LONG POST ALERT
With COVID 19 restrictions easing up, I did a Bike trip from Bangalore to Delhi covering the Central route (Read about it here) and return through the Western Route (Details Here) in August- Sep 2020. With the weather and roads being so awesome, I wanted to return as soon as I can but on the Car with my Wife and Kids.
Bangalore to Bhilai - Chattisgarh - 1350 Kms - 1.5 Days
0 Weeks of Leaving Home
On Saturday, September 19, 2020, we left home thinking it would be a week long trip to Bhilai
This trip was initially supposed to be a week long trip to my in-law's place in Bhilai. Since we'd be gone for a week, we thought of taking along the Dogs and the kitten as well. This would be the Kitten's first long trip and we did train her for few weeks by doing some short rides in Bangalore. What we learnt was Kitten was not very keen on travelling and we needed to have her on leash and harness always.
So our trip started and immediately the Cat was turning out to be a BIG cry baby. There was not one second when she would stop mewing. I even thought of returning home when we reached Bagepalli. But somehow, we carried on.
The roads from Bangalore till Hyderabad are just awesome. My wife had the pleasure to drive on the 8 Lane Hyderabad ORR Expressway and it was one of the most beautiful expressways of India.
Soon after Hyderabad, we decided that we would not make it in one day. We decided to halt at Kamareddy where we got a nice room with a Balcony
Stay - Hotel Amrutha Grand - Kamareddy
The next day we started early and reached Nagpur in no time. From then on, it was pothole filled roads till Bhilai.
Unfortunately for us, once we reached Bhilai, the state government imposed a Lockdown and we had to sit at home for the next 2 weeks.
Bhilai to Chitrakote Falls back to Bhilai, Chattisgarh - 570 Kms - 3 days
2 Weeks of Leaving Home
After 2 weeks of lockdown, it was a long weekend thanks to Mahatma Gandhi. We had 3 days from Bhilai and I had an Ambitious plan of covering Chitrakote falls and Araku valley along with my wife and in laws.
However, the roads of Chattisgarh had a different plan for us. we started at 6am and managed to reach Chitrakote falls only by 1pm.
Unfortunately, once we reached the Falls, we realized it was closed due to COVID. Disappointed, we almost started to head back when we realized that we could book a resort inside the Falls and stay there for the night. My Father in Law knew a contact there and we managed to get 2 beautiful rooms in the Dandami Luxury resort.
Stay - Dandami Luxury Resort
The first view of the falls was mesmerizing and we spent a long time sitting on top of the falls and soaking in the view.
The next morning, we trekked down the to falls to have a quick dip in the chilling water. After taking in the views as much as we could, it was time to head back.
It was a short and picturesque trip thanks to the amazing countryside of Chattisgarh. However, the experience would have been surreal if the roads were good as well.
Bhilai - Balaghat - Jhansi - New Delhi - 1230 Kms - 1.5 days
3 Weeks of Leaving Home
It was time for us to head back home to Bangalore when we saw posts of people working from mountains. Quickly the mind did some calculations and we decided to head to the Himalayas with our pets to find a place with good wifi and work.
The first step was to reach Delhi and camp for a week at my Parent's house. There were many routes to take, so we decided to go via Balaghat and that was the worst decision. There was so much traffic and pothole ridden roads, we thought its best to stick to the highways. Once we reached Seoni, we stuck to the beautiful NH 44 and drove till 8pm to reach Jhansi. We booked a pet friendly Airbnb next to the Jhansi fort
Stay - Hotel Fort View, Jhansi
The next day, since we were passing through Agra, we decided for a quick stop-over at Taj Mahal since my Wife had never been there. Since we had to leave our dogs and cat in the car, we quickly booked the ticket in the app, and finished the whole visit in less than half an hour. My wife was truly mesmerized with the view and it is nothing compared to the photos.
