2 Fortuners, 5 friends & a 5,000 km trip from Mumbai to Spiti

This was a dream trip for all of us. We were all super excited for what was in store and prayed to get some snow.

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Warning and Suggestions before we dive in

• This is a really long travel Blog, so remove some time to read it
• Please see the pics in full screen (click on the pic to zoom into full screen mode)
• Keep making notes for your trip !

There's a cycle of life.

• Have a Dream
• Find ways of achieving it
• Give it the final push
• Live it
• Repeat

Well, till very recently, I thought, the cycle ends at Step 2, till I realized, the most difficult, critical and life changeing step is the 3rd one.

Here's a story of one such dream which we managed to get to Step 5

Dream Catchers

We (3 cars, 5 people) were all set to pack off to Spiti Valley

We : 3 Bhpians (Bhushan, Sauvik and me)

• 2 cousins of Bhushan (A & S)
• Bussy (VW Van)
• Furteela Ghonga 2.0 (White Fortuner from Mumbai)
• Haryanvi (White Fortuner from Gurgaon)

The Plan

Bussy, FG 2.0, Bhushan Sauvik and me were to start driving from Mumbai and Haryanvi and A & S were to join us from Gurgaon

At this time of the year, we were expecting roads to be shut between Manali and Kaza, thus we planned to go via Shimla to Kaza and then return back in case the roads were found to be shut .

BTW, this is Bussy

This was a short trip (Gurgaon Kaza Gurgaon in 7 days) and it was everyone's (except Bhushan) first trip to Spiti, so we were prepared to be on the road most of the time, although we kept 2 days for Kaza

Our single minded focus was to find some snow there ! (Probability was decent if we got clear roads without land slides)

Preparation

Warm Clothing

1. Warm Jacket - Rateted about 5 degrees
2. Warm Jacket - Rated about -15 to -20 degrees
3. Thermal Inners - for about 4 to 5 days
4. Wollen Socks
5. Gloves
6. Wollen Cap (Covering the ears)
7. Neck Warmer

All of the above items are critical during different temperatures that we came across. We mostly shopped from Decathlon who have superb quality stuff at a reasobale cost

Car

1. Additional set of wipers (Just in case the rubber hardens in sub zero termperature) - Nothing like this was observed
2. Jumper cable - As a precaution - Thankfully this wasn't required for any of the cars
3. Snow Chains -In anticipation
4. Tow Ropes - In case we get stuck
5. Wiper Fluid - In case we need to drain it in the night to avoid freezing and bursting of the pipe - Wasn't required
6. WD40
7. Few Micro Fiber clothes
8. Tyre Inflator / Deflator
9. Puncture Kit - Although we did encounter a puncture, the TPMS warned us and we got the puncture repaired at a local shop

Again, these items are critical for a long road trip - Better to be safe than sorry , especialy in a place where we may not find someone to help for miles together

Medication

• First Aid Kit
• Many Band Aids - In the cold, it's easy to get bruised
• Sunscreen
• Diamox - We had one every day when we were ascending
• Oxygen Can

Food and Eatables

We carried quite a bit of food in the cars as there are trips where you will get something to eat only in villages that we reach and not anywhere else. If you're well fed every morning, this should not be a problem. We were overprepared on this one

Photography Equipment

1. Camera
2. Lenses
3. Go Pro
4. Drone

(Not getting into details here, else this will become another thread in itself)

Day Wise Iternarary

• Day 1 (11th April) - Mumbai to Gurgaon
• Day 2 (12th April) - Gurgaon to Khandaghat
• Day 3 (13th April) - Khandaghat to Sangla
• Day 4 (14th April) - Sangla to Chitkul to Tabo
• Day 5 (15th April) - Tabo to Kaza
• Day 6 (16th April) - Kaza
• Day 7 (17th April) - Kaza to Kalpa
• Day 8 (18th April) - Kalpa to Gurgaon
• Day 9 (19th April) - Gurgaon to Mumbai

Total Distance Covered : 5004 km

Sections marked in Pink are the sections of NE4 (Delhi Mumbai Eway) that are currently open)

I'll try to mention a daily record of the places we visited, route taken, road conditions and of course lots of pictures. Read on !

By the way, this is Bussy

Day 1 - Mumbai to Gurgaon

We left Mumbai around 5pm and reached Gurgaon at about 2pm (About 21 hrs including breaks). We were 3 drivers, so the drive was nice, safe and not at all a stretched one.

Route taken

• Mumbai to Bharuch - NH48 - 325km
• Bharuch to Dehgam (NE4 interchange) - 10km
• Bharuch to Vadodara - NE4 - Reyaka Exit - 91km
• Vadodara to Thandla NE4 Interchange , MP (Via Godhara) - NH148N - 218km
• Thandla Interchange to Bhanpura Interchange - NE4 - 211km
• Bhanpura Interchange to Kushtala Toll Plaza NE4 Interchange - NH148D - 257km
• Kushtala to Sohna - NE4 - 295km

• Sohna to Gurgaon - 20km

Total : 1425km

Notes : Google Maps will try to route you through internal roads especially in the Gujarat and MP sections connecting the two interchanges of NE4. Try to stay on NH148 / NH52 always, even if it may lead to a 20 to 30 km additional route. The internal roads are narrow and full of speedbreakers / bad roads.

