This time it was roughly planned as: Manali – Jispa – Shinku La – Padum (/Pishu) – Suru Valley – Kargil – Dah – Hanu – Leh – Sarchu – Manali. Eight days in total.
BHPian ringoism recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Well, I expressed that intention over a year ago in our Scorpio Getaway 4×4 thread; But nevermind generating travelogues (which I’ve hardly been able to manage the past couple years), I really could not seem to find the time even to post more photos depicting that brief journey from Manali to Padum, Zanskar (Ladakh) and its environs and back. So will finally offer a limited selection of those here mixed in with whatever has emerged from our most recent travels, which in the first days covered much of the same ground, at almost precisely the same dates – albeit a year apart. Astute observers may note that some of the roads shown as dirt/mud/water here are now paved. Format I’ve used is to write text first and to leave photos mostly to the end of each post, which saves immense time. I hope nobody will find this too unappealing.
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We are considering ever more seriously to make a permanent shift to my wife’s native state of Mizoram – and as it’s currently looking like that could happen sooner rather than later, it seems good to take full advantage of our proximity to this Western Himalayan region while we’re still able to visit it without too much trouble / expense. That may be rarely if ever feasible later, particularly as a family.
If I didn’t have enough motivation already, recently had gained a little inspiration from another BHPian who’d been out through these parts recently: Vehicle hopping to Ladakh , though I hoped we’d fare better in our Getaway than he had in his.
So the kids’ summer break finally came in late July and once again we were off: This time it was roughly planned as: Manali – Jispa – Shinku La – Padum (/Pishu) – Suru Valley – Kargil – Dah – Hanu – Leh – Sarchu – Manali. Eight days in total. Had thought to return via the further reaches of Pangong Tso towards Hanle and Tso Moriri, but as readers patient enough to read all that follows will understand, a certain stressor and related delays had the effect of both slowing us down and wearying us enough that this would not be very feasible.
DAY ONE:
The last two times we went up over the passes we had made the mistake of not getting more gradually acclimated to the altitude change from Manali. Never again, we had promised ourselves. Though not immune, personally I am less affected – but wifey and the kids have often struggled, ending up quite unwell and missing some of the best scenery and basically all the pleasure in the initial day or two. So this time the choice was made to leave home in the afternoon and overnight at Jispa, Lahaul, a few thousand feet higher than here, and a few thousand lower than Padum. All in all a good midway point height-wise, and a little over three hours from here. So we left early afternoon and arrived Jispa around dark, managing to find a truly perfect room with one large bed and generously sized wooden bunk beds on the opposite wall – immaculate place and the ideal setup for our family. Food was satisfying and staff friendly. Gmaps hasn’t been updated, but I believe this was the Anand Yul Guesthouse just after Hotel Ibex Jispa, on the left when heading towards Ladakh.
DAY TWO:
After a solid night’s peaceful rest we headed out in the morning. Our Getaway, which has proved a kind of “ultimate traveler” for us and has been running perfectly all this past year, became unexpectedly moody, however, beginning to act up on our ascent towards Shinku-La around 45 minutes after embarking. I had just replaced the turbocharger a few days prior with a mildly upgraded K04 unit (OE was K03), so my first logical (and worrying) thought when it started misfiring / cutting out was that it was somehow related. It got pretty bad at one point on a steep incline, and after fiddling a bit with this and that to no effect, we sadly decided to turn back. I told the kids maybe we could go back home and jump in the ever-reliable Marshal (which in the moment I was wishing we’d taken) and start out again. They were not too thrilled with that idea! But after coming down a half km or so, our car started running fine again!
Could it be altitude-related? That had not been any issue on this same road a year ago. Idea struck me to drain the fuel filter bowl in case water had entered the system, something that had happened last year once. Drained it and it stumbled once or twice again, then cleared out. We turned back towards the pass and it ran perfectly all the way to the top, in fact overtaking and managing to stay ahead of a Land Rover Freelander and a Scorpio-N. Problem solved! Thank God!
Happy to have overcome the main topographical obstacle on this route and apparently a technical one besides, after a few clicks we proceeded down the other side, much of which has been nicely paved since the highly adventurous mud-fest we experienced last season, where rivers were running for some km’s down the road. We got the kids’ cycles out of the back a bit down from the top, and they had a lovely gravity-assisted run for maybe the next dozen km’s down – quite exhilarating!
But somewhere along the way, with throttle lifted, I felt the venerable CRDe suddenly stumble/surge again. Oh, no! In most of my experience, cars with compromised mechanicals would have been doing their stumbling on the ascents, not the descents – so this seemed a little counter-intuitive. But decided to press on, as going back up over the pass might have posed a challenge if it acted up again as it had initially on the upside, and as I hoped to avail of some expertise onwards in Padum, knowing that Xylos are so ubiquitous in taxi-service out there, the majority of which utilize the same basic engine and components.
Other than the glitch, we fully enjoyed the ride, taking the narrower (and slightly scary) left-bank road further on, as the right side was closed for the same ongoing construction we’d got delayed at last journey.
Arrived at Padum in good time…
…and after finding a room at the same guesthouse we stayed earlier through the agency of our friends at the excellent Korean Cafe (on the road to the helipad), I headed directly to the mechanic’s shop. The first one I went to was filthy everywhere, a young (non-Ladakhi) mechanic covered head to toe in slimy lubricants in attendance. There was a more senior (and cleaner) guy there, too, and two spares suppliers side-by-side, with friendly proprietors. After a test-drive wherein the car behaved perfectly well for them (of course!), they went after all the usual stuff: fuel and air filters (former had just been changed, and these are expensive at 800+ each time), filter pump head (only Rs1000 in comparison), etc. I wondered about the crank sensor, but they were pretty confident it couldn’t be that, as there were no codes coming up. Sounded sensible, though I still had some doubts.
They sent me off, but within a couple km’s of me being back behind the wheel, it was evident that the problem wasn’t fixed. It was too late to do any more. Went to bed in a state of tension, sleeping little and running a few rather bad scenarios through my mind repeatedly.
And once again I started thinking of our perfectly good old Marshal, which requires only a single wire on the engine (even that and the battery could be done away with in a pinch), and a leak-free fuel line from the tank to run fine pretty much forever. Questioned again the wisdom of delving back into the world of electronically-dependent cars after a couple decades living happily enough without them. Though I was also cognizant of the reality that my stalling problem a year ago, despite my fears and the reality of a code setting, actually ended up having nothing to do with those feared electronics, being borne of adulterated / contaminated fuel and a clogged main fuel line and tank filter – very mechanical and tangible things indeed, which I was well-qualified to have some understanding of and capability towards resolving. Perhaps it would all work out in the morning.
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