[adc]

Safari 2.2 LX VTT-TMT - at Ladakh/Changthang

Safari VTT pics quota for today - almost the last but one batch of photos.

[himavanth_m]

@adc: eagerly waiting for your travelogue and more details of your trip. From what I could gather from the forum, it should be pretty interesting. Also have seen a pic with less air in front left tyre(img_4354). what happened there?

Pics from Coastal Andhra Trip in rains
My planned trip to Gwalior had been replaced by an unplanned trip to Coastal Andhra due to heavy rains there

This was a short trip to Ongole, Bapatla, Chirala, Repalle, Avinigadda, Edla Lanka (my village), Hamsaladeevi (A beautiful beach and a fantastic drive from Avinigadda with water on both sides of road which finally ends in the beach. Pics below) and Vijayawada.

Keeping in mind the thread name, I have included only those pics where Safari is present. Since this trip was done alone and with no camera, all the pics are from phone camera. Pardon me for this sin.

@mods: Since this is a short trip, I felt it is appropriate to include this in this thread itself instead of starting a new travelogue. If you feel otherwise, please delete this post.

Chirala - Repalle Single lane road.


Backbone of India: Agriculture sector. Lovely green rice fields. Its very sad that the cyclone is destroying these fields in coastal Andhra Pradesh.





Penumudi Bridge across Krishna River- Just before Avinigadda (on the Repalle - Avinigadda stretch)



At my village


Going to my village involves going through slush and mud. Since I was alone, could not take pics where Safari was in deeper slush.


In order to move to Edlalanka, the bridge below needs to be crossed. In case there is flooding in river Krishna, this road goes under water and village is completely cut off. Only way to travel is by boat through the turbulant waters of River Krishna incase there is flooding. This place is also quite close to the KG Basin.



Road to Hamsaladeevi


Fish farms on both sides of the road (on the way to Hamsaladeevi)


and the beech in front. It is quite possible to take a vehicle on this beach as sand is quite stiff. Since it was getting late, I did not try my luck taking the beast on the beach




On the way back from Vijayawada to Hyderabad


Safari with mud after the trip


A well deserved wash



Sorry again for the bad quality pics.

[HappyWheels]

Himavanth,

Looks like going back home itself is a good adventure for you!

White Safari with a folded flag - total respect, is it?

[adc]

Originally Posted by himavanth_m

Pics from Coastal Andhra Trip in rains

About 2 years or so back, I was thinking about an uncommon/lesser known monsoon travel along coastal Orissa and AP and the names like Papi Kondalu, Hamsaladeevi came up and that drive between water bodies does look good.

@adc: eagerly waiting for your travelogue and more details of your trip. From what I could gather from the forum, it should be pretty interesting. Also have seen a pic with less air in front left tyre(img_4354). what happened there?

Himavanth, surely will be putting up the travelogue as soon as the work situation stabilizes somewhat.

The img 4354 seems like that due to the wide angle pic and the way it was parked inclined on the dusty track. Though there was no trouble on the front tyres, we suffered 2 punctures on the rear non-driver side tyre. One at Gramphoo and the other at Nyoma [where all the GREF labourers came out to help!].

Puncture#1


Puncture#2




Today's quota of Safari VTT pics but then the last lot.


















That then ends the plethora of Safari 2.2 LX VTT-TMT pics from Ladakh/Changthang.

[jkdas]

adc; beautiful & adventurous as always! I always wonder what you would have done if you had 4x4

[himavanth_m]

@adc: I visited papikondalu when I was a kid during monsoons. I do not remember much about it though. However, papikondalu will become a part of the reservoir for polavaram project. Once the project is finished, it will go under water. So make sure you visit the place before the project gets finished. I am planning a trip to that place sometime soon (may be next month). I will try to get the pics of the place.

[Lukeskywalker]

adc, great pics as usual and your safari is really one of a kind here on Tbhp, wonder what it would say if it spoke, would love to sit and listen to it.

[adc]

Originally Posted by jkdas

I always wonder what you would have done if you had 4x4

JK, dont know when I can afford one, but for sure I am going to face questions from my son about why we did not buy a 4wd to start with and even face moments like these!! He checks out personally if a SUV has a 4wd or not. He has seen enough of backtrack also due to our 2wd ride.

It is 4wd? @Manali





While going to Demchok, we had to go through a stream. This was somewhat dicey, we got almost stuck at 15k feet.

Originally Posted by himavanth_m

@adc: I visited papikondalu when I was a kid during monsoons. I do not remember much about it though. However, papikondalu will become a part of the reservoir for polavaram project. Once the project is finished, it will go under water. So make sure you visit the place before the project gets finished. I am planning a trip to that place sometime soon (may be next month). I will try to get the pics of the place.

Do put a travelogue for that. We do have an excellent travelogue out here

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...nds-still.html

There were exotic dishes out there in that link - bamboo chicken with local herbs and shark meat with spices!!! Would love to taste these.

And how much time do I have to visit Papi kondalu before the dam construction devours it?

Originally Posted by Lukeskywalker

adc, great pics as usual and your safari is really one of a kind here on Tbhp, wonder what it would say if it spoke, would love to sit and listen to it.

