#bbc2leh - Patnitop to Srinagar

Day 5 started on a very relaxed note. We slept well and had a sumptuous breakfast. Thomas, Shibu and Shonan were ready and finished breakfast even before Chanda and I got ready.

While having breakfast, we heard Shibu's plan of World Tour. :) Shonan and Thomas went ahead and settled the accounts and loaded both the jeeps.

Chanda was busy talking to the waiter who was serving us. He said that they depend on snow for their water requirement. From last 2-3 years, the snow fall has reduced causing water problems once in a while. They depend on the seasonal rivers for their water requirement.

A word about Patnitop. This place is plastic-free zone marked with boards every 500mtrs. However, that doesn't affect people in anyway.

While Chanda was chatting away and guys were loading the jeeps, I took some pictures of the hotel. It was bright and sunny but was quite cold too.

View from the hotel

Facade from dining area

Open-air dining area

We finally began our journey around 12:00 PM. Now, that might sound late, but we just had 200 kms to cover. We decided to take it easy, drive slowly, and take lots of pictures on the way. It was getting cloudy and I could hear thunder. I so desperately wanted rain and slush - the jeep was looking very clean.

Clean jeep and rain clouds

We inspected our the vehicles, before we set out. We also removed the wheel covers so we wouldn't lose them on rough roads.

Inspecting the Bolero - we check the tires

Shonan and Matt - Securing the wheel caps to the Gypsy with scarves from Rajasthan

Shibu's Gypsy

Dark clouds

The Arabs - Shibu the Jeep Captain and Shonan

On the way out from Patnitop

Potato seeds, anyone?

This lady was busy staring at Chanda - don't know why!

To my utter joy, it began to rain right after we left Patnitop. To add to my joy, the roads were pretty average but there wasn't a great deal of slush. We made steady progress and the route was incredibly scenic. The highway was parallel to the river Jhelum for several kilometers and we clicked lots of pictures.

River Jhelum along NH1A

Shooting pictures on the way

Baglihar hydel project

We were slowed down by the heavy truck traffic on the highway and unruly cab drivers. We were stuck in traffic jams several times. But we again make good use of it by taking pictures!

Lots of traffic, average roads, but no slush! :(

Waiting for the CRPF carven to pass

Long queue waiting next to the Jhelum river

Titli Khera - Chanda's travel companion who has traveled thru India and Europe with her

Just after Ramban, at Ramsu, We stopped at a road-side shack for tea at around 3:00 PM and had tea and "pooris" with the mango pickle that my mom had packed for us. This was to also be our lunch break as we didn't want to take longer breaks. Shibu and Chanda also tried the "malpuas" at the shack.

Shibu heats his "malpuas"

We all have tea in the shack

The navigator chooses to sit in the Bolero

Some shops in the villages on the way

Some shops in the villages on the way

Rajma, Rajma and Rajma

Colorful shops

Furnishing House!

Smiles!

Mating centre! :)

Steel House

At many places, we saw boards stating that no photography is allowed due to sensitive locations. In fact, at one place we were shooed away by army jawans for stopping for taking pictures! They were angry because we didn't read the indications. This happened sometime before Jawahar tunnel.

We reached the Jawahar tunnel by 5:00 PM. There was a huge traffic jam before the tunnel though. The drive through the tunnel was a different experience. The tunnel by itself is not very large and is poorly lit. Ventilation is very scanty and thanks to the aircon, we didn't have much of a problem. If you are a claustrophobic, don't worry. The tunnel is only 2.5 kms long. 

Soon after we exited the tunnel, we came to Titanic point where we caught our first breathtaking glimpse of the Kashmir valley. The sight of snow capped peaks and misty valleys was very beautiful and we spent a fair amount of time there.

What is Titanic point?

Memorial near the view point

How does it really look?

Kashmir Valley

Snow capped mountains

We reached the Kashmir toll gate by 5:20 PM. This was an old-fashioned place where we had to stand in a queue to collect the receipt. The road, NH 1A, was very good. We made good progress but suddenly, near Bijbehara, Shibu pulled over. His Gypsy had developed a snag and we needed to get it fixed.

We enquired at a gas station and were directed to a yard that was half a kilometer away. We spent nearly an hour getting the vehicle repaired. The silencer clamps had broken and it was resting on the housing. This has caused it to crack. Had this gone unchecked, the silencer would have broken away.

Gypsy being fixed

Shibu verifies the fix

Once the Gypsy was fixed, we sped towards Srinagar. It was 6:00 PM, but the sun was still bright. Our fellow traveler, Anil was already in Srinagar waiting for us.

That's a service station for tanga (horse wagons)

Old and New

Sunset at Kashmir

Sunset at Kashmir

Sunset at Kashmir

We made good progress. Truck traffic was heavy and so was the army presence. It was still bright when we entered Srinagar. It took us but a few minutes to locate the hotel. The city wore a deserted look and it was quite cool.