The subsequent ride home was fairly bliss thanks to the Yamuna Expressway and maintaining 120+ throughout. We reached home (R. K. Puram) by 3pm
New Delhi - Manali - 552 Kms - 1.5 Days
4 Weeks of Leaving Home
Once in Delhi, we had to prepare for our Himalayan odyssey. We bought first aid, winter clothes for the Dogs, Cat and borrowed most of the old winter clothes from our Parents house.
One of the additions was, my brother and Cousin decided to join us for the trip. So it would be 4 people, 2 dogs and a Cat along with all the luggage in our Tiago! Further my wife and brother were not comfortable driving it on the hills, so it was going to be only me driving on the ghats all along.
We started for Manali and till Bharatgarh it was a bliss to drive. Post Bharatgarh till Swarghat, our speed came down drastically in the Ghats. Tiago is definitely not a Ghat loving vehicle, that too fully loaded with 4 people. We decided we will not make it and decided to stay in Ner Chowk.
Post Ner chowk, we had the option of going to Manali either via longer Highway route through Pandoh, Aut Tunnet or take the shorter adventurous route through IIT Mandi with narrow roads and steep inclines.
We decided to take the shorter and the challenging route. I was little scared to take reverse when there was oncoming traffic but once I did that couple of times, I got the hang of it. The further challenging part was reaching the Hotel which was an offroad, narrow and a steep ghat road.
With beautiful views all across, we reached our destination in a small village in Gadherni amidst Apple orchards. We could just go pluck apples just outside our Hotel.
Even the views from our room was surreal. The only person who was not feeling so well was Voxy as she vomitted when we reached Manali due to the Ghat roads.
However the only drawback was the Wifi didn't work. Hence we searched for a new room in Airbnb and found another Guest house called "Pause at Manali"
The 4 of us had a 2BHK for ourselves. Even though the Wifi was not so strong, we had good mobile signals here and we managed to get through WFH (Work From Himalayas) without any issues.
Stay - Pause at Manali
The place was amidst pine trees and apple orchards and it was a dream come true for us to live there and work.
Manali - Jispa - Leh - 433 Kms - 2 days
5 Weeks of Leaving home
After our stint in Manali, we had taken 1 week vacation from work to drive through Ladakh and Kashmir. Driving from Manali to Leh is very tricky thanks to the insane altitude gain.
Ideally, Sarchu is the mid point of the Drive between Manali to Leh. But the problem with Sarchu is, it is located at much higher altitude compared to Manali and we run the risk of Altitude Sickness. So we chose Jispa instead of Sarchu to break the journey.
The drive from Manali to Jispa is nothing short of Heaven. The blissful mountains covered in Green and meadows all around. We even got a chance to drive though the newly inaugurated Atal Tunnel. We even refueled 20 litres of fuel in case we run out from Tandi Pump.
The road condition was amazing and lot of shops and tourists till we reached Keylong. Post Keylong, we were able to see the impact of COVID. Most of the Dhabas and Guest houses in Jispa were closed. We did manage to find one beautiful guest house in the middle of a large field. It is by far one of the most amazing places I have ever stayed in.
The next day we started early. I could see Ice frost on my windshield and the mistake I did was to run the wiper which made it further worse. The right way was to park the car in sun for 5 mins and that would melt the Ice. Once the visibility was back, we proceeded towards Leh.
All through the route, I was the only driver and having done this stretch on my bicycle, I knew this will not be easy. We reached our first water crossing and experience the Black Ice on the roads. With the good ground clearance, I was able to safely pass. However things were not so smooth in up ahead
We crossed the Baralacha pass and it was too cold and windy for us to get down and take pictures. So we proceeded to ZingZing Bar. After crossing Patsio Lake, we saw a military truck and a goods truck stranded on the road. Unaware, I parked right behind them. When the truck started to move, I started as well only to realize the Black Ice. The Throttle was not helpful as the wheels were spinning on Ice. I lowered the throttle and in slow speed, I was able to pass through. I learnt an important lesson not to tail these trucks as they can easily drive on Ice but I have to use the momentum of the car
We reached Zing Zing bar and there was only 1 Dhaba which was open. We quickly had Maggi for Breakfast and proceeded to Sarchu.
