[sachinj12]

Another tsk kind thread!! If tsk reads this, I am sure the white elephant will be at this place in no time. tsk, where art thou?

[skartik2]

21 gun salute Sir.

Fantastic, waiting for more pictures

[1100D]

Hooked on! Bring it on!

How's the BFG A/T's holding up. Hows the ride quality, the tyres must be nicely bed-in by now.

[Saurabh M]

There you are at it again, ADC. Hooked on to the thread. This route had been on my list for quite some time. Your travelogue will be a great source of info to me.

[adc]

Originally Posted by Captdey

Anirban ,

looks like you changed your tyres ,
what is the brand, model and price of
these beauties please ?

Yes Captain, changed the Bridgestone H/T tyres to these, BFG Goodrich A/T. The BStone H/T tyres are great for highway at its price but with no sidewall strength, in hill rocky roads the sidewall succumbs to the abuse.

Plus I had tubed tyres, and it was gut wrenching to change a flat with all the luggage out there after something 17 hours of driving, not to say about the most unlikely of places. These BFGs are on the steel rims only, the ideal would be to go along with alloys. They costed around Rs 6000/ per tyre. It was in North Sikkim that I found all the local jeeps using this tyre and they vouched for its sidewall strength and durability, and users in this forum also vouch for it. And it lived up to its name through all the bad roads in Arunachal, no damage to sidewall whatsoever.

Of course the trade off is the very high tyre noise, which is shut off by rolling up the windows or one gets used to it. The braking distance is the same as that of Bstone H/T.

Yokohama Geolander A/T is the all time favourite out here and that too has got great reviews by users.

Originally Posted by Captdey

I saw in one of the photograph. one of the
gentleman is wearing T-BHP polo shirt,
from where you can get It ?

Cheers

AFAIK, most probably these were designed and printed by the tbhp hyderabad guys on their own initiative. MC or any one from that city can confirm that. Anyways that's a great design, simple, nothing flashy but elegant and shirt quality looked superb too!

Originally Posted by sachinj12

Another tsk kind thread!! If tsk reads this, I am sure the white elephant will be at this place in no time. tsk, where art thou?

TSK is most probably busy planning up something for the Good Friday weekend, another 3-day shutdown and he sure will be off somewhere, my guess will be like last time - push as much close to Rhotang as possible - and surely we have some great snow pictures by Tuesday!

Originally Posted by skartik2

21 gun salute Sir.

Fantastic, waiting for more pictures

Originally Posted by 1100D

Hooked on! Bring it on!

How's the BFG A/T's holding up. Hows the ride quality, the tyres must be nicely bed-in by now.

Originally Posted by Saurabh M

There you are at it again, ADC. Hooked on to the thread. This route had been on my list for quite some time. Your travelogue will be a great source of info to me.

Thanks much. The tyres have bed in nicely and are performing great, only thing with BFG A/T is the tyre noise on a highway and the braking distance and behaviour is the same as that was with the H/T.

[ampere]

A truely wild wild east !

[adc]

Originally Posted by ampere

A truely wild wild east !

Absolutely and this very recent bbc news item tells you exactly how these frontier regions are and how still they are unspoiled though not for long!

So those who want to see a particularly beautiful part of the world before its jungles are cut down and its tribal villages turned into crowded clusters of concrete boxes, should get their passes quickly.

BBC News - Remote Indian state set for development

[svsantosh]

5-*****

Deserves 5* for every bit of it.

Journey, destination, Steed, Courage to do something this BIG with family.
And of course, taking time out to post this beautiful thread...

[adc]

Day #4 - Dirang to Tawang via Sela Pass -- contd..


As said, with mist increasing and one close shave with a truck coming down plus black ice skids, it was best now to stop with almost zero visibility. As soon as it cleared up a little we moved forward again.





Sela Pass was all cloudy and misty and with no one around. We were also the late in coming, as we had stopped quite a few times in between. Stopped briefly and walked around at the main gate at Sela Pass,hoping to have tea at that one and only small shop at Sela, but it was closed too.





As soon as we cleared the heights of Sela, the weather was much more clear that side, so its kind of windward-leeward funda!


