Down in the valley

An expansive after-sales network is crucial when driving to remote destinations

August 15, 2017 03:14 pm | Updated 03:15 pm IST

It’s not an island, but Suru Valley, in Ladakh, is as close as you can get to landlocked isolation in this country. And it is very much a desert, albeit a cold one, strewn with gigantic monoliths in a barren surreal landscape, ideal for faking a moon landing. Briefly, the perfect milieu to be stranded; at least in a literary, romantic sense that doesn’t end in tragedy.

And candidly, there was no danger of that in the predicament your writer and his companion found themselves in. Damaged by an ill-advised cross-country trail that the car should never have been brought on, the Hyundai Santa Fe, our 4-wheel-drive automatic variant, had gallantly deposited its occupants safely at the destination, before becoming non-responsive.

That quest had its share of travails

Suru Valley, a gorgeous yet unforgiving expanse of imposing menhirs and gushing streams, stretches from Sankoo village about 40km past Kargil, all the way up to Panzella glacier which lies at Pensi La pass, from where the Suru (Indus) river originates. To get to its most pristine remoteness, a one-day hike is the preferred mode of conveyance. We, on the other hand, had just engaged the four-wheel-drive and pointed the Santa Fe toward the seemingly unmotorable trail leading from Sankoo.

What followed were four hours of painstakingly slow progress over 40km of non-existent track. It took a few knocks all right, but the Santa Fe acquitted itself remarkably. Unknown to us, one of those blows to the underbelly had actually knocked out the alternator. By the time we parked the car and set up our bivouacs, the last signs of life had seeped out of the battery.

But we were far from being high and dry

At the campsite was a motley bunch of rock climbers from around the world, who’d congregated for the Suru Boulder Fest — an annual cornucopia of rock climbing, music and yoga for this close-knit community. Since shelter, food and water were assured, we confronted the impossibility of the situation. Given our remote location, towing the Santa Fe out was impossible, and we wondered if it would stand here for eternity — a cautionary tale to an auto hack’s monumental folly.

A call was placed from a curious shepherd’s phone (nothing but postpaid BSNL works in Suru) to Hyundai India’s Delhi office. In the day that followed, people phoned in from the company’s Chandigarh, Leh, and finally Kargil workshops. Ten hours post that phone call, our group saw flickering lamps making their way gingerly down the mountainside. Those turned out to be Hyundai Kargil’s intrepid mechanics who had somehow, after making enquiries in villages along the way, managed to find us. These saviours, bewildered as they were to find a Santa Fe in the middle of nowhere, proceeded to fit a new battery on the vehicle and cart it back to Kargil. A day later, alternator fixed and battery charged, the car was returned to us.

We were impressed, even thankful

The level of difficulty of that feat, defies articulation, and it’s left a lasting impression on your writer. Like most spoilt auto hacks, he has, over the years, developed a slight stiff upper lip for consumer brands. This was a welcome wake-up call to the perils of forgetting, that at the end of the day, India, and its far-reaching road network, is a long way from the blemish-free asphalt of Europe. And that thinking that you can go it alone when embarking on a trip is a bit delusional.

But I’m not being objective here. In all fairness I have taken, for example, a BMW X6 to all corners of Ladakh, and it performed with nary a murmur of protest. For an inveterate road traveller in this country, I would humbly submit that the flagship vehicle of a consumer brand is a way more prudent buy than another luxury brand that may not have the same kind of service network. After-sales support is like that old friend who’s got your back; faith that you turn to, only in salvation. On a remote boulder field in Suru Valley, we got our priorities right.

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