It was in Sarchu when I was crying for GC (Ground Clearance). I had to cross one of the Tributaries of Tsarap river and saw that roads were completely frozen. Further, the trucks had made deep crevasses on both sides making a hump in between. I could not drive in the middle as it was Ice. So I had no option but to follow the tracks.
Screeeeeeeeechhhhhhhh
The rubbing of stones in the underbody of the car makes you jitter and heart comes to mouth. I could not stop as I needed to use the momentum. Luckily I found a spot of mud and parked the car to judge the way up ahead. It was mix of running stream on roads and Ice. There was no other option but to ask my brother and cousin to get down and make the car lighter for passing through. Slowly I was able to navigate through the stream.
The next challenge up ahead was Gata Loops. The car like I said earlier, is not very good at climbing. Mostly 90% of the route it was fine when we reached the most dangerous spot of the whole journey. After crossing the Plastic bottle spot, the road turned almost 45 degree steep and it was broken forming a big step uphill. In 1st gear I used all the momentum I could but the Car gave up. It was time to ask the passengers to get down again. But still when the Tyres collided with that step in the road my car would turn off. We were running out of options to do and the moment was scary as we were too far out to turn back.
The only option for us was to tackle the Step in the road in a diagonal way. But the catch was that there was a huge drop on the right side of the road. One mistake and the car would nosedive down the cliff. So I pointed the steering to the right, pointed towards the cliff, accelerated till 4000 rpm holding the clutch, and left the clutch all of a sudden to get the burst of acceleration. Luckily my left tyre got up the road on top of the step. Now I had to do this with steering pointed towards left. With almost 20 tries I was able to get both my front wheels on the road. But the battle was only half won as the rear wheels had their tantrums of their own. Even the handbrake didnt work in that incline. We kept stones behind the Wheels and made progress inch by inch when one jolt of acceleration finally pushed the car on top of the step.
This whole episode made me think of the challenges up ahead and if my car would make it all the way. The stress was increasing in my head and now I was having second thoughts if we would even make it to Leh. I knew the roads from Whiskey nallah to Pang were bad.
One of the difficult things to miss is the weird Stone structures in Ladakh mountains which makes it look totally Out of Planet.
With Steady progress we managed to reach Pang by 4pm. I heaved a sigh of relief as I knew there was no bad stretch after this. We had Lunch at one of the places I knew run by Sonam Aunty who had hosted us for the night when we were cycling.
After completing some Police formalities in Pang, we proceeded to More Plains.
Once we reached More plains, I wanted to take a break from all the driving and gave the cockpit to my wife. The More plans is one of the most scenic parts of the route and she handled the car like a pro.
At the end of More Plains, I was back at the steering to climb the highest point of the route - The Tanglangla Pass.
I knew that roads to Tanglangla pass were good so I was not worried on climbing it. The only thing that worried me was the Ice/snow. Luckily, it was clear and not much Ice. But the challenge was far from over. We experienced a new issue in the Car's Fuel pump. In the ghat roads, once I was decelerating / reducing gears, the car would lose power and die. And post that it would not even start. All four of us were shit scared. Enroute to Tanglangla at 6pm with onset of darkness was the last place to be deserted. We gave the car couple of minutes rest and then I tried starting it with foot on the throttle. I was able to keep it on. Now, I could not let the rpm below 2000 as it would die. So my right foot would always be on the gas. Event while going through the bad roads, I couldnt brake as I had to keep the engine running.
Doing this makeshift, trying to keep the Car alive, type driving, we somehow reached the top of Tanglangla. I parked the car at the point when the road started to descend from the pass. I had the biggest sigh of relief as I knew this was the end of climbing in the whole journey and now we just had to descend.
