Bangalore - Ladakh - Bangalore road trip in Toyota Fortuner in May 2022

Bangalore - Ladakh - Bangalore road trip in Toyota Fortuner in May 2022. 

I was planning to do Ladakh by July end. Suddenly had a thought to go earlier and take kids along. So made up a quick plan and applied for leave and it got approved. Wife couldn't get the leaves requested and had few days less. So made a plan for her to take flight to Srinagar and on return wife and kids to fly out from Chandigarh. 

I had vodafone and airtel. BSNL works best in ladakh and Jio is better compared to airtel and vodafone. So I took a postpaid jio connection before trip. Vodafone almost useless as it was having very poor coverage. Jio had better coverage compared to airtel. I went with 2021 Fortuner 4x4 AT. I didn't any DEF issues at all. I was little worried about the DPF regeneration as the manual says that automation regeneration may not work above 10,000 altitude. But it never showed any issues. Car performed really well all through out.

Made sure everyone in the car regularly had water. Didn't had AMS issues except for my elder son (13yrs). He had vomiting 5-6 times a day while going from Sonamarg to Kargil. After resting in Kargil, he was absolutely fine for the rest of the trip. Low temperatures did make my kids little uncomfortable but manageable. 

Bangalore - Nagpur 

Drive Start: 04:40AM End: 07:00PM 

Roads are good in most of the places. 

Nagpur - Karnal

Drive Start: 05:00AM End: 09:30PM

Except rough patches here and there, roads are good through out

Karnal - Jammu

Drive Start: 05:00AM End: 11:45AM

Roads are good in this stretch too

Jammu - Srinagar

Drive Start: 06:00AM End: 01:00PM

Roads are mixed. Bad and good stretches. Also, due to army convoy movement the roads were blocked for 20-30 mins in few places.

Srinagar - Doodhpatri - Srinagar - Sonamarg

Drive start: 06:45AM End: 02:30PM

Sonamarg - Kargil

Drive start: 01:30PM End: 6:30PM

Sonamarg  - Kargil Road (As of now, from Sonamarg side traffic is allowed as below)

Sun, Tue, Thu --> 6AM - 10AM

Sat, Mon, Wed --> 4PM - 6PM

Friday Closed

Road condition improved a lot in these sections. Easily all cars can do this now without any worry.

Kargil - Leh

Smooth roads at most of the places. Stayed 2 nights in Leh

Drive start: 06:00AM End: 03:15PM

Leh - Diskit

Khardungla road is almost fully tarred. We stayed at Diskit and visited Hunder, Turtuk and last village Thang.

Drive start: 06:15AM End: 11:30AM

Diskit - Pangong - Tangtse

Agham-Shyayok road have some bad sections which will have low GC car struggle. Other places no issues for any cars now.

Drive start: 06:00AM End: 2:30PM

Tangtse - Chushul - Hanle

Roads aren't great. Road construction is happening in all the places. May be in few years all these will be great roads. 

Drive start: 06:45AM End: 01:15PM

Hanle - Chusmle - Umling La - Photi La - Tso morriri

Drive start: 05:00AM End: 04:00PM

Hanle - Chumsle - Umling La (2.5hrs) No roads, just follow the trye track. Bit scary (no help available anywhere) if you are alone, otherwise shouldn't be an issue. RoutO works like a charm.

Umling La - Photi La - Hanle (3hrs) This section was bad and winding roads. Roads are under construction via photi la

Tso Morriri - Keylong

Drive start: 08:00AM End: 08:30PM

Had snow fall at Baralacha La. Drive was really good.

Keylong - Chandigarh

Drive start: 5:15AM End:2:45PM

Chandigarh - Morena (late start as wife and kids took flight from here)

Drive start: 02:00PM End: 09:45PM

Morena - Hyderabad 

Drive start: 04:30AM End: 07:15PM

Hyderabad - Bangalore

Drive start: 05:00AM End: 11:45AM 

(Narrated in the first person by Sanju Chacko on social media)