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-   -   5000kms and 12 Passes, a 20 day wild wild ride to the roof of the world! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/65360-5000kms-12-passes-20-day-wild-wild-ride-roof-world-5.html)

Dude this is not done :mad: my pics are going to be a repetition of yours...lol

Well i guess thats the advantage of posting immediately after the trip.

Great Pics Bro...clap:

Subscribed to the thread :)

As for your back - the next time you come to Gurgaon for service, let's see what we can do to solve matters!

Don't worry there can never bee too much of a good thing. Avaiting your report too!
Now you are scaring me. I think I will get her serviced at sterling itself.

tsk 1979. Just one word fantastic, those pictures are absolutely stunning, the travelogue excellent, looking for the off roading experience of the white elephant! Cheers, keep it coming.

After starting from Pang around 2:30ish it was around 2:45 or so that we got our first glimpse of the More plains.
We had heard so much about them. Look wherever you want, and you are greeted with a sight to behold.
The start

A track going somewhere else

Plains

The ride


At first we deliberately took the track going somewhere else. I rested my back, and after hot water treatment it was feeling much much better.
I have no idea where the above mentioned track goes, we just decided to ride for a km or so, before following the main series of tracks.

As we came back, we realized that those 120kmph tales are dreams now.
This surface is good for probably 20kmph now.
Lots of bumps, hard gravel, sandy patches it was all hell.

Switching back and forth between tracks, tried searching for an elusive flat track, but no rewards.
And to add to the misery was dust. Tonnes of it, all coming in. The recirculation mode was a goner now, and the whole ride was so miserable, that the most photographed part of the trip was the least photographed for us.

Soon many of the sand tracks started turning out to be sand traps requiring 4WD as the heavy safari started sinking in the soft sand.
On the way we also spotted a taxi spinning wheels with all passengers doing heave ho.
It was a a nightmare, and all we wanted was to have the torture to end.
More than the bumps it was the dust. winds were picking up and it was one huge dust storm.
Some pics




Finally the ordeal about to end


After the plains it was the ascend to Tanglang La, the second highest pass, and the 5th pass of our journey.
But not before a jam.
Luckily it lasted only 20 minutes or so.
However jam meant there were a lot of buses in front of us. On the dusty track they kicked up quite a lot of dust, almost all of which found its way into the car.
I was wondering what would happen to the air filter.
After sarchu it had been constantly sucking in dust.
On the climb I felt slight loss of power, and more black smoke than usual could be seen as the white elephant gasped for breath

A pic just before the top

The road was horrendous too, and my back started to complain again, thankfully the rest had done it good, and nothing too serious. Besides that there was the joy of reaching Leh also coaxing us along.

Finally after lot of slow behind the bus driving, we were at the top at 5pm, almost 12 hours after we had started our long journey.....


CONT

thanks for your comment majic

I can empathise with you. As I'd mentioned in my Travelogue, we found the More Plains to be quite pointless. IMHO, more of More "Pain" ;)

We had spend 2 nights at relatively high altitude(3100mts), and after experiencing no nausea etc., at any of the the passes, we decided to rest for a while at Tanglang La top.
A short walk would do wonders for my back, and hopefully after the descent from the La, the road should be good
In the shadow of a prayer

The La

Temple at top

thats my shadow

At the top


After Tanglang La, it was time to tackle the buses, which soon dissappeared in my rearview mirror. And then did not reappear.
Guess what, they went down a shortcut which would bypass the entire 10km nighmare down TL!
We had come a couple of kms, so no point going back. The bus guys on the shortcut did not have to endure the track,.
And what a track it was.
Imagine you are a road builder.
First you add silt.
Then you add rocks.
Then you add some bitumen etc., and do road rolling, right?
BRO had stopped after the rocks stage.
So it was one hell of a track.

As AC/DC blared highway to hell out of the Alpine, we actually rode on the damn thing.

And do not forget the dust, which was everywhere. It was an ordeal. The sun would be down soon, but leh was less than 100kms away, and with that hope we carried on.

Our prayers were answered at the bottom of the descend, when fresh black tarmac greeted us!
Hurray!

Fully agree, the roads up there are all pain. In june with the water crossings and all it must have been even worse! However due to the snow you missed the dust. Its a killer up there.
And the worst part is that inspite of telling the TATA workshops that dust comes inside even in internal recirculation, they are are unable to fix a simple flap.

The road was nice smooth and inviting. Time to hit the pedal, but beware, as Suman had warned earlier, there are hidden bumps which can launch you into stratosphere.
The light was fading, the body tired, perfect time for a tea break and a few pics




The safari got very very dirty. Even on closing the doors it caused a dust storm. The worst affected was the tailgate area. A good wash was needed, well tomorrow...

More scenery




Golden Harvest


Its odd to see ripening wheat in August!

The Indus our companion for remaining journey


One of the many signboards of BRO



With light fading it was time to pack the camera, and head to Leh.
Like any other big city, it was full of chaos, and dirt.
The target was Chanspa area, and we hoped to hit the beds...

However who knew that the ordeal would not get over so soon.........

I agree with you on the dust front. It was killer. Just the act of closing any door would send up huge plumes of dust. But luckily we did not have any problems in the AC re-circulation mode.

Not to hijack this thread or anything but attaching a photo of a very dust covered Swift in those terrains. And this is just the back. Imagine the whole car.

+N to the power M to that. I felt exactly the same way coupla months back and fully empathize with you. The initial excitement of viewing the plains is soon gone traversing over it. And if you remember from my thread, I did get stuck in one of those sand traps making me miss out Pangong eventually. :Frustrati But those are some splendid pictures man, very beautiful.

rl:

Wow, Tanveer, very good stuff. I find it quite commendable that you completed this journey with a bad back. You couldnt have done it without that wonderful Safari suspension, but you personally did good. And yes, more than anything, kudos to your wife without whom this would have remained a dream.

The pictures are simply fabulous.

Your Safari is not dirty by any "dirty" standards. Honestly, it still looks white. Too bad you had all the dust issues.

Am glad that your travelogue is progressing at quite a steady pace, making for enjoyable reading. Thanks, for not making us all wait for Christmas.

Nice pic Vikram.


Cheers,
J

:uncontrol ..


Great Pics and a nice write-up bro...and the Safari looks good Dirty.

somebody form bangalore all the way up there in Leh.hmm interesting.
good drive and pix tanveer.