Day 10 onwards - the return journey.
All good things have to come to an end. but this time it did feel bad. wish we had another week. we could have explored so much more. but whatever we did see was much beyond out wildest dreams :-) and now that we are hooked we are certainly going back next year.
The return journey was not without some drama!! we decided to do the trip back to manali in 2 days instead of 3. So at the end of day 1 we resolved to reach Jispa by evening. But like all the daily plans in the entire trip this one also did not go too smoothly. Again Tanglangla proved to be the toughest section. It had rained the previous day and the roads were slush!! we got stuck twice. luckily some BRO men were there to help us out. But it was the advice of an experienced truck driver which finally bailed us out.
He told us to back up and drive ahead, not in a straight line but in a zig zag manner by continuously turning the wheel left and right. this way the wheels have the better chance of getting some traction. he also advised us to carry some speed into the slush pool next time we entered it. finally did get out and how did we thank him, by completely dousing him in mud flinged by a wheelspin!! God will punish us someday. These techniques worked very well for us through the rest of the journey particularly in Rohtang pass which was like a mud bath!!
Due due to this delay we could not make it to Jispa in daylightand had to drive at night. never seen such darkness. again we were down to a crawl and all 4 eyes on the road. Surely the most exciting and scary drive of my life. the good thing was that we recovered our missing car papers in the military camp at Patsio :-)
also we took plenty of photographs of the More plains.
approaching Tanglangla
this was after the 2nd rescue. check out the wheels. It is unbearably tiring to do any physical activity at these altitutes. Pushing 1.2 tons of metal such in mud nearly killed me :-) I was gasping for about half an hour after that.
Mud pack for the SX4. incread SX appeal
On the More plains
We had to go "offroad" in some sections as the road was under construction. in this case we veered off even further to avoid some wet patches. No way could we risk getting stuck here. Not a soul in sight for miles and for hours. but in doing do we got a bit lost!! we had to finally follow some dust trails to trace the road
Not as smooth as it seems.
More of More plains
Our friends in Pang
some locals |