[shourya_lahiri]

Almost a year after my acquisition of ‘Hachiko’ my Jimny MT, this was by far it’s first proper exposure. 6 months out of which it had to spend locked up in a garage with it’s battery terminals disconnected. Price a car pays for being owned by a shippie.
Well, as always, I will again keep it short and precise. My intention here will be to share my experience. No point in mentioning any achievements, as nothing here is new to us, nothing that has not been done before. All familiar routes here. What I really aspire from sharing all this below is that if this inspires even one single reader, even if by a tiny bit, that would make the effort worthwhile.







So This is how the trip was planned for me –

Kolkata>> Aurangabad>> Agra>> Zirakpur>> Narkanda>> Chitkul>> Kalpa>> Tabo>> Kaza>> Chandratal>> Sissu>> Manali>> Chandigarh>> Varanasi>> Kolkata.
I didn't have to break my head over hotel bookings, a close friend took take of that.
One addition here is that my elderly Mom joined us in Manali, where she flew from Kokata. The rest of the journey was made by the three of us.

Kolkata -> Aurangabad

Clean straightforward route. Not so clean Hotel. Later someone suggested a better stay, which is apparently the only sane choice there. Perhaps would choose that next time.
I know the regulars down this route usually stretch it further to somewhere like Lucknow for the first leg, But I chose a shorter target. Primarily because the car is new to me. Its behavior on extended highway attendance was yet to be discovered.

Aurangabad -> Agra

Next day left for Agra early. Took the Durganti detour to avail Purvanchal Expressway. I decided there itself that I will not take this route on the return leg, as the stretch from Durganti to Purvanchal had to be dealt with in the late hours then, and I was not very comfortable with that.
Stopped at Lucknow for lunch at the place recommended by Dbhpian Abhi_1512. And as always is the case with his recommendations, this was a fabulous decision as well.
Hachiko actually surprised me with its matured highway manners here.






Agra -> Zirakpur

Next day, off to Zirakpur. Stopped on the way in Delhi to meet a friend. Had lunch there and reached Zirakpur leisurely in the evening. I am particularly not very much at home with driving after dark, but the Delhi to Chandigarh highway was well lit and quite a breeze. Nothing great about the stay though, just a layover too so nothing much to expect either.


Zirakpur -> Narkanda

Slowly and gradually the terrain changes and we are greeted to the first glimpse of the Himalayan foothills. Enough of highways now, time for business.. The stay at Narkanda was breath of fresh air for us.







A very neat cafe just adjacent to our stay...







Narkanda ->Chitkul

As we headed to Chitkul, after Karcham, the road turned real ugly. And from what I learnt from the locals after I reached our camp, the road’s current state is a recent development. Hopefully things will get better soon. Made it a point to start early in the morning the next day, much before the first HRTC bus left the Reckongpeo Depot, to avoid sharing that narrow road with the buses.
Another thing Chitkul taught me is that, I am not a camp person.














Chitkul -> Kalpa

Kalpa reminded me of the likes of Darjeeling / Kalimpong. Beautiful lush forests and apple trees. And a fantastic view of the Kinnaur Kailash range.. Its a nice place for a weekend kind of stay. With a wide range of choices for hotels and cuisines.

[shourya_lahiri]

Continued..

Kalpa - > Tabo

This was perhaps the most scenic drive in the whole trip. I’ll Let the pictures do the talking.
Tabo is such a sweet and comfy place to stay, a small village on the banks of the Spiti river. We stayed over the night with our furry friend Bruno there. I really fell in love with Tabo.














The Tabo monastery is something that demands your attention and time.. wish I had more time to explore here.








All this while Hachiko was the one who was having real fun. A noteworthy quality of the vehicle is its right balance between being an offroader on one hand ,while not forsaking the car like qualities. And this really makes it an effortless drive in mixed terrains.

Tabo -> Kaza

The Kinnaur range is one of a kind. Gone are the green foliage and its all dry dessert terrain from now on. Breathtaking nevertheless.
Kaza holds its own place amidst all this. Luckily we were staying right next to the Kaza Monastery.