We stepped outside to quickly take a few photos, amidst the raging wind and frost. The altitude was 17,800 ft with the temperature between -5 to -10 degrees celcius with winds over 50kmph. Luckily, the Car did not have any issues while descending. My guess on the problem was the Fuel pump was faulty and started acting up in Cold / higher altitudes.
Darkness soon crept in and we decided to stay in Lato where we had stayed last year while cycling. Enroute, the cat couldnt take it anymore and peed on Rimjhim. However, when we reached Lato, it was a ghost town with all the guest houses shut. Rimjhim quickly went out to change as the Cat piss was stinky and freezing. We decided we dont have any other option but to move on to Leh.
While entering Upshi, Police had stopped us for COVID checking. we spent almost an hour paying the Green tax and getting our COVID test done and getting the certificate. Tired and Exhausted, we finally reached Leh almost at 9pm to our guest house called Dimbir Residency where we would stay for the next 4 days.
The ride from Jispa to Leh was one of the most challenging rides for me and my car and got to learn a lot from the experiences. Once in Leh, I learnt the most important lesson, with a positive frame of mind and attitude, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.
Leh Tour, Khardungla, Shey, Thiksey
6 Weeks of Leaving Home
Stay - Dimbir Resort, Leh
Since we had taken the week off, we decided to get the permits for Nubra and Dah Anu. We were quite optimistic. However, while we were getting the permit, we saw the flakes dropping one by one. Slowly we could see the surrounding mountains go from Brown to White. The snowfall would be an additional challenge for us to reach Nubra.
The next day the four of us started in the morning to Nubra leaving the dogs and cat in the hotel aiming to be back by the evening. Just 2 kms before South Pullu we couldnt proceed anymore as the road was completely covered in Snow. Not willing to take the risk, we played in snow around the road and decided to head back.
Playing around in Snow
For the remaining part of the day, we wanted to get our dogs to see snow, so we went down and again attempted to climb Khardungla in the afternoon. Post 2, much of the snow had melted and I could easily reach South Pullu. Post that roads were completely covered in Snow.
The ideal way to ride uphill in snow was to keep the acceleration low otherwise the wheels would spin. I learnt this looking at the other cars. We proceeded like this towards Khardungla.
Just when we were around 5 Kms from the Khardungla Pass, the Fuel pump Issue started again. I was in a dilemma because I couldnt go slow otherwise the engine would shut off. If I manage to keep the rpm high and engine alive, the wheels would spin on Ice making it impossible for me to carry on.
We had to accept the reality that this is almost pushing the car too much on the extreme. So me , my wife and the 2 dogs decided to turn back 5 kms from Khardungla. We were not disappointed as the whole journey was so eventful, that we never had much to think about. This was as high as we go and it was time to head back.
The remaining days in Leh, we visited the Shey, Thiksey palace and monastries.
Leh - Kargil - Dras - Srinagar - 430 Kms - 2 Days
6 Weeks of Leaving home
After roaming around Leh for 4 days, we decided to move on and return via the Srinagar route. I knew covering this 430 kms will definitely take 2 days. So we were choosing to stay between Lamaiyru or Kargil or Dras based on our progress.
Unlike the Manali-Leh stretch, the roads from Leh to Srinagar are fantastic. We passed the Magnetic Hill, the moonscapes of Lamaiyuru, Fotula Pass with good speed. The only delay we saw on route was at Kargil which was due to the Traffic Jam. Since we were able to cross Kargil before 4, we decided to push for Dras.
After a whole week of Barren Brown mountains, we witnessed Colorful meadows for the first Time in Dras. We realized why India and Pakistan are fighting over this beautiful land. Dras is the second coldest inhabitable place on earth where temperature once dipped to -60 degrees celcius. With snow covered mountains, pine trees, red and yellow colored trees, green grass, those drawing like huts, it was like everywhere we see it was a like posters of Movie sets all around.
