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16 days & 5,700 km Ladakh road trip in my Skoda Kodiaq

10th November 2021, 17:30 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

Coming from a Hyundai Santa Fe, I found the Kodiaq’s power to be a bit underwhelming. So, I decided to remap its ECU for the road trip.

BHPian AnandB recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

My worst fear and the only thing I was hoping to avoid happened. Not once but twice.

Intro

There isn't enough that can be said about Ladakh. It is probably in every car or bike enthusiast's bucket list to journey there at least once. I felt the same for years to travel in my good old Santa Fe but it never materialized.

Feb 2020

It was around the first week that my initial plans to visit Ladakh in Aug-Sep'20 formed. My trusty Santa Fe had been exchanged and replaced by Kodiaq a month back, one of the reasons to finally do the trip in a new car. Now I had started researching and the first task was to find members for the trip. I wished to do this with my wife and 2-year-old daughter but after reading about Acute Moutain Sickness (AMS) or altitude sickness issues I dropped that idea. Much to the anger of my wife I still kept the plan on and started looking among friends and extended family to complete the group.

In the second week, we attended my cousin's wedding and I asked his younger brother if he was interested, to which he immediately said yes. Next, I asked my brother-in-law who also said yes, this gave me good leeway with wifey.

I was happy with 3 members as with all our luggage and other stuff we could travel comfortably and overall cost comes out cheaper compared to flying there and taking rentals/taxi for such a long trip. The following week, planning was in full flow. I had grand ambitions and added Spiti to our trip. To do a full-circuit starting with Spiti from Shimla and exiting via Srinagar finishing Ladakh. The trip had ballooned to a minimum of three weeks and we were all excited.

By then, Covid-19 has started making regular news. Our group chats had stopped and it all ended once lockdowns started to happen. As months passed by, I hoped everything will be back to normal by September but it was not to be.

June 2021

Fast forward to June this year. The worst of Covid-19 seemed to be in the past. Most travel restrictions had been removed and vaccination had begun earlier in the year. The itch to visit Ladakh started again and I asked the guys in our group.

I decided to plan for Ladakh this time and leave Spiti for later. The other two agreed and were ready. Lots of planning, changes followed. To lessen the AMS issues the plan was to go via Srinagar and exit via Manali thus completing the circuit. Since we were crossing Punjab, a visit to the Golden Temple and a few other historical Gurudwaras were added.

I took the help of many online resources to plan our trip and I feel they are good sources of info regarding Ladakh routes, hotels, homestays, etc.

The below plan was finalized.

As September approached, both my cousin and brother-in-law completed their vaccinations. A few things fell in our favour:

  • Removal of Inner-Line Permit (ILP) for Indian nationals. Now the environment and optional red-cross fee that you pay online has become the new permit and you can visit most of Ladakh with just the online permit. This means you don't need to visit the Leh DC office and get a stamp. The exception being Hanle for which you still need to visit there and get a stamp. But these days it takes less than 5 minutes.
  • Opening of Banihal-Qazigund tunnel on Jammu-Srinagar highway. I was always in two minds about reaching Leh via Srinagar or via Manali. I dismissed Manali because of the steep climb you do and the chances of getting hit via AMS are higher. But the Jammu-Srinagar highway and Srinagar-Leh highway have their own issues. Mainly the traffic and army movement. The opening of this new tunnel reduced the time by more than an hour than before.
  • RT-PCR requirement. Earlier you had to carry an RT-PCR report regardless if you are fully vaccinated. But currently, if 15 days have passed since your 2nd dose, you don't need to carry an RT-PCR report and your vaccination certificate is enough.

Preparations

Car

Coming from Santa Fe, I was a bit underwhelmed by Kodiaq's power. As soon as my Ladakh plan was on I decided to remap it (ECU Remaps: About Tools, Software & Tuners!), am very happy with the results. A week before the trip I took the car to the Skoda showroom and got it checked. Everything was fine, got the filters cleaned and the wipers replaced as previous ones had started streaking. The second service would be due by the time I complete the trip. I also got the battery replaced as I didn't want to take any risk. The stock battery was manufactured in 2015(!) and replaced it with Exide Epiq.

Tyre & Jack

Kodiaq comes with a space-saver as a spare. What's worse is even if you want to replace it with a full-size, it will not fit in the space provided. So I had no option but to hope I wouldn't need to use the space-saver (how I was wrong!). I already had puncture repair kits, a TUSA tyre inflator and another important thing I wanted was a hydraulic jack. From my experience with Santa Fe, the stock scissor jacks are not the best for such big cars and eventually bend or stop working not to mention the time and effort they require. I got a solid and small portable hydraulic jack for 3k locally which came in a nice box making it easy to store. Later on, I will find out why taking one turned out to be a good decision.

Camera & Flashlight

I love milky way and night sky pictures. Ladakh being one of the highest altitude locations free of air and light pollution, is perfect for astrophotography. I had my handy Sony RX100v already but being a small sensor it wasn't going to be enough for what I wanted to do. I bought (Mirrorless or EVIL Cameras) a Sony A7C full-frame mirrorless and 3 lenses to complete the kit. Had two tripods ready. I had left the video duties to my S21 Ultra as it could record at 4k/60fps along with DJI OM4 gimbal. I also bought a powerful LED torch that will be helpful for the trip.

Jerry Can

We were going to need to carry fuel with us as the plan was to back-track as little as possible. Fuel Pumps are located in Leh, Khalsar, Diskit and Karu. If you go towards Hanle, Tso Moriri and don't intend to back-track you will likely need to carry fuel anyway. Instead of getting an expensive metal jerry can I simply got two 20-litres plastic containers for 200 Rs each, one for diesel and the other for water. They worked perfectly fine and didn't have any issues.