By this time we had learnt that Kunzum pass wont be open anytime soon and we have to drop our plans for Chandratal and Sissu. Nevertheless over the next couple of days of our stay at Kaza, we explored, Chicham bridge, Kibber, Lossar, Pin Valley, almost reached Kunzum but turned back to our nest.
The car was absolutely at home here, effortless and enjoyable like anything.






We were lucky to have witnessed ‘Budha Purinima’ with The Kaza Monastery. They take the Budha idol on a palanquin and cover the whole village, showering blessings on everyone along the way.













Kaza -> Rampur -> Manali

The worst stretch here in one word. But had no choice. Had to reach Manali on the planned date. The road from Rampur to Manali still gives me nightmares. Multiple vehicles backed off and went back to Shimla. Couple of Self driven offroaders even suggested I stop wasting time and take a U turn. I had a bigger planned journey to comply with, they were casual visitors from Nearby places so, couldn’t make myself to give up that easily. I would never take that route again.
Covered around 120 kms in 11 hrs in total, and by the time I was caught up in the infamous Manali traffic, it was already 2000hrs or so, but that felt like heaven to me, after what I have been through the whole day.


Over the next couple of days stay at Manali visited Rohtang pass and did some local sightseeing.




The Hadimba Devi Temple.



Rohtang Pass...





Manali -> Chandigarh -> Agra ->Varanasi-> Kolkata

The home run was as smooth as it could be. We stayed for a day extra in Agra and visited the Tajmahal and Agra fort (Lal Qila).










This trip for a fresh experience for me as a driver. I had never faced terrain like Spiti before. Got time and opportunities to get to know my Hachiko better. And boy what fun it was! Made a few mistakes along the way and learnt from them as well. Had a brake fade incident around Soja (Jalori pass area), got it fixed in Manali and also got to know that I might have over reacted, as told by the Service Manager there.
One thing that stood out during the whole trip was just how much useful the small footprint of the car proved to be in the narrow Spiti roads. Wonder how I could have managed them with a full sized SUV

Here's to more broken roads ahead!



Thanks for your time!
Cheers.

[KarthikK]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[haisaikat]

Wow, everyone seems to be headed for the North in this intolerable summer months and the terrain is like a Kalpataru granting everyone what each of them desired from the journey. Liked your clean and simple yet precise narration accompanied with nice photos. You took longer leaps on return journey it's seems, Chandigarh to Varanasi straight. Wish to do Spiti circuit some time in the future.

Would love to know some more details on distance and drive times on interim days of travel. No questions for Jimny as enough has been said and proven already, but how did the RX10 perform.

You did not mention the dates of your travel, we met BHPian Mile_Breaker (left) on 9th June while he was returning in his Hexa from Spiti. Myself and Bhpian s_scorpion (right) were returning from Kumaon, here is the photo while we were crossing Jharkhand along NH-19.

[shourya_lahiri]

Originally Posted by haisaikat

Would love to know some more details on distance and drive times on interim days of travel. No questions for Jimny as enough has been said and proven already, but how did the RX10 perform.

You did not mention the dates of your travel, we met BHPian Mile_Breaker (left) on 9th June while he was returning in his Hexa from Spiti. Myself and Bhpian s_scorpion (right) were returning from Kumaon, here is the photo while we were crossing Jharkhand along NH-19.

Yes Bhpian Mile_Breaker did contact me while I was in Kaza. Presumably he left for the tour when I was on my way to Manali or on my return leg. Small world 🙂

Rx10 is kicking strong! I am the one falling behind.

[arjab]

Originally Posted by shourya_lahiri

I’ll Let the pictures do the talking.
We stayed over the night with our furry friend Bruno there. I really fell in love with Tabo.

And what pictures they are! Absolutely brilliant! Transported me from laptop to Spiti in a second
Hachiko looking good in his natural habitat. Quietly exuding confidence and loyalty to you. He'll wait for you, forever, whenever you return to him from your shipping trips!
By the way: Did you take Bruno with you from Calcutta? Or met him there?

