[phamilyman]

awesome shots - esp from the valley of flowers, really nice find - tell me, why not back via Shimla? Malling was closed?

[abhinav.s]

Nature is the best artist. The hues in the landscape shots and also of the safari with the sky and clouds as the back ground are just mind blowing. Thanks a lot for presenting the beauty of nature to us through your pics.

Seeing green meadows at such high altitudes with mountains as back drop and those amazing cloud formations for background should be an experience to remember for life.

The pace with which you are posting TL is quite fast and does not keep readers waiting for more. Kudos!

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by Freebird82

Breathtaking travelogue mate. Thanks a ton. Took me back to 2007 when i went to Keylong for 3 days. Unfortunately i had gone on work so could not explore. Hope to do it soon.

And as they say in the media parlance, u have given a very teasing "Coming Up" ... waiting eagerly for the update.

Thanks freebird

Originally Posted by phamilyman

awesome shots - esp from the valley of flowers, really nice find - tell me, why not back via Shimla? Malling was closed?

Two reasons
1. the long drive - According to the guys we met, Bhawanagar itself was a good 14 hours drive, and shimla would take 20+ hours because the roads were bad. Frequent minor landslides were happening leading to blockades of 1-2 hours. Manali otoh was just 9 hours away!

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

Nature is the best artist. The hues in the landscape shots and also of the safari with the sky and clouds as the back ground are just mind blowing. Thanks a lot for presenting the beauty of nature to us through your pics.

Seeing green meadows at such high altitudes with mountains as back drop and those amazing cloud formations for background should be an experience to remember for life.

The pace with which you are posting TL is quite fast and does not keep readers waiting for more. Kudos!

Thanks, I am trying to post it quickly

[tsk1979]

We reached Losar just before 3, and had a quick lunch.
Beyond Losar the scenery changed even more. Patches of green were lesser now


The valley view




It was 3:30pm already, and we were not even at Kunzum Top. Rohtang at 8? Thats what it looked like

It is said the Road from Losar to Gramphoo is the worst kind of torture. It is true. Here is a "good stretch"




Local domestic animals


Just before the start of the Kunzum climb, we come across another meadow. This will be the last. After this, rocky and barren.
Time to follow old tracks up to the top

In this barren land, green makes you happy




The resting steed. A long climb awaited us. 4550m above sea level lies kunzum, and the climb has water crossings, rocky roads, sandy sections. You name it, it has it


Haze surrounds the lofty peaks. Hopfully the weather will hold. A foggy rohtang is the last thing we need




The meadow showing the colors of spiti. These tracks are old, not ours. If you follow them, they form a sort of detour from the main road for around 200m. So in case there is a traffic jam, you can take the detour. But in the past 1 hour, we have not seen even a single vehicle!


Its quater to 4 already, we decide to head upwards, but I take a few shots of the safari






Now its time to begin the climb. Its going to be steep, its going to be rough, but we have to do it. gramphoo is 60-70 odd kms away, and not even one of those kms is tarred roads. The party is about to begin!!

TO BE CONT.........

[sudev]

I bow to the maker of new meaning to "weekend" getaway!! Lovely TL and pictures. Any camps around Chandertal area?

[Joy]

Awesome pics, mate.

I have nothing to say, just another fabulous travelogue from you. I completely agree with sudev that you have changed the definition of "Weekend" travel.

Keep up the spirit in you so that we can know much more off beat destinations.

[amrisharm]

Woow what a nice travelogue indeed. It seems that region with ladakh and spiti vally is a real must see before i die kinda region. Just a small request TSK1979, any chance of you uploading a map of where u went and all? I am a bit new to India and only discovered Ladakh 3 years ago (i know Pathetic) but these regions due to the sensitivity of the place is not well publicized in overseas markets.

Anyways truly a 5 star travelogue.
Happy motoring

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by sudev

I bow to the maker of new meaning to "weekend" getaway!! Lovely TL and pictures. Any camps around Chandertal area?

Thanks for your comment sudev!
There are no camps around chtaal now, all camps have shifted to 3kms before the lake

Originally Posted by Joy

Awesome pics, mate.

