Preparation: Was very minimal due to our recent trip to Kinnaur in March. Winter was not a problem as we were not expecting much cold so it saved us from carrying heavy woolens. But we piled up more food materials just in case if we get stuck somewhere. Support tools and accessories are now part of all the trips, so no worries there. All in all Prep was the easiest part of this trip.
You may call me little hyper but I did bought a big hunting knife and an axe for this trip, for multiple purposes other than self defense :P. We only used the knife to cut watermelon .
Even car did not required any pre service, other than the replacement of Horn, which again failed in the middle of the trip.
I only booked hotels for Day 1 and Day 2 and JKTDC, for Aru I left it to Jagjit(owner of Aru Eco Resort). As we always expect the plans to change I took the risk of finding something on the spot. And because we were visiting places less flooded by tourist, chances of getting it was quite high.
Day 1 and Day 2
Day 1
Gurgaon - Panipat - Ambala - Rajpura - Jalandhar - Pathankot - Jammu By Pass - Udhampur - Kud : Around 710 Kms
Day -1, we heard the news of terrorist encounter in Pulwama region and I had my heart sinking a bit. I never felt scared of these incidents in past but this was for the first time I was exploring Kashmir with family. I remember last time when we were on our way to Ladakh, just before Qazigund, we heard news of a big Bomb blast at Lal chowk but that didn't scared us a bit.
But this time it was little scary as Pulwama was in our plan (and finally we did that as well). After talking to friends and acquaintances there, we decided to move as per plan.
With lots of excitement and apprehensions we started our drive on 8th June from Gurgaon at around 5:00 AM. The target was to take our first break at McDs after Rajpura. Drive from Gurgaon to Ambala to Rajpura was fantastic, except that Nariana is getting messy again. Some of the over bridges are in this section are functional now, saving the pains of diversions, but there are still many to handle.
We have done this section so many times that now I can even remember some of the bad patches and bigger pot holes on the roads , not that there are many.
At Mcds we stuffed our tummy, used the clean washrooms and got something packed for Nandini on the way. We wanted to take as less stops as possible today as it was long drive and I wanted to reach our destination in Day light. To keep Nandini engaged we keep Games, Tablet, puzzles etc in the car. And in between we played the word games which was a real fun
After passing through the messy Jalandhar by pass and Mukerian crowd, our next stop was at JKTDC retaurant near Chak Dyala as we started feeling hungry and restless. Had our food and we headed non stop for Kud.
Section between Rajpura and Pathakot has improved alot barring those bypass mess near Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Mukerian. It was delight to drive on those roads. We took Jammu bypass instead of Samba-Udhampur as bypass is very good and places for food, hotels etc. Its little longer than Samba-Udhampur but I am sure it takes same time to reach Udhampur.
We reached Kud at around 6:30 PM, drove straight to the Parking of JKTDC Guest House as I have been to this place many times before. Its an idle place to take a night break for a drive to Srinagar. Weather was hot and bad during day and we had AC running in the car all the times up to Udhampur. It started getting cooler beyond udhampur when we decided to feel the hills and opened car windows.
Check-in to our room was quick. Its not a very sophisticated hotel, just basic rooms and minimal to no room service. But it was just a night stop for us and all we needed was food, clean bed and clean toilet. If you prefer a little high end hotel, there is one little ahead of Kud, between Kud and Batote, but last time they asked us 3K for just the night stay, that too when it was all empty .
Anyway it was an event less journey for Day 1 and thanks to god, day 1 went well without any trouble.
Day 2
Kud - Batote - Doda - Kishtwar - Chingam - Sinthan Pass - Daksum : Around 230 Km
Today was the start of the fun part of the trip. Nandini was little unhappy yesterday as we had no fun and were driving all the time, so I promised her that we will have lots of fun today, but then mother nature had something else for us in store. In the hills its the nature who decided the fate and I guess this day was not our day, at one point of time I was so frustrated that I wanted to turn back.
More on that next..
Kud Market
Garden of JKTDC GH
Wonderful flowers
My Monkey
Views from GH
Nandini was fresh and cheerful as always. There is one wonderful thing I do all the time when I feel little low on the long drive. I ask Nandini are you ok and she relpy back with loudest of his voice OOOOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKKKK and that keeps me moving
Kishtwar, unfortunately we could not spend much time here, but I will spend atleast a day in Kishtwar next time
Around Chingam
The only place where we could stop on our way to Sinthan Top, rest all was flooded with pot holes and water canals.
Finally at Top
And then you see black tar road on the other end. I was like somebody injected a dozen power injection on me. I was expecting another 3 hours of torturous drive, but we were ripping at 60-80 km/Hrs on those roads.
She has some fancy for sheep/goat kids :P
A stop before our final run to Daksum