It was almost getting dark by the time we reached Dras and we managed to find a cheap stay for the night. It was -10 degrees when we stayed in Dras
The next morning we headed to Srinagar and after taking multiple wrong routes, a simple 4 hour journey we covered in 8 hours.
Stay - Dak Bungalow in Dras
Upon reaching Srinagar we realized it was Friday and roads to Jammu were closed. The highways from Srinagar to Jammu operate in one-ways everyday with traffic from either side released every alternate days. So we had to stay an extra day in Srinagar. Since we were in Srinagar, we thought of staying in the middle of the Dal lake in a Boat house.
Stay - Hotel New Green View, Dal Lake
Srinagar to New Delhi - 825 Kms - 2 days
6 Weeks of Leaving Home
The next leg of our journey we had ambitious plans. I wanted to cover Amritsar, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Udaipur on the way back. But then reality struck us. All of us had run out of fresh clothes. Voxy, Rimjhim and me had a bad stomach. Keeping all this in mind, we decided to head back home to Delhi.
Starting from Srinagar we crossed Jawahar Tunnel post which the roads turned from Bad to worse. Till Udhampur, there was some contruction going on because of which the entire stretch had intermittent bad roads.
We were too tired to move on and decided to stay in Udampur for the night.
Stay - Hotel Highway, Udhampur
The next day was a long one and we knew we had to minimize the breaks to reach Delhi in time. With whole day of driving, we managed to cover this 625 Kms stretch in around 12 hours and reached home at 10.30 pm.
The next two days were Diwali festival time and we would spend them in Delhi while working from there.
New Delhi to Bhilai - 1277 Kms - 1.5 Days
8 Weeks of Leaving Home
On the day of Diwali, we decided to trace back our route home with a couple of week stop-over in Bhilai. We managed to get good speed till Agra and continued until Sagar where we took the halt for the night. Since it was the night of Diwali, we took a hotel which was away from the city which wont scare the Dogs and Cat
The next day, we avoided the Balaghat route suggested by Google and went to Nagpur instead through the Pench National Park. The roads were under construction, but it felt good to be driving through the National Park.
We reached Bhilai in the evening where the festive season was in full bloom.
The next 2 weeks we stayed and worked out of Bhilai. On the weekend we went on a 250 Km ride to a dam nearby to take the dogs for a swim.
It was almost 3 months since we left home and we were turning homesick. Bangalore was calling us and we must go!
Bhilai to Bangalore - 1349 Kms - 1.5 Days
10 Weeks of Leaving Home
So we traced our way back from from Bhilai through the same Nagpur Hyderabad route with night halt in Sri Raghavendra Lodge in Shadnagar. It was our final night halt before we go home and we were so excited to go back
Stay - Sri Raghavendra Lodge in Shadnagar
Finally on Sunday 29th November 2020 around 6pm, after 2.5 months of travelling more than 10,000 Kms, we returned home.
I never thought that I would be able to complete this feat on my Tiago. Never did I imagine, my dogs and Cat to adapt to this travelling lifestyle and survive the sub zero weather in Ladakh. Through this trip, I got to learn and know more about myself, my wife, my dogs, Cat and ofcourse, my Car - Tiago. The car had its fair share of niggles, but never gave up on us. Its not the most ideal car but it carried on even at 18000 ft, -10 C, snow, ice etc, even with 4 people, 2 dogs and a cat on board. Finally all of us can rest after a journey to be cherished for life!
This was so awesome. It's great to know I'm not the only person wanting to make such long drives with their pets :D
We'll be driving from Mumbai to Himachal Pradesh (hopefully, Jispa) this January. The goal is to see our pet play in snowfall.
I would love to know any advice you can give me!
Any tips on how to find pet friendly accommodation en-route? I'm worried about being unable to find one—especially past Manali. Or finding one that allows pets, but isn't too 'friendly'. There's not much options online