Medicines

We carried the usual stuff. Pain killers, medicines for stomach and digestion issues, Electral, bandaids, etc. Also carried Diamox which supposedly helps with AMS but we never got to use it. A Pulse-Oximeter to keep track of oxygen because of high altitudes. I had thought of buying portable oxygen cans in Leh but didn't feel any effects of AMS so simply forgot about it.

Postpaid Sim

Pre-paid doesn't work in J&K and Ladakh. Only post-paid sims work there. I already had a postpaid Jio connection from my Kashmir trip in Feb. My cousin also had a Jio connection. My brother-in-law decided to not take one at all even when I advised him to get Airtel to cover our bases. He spent most of the trip asking for a hotspot from both of us. I had read that for places like Pangong, Hanle, Tso Moriri only BSNL works at times. Didn't want to bother with it but in hindsight, it would have been a good idea to take one as we were completely cut-off for 3 days in our trip.

Offline Maps and Songs

Thankfully I downloaded offline Google Maps for the trip and it helped a lot. Similarly downloaded loads of playlists on Spotify and it's almost mandatory for such a long trip.

My cousin and brother-in-law both reached Raipur on the 15th. We spent the 16th discussing the trip and making final preparations. At around 7 am on 17th Sep 2021, our Ladakh adventure began.

Day 1 - Friday, 17th Sep: Raipur to Gwalior

In the first two days of traveling we wanted to cover maximum distances possible as there was going to be mostly straight and open roads. Initially, Jhansi was the first-night target but we were told Gwalior can be reached by night. We decided on it also because of the historical Gurudwara Data Bandi Chhor where we planned to stay for the night instead of a hotel. Visiting Gurudwaras before reaching Ladakh also felt auspicious.

My experience with Google Maps is a mixed bag. A lot of times the fastest route it suggests is not the fastest and the issue is compounded when traveling through small towns/villages or when network connectivity is not available. As such, I asked an experienced friend of mine who travels regularly by road to Punjab and Jammu, the route we should take. He suggested after reaching Mandla, instead of going via Jabalpur like Google suggests, turn towards Lakhnadon and there you will join NH-44 (Kanyakumari-Srinagar national highway) which has very good roads. Continue towards Delhi and before Palwal (HR) you can take Western or Eastern Peripheral Expressway depending on where you want to go. The rest of the journey is what Google suggests.

This was the route we took on day 1.

We stopped around 10.15 am at Chilpi for breakfast which is located on a ghat and the weather was excellent. The restaurant was named Natraj and would highly recommend it. We stopped here again quite late on the return journey and the food quality was great both times.

After a good breakfast and tea, we continued towards Mandla and Lakhnadon. We were supposed to enter Mandla and take the toll road to Lakhnadon but took some road before it. This resulted in going through a lot of small villages and single-lane roads but they were decent enough. Eventually, we touched NH-44 from Lakhnadon and it really is a very good highway. Driving with the remapped Kodiaq was fun and we were munching miles quickly. Around 4.30 pm we were on the outskirts of Sagar (MP) and there were some great restaurant options. We stopped at Satyam Dhaba (more a restaurant). Similar to Natraj we stopped here on the return route as well and the experience was very good. Definitely recommended.

We entered UP which was easy to know because of road conditions. Lots of small holes leading to inconsistent speeds. Near Jhansi, we topped the tank to full as the indicator was on. Fuel prices in UP were much lower than MP & CG, as much as Rs. 7-8/ltr so it was the plan. Similarly, prices were lower in the upcoming states of Haryana, Punjab and even J&K.

Finally, around 8.30 pm we reached Gwalior and headed towards the fort. We arrived at the Gurudwara and got our lodging. The weather continued to be amazing that day with clouds and some rains, and up high near the fort, it was quite foggy. We took langar and called it a night knowing tomorrow would be another long journey.

Day 2 - Saturday, 18th Sep: Gwalior to Goindwal/Amritsar

I had hoped to start today's journey early but all of us were lazy. By the time we got ready, visited the Gurudwara and left from there it was past 10.30 am. Since it was morning, as we were leaving we could appreciate the beauty of the fort. It is massive and while coming down, the view of the city down below is excellent. I had been here once when I was a kid and it would be good to visit it again with time in hand.

The below is the route we took on day 2. The plan for today was to reach Goindwal Sahib by night and spend the night there. In-between, take a detour and visit Gurudwara Takht Sri Damdama Sahib on the way.

The roads were great all the way through. We stopped at Food Street on NH-44 after crossing Mathura around 1 pm. It is a pretty good stop if you want branded food. I had KFC.

We took the Western Peripheral Expressway before Palwal as planned and exited it towards Rohtak to eventually enter Punjab. We arrived at our first stop at Sri Damdama Sahib around 7 pm. We spent around an hour here taking our blessing and knew we were running late.

Our destination for tonight, Goindwal Sahib, was another 200 kms from here. We reached there around 11 pm. But upon arrival, we were informed that the yearly 'mela' was currently happening and all the lodgings were booked. After a long day, it was not what I hoped to hear and instead of trying to find some other accommodation at this late hour, we decided to reach Amritsar tonight itself instead of tomorrow morning as planned.

We spent another hour here visiting the nearby Gurudwaras and left for Amritsar around 12.30 am.

Continue reading about AnandB's road trip for BHPian comments, insights and information.

 
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