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In a Prado, V-Cross & Thar: From Padum to Leh via Singge La

11th July 2023, 10:12 by Ananth Iyer

Total distance covered in 10 days was 2695 km.

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“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone” this quote stands true when you are in Ladakh. The voyage to the Zanskar was in my bucket list from a very long time. We had been to leh in 2021 and 2022 but this did not quench our thirst for adventure. It was decided to do Leh via Zanskar in the second week of June, 2023.

The vehicles that took us on this journey-

1.Isuzu Vcross

2.Mahindra Thar

3.Landcruiser Prado

4.Maruti Brezza (the last minute addition)

The itinerary-

Day1- Mohali to Banihal (462 km)

Day2- Banihal to Srinagar and then Stay at Sonamarg(171 km)

Day3- Sonamarg to Rangdum(247 km)

Day4- Rangdum to Padum (104 km)

Day5- Padum to Leh via Singge La and Sirsir La (240 km)

Day6- Leh city

Day7- Leh city to Thang village via Khardung La pass and then stay at Diskit(228km)

Day8- Diskit to Pangong Tso and then stay at Karu via Chang La pass (422 km)

Day9- Karu to Manali (393 km)

Day10- Manali to Mohali (258 km)

Things we carried along-

1. Tents

2. Sleeping bags rated at -20 C

3. Portable gas stove

4. Thermal sheets

5. Walkie talkie

6. Car inverter

7. Water cans

8. Eatables that would be sufficient for 10 days

9. Beverages

10. Medicine and first aid kit

11. Two recovery straps and 4 shackles

12. Air compressors

13. Shovel

14. Biodegradable utensils

15. Garbage bags

16. Cooking utensils

17. Tool kit and hydraulic jack

18. Postpaid Sims

All the cars were checked thoroughly as precautionary measure. Vcross was running BMC air filter, we swapped the air filter with stock air filter as from our previous experience it is easy to clean paper air filter than a oil based air filter.

Date of departure: 7th June 2023

Day 1 (07.06.2023) Everyone was instructed to meet at Starbucks, Kharar at 7:00 am sharp but as the saying goes ‘Good things take time’ some of my companions took this seriously. We finally left at 8:00 am from Kharar with Banihal as destination. Everything thing was going smooth, cars were cruising effortlessly and making up for time lost. Meanwhile it started drizzling and we had our breakfast near Pathankot, the hot coffee and rain made it perfect. We crossed into Jammu and Kashmir UT and soon after we crossed Lakhanpur border our prepaid sims stopped working. The traffic was increasing as we were approaching Jammu city and traffic problem stayed with us till we crossed the Jammu city. The road towards Udhampur was pretty good and we decided to have our lunch at Udhampur. Everything was going good till now. As we just finished our lunch we saw trucks had started their journey, the road which was empty just few minutes ago was filled with slow moving trucks. Prado and Thar somehow managed to reach Chenani Nashri tunnel while Brezza and Vcross was stuck in traffic. Brezza was in middle of traffic jam but Vcross managed to get out of traffic jam but there was still a very long queue to enter into tunnel. In the meantime Thar and Prado crossed the tunnel. After talking with some locals we( vcross) decided to go towards Patnitop as the road was good and there was no traffic but it was extra 30 km of travelling. We crossed Patnitop around 7:30 pm and again got connected to main highway. The problem of traffic jam was still there but traffic was moving though at crawling pace. Around 10:00 pm Thar and Prado reached Banihal , Vcross was around 50 km away from Banihal and Brezza had just crossed the tunnel. The road after tunnel was in very bad state. Around 11:00 pm, just 25 km from Banihal, front right tyre of Vcross bursted. The spare tyre was stock tyre ( 255/65/r18 ) while the car was running on 265/65/r17. The culprit was a piece of iron rod lying on the middle of road. We changed the tyre quickly and continued our journey towards Banihal. Vcross reached Banihal at 11:55 pm and Brezza reached Banihal at 1:00 am. We had dinner and straight away went to bed.

Day2 (08.06.2023)-Everyone woke up early, around 6:00 am. We wanted to leave early to avoid trucks. Last night, Vcross had one of its tyre ruptured and I did not wanted to continue journey on a different sized tyre. So we decided to change two tyres as the other two tyres were in good condition( I was running Falken Wildpeak 265/65/r17 on Vcross with mileage of 35,000km on them).After doing a little bit of research we contacted Prince tyres in Srinagar and they were ready to open their shop early for us. We left Banihal around 7:00 am and reached Srinagar around 9:30 am. The road from Banihal to Srinagar is beautiful and well paved. The Thar and Brezza left for sightseeing as it was their first time in Srinagar, meanwhile me and Prado went to Prince tyres. Earlier we decided to change two tyres but eventually we changed all the four tyres. We shortlisted three tyres- Yokohama Geolander G015(265/65/r17), Maxxis 980 AT( 275/65/r17) and Continental Cross contact Ax6(265/65/r17). We went forward with continentals on the Vcross. After installing new tyres we went to Dal lake area to meet our companions and had a hearty brunch at Bollywood curry, the food was good and service was great. After strolling around dal lake area for an hour , we picked up our mandatory coffee from barista and started journey towards Sonamarg. It usually take 2-2.5 hours to reach Sonamarg.The Sonamarg is the most beautiful place on the Srinagar-Leh highway. We reached Sonamarg around 5:00 pm.

