POCKET ADVENTURER

The Audi Q2 was more than just a side-act on our trip to Leh with the e-tron

- TUHIN GUHA

It’s coming up to midnight and the Audi Q2’s temperature gauge shows a bone-chilling -5.5 degrees Celsius. But what it doesn’t say is that we’re climbing up to 5,328m to cross Tanglang La, the highest of the five mountain passes that you need to negotiate on the Manali Leh highway. The air was already thin when we set off from Pang, after an extended charging stop for the e-tron we were chaperoning on our OD Electrifies Ladakh drive, and it’s thinning further rapidly as we make this climb. To liven up the situation a notch, we’d just been warned by some of the jawans at the Army base camp in Pang that hanging around here is not a good idea at all. Acute Mountain Sickness claims a fair few unsuspecting victims every month and spending the night here is calling for trouble. So with my co-passenger not holding up too well, and it being my first time here, making a dash for Leh was the only way to go.