Nashik to Sonmarg

Sanket: We once drove to Ladakh!

Hari: That is fucking awesome! But it would need like 10 days, lots of driving and time

Sanket: Yes, it would. Isn’t that the whole point of a drive

Hari: Are you sure we can do it?

Sanket: Sit back junior and see how it’s done.

Hari: Hell yeah! I’m in.

This is an extract of the drinking session that initiated our Ladakh trip. It had been 2 years since I was back from my bike ride to the Himalayas and I wanted to do a laid back trip this time. Dates were finalized and we would be hitting the road.

Day 1: Nashik to Panipat

Travel time! Everyone assembled at Sanket’s place from where we would be starting our journey. We started at 12 PM with an aim to reach Delhi by 12 PM the next day. We would be driving for 24 hours and sleeping bold.

We left Nashik with excitement throbbing through us. The second we were on the road one of the cars decided to act like Clint Eastwood shouting at a chair, it refused to stop. That might not be fair to the car but since it blew its brakes just like Clint and was not able to apply the brakes, the comparison seemed worthy. Seems like lady luck had made her angle. It was time to find a fix in the form of a Volkswagen showroom.

Once we dug up the nearest VW showroom we pretended it was Ginger, our haunt in Nashik.

While waiting for the car: we talked, clicked photos, tested car seats and music; Resulting in absolutely fuckall done for 2 hours. The car was eventually fixed before we started again. Back on the road! Music, chats, great roads and speed. Man, this journey was turning out to be as good as I expected.

Hoping for the best is never a good idea. Boom! The same car went through a pothole and lost 2 of its tyres. The bloody Polo managed to have 2 punctures in a single incident, unbelievable but sadly possible. No puncture was going to stop us. We yanked out 2 stepinies, put together the car like we were putting together a Lego set before continuing on our merry way.

Day 2: Panipat to Jammu

Back on the road, we drove and drove until we reached somewhere near Jaipur for a breakfast of parathas, yoghurt and pickle. A strategic meeting of the council was called (Read, the people driving for the past 16 hours) We could not carry on with the weak link in our caravan. The choice was simple: burn the car and never speak of it again or burn the car and find an alternative. Since burning cars is something only zozodj2 of GenericGamingBlog does, we went with the later and decided to find another car… On that point, if anybody wants to fix zozodj2 we would appreciate it!

Just outside of Delhi, we were offered a lifeline, Sanket’s cousin Vipin had an acquaintance who was willing to lend us his car, a brand new Baleno. The only condition was we don’t thank him as if he saved our trip! Which he did but since he doesn’t want appreciation, I’m not going to give him any. It was just a pleasure to have one problem solved.

While all of us stopped at Panipat to have lunch and sleep for a while, the few brave souls among us went on to collect the newly assigned warhorse (The Baleno) from Delhi. Even this assignment was timebound, yeah! We were very target focussed! This was a pitstop, short, precise and timebound with no room for error.

In 4 hours the new car was collected and it was time to continue. We were back on the road towards Kashmir. Surprisingly everyone, including the passengers were up for it. The last 2 days of hard driving on the road had forged intentions for everyone to reach the destination, Kashmir. I’m starting to sound like a prophet!

Day 3: Jammu to Sonmarg

We drove through Haryana, Punjab before reaching Jammu in the early morning. I had passed out somewhere along the way on a backseat at midnight before waking up at 6 AM. my wake up call could have been better, one of the cars had a close call with a state transport bus. Nothing major, just a dent. I have to admit though, my face cared more about getting a hot coffee rather than what had happened to the damn car, especially when I heard it was a material damage than human damage.

After a brief chat on the roadside about the car damage, it was time to drive ahead. I jumped into the passenger seat of the lead car with an energy only the Himalayas can bring out of me. We navigated through some difficult traffic, crowd trouble and more.

I was on this road 2 years ago. Although on a bike, I still knew a bit about what was lying ahead of us. I wanted to talk about everything that I had experienced on that trip to the point that everyone else on this trip would throw me out of the car for being a complete and utter know it all arsehole.

At 10am, we reached the Chenani Nashri tunnel which is an all-weather tunnel connecting Jammu to Kashmir valley. Before the construction of the tunnel, you would have to ascend this mountain and then cross into Kashmir valley.

I wanted to stop and give everyone a history lesson on the importance of this tunnel but being in the lead car meant that my only option was a blog post. We crossed the tunnel to reach Kashmir valley. A total contrast from the vast empty roads to snow-capped Poplar trees and mighty Himalayas.

We reached Srinagar and the situation changed from beauty to danger. Again, I cannot explain the feeling and only put ink to paper!

Our caravan of cars was at a signal somewhere in Srinagar and one of the cars could not cross it. They got left behind and had to take a diversion from a part of Srinagar not known to welcome tourists. The only thing we could do was to call and give them a point where we could meet, a fuel pump. In Kashmir valley things can get tense if you don’t stick together, not all places welcome tourists. It took the car about 30 minutes to reach the fuel station. We were happy to see them and continued ahead.

We didn’t plan to stop at Srinagar and so continued ahead and reached Sonmarg by 5PM. Sonmarg is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We stopped at Ahsan resort which had tented accommodation besides the Sindh river. The resort is run by 2 brothers who are also avid photographers. After the gruelling drive of 3 days we finally had time to kick back and relax. After a much needed hot shower, we gather in the Shamiyana that was built for a round of drinks and chat. An eventful 3 days of non stop driving culminated at Sonmarg. The majestic Himalayas and soothing River Sindh was just what we all needed. A few of us sat late at night before receding for a much needed sound sleep.