Oh my. I also want to do a trip like this. But do we need to have a ride like Safari? Has anybody done a similar trip on a small family car like M800? Was thinking of dragging my Punto all the way to Leh. Have read about someone taking his Palio 1.6 all the way from Bangalore to Leh. But Punto?
BTW: I am greedy. I want more pics.
Most common touristy places are accessible by small cars. rkbharat did many of these in his SX4.
I don't know about Punto Ground clearance etc., but it should be able to do Srinagar leh or even Manali leh.
If a Nano can do manali leh, definitely a punto can!
Heavenly place. BTW did you take the white elephant for hire, may I know what were the charges/day?
Tanveer - bring it on. Its a bit funny seeing so many UWA pics. But good stuff - really nice. Personally i think u blitzed the SXR-Leh too much - very less pics there.
@LoG - he has. You forgot his video posted in the other thread? kya dada!
What a wonderful trip... and pictures I wish I could be there but still more two months to go... and I will be there!!!lol
Its monday, and time to wake up early. 9am that is.
Today the agenda is full. First and foremost, to go to DC office and get permits. After thats its a TBHP meet with Ajay Narain and Rudra, and then a multi forum meet with 60kph guys and BCMT guys(with me representing TBHP)
A morning shot at the hotel
This seems to be the most common bird in ladakh
DC office is chaos zone. I see sandeep and Vaibhav there, and they are also running around.
Somehow, I am able to get the forms copied, and discover the space to write everything is too less.
Somehow in microscopic handwriting, I manage to write down everything + nyoma, loma, chumur, Wari La
The clerk there gives me a look and tells me Wari la and chumur are "sensitive" zones not allowed for civilians.
Okay Chumur I understand, but Wari La!!!? Sensitive? Since when. There isn't even a checkpost on the road to Wari la.
After lots of bickering and pleading, he signs it all just to make me go away. I guess with so much persistence, he would have given me the permit to anywhere.
Finally photostats are done, and we are free.
I can speak to Rudra finally, and we agree to meet at Nimmu. Before that we decide to go to the gurudwara, and climb the 500 steps to Nishan Sahib.
Last time we did it, we were panting like anything. this time hopefully, we will be better, esp after months of treadmilling
So we start the climb
Halfway
At the top!
At the Gurudwara, the army men offer Kadhi chawal langar, and we gladly agree. Its the most delicious Kadhi chawal we have ever eaten in our lives !
Time for some crazy hill climb attempts at magnetic hill. No photos, only videos, which I will post after I upload them.
One thing for all Magnetic hill fans. Its not magnetic, its an optical illusion. The rubber Ball(I bought one for 10rs) and the safari rolled in the same direction.
After verifying that its not magnetic, just an urban legend, I again charged at the mountain in reverse, climbing till the wheels started spinning.
The drive to the confluence is quick. I shoot some videos of rafters there, and try to find a good camera angle. Unfortunately the light is so flat, its totally useless to even attempt
See for yourself. what do you shoot in such light?
Even the white elephant looks sad
The weather worries us not for photographic, but for other reasons. If it snows, K.top may get closed, and that will mean we cannot go to Nubra. Wari La is not an option as its under many feet of snow. It will open "automatically" when it gets too hot.
but summers have skipped leh this time.
With such scary thoughts of trip going haywire, we start driving, time to meet Rudra and Ajay
Soon they appear, and we exchange trip notes. They have just been to Tso moriri, and did not like it(I told them so before the trip).
Today they drive till chilling, which is the sight for rock blasting for new manali leh road through Padum.
It is expected to complete withing the next million years.
We do some ride shooting, and go on our way
this is where we part. Rudra and Ajay will attempt pangong, and we go to Nubra tomorrow. on Saturday, we agree to meet, and compare our travel tales. For now its adieu
More shots of the flat landscape
The storm clouds are gathering, and things are looking bad.
Freak weather system is here to stay.
Time to head back to Leh, and meet with Ajay and his family, and also the other BCMT and 60kph members.
Mostly there are bike tourers at the meet, just us and Sandeep are on 4 wheeler.
They took a day extra to reach Leh due to rainfall. Well on a bike, torrential rain is a problem.
But then, there are places which stop even the white elephants, and bikes just drive across!
Our meet pic
Its evening, and plans are to be made.
First is fuel. Leh main petrol pump at the entry is actually Kerosene pump. so we go to chogmalsar and get diesel filled.
The white elephant has a 65L tank, and I carry and additional 63l in jerrycans. One of which breaks.
Time to buy a new one, I guess!
Our bookings in Nubra are done, and I also ask hotel guy to arrange us additional 15L when we reach there.
By my estimates we have 1000kms in the wilderness without fuel pumps, and just to be on the safe side, we start with 128 liters of diesel + 15 liters of there.
The bags are packed, the ride is ready.
128 liters of fuel, lots of bread and cheesespread, 10 liters of drinking water(of course replenish-able from the villages) and lots of prayers, we are ready to march an entire army.
Time to sleep now, the trip is about to begin
___ END of EPISODE 2________
Amazing travelogue there Tanveer.
Your travelogues have definitely increased the Safari sales and added it to the wish list of many :)
Bring on the videos. They should be a treat to watch.
Superb travelogue Tanveer. Your lucky to get so many leaves and also for staying close to so many exotic destinations from Delhi.
btw, you didnt mention dates between when you made this trip?
Absolutely love the pictures. Were the skies that blue with all those lovely cloud formations or was it PS'd?
Look forward to lot more pictures in subsequent posts.:thumbs up
Tanveer, sorry to post the Sangam image in your post, but can't resist myself posting this one which is very similar and almost taken from same location.
Always knew that the FZ series (18, 28, 35 etc ) is good.
But never knew that that they were so awesome!
P.S: Was wondering who is LOG bhai and searched the full thread and realized that it's LordOfGondor! :)
Episode 3 ka darshan kab hai?