Once again, 3-cheers for a wonderful scribble!

Drive safe!

Best...,
arjab

[ABHI_1512]

Okay, first things first- wonderful pictures and delightful writing in a concise to the point way. You made it a point to mention the road conditions and then went on to describe the beauty of the places- nothing more is required for us readers to get the essence of your travel. I wish you added some more pictures though.

Hachiko has found a good place and I am sure you will give him ample reasons to smile every now and then. Wish you many such travels that bring you joy and happiness- both at the same time and yes, do give camping a second chance. You never know, you might start loving it !

Regards.

[Axe77]

Loved your travelogue and you’re such a great shot! I specially like the photos around the Taj. The Jimny is a wonderful steed to underake a journey like this. Proper mountain goat and easy to deal with too if you face any issues.

[Rohitthebest]

Super Awesome thanks for the nice pictures and details. Your travelogue took me back 13 months in time when I did the same stretch solo. Looking forward to do it again next year with my better half once we acquire our first proper 4X4.
Just one question though as I didn't find it mentioned anywhere in your travelogue, were you required to engage 4X4 anywhere in this stretch?

[Dibyendu Bose]

Many thanks for the excellent travelogue.

I have been planning a driving holiday to this region ever since i retired a couple of years back. However in recent vlogs have seen that the road becomes very narrow at places, without any semblance of any crash barriers. While i don’t want to bring the subject of Indian road norms here in this page (although i am sure this precarious unsafe situation will not be allowed in most countries), do you suggest that i can embark on this journey (with a slightly bigger SUV, a Discovery Sport?) Or leave my car in Sangla n take a local vehicle till Kaza. (In which case, can’t come back via Manali).

To paraphrase the question a bit, are these narrow dangerous un-barriered portions too few and far between, or there are quite a few of them which has made this journey rather risky….

Please include the Sangla Chitkul detour also in your analysis….

[shourya_lahiri]

Originally Posted by arjab

Hachiko looking good in his natural habitat. Quietly exuding confidence and loyalty to you. He'll wait for you, forever, whenever you return to him from your shipping trips!
By the way: Did you take Bruno with you from Calcutta? Or met him there?

arjab

Glad you enjoyed my lousy write up!

We met Bruno at the Tabo Hotel. He was a local resident at Tabo Village. The whole village was his home, he used to dine in one house, sleep in another, drink water from some other house and so on. Our hotel happened to be his nap area. He quietly came up and introduced himself to us and as you can see, shook our hands too, like a perfect gentle(dog).

Originally Posted by ABHI_1512

Okay, first things first- wonderful pictures and delightful writing in a concise to the point way. You made it a point to mention the road conditions and then went on to describe the beauty of the places- nothing more is required for us readers to get the essence of your travel. I wish you added some more pictures though.

Hachiko has found a good place and I am sure you will give him ample reasons to smile every now and then. Wish you many such travels that bring you joy and happiness- both at the same time and yes, do give camping a second chance. You never know, you might start loving it !

Regards.

Thanks for those wonderful words. I found camping really tough, might be fun though if I have a few buddies with me..what say?
I have deliberately omitted mentioning stuff like Hotel names, specific dates, time to drive between stops etc. These parameters keep changing from person to person, driving style and so on.. Like I like to stop multiple times between points, and some of us like to give it all and cover as much distance as possible.

Hope I can keep you wishes, but one thing's for sure.. This was a warm up for Hachiko..

Originally Posted by Axe77

Loved your travelogue and you’re such a great shot! I specially like the photos around the Taj. The Jimny is a wonderful steed to underake a journey like this. Proper mountain goat and easy to deal with too if you face any issues.

Absolutely, like I said, the car felt tailor made for those roads.. Glad you enjoyed the write up.

[shourya_lahiri]

Originally Posted by Rohitthebest

Super Awesome thanks for the nice pictures and details. Your travelogue took me back 13 months in time when I did the same stretch solo. Looking forward to do it again next year with my better half once we acquire our first proper 4X4.
Just one question though as I didn't find it mentioned anywhere in your travelogue, were you required to engage 4X4 anywhere in this stretch?