Srinagar

Rooms were booked by Shahid. He is a friend of Rajiv who introduced Shahid to Chanda. Chanda and Shahid worked together to book the rooms. Shahid roamed around, checked all possible hotels, bargained for the tariff and got us a great deal in this hotel called Meridian.

The hotel was beautiful. Although not as posh as its namesake, it was very well designed nevertheless. The rooms were very clean and comfortable.

Shahid was on phone with Chanda most of the time checking how we are doing and reaching Srinagar. We invited him to have dinner with us.

Shahid arrived shortly after us. With his help, we ordered dinner that included 2-3 Kashmiri delicacies. We had to leave early the next day. So we retired to bed early.

That's how the day ended! Beautiful journey!

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BBC on Government Duty

This incident happened on the first day of our journey in Nipani, a small town on NH4.

We had lunch in Belgaum and discovered that our fuel tank was almost empty. So we decided to stop at the first fuel station.

We reached a fuel station within minutes and I drove in confidently. I was mildly surprised when the attendant informed me that they had run out of fuel. I didn’t waste time and drove on. However, when the same story was repeated at the next fuel station, belonging to another company, I got suspicious.

I walked up to the manager and demanded an explanation. He feigned ignorance and told me that they hadn’t received any supply that day. I knew that he was bluffing, and when I offered to pay his price, he refused. I drove on to the next fuel station. Here we had some luck. The attendant agreed to fill 10 liters of diesel. We now realized that something was wrong and that these chaps were hoarding fuel. We were very low on fuel now. The attendant however was a helpful chap. After all, he was not hoarding the fuel - his boss was. He pointed us to an Indian Oil fuel station down the road.

We switched off the aircon and began cruising down the road. We were losing time, but we didn’t have a choice. We almost drove past a fuel station as it was a small, decrepit little place about 500 meters from the highway. We discussed whether we should go and check it out. Finally, we decided to try our luck there. I took the service lane to get to it.

The fuel station in Nipani

When we asked for fuel, the attendant told us that it would take time as diesel had just arrived and the bunker was being filled. Sure enough, there was a fuel truck in the compound, but it wasn’t filling anything! I wasn’t too convinced and I confronted the manager.

He had a different story. According to him, the pump was under repair and he wasn't sure whether it would work that day. When I told him about the shortage of fuel on the highway he looked surprised. Then, he suddenly seemed to notice the letters BBC on our t-shirts.

All three of us were wearing BBC t-shirts and I had my SLR out. So he cautiously asked us who we were. Suddenly a bulb flashed in my head! I told him that we were a team of travelers who had been hired by the Ministry of Commerce to travel from Bangalore to Leh and compile report on the economic situation of the country.

I also told him that I had just spoken to my friends in ED (Enforcement Directorate) and that they were looking into the problem of fuel shortage on NH4. By now, Chanda had contacted her father in Delhi, and we knew that the fuel stations were hoarding fuel due to the imminent price hike. This brought about a sudden change in the man. The ED is often in the news due to its raids pertaining to economic offences.

The attendant, who was within earshot, wasted no time in "repairing" the pump. By now we had two more vehicles in the station. We let one of them fill up first. The gracious owner let us have as much fuel as we wanted. He even gave us details about himself and the fuel station. This station, he explained, was a rural one and was frequented by the villagers, mill owners, and bitumen trucks. In addition to this, he owned a small bitumen business and his family owned a large fuel station in the Nipani town.

Fuel pump being "repaired"

We finally get diesel

I listened to him patiently, paid for the fuel, and left. Once we were back on the highway, we had a good laugh. ED comes under the ministry of Finance and doesn't deal with these issues.

Moral of the story - Never wait for the tank to go empty to tank up.

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BBC2Leh - Day 1, Bangalore to Thane

Boy! What a day it was.

St. (Punctual) Thomas arrived at our place at 3:00 AM, parked his Jeep, and disconnected the battery. Despite having slept for just over three hours, we felt fresh - adrenaline I guess. For Chanda, the 'journey' started a day earlier because she didn't sleep on the Saturday night. She was working on the route plans, bookings, packing till 2.30AM - the last minute preparations!

The day started with loading the jeep and adjusting the luggage. We didn't have to put any luggage on the rack on the top of the jeep. By the way, this rack we bought for Shalini and we were taking it to Delhi. We named the rack as Punnuchamy. The introduction to Punnuchamy is important at this point because this character has its own story in our journey. :)

Coming back to the story of our journey, we started from Bangalore at 4:15 AM. The first thirty kilometers were slow. The road to Nelamangala was in a bad shape due to the construction of the elevated expressway. Once we crossed the toll gate at Nelamangala, it was smooth sailing. I managed to maintain a good speed and we reached Chitradurga shortly after 7:00 AM. We had breakfast at a nondescript eatery and the food was not great. The coffee was watery but strong and that did us a world of good.

