Because of very recent snowfall and intermittent rains, the track became an even more fun ground for Gurkha
Bhpian dhrubojyoti recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
On 1st May afternoon, wifey told me that there was unusual snowfall in Sandakphu that day. Also, it might be the last couple of weeks of the Rhododendron season this year. There was no obvious question whether we can go there now or not, but silently this means the same.
I had no possibility of taking leaves from my weekday job then, so we are left with only a weekend plan. We started by Friday evening, made the Bhansar from Nepal, paid the Nepal road tax and headed towards Sandakphu. I am not writing any travelogue here, there are many travelogues in T-BHP on Sandakphu drive and the track conditions, both through India route and Nepal route. I may say about how the Gurkha performed there.
Drive experience
Because of very recent snowfall and intermittent rains, the track became an even more fun ground for Gurkha. I didn’t want any unnecessary beating to the suspension, hence I kept on climbing at a very slow pace. Kalpokhri was fully covered in dense fog and the chance of witnessing the sleeping buddha from Sandakphu top seemed very thin. However, Rhododendrons didn’t disappoint us. There were hundreds of blossom filled trees of many colours! Gurkha not only tackled these sections with ease, but also allowed us to stop at any incline for the photo capturing and then again move without rolling back or wheel spin. Watching the ultra slim track, ruts and gravel, my 10 year old daughter asked me, whether deflating the tyres would help us tackling the track comfortably. She has been traveling with us everywhere we go and must have heard us discussing similar things earlier. That’s one of the byproducts of having an adventure vehicle.
Our plan was to return the next day, but we fell in love with this place and wanted to try the Phalut region too. The approach road was looking quite friendly and we started at 2H. Just after 50 meters, I shifted to 4H, and after another 50 meters, I shifted to 4L 2nd gear for a comfortable drive without much of the usage of the clutch. Few sections and switchbacks demanded 4L 1st gear and locking rear differential and I obliged. The engine grunt from the snorkel was ecstatic! The drive to this region was even more fulfilling and picturesque! There were riots of colours everywhere! I felt that Thakum valley is very little explored and discussed.
In spite of being such a large vehicle, surprisingly Gurkha has a very good turning radius. Most of the notorious switchbacks with steep gradient and undulation were covered by single point turn. I am a very ordinary driver with an ultra defensive approach all the time, but Gurkha has masked up all my driving shortcomings and limitations with its capabilities.
I am sure, there would be questions on the famous DPF issue of the BS6+ engine, hence thought of sharing the experience beforehand. I was mentally prepared for witnessing the manual regeneration alarm for the first time in this region as I had been crawling up to 12K feet for hours in the lowest possible gear at less than 15kmph speed (80% being less than 10kmph). But it disappointed me this time too. I don’t have any logic or explanation of why it didn’t come up, but that’s how it was. The DEF/urea doser went mad though at this altitude + temperature + crawling drive for hours. It threw up DEF dosing error, EDC and the yellow check engine light. The very strong smell of urea didn’t leave us on the second day. The EDC and DEF dosing error indicator also went away after a while but kept on buzzing intermittently (after every 30-60 minutes) However, the engine response was absolutely top notch. I took the chance because of that to let it be and drive back to tar road the next morning and all the error codes disappeared on their own. Even after being a BS6+ vehicle, Gurkha is still very simple and mostly mechanical piece of engineering.
We drove back and stopped for breakfast at Lepchajagat (very close to Ghoom railway station). The shop owner was very excited after seeing the Gurkha. He said that his father had a 1955 Land Rover which they had to sell at 35K back in 90 and he couldn’t forget the joy of driving it. He was affectionately patting the snorkel of Gurkha and was saying, such beautiful vehicles are not made these days.
Signing off with a few pictures, as always..
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