At last I was able to do the Manali-Leh-Srinagar, with lot of help in planning and route info from HVKumar, the instruction and route details were so accurate that I relied on that info more that GPS!. A very big thanks to HVKumar for all his help, I was constantly SMSing him related to next step and routes, and he responded every time. I am amazed with all the info provided by him.
May end and June start is not the best of time to do this route, but I wanted to see all the SNOW and route difficulties first hand, the only problem I had was, I was travelling with my family(wife and 8 yr old kid), they too were excited but wife was too scared with the thought of having snows and passing through them, having seen lots and lots of avalanche related story on Discovery and National Geography.
The worst part, I lost almost all of the images, as my MacBook hard disk crashed, I have very few of the images with me, mostly of Pangong TSO lake, and few of Kardung La, will be updating the images as and when I am able to get more images from the DV cassette of Video Camera.
Initially the plan was,
Day 1: Nagpur-Gwalior, Day 2: Gwalior-Bilaspur, Day 3: Bilaspur- Manali.
15K servicing of Scorpio was done on 25th May and vehicle was ready, I discussed the complete plan with HVKumar numerous time, and finally 30th May Saturday I started my journey.
Day 1[30th May Saturday]: early morning start 3.30AM from Nagpur, the plan was to reach Gwalior by 8 PM and end the day 1, the route I took was NH69 from Nagpur, which goes through Betul, Itasri, Hosangabad and Bhopal, NH12 from Bhopal which meet NH3 and then NH3 till Agra I reached Bhopal before noon and was able to negotiate the Bhopal in an hour and way toward Gwalior, SMS HVKumar, that I can make Gwalior before time and what should be the next stop, he suggested Agra or Hodal, provided it’s not too late, while discussing we decided that I would not drive beyond 10 PM, 10PM was the cut off time, I reached Agra by 7 PM, but took some wrong turns and went deep inside wasted lot of time and after 45 minutes was able to back on NH2, called HPDTC hotel (dabchick-referenced by HVKumar while negotiating Agara) and made a phone reservation , reached hotel by 9.45PM and called it a day there. I called HVKumar in the night and we discussed and revised the plan, the next day plan now was to reach Manali, instead of Bilaspur!
We had a good dinner and went to bed to start the next day afresh, before I went to bed, HVKumar has already sent an email with coordinates to cross new Delhi, believe me it just one turn and you are on Karnal road.
Road
NH69(Nagpur-Bhopal)-NH12(Bhopal-NH3(Agra)-NH2(Agra-Delhi)
Day 2[31st May Sunday]: Started 5.30 AM in morning from Hodal, and was able to cross New Delhi easily before the traffic hits in, before I could even think of breakfast, started seeing lots and lots of Dhabhas on NH1, we stopped at one of the Dhabha and had Aalu parathas with Dahi, and from here onward it was all going smooth, after crossing Karnal I saw a red blinking light on Scorpio TPMS system, it was indicating an air pressure leak in left rear tyre, and tyre pressure was going down fast, even with tubeless tyre, this indicated a major puncture, stopped at one of the Fuel Station and un mounted the tyre to see a big Bolt inside the tyre, there was no way I could have pulled it out, searched for a tyre repair shop and asked about tubeless tyre, the answer was I mostly do tubeless as most of the vehicle that cross this section are tube less, any way he pulled the bolt out and there was a big hole in the tyre, he said there is more to do to this tyre than just applying the tubeless solution, he un mounted the tyre and packed it from inside and then applied the tubeless solution and said this is now as good as new, anyway paid Rs220 for all the this repair and lost 2 hours. Back on NH1 and started toward Ambala, there was again an email with coordinates to bypass Chandigarh from HVKumar, followed the coordinates and was on State Highway for some time and back on NH. I had to pay Rs 300 as entry tax for HP and then all the hill and ghat road started, it looked tough to make it to Manali, but once I crossed Bilaspur, I started to believe that I would be able to make it to Manali. The best part was the tunnel, crossing that tunnel(I don't know the name of the tunnel) was a fun. Reached Manali by 9.30 PM. Next day was rest day in Manali, made it to Manali in 2 days from Nagpur, 31st May 2009 I was in Manali. 1st June decided to stay in Manali, roam around Manali, go to Rohtang pass just to feel and see snow, play on Snow, even though I was to cross the same Pass to reach Leh, but that day it would have been difficult to stop and play on Snow, plus a much needed rest after driving so many kms!!
Day3[1st June ] : Started the day late, the temperature was pleasant by 8 AM or so left the hotel went around few places and ultimately went to Rohtang Pass and spent some time playing on snow with family, the complete hill was filled with snow,
Before reaching Rohtang, some where near Manali
I didn't go to the top as I had to cross the same location tomorrow, so spent lot of time that day there and went back to Manali, I did the river crossing on rope and then para sailing, but I was not allowed at that time to do so because of the wind and my weight[84 kg], wife and son did the para sailing and other activity. we spend good time in an around Manali and prepared ourselves for the next day. The plan was to stay at Jispa in hotel and start very early morning next day to reach Leh, discussed related to Sarchu tent, but there was no confirmation if that has started yet. Still in one corner I had the thought of making it to Sarchu and seeing if tents are available.
will update later with some more images in the evening....