5000kms and 12 Passes, a 20 day wild wild ride to the roof of the world!

[AMAN_SACHDEV]

Nice start Tanveer,
please post some pics of manali-rohtang road.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by Indizen08

Nice photographs.
How is your back, Tanveer?

Thanks, my back is better now. But I think a week of no strenous activity will be needed to fix it. So taking it easy now. No gym, no running and less sitting on comp

Originally Posted by AMAN_SACHDEV

Nice start Tanveer,
please post some pics of manali-rohtang road.

Next installment

[vijaythacker]

good going tanveer, awaiting to see rohtang pass pictures which as you all say of the toughest drive.good to hear your back shaping up.

[tsk1979]

We passed rohtang at night, so no pics. Concentration was on getting to Sissu and hitting the back. Took out my camera just once, and took one pic which you see before the Sissu-Keylong section

[greenh0rn]

Awesome Tanveer, I'm following it with interest! Extremely brave of you to attempt a Leh tour with a bad back- fantastic that it all came out well in the end! Now waiting for the next installments...

[tsk1979]

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

[tsk1979]

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...

[PAVAN KADAM]

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.

[Fountainheader]

Beautiful pics there Tanveer. Take care

[theMAG]

Tan,

I hate you and am green with envy and jealousy for you being within reach to the Himalayas while I'm within reach to the nearest traffic jam. Not fair.

[bigmoose85]

Awesome pictures. Will surely go once and experience it. Thanks for the motivating pictures. Waiting for the next episode.

[Indizen08]

Very nice account. Pictures are pretty awesome.

[anujmishra]

Hi Tannveer, Very good pics and description and thoroughly enjoying your each post. If travelogue writer is also accomplished photographer then it is real ICING on the CAKE.

But I have one doubt: How come your journey is for 5000 Kms from Delhi to Delhi Back? For most of them it is almost 3.5K Kilometers. Please remind me If I am missing something. Suman's Leh journey lasted for 3004 Kms.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by anujmishra

Hi Tannveer, Very good pics and description and thoroughly enjoying your each post. If travelogue writer is also accomplished photographer then it is real ICING on the CAKE.

But I have one doubt: How come your journey is for 5000 Kms from Delhi to Delhi Back? For most of them it is almost 3.5K Kilometers. Please remind me If I am missing something. Suman's Leh journey lasted for 3004 Kms.

Thanks for your compliments Anuj.
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.,

[watashi75]

Watch out guys, teasers are out about sights we will get to see in the coming few days!