Sela Lake was all that was visible, with so much mist around and late afternoon everything else was all hazy and out of sights. Anyway stopped at Sela, got down, threw a stone to see if the thickness is okay or not, walked around on the lake.



But there is no worry of missing any sight as this is the same road through which we come back, and we will cross again around morning time when the views are much more clearer. This is how Sela Lake looked while going back 3 days later, more of the return pics later.



We were already late behind the optimum time due to stoppages and the only thing that worried me is of finding a hotel and suitable accommodation [since no advance bookings were done] at Tawang as definitely it would dark by the time we enter the town.

[pulsar56]

Beautiful Start to the Travelogue ADC.
I am virtually traveling to Tawang again!

P.S: I sent you the picasa link for the safari pics via PM

[adc]

Originally Posted by svsantosh

5-*****

Deserves 5* for every bit of it.

Journey, destination, Steed, Courage to do something this BIG with family.
And of course, taking time out to post this beautiful thread...

Thanks again, and as pulsar56 says we relive the journey again by sharing.

Originally Posted by pulsar56

Beautiful Start to the Travelogue ADC.
I am virtually traveling to Tawang again!

P.S: I sent you the picasa link for the safari pics via PM

Thanks a lot, Yes have got it, will check out the pics in detail at the end of day.

Nazim you clicked some great photos, and it was treat to watch those on the other thread. Needless to say, I love those on-the-run Safari photos - great clarity and captured the movement beautifully!

Thanks again.

[adc]

Day #4 - Dirang to Tawang via Sela Pass -- contd..

So after Sela Lake stop and ambling around for some time, we moved forward. Its downhill again from here and this side was all clear, the leeward side!



No stopping now as wanted to reach Tawang not too late in the night but just a few downhill turns and suddenly saw a beautiful trail going down from the main road to somewhere down below


Though late, it was too tempting to just move forward. From a distance it looked picture postcard, milky white frozen stream, a rocky trail going beside it.



Parked the Safari VTT on top and we went for a walk and me also to look out how till where the trial goes and if I could take the VTT down along that frozen stream


And again to repeat, it was amazing. A frozen stream, and in places one could see the water still gurgling beneath.






Really it was difficult for us to move on from such a scene, but then with evening coming up fast we had to move on. This full trail ride was kept again for while coming back, one of pics of our drive on that same trail 3 days later, again more of it later.




So reluctantly we left that trail back on the road to Tawang, it was fast driving from now on, to catch up with some of the lost time due to unscheduled stoppages.


contd..

[adc]

Day #4 - Dirang to Tawang via Sela Pass -- contd..

So, as said, it was all downhill now and some great drive-by scenes to keep us company.







It was late and we skipped Jaswantgarh, as would be coming back again through the same route on return journey.




With snow line receded, it was back to the narrow highway as it goes on to Tawang. We met up with the AP2AP team out here and it was a great place to stop.




Nazim [pulsar56] took this one at that meet point



We reached Tawang late, it all dark, they had a power cut going on at that time and after searching found a decent hotel with parking. The rooms were small but clean, and the hotel owner and his wife ran that place and they were most welcoming. As we found out in the subsequent days, they were some of the most helpful persons we have met in all our travels.

The coldness at Tawang hits you, there's always a constant breeze outside, temperatures less than zero and windy makes the coldness much more bitter, but then we were here for the freeze - and no one's complaining! It was a good days journey and we soon went to sleep, BTW the heater had no effect or range - but it kept our drinking water warm.



So that completes the 4th day's travel story, for the next 3 days we used to move out early morning and come back just before sunset, went through and tried out each and every road that leads out from Tawang.

contd..

[ampere]

It just keeps getting better and better! I have no words to describe.

[adc]

Originally Posted by ampere

It just keeps getting better and better! I have no words to describe.

Ampere, thanks again. Liked that Tolkien comment before!

Before I continue the next day journey out of Tawang, I must share some great on-the-run Safari VTT pics that Nazim [pulsar56] had put out in Picasa. Thanks again Nazim for link, definitely the clarity of the pics is amazing.


Some more pics from Nazim's link of Safari VTT on the move along with the AP2AP team on day #2. We did the morning part of the journey together from Siliguri to Assam border area, before they aimed for Tezpur for the halt and I targeted Guwahati.










Indo-Bangla Fenced Border