Ladakh - The culmination of all your desires.
Moksha for the wanderer soul.
Destiny is a precarious word. It makes you lazy most of the time. Most of us are more comfortable submitting to destiny than chasing it. Heavy lines for what is a 6,000 kilometer trip. More so, as these days, you can reach Leh on whim within a few hours by air and then take the local taxis through pristine tarmac, mostly, to the famed places of interest scattered around the Ladakh region. But here we are, hellbent on driving our own cars across thousands of miles of boring highways and arduous terrains for days without rest, just to satisfy this seemingly unreasonable appetite for road travel. Road trips have been a rave in developed countries for over half a century and Hollywood has done it's part glorifying them in many memorable flicks. But it is only in recent times, that the idea of road trips have gripped the average Indian Joe, like us.
The Kolkata Team-BHP family is a rather closely knit unit. So, when I came back from a family trip to the Kumaon region in May (Link to Travelogue :
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...n-episode.html (TUV3OO - The Kumaon Episode) ) it was customary to arrange for a meet to share the stories of the trip over some well spread platter. The meet was duly arranged, however, I arrived not with any intent of sharing my Kumaon tales but with a rather cynical idea. Even before the fresh lime soda had hit the table, I popped the bubble. Let's do a stag trip to Ladakh! Most of the members were either stunned into silence or pretended not to have heard my rather awkward proposal. Not BB. He was in town and was attending the meet. He was immediately hooked on to the idea and from that day, BB and not me became the energizer bunny for the team, prodding us every now and then to get on with the arrangements and bookings. He ultimately ended up making most of the arrangements by himself.
During the pre-trip phase, a few names got added and few opted out.
Pegasus, the 4WD Bolero of BB being the only fixed member all through. Finally, we were down to a group of five BHPian brothers. We had initially decided to take DD's immaculately maintained Civic citing that the Bolero could easily pull the Civic out of whatever pit the Civic would get stuck into. As the day approached, we were bombarded with news of bad roads, incessant rains and landslides in Himachal. Very reluctantly and with a heavy heart, DD decided not to venture in the Civic. I understand how hard that decision would have been. Every enthusiast wants to drive his own car to Ladakh. I have fond memories of the Civic in Sikkim, where it had acted heroically during our last trip. I hope 2707 makes it to Ladakh very soon and it would be a pleasure to ride shotgun.
Anyway,
Tuffey, our 2016 TUV 3OO was unanimously chosen to replace the Civic. It was a moment of immense joy for me. I am really thankful to my team mates for allowing
Tuffey to join the team even though there were other options available, including the sparkling new S-Cross of DJ. A dejected DD announced that he will retreat to the role of mechanic and photographer for the entire trip. As it turned out, DD spent most time behind the wheels of
Tuffey after myself.
As Anindya (BHPian cr4nkshaft) has already very eloquently described the trip details here:
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ek-ladakh.html (A week in Ladakh) and I dare not dilute his excellent thread with more of my mindless blabbering, I will just try to share the events of the trip through some pictures.
Day 1 : Kolkata to Delhi (1550 KMs approx)
Dinner stop near Panagarh
The much awaited Yamuna Expressway
Backseat frolics continued throughout
Day 2 : Delhi to Manali (550 KMs approx)
Breakfast stop at Amrik Sukhdev dhaba. We were hungry most of the time.
A rather belated arrival at Manali
Day 3 : Manali to Jispa (140 KMs approx)
The wakeup call
Visit to Hadimba Mata's abode
Remnants of probable sacrifices adorns her corridors
Soon we were hungry again
Omlettes
Sandwiches and
Pooris the size of footballs
The hot cuppa to compliment
With our hunger satiated momentarily, we started for Rohtang
We crossed a gushing waterfall.
The surface was good and we were sailing through the clouds
Soon we reached Rohtang La
The first Pass of the trip
The Mahindra brothers at Rohtang Top
We continued through serpentine roads beyond Rohtang
The scenery changed with every turn
We ambled along the river
Terrific terrains
Colors beyond your regular pallet
The glacial peaks got closer
The barren landscapes
We finally reached beautiful Jispa
But even the quaint little village by the river bend could not make us forget our primal desires
..and we headed straight to the diner for replenishment
We strolled down to the river bed and stayed out till daylight disappeared