{"id":244526,"date":"2023-11-08T08:48:55","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T08:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/?p=244526"},"modified":"2023-11-08T08:48:55","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T08:48:55","slug":"spiti-uttarakhand-in-winter-16-day-road-trip-in-a-renault-duster-awd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/news-features\/spiti-uttarakhand-in-winter-16-day-road-trip-in-a-renault-duster-awd\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiti & Uttarakhand in winter: 16-day road trip in a Renault Duster AWD"},"content":{"rendered":"

For such trips, it is a must to keep the car in top-notch mechanical condition. We did not have any backup vehicle & we encountered an issue with the Duster.<\/h2>\n

BHPian PointZero<\/strong> recently shared this with other enthusiasts.<\/p>\n

The frozen waterfalls, The highest polling station, The holiest monastery, The highest village, The highest Filling station, The mud Houses, The highest level of the post office, The Mummy, Glaciers, the Lowest population Panchayat, the Cold desert, The frozen rivers and lakes – Well, so many things to list but I am sure that you have already drawn a picture of Spiti in your imagination. And it was not the lure of an imaginary land for us, we had been there before and this time we preferred the winter to witness how the valley looked covered with a white blanket. On the other hand, the smoother tar roads through the oak woods, the verdant hills, cascading waterfalls and a long drive from the origin to the mouth of the holiest river Ganga pull us to visit Gangotri to be endowed by the goddess Ganga.<\/p>\n

It was October 2019 when Tanmoy (My Brother) & Soumyadip (My College Friend) agreed to sail for the North. We had a lot to prepare for the trip but one thing we decided was that we would not do any pre-booking for the entire trip. As we were only three men and no family members we could even spend nights anywhere with a little arrangement of shelter. For food and water, we chose to carry out a complete cooking arrangement to survive for 3-4 days. The biggest question was the vehicle.<\/p>\n

When I plan for a long trip I always prefer the Lazy Turtle (My Bolero) over any other vehicle as I know my vehicle well and it still offers less electronics compared to the other modern vehicles. On the other side, we had a choice of Soumyadip\u2019s AWD Renault Duster which is very capable, comfortable, fast (Compared to Bolero) and proven over the years. And we envy each other whenever any of us put some good pictures of our vehicle in some good place. It was obvious that we would select the AWD Duster not only for a technical reason but it can also be driven by both Soumyadip and Me whereas if we take the Bolero then it’s only me who has to drive for the entire trip as Soumyadip is not comfortable to drive Bolero. And with a heavy heart, I agreed not to be overwhelmed with some good snaps of Lazy Turtles from the trip.<\/p>\n

For such trips, it is a must to keep the vehicle in top-notch mechanical condition as we did not have any plan for a backup vehicle. Here we got an issue in the vehicle, the Duster was less than two years old and only 25000 KM run but sometimes noise was coming from the rear wheel bearing. Without any delay, we asked the Renault service center to replace the pair under warranty and they confirmed that within 3 weeks they would arrange an alternate.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, one week before the trip started we were informed that they could not arrange the parts and hence we needed to live with the faulty bearing. I was mostly worried about the situation thinking that even if the bearing works till we return from the trip the noise will increase gradually and it will be irritating for a long drive. Finally, we started the journey on 23rd December with our fingers crossed with the hope that the fault bearing would not cause trouble till the end of the trip.<\/p>\n

Glimpse<\/h2>\n

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Hibernation mode activated<\/p>\n

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Winter is coming<\/p>\n

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Driving in a winter wonderland<\/p>\n

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Standing on a lake<\/p>\n

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Memories made in the mountains<\/p>\n

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The relaxing murmur of a freezing river<\/p>\n

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The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say.<\/p>\n

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The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness<\/p>\n

Itinerary:<\/h2>\n