vehicles

भाई लोग

Everybody looks cool on an Enfield

So was the fresh produce guy

Absolutely fabulous custom vehicle made in Bhilwara, Rajasthan and operating in Karwar, Karnataka. It isn't a modification of an existing vehicle; it's completely built from scratch. It has leaf spring suspensions, rear differential, and a gear box. The motive force is also used to operate the sugarcane crusher. Lots of carefully designed storage space. The owner keeps it very clean and is very proud of it too.

#custom #customs #travel #innovation

Things you meet when out for a walk

Obligatory abstract Insta travel pic. With filter.

Asked M2 to choose the filter. He is now super stressed. Eyes twitching and all.

Dung beetle

#caravan #vanlife

Elvis has left the building.

In an auto.

Can we ever take the caravan on the road without flattening a wheel? 🙄

M1: This is what you get for taking pics when you should be helping us pitch the tent

When we fight the #mountains, the mountains fight back

So, we ran away

#ClimateRefugees #PollutionRefugees #RightToBreathe #vanlife

😍😋

When the guy who drove an electric car to work for five years, shows up in a truck.

He said it's the range anxiety that did him in.

Nice #truck, though. Great for #camping.

For the love of small cars

Radio Flyer wagons ❤️ Oh, why must little boys grow up!

#art #devrai

बताइए हम कहाँ हैं #whereami

Met with our first #accident yesterday. A minor one. A pick up truck was badly parked at a turn on the road down from Chail. While I was trying to negotiate past it, an impatient bus going uphill dinged our car. I asked it to wait while I back out of the situation, but it kept going, rubbing the door handle.

The kids want you to know that this is our 200th post 📯

It's 7:45 am and the #skies over #Kurukshetra are #overcast. Its been a pleaseant 25°C since we entered the plains. We are actually driving without air conditioning. Did we bring the mountain #weather with us?

#happiness

#cherries #vanlife #HimachalPradesh

Deepankar, Shushmita and Isa Basu sent us this pic shortly after our chance meeting, with the caption "join us?". OMG omg omg #goals #love #soawesome

Send them oohs, aahs and cheers, everyone.

Oh what a beautiful, lovely coincidence. Something that can only happen on the open road. We ran into this family of #Happy #Campers, which is what they literally call themselves. They've built a full #RV on an Isuzu D-Max V Cross. Deepankar showed us around their lovely little home which has all the facilities ones needs, including very powerful air conditioning.
Oh, the stories we have to share. Will be planning a trip together shortly.

The #dogs of #Tabo.

Some not so good boys fighting.

An interesting #traffic #jam

#trafficjam #yak

Earlier today we found snow. More like glacier ice. In #PinValley. Made for a happy kid.

All kinds of rock reliefs. We captured maybe ten types. The area easily has over a hundred. This place is a geologist's dry dream.

More of these #portals that don't seem to safeguard much.

The ride quality of the #Innova #Crysta is pretty amazing. The steering wheel requires more force than a Hyundai Xcent. There isn’t any perceptible body roll. The 2.5L petrol engine is adequate.

In the plains I was driving in Eco Mode. In the mountains I realised it leads to a peculiar situation. When I try to overtake another vehicle while going uphill, I need to press the throttle all the way down before the automatic tranmission will downshift. Then it downshifts twice, and the engine lets out the most unnerving growl. I have seen the most seasoned Bolero drivers look around at the car when it growls like this, and make way for it. Which is not what I want. I am here to have a travel and share the road, not be the boss of the road. Turning off Eco fixes this. I haven’t tried Power Mode yet.

I am told that the ground clearance of the Crysta is higher than the older Innova. But still not high enough to take us past Kunzum Pass. In any case, the kids aren’t enamoured with snow any more. So we will just hang around here for a while and turn around, not risk it at the pass.

We haven't bought any packaged water since we started. We have been refilling our bottles and managing with that. On the way up to Tabo we have purchased two 5L jerry cans as backup.
It takes a special kind of stupid to come to the mountains and buy bottled "mineral water". Everywhere we go there are natural water springs and glacial rivers. My kids have had to learn to not be queasy about drinking water that doesn't come out of an RO machine or plastic bottle.

#Aquafina #Kinley and #Bisleri don't have a patent on clean water. They do have a patent on trashing the planet with plastic waste. We should only use them when absolutely necessary. I see tourists buying 12 packs of Bisleri for ₹240 because "Oh, its only ₹240". It's not. It's you coming to 3,000+ meters and leaving your trash here for perpetuity.

#blast
#shovel
#dump
#build #road

M2 noticed that this is how our #route looks in #satellite view.

Been #riding beside the #sutlej for an hour now.

