Road trip to Leh - Two week road trip starting from Chandigarh, driving through PatniTop, Srinagar, Kargil, Leh, KhardungLa and Manali.
Trip for this year was marked for Bhutan or Sikkim with all eagerness and anticipation but my good old friend Deepak along with his set of friends had planned out a road trip from Chandigarh to Manali via Leh. He asked me to join in, but hesitated taking the offer knowing fully well that it would alter my trip plans for the year. A month before the trip, I eventually gave in to the temptation of ‘getting Leh’d’ and decided to join them. The choice I was then given was that I could either bring/ride my own motorbike or be a fellow passenger in my friend’s 4 wheeler. Chose the latter for two reasons – firstly my bike was fairly new that I still needed confidence riding with on those hilly terrains and secondly the money for bike transport, fuel, repairs and extras would bump up the overall trip cost over by 20k which I was not prepared for.
Trip schedule, route maps, hotel/camp stay bookings and vehicle transportation were prepared, done and handled by Vish (from Beaux Adventures), while Deepak put forth the cost estimates/break-up and co-ordinated with us all. A final confirmation of 9 guys with 3 on bikes and rest split in two 4-wheelers. Vehicles for the trip – Deepak’s Mahindra Xylo, Sanjiv’s Toyota Fortuner (already at Chandigarh), Vish’s Triumph Tiger XRX, Kiran’s Yamaha FZS-FI, Pramod’s RE Desert Storm, were prepped and dropped off for transportation two weeks in advance. Some of us even paid a visit to Decathlon (sports saviour) to purchase stuff/gear for the trip.
Learning from my last year’s trip, packed accordingly getting my backpack to weigh just 9kg, apart from my warm jacket and the Cramster pack that held my jimi wallet, mobile phones, power bank, camera, essentials and more.
Day 00 : Bengaluru to Chandigarh
Fri, 31 July 2015
Days closed in and soon found ourselves at the Bengaluru airport all set to go. Landed at Chandigarh airport, shared taxis to get to the purposeful and practical – Ginger hotel. Vehicle owners got delivery of their vehicles to the hotel and had their vehicles checked and set for the journey ahead. In the evening, we walked down and spent time at the close by Elante mall and later dinner at the pub was fun that had us gulping down draught beer aplenty.
Day 01 : Chandigarh to Vijaypur
Sat, 01 Aug 2015
In the morning, baggage were packed and stowed away into the vehicles, fuel filled up full tank, we set out driving out of Chandigarh towards Jammu. Couple of short tea breaks along the way as we drove passed Hoshiarpur and then Pathankot. Route was rather boring but we had to cover it. At Vijaypur (just before the toll booth and about 12 km before Jammu), we halted for the night at an impressive hotel by the highway.
Day 02 : Vijaypur to Srinagar
Sun, 02 Aug 2015
We packed up breakfast from the hotel just so we could start early. Drove passed Jammu, then Udhampur and to stop at the scenic Patnitop for a break and photo session before we headed on towards Srinagar. Drove through small towns some of which were manned by the military more than usual. One small village had just about every shop there selling cricket bats, followed by another village that sold Kesar. Nothing more of interest till we neared and reached our hotel of stay at Srinagar. Had typical Kashmiri food to our fill at a renowned restaurant there.
Day 03 : Srinagar to Kargil
Mon, 03 Aug 2015
Following morning we took a stroll by the well-aclaimed Dal lake. Later on we had breakfast and headed for a quick stop to view the Mughal Gardens, before proceeding towards Kargil. With a late head start in the morning, by the time we reached the top of Zozi La (Pass) it was past 3pm. Vehicles had come to a halt due to the clearing/leveling of the road up ahead that which took close to about half hour for a passage through. It was 6 pm, by the time we reached the small town of Drass (claimed as the second coldest inhabited place in the world). Stopped here for a tea break and continued on for another 45 mins till we reached the Kargil War Memorial. It’s dis-heartening to learn of the soldiers whose lives were lost in battle here.
Later, we started from here and continued on without a break as we were already lagging behind. After much searching we got to our camp site situated few km passed the small town of Kargil by 9 pm. At dinner, we met two ladies from Spain staying here for the night (who were on a bicycle tour through the region).
Day 04 : Kargil to Leh
Tue, 04 Aug 2015
In the morning after breakfast, we all decided to check out the military base that was close to the border and so we drove/rode up to Hunderman village and met the military personnel there. Shortly after, we headed back down and onward. By 2:15 pm, we reached the small town of Mulbekh where by the main roadside stood a huge boulder with the statue of Buddha engraved into it. Had a quick lunch at the close-by restaurant, by which time the two Spanish ladies on cycles turned up. After taking few photographs of the temple, we continued on and climbed up to Namik La (altitude 12198 ft) by about 3:30 pm. Continued on further up till we got to the Fotu La top (13479 ft). By about 6:30 pm we stopped at Khalste for a tea break. Then, on reaching Leh we settled into the hotel of stay.
