5 kms after the Satrundi Check Post, the road vanished and the dirt or rock trail to Sach Pass starts.
BHPian jimnylife recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Independence Day long weekend it was, so me and a dear friend decided to go on a trip. We had Friday and Monday off, so 4 full days in hand. Planning had started 2 weeks in advance, we both wanted to go to the hills and enjoy the monsoons.
But the news of landslides, cloudbursts and flash floods started coming in on daily basis from the Northern Himalayas. I was following the weather meticulously each day. I came to the conclusion that the area around Mandi, and Kinnaur were the worst affected areas in Himachal. The Dharali landslide news also came in during this time. We had planned to go to Dalhousie and Sach Pass which was not seeing torrential rains and landslides.
We started from Ghaziabad at 4am on Friday, 14th August with our hotels booked at Banikhet, bang on the highway. We had not booked our stay in Dalhousie so that next morning we could quickly wake up and hit the highway to Sach Pass.
NH44 was traffic free and I could maintain very good speed. Only place where we had to stop was in Dunera, which is the last village of Punjab on the border with Himachal. I knew that the road had caved in due to rains and it was one-way. Had to wait around 20 minutes and then we were through. As we climbed upwards, we saw numerous random waterfalls. The fog had rolled in and we were literally driving in the clouds at a point of time. We did see quite a few roads that had sunk due to rains, and some stones fallen on the road, but nothing major. We reached Banikhet at 1-30PM. 550+ kms in around 10 hours was a pretty sweet time, considering hill driving and road blockages. Since it was the route of the holy Manimahesh Yatra, there were numerous langars on the roadsides. Our hotel owner invited us to have langar nearby, we had home-cooked amazing and filling food that afternoon.
Views from the road to Banikhet-
We rested for a bit after lunch and then stepped out to visit Dalhousie. It was a 20 minute drive from our hotel. The roads to Dalhousie are pretty curvy, steep and narrow at certain places, which warrants a driver with good hill driving experience. Since it was off-season, we could find a place to park in the municipal parking lot in the main market area and then we walked on the Mall Road, had some street food, did some shopping. It was not crowded initially but as the sun set, the crowd increased. We sat and saw the clouds flying in front of our eyes, which was a treat. Had dinner in one of the dhabas, and reached to our hotel at around 10PM with alarms set for a 7am departure.
Views from Dalhousie Mall Road:
Next morning, we saw that it had rained, but weather was clear now. We left at 7am exact, with Google Maps showing ETA for Sach Pass at 11:40am (which I knew was not possible). We passed by the Chamera Dam, and it was a picture-perfect scene, but it also started raining. So we quickly took some photos and pushed forward. We kept stopping wherever we could spot amazing scenery. So we reached a spot near the Satrundi Police CheckPost, where roadwork was going on. We were stalled for almost a good 30 minutes there. I must say, a very beautiful place to get stuck at.
Reservoir Dam Camera:
At Satrundi Check Post, the police enters all your personal details in the register one by one, so that they can validate that everyone who was to return has returned. Every passenger also has to stand in front of a CCTV camera and get their photo captured. This process takes time if the vehicle in front of you is a taxi, because they carry upto 10 passengers and the police will enter each person’s name, ID details, address. Another 20 mins gone here.
5 kms after the Satrundi Check Post, the road vanished and the dirt or rock trail to Sach Pass starts. From the check post, Sach Pass is 40kms, out of which 35 kms is off-road and takes around 2-3 hours depending upon your car. In our case it took 2 hours including around 30 mins of road blockages. First blockage was a truck which could not climb an incline with slush. After multiple tries, we asked the driver to roll back and come up with momentum, and finally he was able to pass through. As we kept climbing, the road went from dirt trail to boulder trail and many areas. At one point, I was driving on huge boulders and since I was slow I could not cross it. I engaged 4H and still Jimny was struggling to cross that patch, I could smell the clutch / tires. I backed up, came in with a little more speed, and was through without much fuss this time around. While crossing this patch, one of our chips packet decided to burst, and my heart literally skipped a beat thinking it was our tire. Thank God, it was just the packet of chips which did not like the air pressure.
We stopped at numerous waterfalls on the way to take photos. We were tailing a Jimny Taxi all our way to Sach Pass. JCBs were stationed at multiple places to smoothen out the path using mud. Finally we reached Sach Pass at 1:30 PM after a drive of 6.5 hours. We visited the small temple there. There is now a small dhaba at the top selling Maggi and tea. We had couple of rounds of Maggi enjoying the view. Surprisingly, the weather at the top was clear and we could see the sun between flying clouds. The Jimny Taxi driver told us that he had done 100+ trips to Sach Pass over the past year without a single failure.
From the top:
I did Sach Pass in June 2018 too, in a Celerio. Same thrill, nothing has changed:
We left from Sach Pass at 2:15PM, and reached the Satrundi Check Post at 3-45PM. One thing I observed was, on the patch where I struggled while coming up, that patch had been smoothened by the JCB, and I did not even realize when I passed that patch. Hats off to the people working in such difficult conditions to ensure the road stays safe. Did not have to use 4H anywhere while descending.
Our hotel for the night was booked in Khajjiar and we reached at around 7-30PM. It was already dark and foggy and the last 30 minutes of the drive was quite difficult considering I was tired and the visibility was close to zero.
Khajjiar:
Next day, the plan was to reach Amritsar, attend the Attari border Beating Retreat ceremony. We took a couple of photos of the Khajjiar Lake and the ground, and frankly did not find anything much to do in Khajjiar.
Khajjiar to Amritsar was pretty uneventful with rains all the way until Pathankot. It was a 5 hour drive. I must say, the road from Pathankot to Amritsar was butter smooth and beautiful.
We attended the Beating Retreat ceremony, and courtesy of an uncle who served in the BSF, we were able to sit in the VIP section closest to the border gate. We were flanked by retired and serving defense officers, it was an amazing feeling. I had last witnessed this ceremony around maybe 15+ years ago. The ceremony was pretty toned down, given the current circumstances after Op Sindoor. A Guiness World Record was also created by the Steel Man of India, Vispy Kharadi, by holding two pillars of 260Kgs each, for 60+ seconds. Perks on being in the right place at the right time. We were allowed to go to the area near the gate and take photos too. After that, we came back, had dinner, visited the Golden Temple at night. The weather was too hot to explore anything during daytime.
The Beating Retreat ceremony:
The Guinness World Record:
Golden Temple in all glory:
Amritsar to home took 7 hours, pretty uneventful drive.
Overall, a pretty nice trip, 1700 Kms over 4 days. I was able to test the off-road capabilities of the Jimny, and I am amazed again. My car is fully stock, still it took everything in its stride. I had taken the Fastag annual pass and it worked seamlessly across all tolls. I was able to recover 65% of the money in just this trip itself.
Thank you if you read through all of this, happy travelling!
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