Category Archives: Travel

Travels with the Husky

Published January 13, 2023 / by Jehangir

The unique geography of the Kashmir Valley – less than 200 kilometres from end to end and less than 40 kilometers across at its widest point – means that an early start enables day trips to almost any part of the valley.

Over most weekends my family likes to indulge in our shared passion for travel and birding, facilitated by the synchronicity between three factors:
The first is the amazing network of roads being built across the valley under PMGSY, MNREGA and similar schemes.
The second is the awesomeness of Google Maps – enabling us to point at any spot on the map and venture forth secure in the knowledge that the app will find us a route to that destination.
The third and most-vital factor is that the quality of the road ceases to be a limiting factor because of the extreme capabilities of Jamshed’s newly-acquired off-roader.

More suited to the physical capacity of my generation, overlanding – with off-roading whenever unavoidable – has become our family-friendly travel style (a fact conceded painfully by my body after a few harrowing drives in the Gypsy King). I remember a time when the transition from the Willys Jeep to the original Gypsy felt like unparalleled luxury. How times change!


More than 30 years separate the two Gypsy photographs

We have set ourselves 3 quests:
1. To visit every place of historical or archaeological interest in the valley
2. To visit every river valley of Kashmir
3. To photograph our fast vanishing wildlife – especially every bird species found in Kashmir.
Bonus : Improptu picnics, amazing landscapes, river confluences, and similar interesting sights along the way.

Jamshed had been searching for a true-blue off-roader while waiting for the Suzuki Jimny (which is yet to hit roads in India even though it has been built in the country since 2019. Go figure!) The basic checklist included a four-wheel drive off-roader with low range gearbox, independent supension, relative comfort and easy service.

Soft-roaders did not enter our thought process at all. Think MMA versus WWE. Khabib Nurmagomedov versus The Rock. Soft-roaders are little imitation off-roaders with increased ground clearance, bumped-out wheel arches and bigger tyres but have high gear ratios and a single-speed transfer case. The All-Wheel-Drive (AWD) system is more of a road safety feature than an adventure accessory.

Soft-roaders are just a clever marketing concept as the manufacturers know that these ‘crossovers‘ are more likely to be seen in the company of expensive dog-breeds outside city cafes (like Little Hut or whatever it is called these days) than on rocky mountain tracks.

True 4WD off-roaders can shift the transfer case into a low gear ratio (4-Lo) when the terrain is too tough for four-wheel drive alone. Low transmission and low transfer-case gear ratios multiply engine torque to insane levels. Just put a Gypsy King into 4-Lo and watch it transmogrify from the mild-mannered Dr. Bruce Banner into the Incredible Hulk. Yup – its that dramatic.

I am a petrol-head who has never owned a diesel car but the petrol four-wheel drive options currently available in the country are too expensive to justify purchase for the sake of occasional off-roading. The three-door Mahindra Thar was dismissed as a family-unfriendly wannabe Jeep Wrangler (plus the viral video of a Thar sliding off the mountainside at the Zig killed off any argument in its favor).

Finally, we settled on a pre-owned Mitsubishi Pajero based upon the monster winter performance of Javid Bakshi‘s bulldog Pajero. I was not too happy with the diesel versus petrol (and spares/service) compromise but what to do?

Out of the blue Jamshed was offered an exquisitely well-maintained Suzuki Grand Vitara and jumped at the chance. The petrol-only Grand Vitara is a full-time 4WD off-roader with legendary Suzuki build quality. It had been imported fully built-up from Japan and ticked all the required boxes plus quite a few more – a timeless design, an excellent driving position, Suzuki reliability and ease-of-service and, most importantly, sedan-like comfort on highways.

Off-road enthusiasts like to christen their vehicles and ‘Husky‘ is the name bestowed upon Jamshed’s new ride complete with a bobble-head mascot.

Over the past year the Husky has traversed diverse terrain ranging from the muddy depths of the Wular floodplains to the highest motororable end-points in Ladakh. These trips will feature in a new section of this blog in the future. Enjoy!