We were wearing our BBC t-shirts and decided it's the best time to take a picture and upload it on Facebook. It was important because we were the first ones to get the tshirt. I took a picture of Chanda and Thomas' back.

By this time, I was feeling sleepy and we agreed to let Thomas drive.

I managed to sleep for two hours while Thomas drove. I checked with Chanda, who was keeping the track of time and distance, we finished 350kms by 10AM. We still had 650kms to go, so we decided to push on until lunch time. After another hour or so, Thomas and I swapped places again.

After Hubli, the road narrowed down and we found ourselves on a scenic two-lane highway. This two-lane was only till we reach Dharwad (30kms).

The going was very smooth and by 12:30 we reached Belgaum where we stopped for lunch at a Kamath. This Kamath was originally a Reliance A1 that the Kamath chaps had taken over. Food was good and so was the service. We called our families, Shalini and Rajiv to update about our status!

Kamat Upchar on NH 4 in Belgaum

After lunch, we decided to refuel and then proceed. It was just 1:30 and we were making good progress. However, the gas station owners had other plans. Read more about this in the post titled BBC on Government Duty. So finally, we managed to tank up at Nipani. By now, the fuel drama had cost us two precious hours.

We finally get some diesel at a rural gas station in Nipani

I continued driving while Thomas caught a short nap. We finally swapped places and I curled up on the back seat. Chanda continued on navigators seat, taking notes, handing out cash to pay at the toll gates, taking calls, assessing and reassessing our status - lots of stuff.

I woke up at Taswade, a village in Satara, Maharashtra. This village is in the ghats and the sun was setting. The sight was breath-taking. The odd shape of the hills was accentuated by the setting sun that bathed the entire landscape a brilliant gold. We stopped to take a few pictures.

Beautiful landscape in Taswade

Sunset in Taswade

I took over from Thomas after we stopped for tea at a small road-side restaurant. The onion bajjis at the restaurant were excellent. The road, however, was very crowded and got increasingly so. Progress was very slow and frustrating. We had been warned about traffic in this area, but we weren't prepared for this. The highway was as crowded as a city road. The unruly drivers made things worse.

After sometime, we realized the reason of all the jam on the road. The highway had a lot of wedding halls. And apparently, it was an auspicious day and lot of weddings were happening there. More weddings = more guests = more vehicles on the road!

In fact, on one occasion, we had to literally do some off-roading to get to the main road.

Unruly traffic - pile-up

Unruly traffic - offroading

Unbelievable as it is, we finally hit the Mumbai-Pune expressway by 8:40 PM only. We were tired and it was raining. I'm no fan of this road. It's an over-hyped piece of tarmac that's bumpy and uncomfortable and had too many twists and turns. I wonder how bad the highway (NH4) then is, that this expressway bypasses.

We stopped at a "food plaza" on the expressway for a quick dinner. The place, like the highway, was very crowded. The humidity did not help either. Thomas and I had some snacks and Chanda picked up a burger from the McDonalds drive-thru. That was crowded too, with an SUV filled with people ordering food!!!

We had to go to Thane and that meant driving for at least an hour more - that's what we thought! Alas, that was not to be. We exited the expressway at the right point but the roads were all wrong :( We had to go to Thane, but there were no clear road signs. It was late night, shops were closed in the market and it was difficult to ask anybody for directions. At this point, we were also getting calls and help from Rajiv and Animish for the directions.

We were tired and losing our patience with getting lost. We were getting warned again and again by Rajiv about not to enter Navi Mumbai. However, whoever we were asking on the road for directions was telling us the route through Navi Mumbai.

Finally, we stopped and asked at a petrol pump for the directions. Chanda called up the hotel guys and asked for landmarks. Finally, asking for those specific landmarks helped us!

We finally made it to the hotel 1.5 hours after leaving the expressway!

The hotel, Hotel Dhiraj, was a reasonably comfortable place. The bar was closed by the time we entered, so I had to make do with some brandy that Thomas was carrying. We were very tired and understandably disheartened. We started evaluating alternate routes, but soon gave up after we realized how far away we were from NH 7.

The first day was a very tiring one. The fuel crisis drama and the traffic jam in Maharashtra, and most importantly the numerous toll gates in Maharashtra cost us nearly four hours. The toll gates, in particular, made no sense. We encountered gates almost every 80 kilometers in Maharashtra, charging us anything from 30 - 45 rupees. They were not great and the traffic was unruly to say the least.

to be continued... (day 2)

Route Details

Take NH4 from Bangalore to the outskirts of Pune.

After that, take the Mumbai-Pune bypass road that leads to the expressway.

Take the Mumbai-Pune expressway.

At the end of the expressway, get on to NH4.

Take NH4 to Thane. This can be a confusing stretch for first-timers. So stop to take directions from the locals.

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