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Originally Posted by KVS I have made up my mind now to take up this journey. KVS |
Sure you should!!
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Originally Posted by Strangerintown What road is that? ![Shockked](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/Shockked.png) . |
Thats the Stillwell [Ledo road] around Lake Of No Return through Hell Gate [Pangsau Pass. [Arunachal-Burma border]
Stilwell Road (Ledo Road)
And then read this book
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Now the Hell Will Start: One Soldier's Flight from the Greatest Manhunt of World War II is a 2008 book by United States author Brendan I. Koerner. It is a non-fiction narrative investigating and recounting the story of Herman Perry, an African-American World War II soldier stationed in the China-Burma-India theatre of the war. Perry shot and killed a superior white commanding officer while helping construct the Ledo Road.
He subsequently retreated into the Indo-Burmese wilderness and joined a tribe of the headhunting Nagas, successfully joining one village and marrying the fourteen year old daughter of one of the tribesmen.
It also relates some of the history of the CBI theatre as it pertains to Herman Perry's, as well as explores the injustices of the Jim Crow mentality and policies carried out by the military during World War II.
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Originally Posted by Strangerintown BTW I see that you prefer to do the transport sections of your trip by night. Why is that? Don't you find night driving on Indian highways actually more stressful inspite of the lesser traffic? Also you would be sleeping during days on these stretches and driving during the day during the holiday part of the trip. Doesn't this sudden changes in sleep pattern cause extra fatigue? |
Whatever been my experience in all these years is that it is not that traffic is nowadays signficantly less in the night. Over a long distance it in fact evens out - the factor is that
one has uniform traffic. - all trucks and more trucks. In the day you have all kinds of vehicles and non-vehicles including trucks and all things coming from all direction.
So for a transport section I would prefer night driving on highways because with a Safari, which itself is close to a truck, I cover distances quite rapidly. But just for the heck of it I would not do a night journey. The transport section of this journey had to be done at night and it was done at night. In other travels like while going to Orissa or North Bengal, the travel schedule was like I can travel in the day, I did it in the day.
Another thing for night journey is that it is quite sapping in a hill road. I travelled all through from Sai Ropa to Mathura, going by the Narkanda and Shimla at night, it becomes troublesome and is energy sapping as suddenly road turns or you have half of the road closed due to landslides. Any hill journey is best done during day.
The change in sleep pattern did not affect me, anyways in the hills by 9-10 everyone is in bed and so one does have a good night sleep.
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Originally Posted by dadu So you got to use the hydraulic pin type jack, although not in an ambient atmosphere. ![Big Grin](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.png) |
Oh it was hard work and since it was at an incline, the jack wont fit at the original location - and also after 6 hours of hill driving. Next tyre change sure will be tubeless and/or will carry a portable compressor.
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Originally Posted by Dry Ice Did you, during any part of the journey, feel the lack of a 4WD?? |
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Originally Posted by breezydrive BTW, did you feel need for 4X4 at any stage? |
No not quite but some of the sliding and fish tailing that was going on in the ice would have lessened and also while going the Jalori Pass, a very steep gravel incline and my rear tyres spinning sometimes. Whatever said and done, a 4wd is a exactly what it is and anyday would prefer to have a 4wd, and particularly for a loaded Safari, but then the cost was and is too much for me.
A 2.2 2wd Safari is still a very potent vehicle with all that torque. The first gear, which is othewise almost useless in the city or highway, comes to its own in the hills. And also these two points that go in favour of a Safari.
1. A solid steel factory built engine guard/skid plate. I did hit quite a few stones underneath once when backing up after taking a wrong downturn to a river. The back gear torque and the skid plate saved me from being stranded.
2. A huge diesel tank of 65 L that did not make me carry any extra diesel cans.
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Originally Posted by Sudipto-S-Team A traverse of Bhutan (from Phuntsholing to Samdrupjhongkar via Thimphu, Bhumthang, Tashigang, Yangphula etc) could be an interesting two year anniversary drive. |
Yes Bhutan is too on the radar as in September/October time, more so as the North East would be still recovering from the rains. Best time for NE looks like around Dec-Feb.
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Originally Posted by Saurabh M I have always planned to do similar trips but never had a suitable vehicle. If I am able to execute my plans properly for my next car after I return to India, my be I will do a similar trip. |
You may not need a SUV to do this, Hvkumar has done it in a Matiz. You just have to aware and be comfortable what limitations your car has and then it is doneable.
We were stopping quite a lot to enjoy the landscapes and we also went to a lot of the remote places. Where Safari helped me is that when driving I could drive quite fast than the normal average speed and thus still keep schedule.
Also thanks all for all the wonderful comments. The word document does have a wealth of information. Just a reminder, all the timings and distances that are mentioned in that word draft are not that what we followed but all the info that I gathered from different websites and forums.