Now accepting #roadtrip #song #recommendations

Nowhere near the most spectacular #overhang we have encountered so far. But the one safest to photograph 😀

We are all tired this morning. Sleeping in the #tent 🎪 wasn't anywhere as comfortable as sleeping in the #van 🚐. In fact I have had better sleep 🛏 in the #van than I usually do at home. It was chilly at night, but were warm in our bags. It is super hot this morning - the air is cool but the mountain 🏔️ sun ☀ is beating down on us.
The kids are sleepily stuffing the sleeping bags. I can't be bothered to arrange the #gear exactly as I'd originally laid it out. The crate wasn't letting the shotgun seat slide back as much as it can, so we've put the cooler (which is smaller) in its place. The books in the crate are now in the cooler 😬

The crate and the table are now on top of the bed. This likely will #fail on broken roads. But it's worth a try. Anyway no one sits on the bed while we are moving. Per @umeshunni 's suggestion I've tied down the table.

So we've prioritised passenger comfort over gear stability. Let's see what happens.

The colours that come out at this time of the day here are to die for

Those of you who are following us on Insta and Facebook, would you please share the link https://www.instagram.com/caravahan/ on these mediums.

We are trying to get to a critical mass of people like minded people seeing our posts. What we are doing is highly unusual for India, and we can use all of the advice and support we can get.

We crossed Nathpa shortly after noon. We should have eaten lunch here, because we found no restaurant after this. At Karcham we turned off of the National Highway towards Sangla. The road quality immediately dropped. I had to be attentive at all times. We are carrying a lot of food, but there wasn't enough space beside the road to stop and eat it.
It's 4pm now and we are having lunch at Sangla. We will head on further after this and hopefully find a good place to pitch tent and set up camp.

I must acknowledge the very useful advice and tips I've received so far from Preeti, Rahul, Gargi, Aman, Chaitali and Priya. More advice, and warnings about road conditions, would be very useful, so do share the link https://www.instagram.com/caravahan/

Thanks much for reading.

Tyre burst. We moved to the left of the road to allow a vehicle coming uphill to pass. The water pipeline by the side of the road cut the tyre.

#vanlife #roadtrip #travelwithkids #kidsofinstagram

M2 is awake. M1 refuses to rise. He slept an hour after us. Says he was looking at the #stars till the windows #fogged up. Sounds so #romantic.

#vanlife #HimachalTourism #HimachalPradesh #Kinnour

The kids will soon wake up to this view.

The three of us squeezed in at the back tonight. M1 just snuggled in between me and M2 after we had slept. The idea always was for one kid to sleep on a fully reclined front seat. But we were quite comfortable. The 4.5'x6' bed is adequate for the three of us when it's cold outside. Inside it was perfectly warm and cozy.

OK. The boys are stirring. Gotta go.
#nofilter #Kinnour #HimachalTourism #HimachalPradesh #vanlife #caravan #roadtrip

Here is how our living quarters look tonight. We got late in settling in, so we haven't set up our tent or done any cooking. We did cover a lot more distance than I expected.

The bed is made up better tonight, says M2. He is always a tough customer to please, so I'm pleased. M1 is having a meal of heat and eat food. M2 and I are full.

#vanlife #caravaninteriors #Kinnour

Someone asked for a pic of the outside of our #van. Here it is. We have made no changes on the outside (yet). Not even a carrier. Indian authorities are notorious in this respect, always picking on people who mod their vehicles. So we are playing it safe.

#vanlife #caravan #roadtrip

Our #watermelon seller is also a #vanlifer. His #caravan is built on a truck. He's got a full size cooking gas, utensils, and some gear in a gunnysack. He's got #thresh on the floor of his truck, and a sheet spread on it works as his bed. His #caravaninteriors are quite roomy compared to ours.

He hails from #Una. He can understand and speak #Hindi, but responded to my Hindi in #Punjabi. The watermelons are from Madhya Pradesh. 🍉 🚐

#vanlife #roadtrip #tinyhomes #tinyhouse #simpleliving

Just saw another guy who lives and works out of a bus and tent. #vanlife doesn't seem so aspirational any more. 😅🎪🚌

Changed the organisation of our gear a bit. Let's see how this holds up on the #windingroads of #HimachalPradesh

#vanlife #caravan #caravaninteriors

On the road again🎸🎸 #I'mdriving🚗
(this is M1)

M1 poses for the public. Our departure got delayed because we were arranging things in the car, and my body was hurting from two days of work. Instead of 3am, it is a noon departure now. Let's see where we reach.

#camping #caravan #vanlife #HimachalPradesh

Took us some effort to clamp the thing down. We had to remove some rubber flooring. The pictures aren't pretty coz my phone was out of juice and the flash stopped working. By 8:30 we had slotted all our gear under the bed and were rolling home.

Things have been moving fast. At 6 we went into the #paintshop. At 7 we came out #gleaming. Then we wasted some time hunting for self tapping wood screws. At 7:30 we were assembled and at 8 we were installed.

This is what our route looks like. #Gurgaon to #Nako in #HimachalPradesh, and likely on to #Tabo and #Kaza. Looks like the #KMPExpressway will let us bypass all of #Delhi.
#experientialtravel #vanlife #mosttreacherousroadintheworld

Our caravan build has begun. We have ripped out the seats from a Toyota Innova and are going to be installing some storage and a bed here.

#caravan #vanlife #tinyhouse #trailer #rving #gorving #motorhome #camper #camping