Taking the NE 4 on the 3 sections where it is ready was an amazing experience and also time saving (Except for the Bharuch / Vadodara section - where NH48 might be faster as we need to go through Vadodara city towards Godhara) . We managed to beat google ETA by almost 4 hrs over the entire 1425km journey due to that

Here's a footage showing the eway in full glory

NE4 Feedback

Bharuch to Vadodara - 90km(8 lane) section is concrete road and very similar experience to the Mumbai Pune EW. Slightly underwhelming given that this is a greenfield project, the quality of roads could have been better - We paid zero toll here given that this was recently launched and it's toll free till elections we believe

Thandla to Bhanpura (MP Section) - (8 lane) One of the best roads to drive on in India ! Fresh tarmac with hardly any undulations - We could count the number of cars that we passed during the entrie 211km route . Risk : We encountered a fox and a hare on the eWay. This was during our night drive. Please drive with highbeam and keep an eye on the sides of the road for any movement that might come through onto the road. Best to stay within the speed limits (120kmph)

Sawai Madhopur to Sohna : 297 km (8 lane) - Fantastic road quality but about 90% of the MP section. Well inhabited in terms of traffic. There's a 15km toll free section where we encountered wrong side driving by bikers - That too on the rightmost overtaking lane - So please drive carefully here

Day 2 - Gurgaon to Kandaghat

The original plan was to reach Narkanda on this day, but we got extremely late in starting from Gurgaon which meant some traffic getting to the highway and stopping our trip pre maturely at Kandaghat

We picked up the sparkling Haryanvi and loaded it with our stuff.

There was an issue with the spare tyre of the car, due to which we needed to rotate the tyres and also get the alignment and balancing done for both the cars. This took us some time causing a dealy. We stopped at Cosmopolitan Wheels - We would rate it 4.5 on 5 for the quality of work, service and hospitality they showed

We then set off towards Rohtak to take the trans Haryana Expressway (NH152D) to Ismalibad (About 40km from Ambala / 100km from Chandigarh). Roads again were majestic with minimal traffic.

The views around the eway were brilliant with fields and farms all across on both sides . This joins NH152 to lead to Panchkula. We took some photo breaks as wel

As we were quite late entering Himachal, we found sparse traffic at most places and took the right before Shimla towards Chail.

Given the roads becoming extremely narrow and the wonderful scenic beauty of the place, we did not want to drive in the night , so we decided to stop at the first decent hotel / homestay. We found the same at Kandaghat where we checked in at 11pm .

Seven Heaven Home Stay

Feedback on the HomeStay - Very decent , peaceful and hospitable staff. We only had to spend the night and had planned to leave really early morning next day.

I'll rate it 4 out of 5

One feedback - Avoid delaying dinner as we found that most hotels / eateries were shut post 10pm and we found nothing. Even this homestay couldn't provide us with dinner at 11pm so we dug into our reserves we loaded from Mumbai.

Day 3 - Kandaghat to Sangla

We were up an awake at 5am and ready to start by 6am. This was the first day of sub 10degrees temperature and we all had our teeth tottering

Driving lot at Kandaghat Hotel

The whole day today was only driving and trying to reach Chitkul / Sangla.

Kandaghat to Kufri - We took the Shimla By Pass route through Chail and met NH5 at Kufri. This ensured that we don't get into the mess of Shimla during the day and also a fantastic and scenic road to Kufri. The negative of this route is that the roads are very narrow and need to be careful and slow all through to Kufri , but we were not in a hurry :-)

Kufri to Narkanda - Roads are two lane and quality of roads is brilliant for NH5.

Narkanda was infested with rash cab drivers so we went even slower inside the town.

Narkanda to Rampur - We had to descend here and Rampur reminded us of the plains as the temperature suddenly soared to 30 degrees

Rampur to Karcham - Two lane fantastic tar road (Only issue is roads getting spoilt due to landslides) - There are sudden places where we found this issue and thus it is advicable to go slow in these sections

Karcham to Sangla - The road becomes a single road here and is a Kaccha Road . Need to be slow and careful as there are no barriers on the cliff side.

Again, our hard cut off was when the daylight ends as we didn't want to miss out on the lovely landscapes

So, today was about very few photo breaks. Sharing some

Bussy about 20km from Shimla

A clear distinction of the types of mountains / terrains and weather we found in Spiti. It's quite marvelous the difference which is clearly visible

While waiting for roads to be cleared after a small landslide, the clouds decided to give us a beautiful sight

Hotel where we stayed - Hotel Sangla Mansion - https://maps.app.goo.gl/1L7VYuWHaAVCC33n8

Part of INEJ Hotels Group - This is a chain of 4 hotels that has been started off in 2022 and Sikandar and his wife are doing a marvelous job in creating a brand that most of us will absolutely love. The stand out for us was their hospitality. Never before have we felt so much at home ! We really wish this chain grows larger in the Spiti circuit catering to travellers like us

Highly recomended

Feedback and Rating : 4.5 out of 5 - Only reason is the lack of heaters / bed warmers - May be they will build that in very soon.

Continue reading BHPian Varunraizada's travelogue for more insights and information.