Composite GPS Track of the Husky’s wanderings

Kashmir by Gordon Duff

Published December 13, 2022 / by Jehangir

In younger days I spent many a late summer wandering the lofty wildernesses that ring the Kashmir Valley on all sides. The outbreak of militancy at the end of the eighties put paid to those adventures, never to be resumed again.

During those glorious years my mother would ask me why I wanted to be ‘paharon mein darbadar‘ on my birthdays (Mid-August). I wish I knew about Gordon Duff then so I could explain my desire in his words:

here among the great mountains
nothing but the grandeur of the world remains.
heaven may not be ‘up there’ but there is no doubt
that here one is in touch with the infinite.
one has only to reach out to touch the great beyond.
the smallness of men’s minds is forgotten, the shallowness of
their ways, the pettiness of so much that surrounds them.
there is nothing tawdry in the world of the high peaks.

dekhna taqreer ki lazzat ki jo us ne kaha,
main ne ye jaana ki goya ye bhi mere dil mein hai

Well better late than never.

Gordon Duff (1921-2001) was born in 1921 in Glasgow, Scotland. During the Second World War he served with the 31 RAF Squadron in India from 1943-1945. In the post war years he returned to Glasgow and got married, and later immigrated to New Zealand in 1953.

Gordon Duff kept detailed diaries and took many photos of his time overseas (India, Burma, Indonesia and Singapore) which were hidden till he passed away – probably because people wanted to forget the war when they got home.

His daughter Marjory Lewis has generously shared his unseen photographs of Kashmir as it was in 1944, some of which are posted here for your viewing pleasure:

Let us raise a toast to the photography of Gordon Duff and the generosity of Marjory Lewis.
Noon chai is the strongest spirit that I imbibe, so here goes.

Three cheers for Gordon Duff.

The True Source of the Jehlum

Published November 6, 2022 / by Jehangir

Empires of the Indus by Alice Albinia (which I somehow managed to recommend and put-down in the same post) also helped to clear up a quandary regarding the origin of the Jehlum.

Most historical and modern traditions consider the Verinag pool as the source of the Jehlum (except for a handful of purists who maintain that the honour belongs to the nearby Vyethvathur spring).

The outflow from Verinag forms a small stream that flows for around three kilometres before merging with the more sizeable Sandrin stream near Chinigund. Near Khanabal the Sandrin stream meets the confluent flow of the Bringi and Arpath streams before merging with the Lidder near Sifan to give rise to the Jehlum river.


Verinag

The headwaters of the Sandrin, however, lie many miles further away from the sangam (confluence) of the Verinag and Sandrin streams. Numerous nars (mountain streams), arising from the snowfields of the mountainous ring between the Hansraj, Kaukut and Sundar Kanthi peaks, merge to form the Sandrin stream which flows in a north-westerly direction for more than 20 kilometres till it meets the Verinag stream.

So why is the Sandrin, or rather its first and farthest tributary, the Chhitar Nar, not traditionally considered to be the source of the Jehlum?


Sundar Kanthi and Chhitar Nar

Alice Albinia faced a similar conundrum on reaching Senge Khabab (The Lion’s Mouth – the traditional source of the Indus) at the end of her quest, and wondered why the Dorjungla or other tributaries arising farther away were not considered to be the source of the Indus.

The explanation comes via Sven Hedin – the Swedish adventurer-explorer who explored the Transhimalaya and discovered the source of the Indus.


Sven Hedin

Alice Albinia relates that Sven Hedin was told by his Tibetan guides that the Senge Khabab, arising from underground springs, was considered the true source as it emitted the same amount of water in summer and winter (unlike the other snowmelt-dependent tributaries that waxed and waned from season to season).

This fits in well with our own tradition that the reliable Verinag spring is considered to be the actual source of the Jehlum and not the snowmelt-dependent mountain streams rising farther away in the hills. I am inclined to agree.


Verinag