We always wanted to camp at Sonamarg and also we had booked one hotel room at Barzman ( the owner is a dear friend and an auto enthusiast,owns a lovely Hilux) near our campsite. While half of our members went to hotel to freshen up , half of us decided to pitch our tents near the river. It was a lovely evening, while most of us knew each other there were some new members so the stories were being shared meanwhile we made some maggi and ready to eat butter chicken for evening snacks. The dinner was sourced from a local dhaba. After dinner we collected all the waste and put it in garbage bag we bought along. Everyone decided to take bath the same night as we had to leave early and running hot water is going to be a luxury in coming days. We called it a day around 10:00 pm and went straight into our tents.

Day3 (09.06.2023)- I woke up early to witness the sunrise. To my surprise some of our members were already awake. We boiled some water to make coffee. After witnessing the sunrise, some of us went to hotel to get ready. We were talking with owner of the hotel and he suggested we must cross Zojila before 8:00 am as he had received information that they will close Zojila today for some maintenance purpose. We left Sonamarg around 7:15 am and managed to cross Zojila before 8:00 am. The road to Zojila is in okay condition. There are few patches that are in rough condition but overall the condition is okay. At zero point of Zojila the temperature dropped to -1 C and was covered with snow.

We had some hot Kahwah to beat the cold. As per plan we had Padum in mind as our destination but destiny had other some other plan. As we were reaching Drass, the Landcruiser went to limp mode and then refused to crank. The car displayed low transmission fluid pressure. A army truck was crossing, he suggested that there was a mechanic just few kilometres away. We towed the Landcruiser to the mechanic. The mechanic had no idea about the problem or the car itself. Luckily the owner of Prado knew the car inside out and called his service guy at authorised service centre. He suggested to change the transmission fluid and see if the problem persists. We took matters in our hand. Fortunately, the mechanic at drass had atf fluid. We hijacked his workshop and tools and drained all the transmission fluid. Then we pumped new transmission fluid and all this took us 4 hours.

Prado finally cranked after few tries and we drove for 10-15 km around Drass. We were confident that the Prado can go further. We were back on road and the time was around 3:00 pm, so we changed our destination from Padum to Rangdum. The Prado drove just like before without any issue. We were stopped at a checkpoint, they entered our details and destination and allowed us to go further. The sun was coming down already and we were tired due to Prado ordeal. Slowly the road condition also changed. From paved road to off road, we were climbing steep climbs with full of mud and the sun had set already. We started to look for shelter at Purtikche and Panikhar but no avail and continued our jounrey towards Rangdum. We reached Rangdum around 9:40 pm and found a place named La Himalaya that offered luxury tents. We had our dinner and called it a day. I was about to get into my bed, when few of our members started feeling symptoms of acute mountain sickness.

Day4(10.06.2023)- It was around 5:00am when I received a message that one of the member who had symptoms of AMS had been throwing up all night. We gave him medicine that I had bought along after consulting a doctor on phone. After waiting for 3-4 hours when his condition remained same, it was decided that Prado will take him back to the Kargil where he can get required medical attention and we would meet in Leh after 2 days. Brezza also joined the Prado. Around 9:00 am Prado and Brezza left for Kargil while Vcross and Thar left for Padum.

The journey from Rangdum to Padum ideally takes about 5-6 hours. On this stretch we crossed ‘The gateway to Zanskar- Pensi La pass’, this pass connects the Suru Valley to Zanskar Valley and around the same time we witnessed the magnificent Drang-Drung Glacier.

I don’t know whether it was a boon or bane, there were hardly any private vehicles on this route. The sun was shining bright and surrounded by snow cladded mountains we made some coffee and maggi near a small lake.

After the much needed coffee, we continued our journey, the road that passes through villages are narrow and in rough shape. We reached Padum around 4:30pm. There are plenty of options to stay at Padum but in Rangdum as well as Padum there is problem of electricity and running hot water is a luxury. We had early dinner and after sharing our experiences and stories we called it a day.

Day5(11.06.2023)- I am a morning person, empty streets and sunrises are my thing. I went on a brisk walk on the streets of Padum and this little town felt like straight out of a story book. After my walk, I went to check on the cars. Cleaned the air filters and did some vacuuming in the cars. As I just finished vacuuming got to know that breakfast was ready, after having breakfast we loaded our cars with baggage and were ready to hit the roads again. The road from Padum to Leh is not available on google maps so we had a physical map along with us.

The road was well paved and empty till Zangla. Near Zangla, we were stopped at a check post and they wrote down our details and destination.

After Zangla paved road turns to off road.

Then there is a stretch of road similar to Killar Kishtwar road aka The cliffhanger road.

Two cars cannot pass each other simultaneously , so we had to be very cautious and careful. There were hardly any cars on this road, barring one army gypsy and 2-3 trucks we encountered. Around 11:00 am we reached the starting point of Singge La pass. The climb was pretty steep and unpaved road was not much helping either. This pass was very different from any other pass I have encountered during this trip or during my previous trips. It feels like you are climbing and climbing and there is no top. In the meantime it started raining, this meant snowfall at the high altitude. As we continued our journey further the conditions worsened,unpaved road had turned to offroad and the rain turned to snowfall and surrounded by dense fog. There were no cars on this route, just few bikers and JCBs for road work. There are no petrol pumps, mechanics, or medical assistance available anywhere on this route. Jio has good phone connectivity in the region but only works near the villages. There is no network reception at the top of Singe La Pass.