (any place starting from Himachal till Nepal) once in 5 years, any forest safari in any part of India once in 3 years and so on. I felt very bad when I had visited Ladakh a decade back, during my stay I had consumed 30 litres of waters, have produced several kilograms of human waste and that was the bare minimum I could do in a cold desert. We need to slow down on consumption in any form.

[Ksingh544]

Hi everyone,

the spirit of adventure and the unknown takes us all too many places and makes us push our limits.
As a Thar CRDE owner myself, i have traveled across the country too. But as we travel and explore we must also ask ourselves what we are doing to the nature and fragile ecosystems we travel to.
This is not an attack or accusation on you fine gentlemen, but taking a convoy of 36 vehicles seems like an overkill to me.
Unfortunately everyday on Instagram it seems there is an ad for a tour & travel company selling trips to Spiti, Ladakh, Keylong, Sandakphu etc. And its all 10+ Car tours which in the long term are ruining our ecology.
We need to find a sustainable solution to this.
Again this is not to point fingers at the organizers of this particular trip but to open it up to discussion.
After all as team bhp members were are on the best platform possible to have an honest and engaging discussion, to make things better.

Regards

Kundan Singh.