I have nothing to say, just another fabulous travelogue from you. I completely agree with sudev that you have changed the definition of "Weekend" travel.

Keep up the spirit in you so that we can know much more off beat destinations.

Thanks

Originally Posted by amrisharm

Woow what a nice travelogue indeed. It seems that region with ladakh and spiti vally is a real must see before i die kinda region. Just a small request TSK1979, any chance of you uploading a map of where u went and all? I am a bit new to India and only discovered Ladakh 3 years ago (i know Pathetic) but these regions due to the sensitivity of the place is not well publicized in overseas markets.

Anyways truly a 5 star travelogue.
Happy motoring

On all my trips where I go very much off the beaten track, I always put maps and gps tracks as part of the log. You can look at my 2010 and 2009 ladakh logs for the same.
For this trip too, I will upload all the tracks to openstreetmap and map the remoter villages.

[Googleman]

I think the same lake in the AD below at 0.42 secs and 0.49. What's your idea guys?

YouTube - The Latest Incredible India Commercial, Directors Cut

[tsk1979]

Its the third time we will be doing the Pass, but our first time climbing from the "other side".
Oct 17 2010 - Diwali weekend was the last time
It looked like this ->
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ml#post1541262 (Riders on a Storm)

A very different experience.

Today it was dry, and for the first time in my life, I was happy for no snowfall.

We continued our upward climb on the dirt track


The sun would go down soon behind those high mountains


A stream in spate.


A look towards the "source"


Few minutes before 4:30, we get our first glimpse of the Kunzum top. there are trucks parked there at the temple. they will be going all the way to Losar, reaching there only late at night


A wider shot. Above the pass you see a big glacier


I pan the cam to the right I see another glacier


And more to the right yet another. but these two are small ones


This is the biggest one. The snow gods have been kind this season. It was snowing well into june, with mid june seeing 2 feet of snow on the high passes. After the snow the monsoons have been kind too, causing widespread rain, and some snow on the very high peaks.
The himalayas are alive with life. the rivers may wreck havoc in the plains, but here they seem content, almost happy.
The glaciers have come back. Last year there was just a trickle here, and a year before that there was a drought, but this year life returns, with a vengence


At Kunzum top we meet a PB numbered scorpio, and they seem very relived to see us. They have only two questions, where is Kaza, and is the road ahead worse or better.

I lay rest to their fears, and tell them, kaza is just 2.5 hours away, and after losar you will get a much better road. Guess they will reach around 7, with some daylight still left.

As for us, its almost five, and for sure we will be crossing Rohtang in the dark...

To be cont...

[Joy]

tsk1979, have you took any shot with ia mode in panny fz-35? If yes, can you post a sample?

Thanks.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by Joy

tsk1979, have you took any shot with ia mode in panny fz-35? If yes, can you post a sample?

Thanks.

I am used to using Aperture priority, I normally steer clear of auto modes. However, the IA mode works good, and I did take some test shots, when I bought the camera, which I deleted.

[tanwaramit]

The white beast looks awesome especially in 2 pics at the last page. A great travelogue.

Is the kumzum pass so empty that the PB number scorpio didnt had anyone else to answer him on the directions ?

Also, how is the mobile signal connectivity at these locations ? I was wondering if my iPhone maps will work there OR I need to carry satnav type maps !

[tsk1979]

There is no mobile connectivity after gramphoo. Only at kaza bsnl starts working, and ditto for gramphoo. I am not sure if airtel works in kaza, maybe it does.
However, why not carry stored maps, or does iphone constantly need to download maps for use with GPS?
As for kunzum, there were 2 trucks parked at the temple.
From Kaza to kunzum we crossed 1 truck and one sumo.
From Kunzum to gramphoo we crossed 2 vehicles(50kms odd).
Near gramphoo we overtook a short army convoy of 3-4 vehicles.
Nobody overtook us at losar where we stopped for lunch, and all the way from kaza to losar we did not overtake anybody.
This pass is much much more deserted than the Rohtang pass, which is like a circus 24x7 with half the vehicles crawling, and other half stuck.

[MohsinRoadster]

Needless to say that the pics are awsome ...