Glad that I could transport you back to your fond memories.
No, I did not need to use 4X4 anywhere, but I did, at some places. This is a very unpopular opinion, that why use 4X4 when it can be done without. And yes all of that is true, There were'nt all 4wd vehicles there, infact majority were FWD and full of Alto's. But my argument is, when you have the advantage, why not use it? Shift on the fly is fairly simple to use. You never know when the section infront might get tricky. Using the 4H gives you much better confidence on loose grounds, momentary slush areas (like where the ice has melted and mixed with mud on the side)..you know the likes.
I did not venture into chandrataal, like I have mentioned. From what I have heard, a good amount of GC is required for those areas.

Originally Posted by Dibyendu Bose

Many thanks for the excellent travelogue.

I have been planning a driving holiday to this region ever since i retired a couple of years back. However in recent vlogs have seen that the road becomes very narrow at places, without any semblance of any crash barriers. While i don’t want to bring the subject of Indian road norms here in this page (although i am sure this precarious unsafe situation will not be allowed in most countries), do you suggest that i can embark on this journey (with a slightly bigger SUV, a Discovery Sport?) Or leave my car in Sangla n take a local vehicle till Kaza. (In which case, can’t come back via Manali).

To paraphrase the question a bit, are these narrow dangerous un-barriered portions too few and far between, or there are quite a few of them which has made this journey rather risky….

Please include the Sangla Chitkul detour also in your analysis….

Thanks Sir for the question. I would love to answer this.
Yes, what you have gathered from the vlogs is correct. The roads do get narrow, and yes quite a few sections are without crash barriers. It is in those sections that a smaller dimension vehicle will be more suited, like the locals driving Alto's. That being said, are there no wide body vehicles using the same roads? They are. Infact what about the trucks, they have to cross each other at some place. So the Main factor here is which place . Watch out for traffic from a distance and plan your cross point in advance. Thats how the vehicles there are getting the job done.

The Sangla Chitkul Detour is a bit tricky. Especially because of the HRTC buses, Travelers and trucks along the way. But nothing that cannot be dealt with, or is not being driven on by much wider vehicles. As I have mentioned, I started much early the next day from Chitkul to avoid trucks and buses, but still met with some on the way.

Here's a video footage from my dashcam to give you a fair idea. Note that I atleast met these guys around a paved road section, had I started any later, I would have to deal with them in sections where its all gravel and just enough width for one car to pass. The road to Chitkul is full of these type of stretches.

What I discovered is that North of Kaza, towards Kunzum the roads are much wider. Less paved, but wider.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V6PlZT6CBg

[Mile_Breaker]

Wonderful pictures Shourya ! Hachiko seems to be at home in that surrounding ! If you had your trip planned couple of weeks later then could have visited Chandratal. The route from Kaza to Manali opened up around 3rd June for normal vehicles, although I heard from my hotel that the camps at Chandratal was still not fully operational. However one group did go to Chandratal in 4x4.

[shourya_lahiri]

Originally Posted by Mile_Breaker

Wonderful pictures Shourya ! Hachiko seems to be at home in that surrounding ! If you had your trip planned couple of weeks later then could have visited Chandratal. The route from Kaza to Manali opened up around 3rd June for normal vehicles, although I heard from my hotel that the camps at Chandratal was still not fully operational. However one group did go to Chandratal in 4x4.

It would have been impossible for me to delay the trip by even by 3-4 days, leave alone weeks. Had some time bound commitments back at home. Seems like Chandratal will be the reason for me to Take another attempt at Spiti later

[DriveTrain]

Thoroughly enjoyed the voyage through your eyes ! Excellent photographs and a very unique "precis" writing style

And might I add , what an apt moniker for your Samurai . Had I known it , I would have surely patted him down during our ASC meet

Hope we have a proper connector to PE someday rather than the current "juggad" routes .