14th September 2009, 14:59
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14th September 2009, 15:11
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| Team-BHP Support   | Quote:
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14th September 2009, 16:58
| #33 |
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14th September 2009, 17:14
| #34 |
| Team-BHP Support | |
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14th September 2009, 17:17
| #35 |
| BHPian Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: New Delhi
Posts: 427
Thanked: 149 Times
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14th September 2009, 17:37
| #36 |
| Team-BHP Support | Monday the 24th : The highway 5:30am. Its exactly 5 and a half hours, or GMT time different with IST after midnight. At this time most of Britain would be sleeping. Even most of India would be sleeping. On other days even we would be sleeping, as daybreak is after 10am for us. But today at 5:30am we were more than awake. We were ready to go, and loading the stuff into the white elephant. It was still quite dark, and the highway was awaiting. Being second night at 3100mts above sea level, there was no tiredness, and my back was feeling as good as new. Time to start the white elephant. The ambient temp was a brist 8 degrees, and thankfully she started on the first crank. However I let her roar from 700-1200rpm for 5 minutes or so, as she went on with her morning rpm fluctuations. With the needle more or less settled down around 5:40 we started the journey. The odo read 22028kms. We had come 714kms since Friday, and it seemed like 7000. Just around 350 or so more to go. Just Early morning start meant there would hardly be any other travellers, except sweater and mutton, on their way to green pastures. After crossing many such herds, we were on our way to Darcha, our breakfast stop   Breakfast was Aloo Paranthas, thankfully decent ones, and we also got a couple of them packed for lunch, as we had no idea about the food on the rest of the journey Thats me. I am not fat, its just the clothes  After Darcha it was the drive to Baralacha-La our first pass. Roads were a mixed bag. Some good some bad. If it continued like this, we will be in Leh much before sundown  The sun was slowly coming up  It was around 7:45 that we met the first water body of the day, Deepak Tal  Sky was inky blue as expected  And the white elephant still relatively clean  Soon it was time to feast on the first rock formations  the road turned into a dirt track, or rather rock track  But the views made up for that  Far away we could spot what was proably bara lacha la  And as we got closer and started the climb, the road turned into a delicious black topped surface. Miracles do happen, don't they?  We had to go up there, but unfortunately hardly any snow to greet us.  The road was nice though, well topped with little bumps  But even black topped roads are not enough to wean way from the lure of the shortcuts  But it turned out to be a very bad decision...... CONT Last edited by tsk1979 : 14th September 2009 at 17:41. |
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14th September 2009, 17:54
| #37 |
| Team-BHP Support | The highway.. CONT The shortcut ended at the road. But there was a small problem. The road was a good foot higher than the track. The recent relaying had ruined the shortcut. There was hardly any place to reverse, and after reversing for over 50 meters, got the chance finally, and went back to the main track, chastened for now. It was just before 9Am that we came across to Lake of the Sun God, SurajTal, which is also the source of the Bhaga river  If Suraj tal was here, so was Bara Lacha La, our first pass of the day, and second of the journey! The ride at the La  The colorful player flags  Another picture  After that it was time to head to Sarchu. The scenery was good  What a view...  And thankfully the road also refused to disintegrate, for now  The sun was getting stronger and stronger  And the scenery was getting better and better  Every where you look, it was different  The safari was also behaving nicely, some black smoke at low revs. Only problem was dust, which we were drinking more than the air filter  CONT... Last edited by tsk1979 : 14th September 2009 at 19:46. |
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14th September 2009, 18:08
| #38 |
| BANNED Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: NAMMA BENGALURU
Posts: 5,602
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| Wonderful pics, Heaven on Earth. Wow, i Love my country.  As usual, Tanveer at his best. thanks for such wonderful pics Good to know about that well behaved White elephant. hope it remains like that for rest of its life Keep the story running buddy. Last edited by PAVAN KADAM : 14th September 2009 at 18:11. |
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14th September 2009, 22:48
| #39 |
| Senior - BHPian  | Beautiful pics there Tanveer. Take care |
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14th September 2009, 23:25
| #40 |
| Distinguished - BHPian   | |
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15th September 2009, 06:30
| #41 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 52
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15th September 2009, 07:50
| #42 |
| BHPian Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Jammu
Posts: 83
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15th September 2009, 10:58
| #43 |
| Senior - BHPian  | |
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15th September 2009, 11:29
| #44 | |
| Team-BHP Support | Quote:
Our journey is longer because we did some extra places as compared Suman, for example Hanle, Tso Moriri, some failed attempts to places like Kyun Tso(30kms extra here and there), and some 200kms extra in Kashmir., | |
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15th September 2009, 11:33
| #45 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 518
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