Luke, thats some really good thought provoking question. What would it say? I too am intrigued. It must have groaned everytime I burned its clutch is steep muddy inclines or hit its underside or revved it to max as we lay in ditch led into by blinding fog but then everytime the engine was fired at late night, it would have smiled with joy - an overnight journey almost always was travel time for the known and unknown. BTW, it has saved our lives 3 thrice. Will be putting up 3 year/60k km summary report and will be putting some of its thoughts [!] as we interpret.

The way we see it is has been a soldier, never a complain but each and every time it brought us back safely to base. Isnt a Tata supposed to leave one stranded - idling for 48 hours on Zojila top with heater on, never missing a beat in the whole journey here in Ladakh/Changthang but in all the tours done till.



The sobering thought can be that the first bad incident fades out all good moments, so just hope it goes on the way it has been. A couple of demanding journeys to absolutely lesser known places coming up next year!

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by adc

Isnt a Tata supposed to leave one stranded -

I am yet to see a safari on Team-BHP which has left anyone stranded
But I guess If you had a 4x4 you would have easily gone to Kyun Tso and Chumur and approached Tso moriri from the other side.

Waiting for your travelogue

[adc]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

But I guess If you had a 4x4 you would have easily gone to Kyun Tso and Chumur and approached Tso moriri from the other side.

Waiting for your travelogue

Chumur we could have gone after a very rough journey but the warning from a local that in mid October no one will be going out there for the next 7 months, and the cold dry winds and temp at Hanle was enough to tell me not to push it that much with child and wife.

Anyway by another week, I had forgotten the warning and wanted to attempt it via Nidder village, when I came to know about that route. The ominous signs from the morning itself as we headed towards it, the Indus had a sudden colour change to complete muddy and turbulent flow - as we came to know as we reached Mahe - there was some huge mud slide near Kyun Tso at some remote high heights. Mid October to late october - anything can happen anytime.

One last pic to keep up the thread theme

[sgmitr13]

Originally Posted by adc

One last pic to keep up the thread theme

It's never enough. I am kind of adicted to check this thread AM and PM.

Do you walk to that distance to take that shot, or you have someone else shoot or someone else drive a distance? How silly I am. But I admire your passion to shoot such lasting images with Safari focused.

Thanks for keeping us glued and keep it coming.

[himavanth_m]

@sgmitr13: I would say that is the charm of a safari. Prior to my safari, I never used to walk that extra distance to take a pic of the car. With safari, I am compelled to do it and I enjoy doing every bit of it. I am sure adc would agree. I remember lukeskywalker saying sometime ago that he enjoyed taking pics safari more than any of his rides. At that time i did not understand much, but since i started owning one, i understand what lukeskywalker was talking about

[adc]

Originally Posted by sgmitr13

It's never enough. I am kind of adicted to check this thread AM and PM.

Do you walk to that distance to take that shot, or you have someone else shoot or someone else drive a distance? How silly I am. But I admire your passion to shoot such lasting images with Safari focused.

Thanks for keeping us glued and keep it coming.

Originally Posted by himavanth_m

@sgmitr13: I would say that is the charm of a safari. Prior to my safari, I never used to walk that extra distance to take a pic of the car. With safari, I am compelled to do it and I enjoy doing every bit of it. I am sure adc would agree. I remember lukeskywalker saying sometime ago that he enjoyed taking pics safari more than any of his rides. At that time i did not understand much, but since i started owning one, i understand what lukeskywalker was talking about

Sgmitr, now that you have a GX 4wd [a lot of congrats for that!] - you will be doing all that as himvanth has said, and before that as we gather Luke had said [Lukeskywalker is turning out to be one heck of a safari philosopher]

Glad you like the pictures, ladakh and particularly Changthang topography is something lets say very mildly "different"

Here's one last for sure, but in b/w and has some lens flare in it.

[druva]

Originally Posted by adc

..
Glad you like the pictures, ladakh and particularly Changthang topography is something lets say very mildly "different"

Here's one last for sure, but in b/w and has some lens flare in it.

Well ADC, you are an inspiration before I bought by Safari. But now, you are embarassing me I am ashamed to post pics of my Safari.

BTW, when I decided between GX 4x2 and EX 4x4 - you were an influencer towards the 4x2 GX. Now that the final lot of pics have come, can you treat us with the wonderful travelogue of yours.

[adc]

Originally Posted by druva

Well ADC, you are an inspiration before I bought by Safari. But now, you are embarassing me I am ashamed to post pics of my Safari.

Originally Posted by 1100D

But of course, in those surroundings even a goldfish is going to look glam.

Originally Posted by adc

Ha! you bet!

Its the amazing changthang, its bound to be glam that too with a safari.

Originally Posted by druva

BTW, when I decided between GX 4x2 and EX 4x4 - you were an influencer towards the 4x2 GX. Now that the final lot of pics have come, can you treat us with the wonderful travelogue of yours.

That is some really good thing to read but personally it would have been for me a 4wd over ABS -- at the same price point, the choice will always be difficult , GX 2wd ABS [very important safety feature] vs EX 4wd [in critical 4wd situations ABS interferes with 4wd driving].

Anyway, congrats to you too, like those point wise detailed analysis. Now put up some pictures out here!