Special thanks:
A.M. Mathur, Adc, Tsk1979, hvk for route details and motivational support through their photographs and other information posted by various members on T-bhp. While I was contemplating the various options of different trip plans, this trip came up while browsing through the travelogue section.
The trip:
This trip was originally planned to be Mumbai Delhi Himachal(SPITI LOOP) & back. But my caretaker backed out at the last minute and there was no one to look after my dogs. So the whole trip was replanned to go via Hyderabad where I was to meet a buddy and then proceed to Orissa where I would leave my dogs at a friends farm and then proceed for the trip via Jharkhand, Bihar, UP to Fatehpur & Kanpur to meet a few more friends and then proceed via Delhi, Shimla, Narkanda, Sarahan, RecongPeo, Kalpa, Pooh, Rampur, Kaza, Nako , Tabo, Kibber, Ki, Gramphoo, Manali, Delhi, Jaipur, Udaipur, Ajmer, Ahmedabad, Mumbai. Trip lasted total 3 weeks. So I left from Mumbai with my dad and my dogs. I wanted to take the dogs along for the whole trip but a friend told me that they might no acclimatize well enough in the mountains, so I decided not to take any chances although the boys(dogs black dog & red label) are extremely fit and healthy.
The trip was eventful.
Did the whole trip without a stepney(that story is coming along shortly).
Got shunted in Ambala by a truck(that¿s for later too).
Got shunted by a bus again in Ambala on the return trip(that¿s for later too)
I have divided the trip into 2 sections:
1st section is Mumbai to Orissa via Hyderabad.
2nd section is Orissa-Delhi-Himachal-Delhi-Ahmedabad-Mumbai.
Section 1 : Mumbai Hyderabad Cuttack.
Blackdog & Redlabel were all excited in the evening looking at a few bags being packed and tucked away in the Safari. They sure knew what was coming up and were all excited about it.
The dogs just love being on the road Road-Dawgs I should add. They were up as usual at 4am for their morninig walk and soon after the morning deeds they ran up and sat next to the Safari waiting to be let in. So an hour and a half and a fat breakfast later we set off towards Hyderabad on the Pune expressway. There was intermittent rain that accompanied us until Vijaywada, after which it was completely dry.
Surprisingly, Orissa was completely dry too.
Pics 1-2 were shot outside a fort near Bijnor enroute to Hyderabad.
. Some rain enroute to Hyderabad followed by clear dry roads.
Short Piss stop for the boys early next morning.
Hanuman statue & Swami Vivekananda enroute to Vizag.
Excellent 4 lane highways all the way from Vizag and another Piss-stop.
This is the place where we suspected a slow puncture on the left rear... the events unfolded in a way that i did the whole remaining trip without a stepney... story follows..
Furthur at a tea stop the pressure furthur reduced confirming our doubts. So we decided to replace with the stepney and get the puncture repaired at a competent tyrewala in Berhampur.
We took out the stepney and discovered that the NEW stepney that has been there since the vehicle was purchased had a huge bubble on the inside of the tyre. This was the first time that the stepney was taken off since the vehicle was purchased so there was no was to know this beforehand.
Thats when we decided to use this on the punctured tyre to enable us to go the distance.
Trust me guys ¿ these products DO NOT work. This one surely didn¿t(I cant find the product pic, though I will post it shortly).
So I used my portable compressor to pressurize the punctured tyre so I could drive to Berhampur and get it repaired.
The idea was to take the new stepney tyre back to the tyre dealership to get it replaced under warranty since it was new & unused.
So the puncture was repaired in Behrampur & we proceeded to Cuttack to leave my dogs with a friend.
Next day we take go to the bridgestone office and they inspect the tyre and say it is cut from the inside and it cannot be replaced. I was left wondering how a trye that was unused since the time I got the vehicle can have a cut on the inside. The tyre dealer told me it is possible that the dealer might have driven the vehicle pre delivery and it is possible that the damage might be since then, so I should refer it to the dealer I purchased the vehicle from.
Buying a new tyre would leave me with an extra tyre after I got a replacement from the dealer.Then I decided to purchase a tubeless puncture kit to fix any puncture henceforth.
So basically I was destined to do the rest of the trip without a stepney. The Bridgestone dealer told me that the stepney would blowout if I drove on it. So i decided as usual to stretch my luck and proceed on the trip and fix the tyre issue once i reached Mumbai.
Then we dropped the dogs off in Cuttack... where they had a great time with all the space available to them. Then I spent one more day driving to the Narayani temple heading backwards towards Berhampur, also to see a few fighting cocks of grand lineage.(sorry, no pics of the cocks - Aseel's)