🚗 Chandigarh Shock — When Plans Collapsed

 From Mathura’s divine bliss to Chandigarh’s breaking news. In a single night, my dream solo drive to Leh fell apart. (31st August)

I started early on 31st August from Mathura, aiming for Chandigarh. The Yamuna Expressway was smooth but uneventful, and traffic through Delhi and Noida dragged till noon. After that, the skies turned dramatic — cloudburst after cloudburst, rain almost nonstop till evening. I reached Chandigarh around 6 p.m., the car splashed and the wipers exhausted.

The plan till then was perfectly timed: drive through Manali – Jispa – Lahaul – Leh, reach Leh by 5 September, and welcome my family there the next morning. They were to fly from Hyderabad on 6 September, joining the group tour through Leh till the 10th. Everything was mapped out — hotels, fuel stops, altitude breaks — every mile imagined.

Chandigarh itself felt refreshing after Delhi’s chaos — wide roads, clean sectors, no traffic snarls. I checked into Hotel Shivalik View in Sector 17, right beside the shopping cluster. By evening I was out buying a few things for my grandsons, a small ritual I never skip on any trip.

Back at the hotel, I switched on the TV — and the shock hit instantly.
Breaking News: the Chandigarh – Manali highway had been washed away, closed for at least a month. Even worse, the Jammu – Srinagar route was blocked by massive landslides, with vehicles stranded for over 50 kilometres.

My dream of driving into Leh collapsed right there. For months I had visualised that climb through Manali and beyond — and in one bulletin, it was gone. I barely slept that night, turning options over in my mind. Staying back in Chandigarh till 6 Sept and then flying to Leh sounded dull; I couldn’t imagine sitting idle for days, waiting for a tour I was meant to arrive into, not wait for.

Close to midnight, I checked flight apps. There it was — an early morning flight to Hyderabad, just a few hours away. Decision made. I parked my MG Hector safely at Chandigarh Airport, booked tickets: Chandigarh → Hyderabad, Hyderabad → Leh (6 Sept), and Leh → Chandigarh (10 Sept).
In a few clicks, the road trip had turned into a flight plan — the destination stayed, only the route changed.

When I landed in Hyderabad and texted my wife, she was stunned. The family knew about the landslides but never guessed I’d simply fly home. Looking back, it turned out to be one of the best decisions of the journey. I spent a few days with family, took part in Ganesh Navratri celebrations, and then flew to Leh as planned.

....Sometimes the best roads are the ones you never drive. Changing course that night wasn’t the end of the dream — it was just another way of reaching it.

  • Even the most planned routes can vanish overnight.
  • True travel is knowing when to stop and when to turn.
  • The road to Leh didn’t close — it simply rose higher.




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