Sunday 24 May 2015

Wheels on leg

The most awaited event of my life was successfully ended with having lots of experience and happiness, Yes..  Finally I rode full of Leh-Ladakh with 6 other buddies – Navaneeth, Rajendra, Ashwath, Prashanth, Hari and Rajaram. Journey started from Jammu via Sreenagar, Kargil, Leh, Manali and ended in Chandighar. Total 14 days in bike and rode around 2100 KM's,  by experiencing some of the breathtaking and Challenging moments with our lovely partners - three bullet Classic (2-500 CC ,1- 350 CC), two Duke 390, one CBR 250 and one Pulsur NS.

The years of planning, team meeting, Preparation of our vehicle, improving our riding skills by visiting local places around Bangalore, these are all made us stronger and  ready to have our great journey. Actually we had taken challenges in three areas like one - not to have any mechanics with us, second - no backup vehicle throughout our ride and third - no one in our troop had visited this place before. Of course it was our first time visit to Leh- Ladakh even though it felt not, because of paper work and research by Raju (Rajendra) and Navaneeth, also latest news updates from Ashwath. 

After many session of discussion, whatsapp chat, quotation comparison and online review, we finalized a private packers and movers to ship our vehicle from Bangalore to Jammu. The date 12th Aug 2014 we shipped our vehicle through Agarwal packers and movers it was around 15 days prior than our journey start date. Agarwal packers and movers are little expensive when compared to others but quality wise they are little ahead. But unfortunately while coming back this feeling was not there with us because of their employee's behavior in Chandighar, so it made our mind to go with Gati.

Our vehicle after packing in Bangalore (Agarwal packers and movers)

It's really hell in Bangalore to travel without bike, Somewhat I survived with the help of Prashanth and Rajaram. Just one day before of our journey once again we confirmed all the necessary items are packed. The whole night no one slept, even I remember my whatsapp message tune keep on murmuring throughput the night.

Finally we reached our most expected day it is 29th Aug 2014 morning 4:30 we assembled in Bangalore International Airport to catch morning 6:00 O'Clock flight to Delhi. The most headache thing was to restrict our luggage into 21 + 7 KG , of course it is well known to all, But in our case we may survive a night without any shelter, also the basic necessary things for 16 days. Now the time to shuffle the things between each other and make our bag into proper weight. Somewhat we managed and checkin done. Morning 10:00 O'clock in Delhi, Our happy journey ended here ! and journey with thrill started...!!!!

Waiting to Jammu train in Delhi railway station. (Chandni Chowk)


From Delhi Airport terminal 3 to NewDelhi is hardly around 20 min travel in metro. Our train to jammu is from  Old Dhelhi called as Chandni Chowk, we changed our metro in new Delhi and reached over there at around 12:00 PM. It's fully sunny day and temperature is around 40. Actually we prepared our mind only to cold whether but not for this, So we felt little uncomfortable in Delhi and in Jammu.

Evening 4:00 O'Clock our train "Shalimar Express" is ready to move from Delhi towards Jammu. We met an old couple in train. They are from Jammu, uncles name is  A R Chaudhary. He transferred tons of knowledge about Jammu and Kashmir, Aunt given lots of biscuits to eat and it was really a good experience to us. Also they invited us to visit his house, he said "Me waha ka media bulaunga, Mera jaan pehechaan wale he udar. Aap log ka interview kara dunga unke saat, agle din TV me aajavoge". But unfortunately we unable to visit his house because of our tight schedule. Slowly NIDRAA devi covered us by giving lots of sweet dreams, no one know at what time we slept...When we opened our eyes ..... it's all about Jammu, Exited !!!!.....

1st day :  30th Aug 2014 – From Jammu to Patnitop.
Early morning 6:00 O'Clock we reached Jammu Tawi railway station and booked a lodge nearby. Collected our bike from packers and movers in Bari Brahmana at around 10:30 AM.  
Felt good by seeing our bikes after many days. Tested it completely and no complaints - all is well now.

Back to lodge, had lunch and tied our bags into bike and ready to go, Time evening 3:50, Odometer set to zero. Soon after some KM of ride we are out of Jammu city and now everywhere green mountains and the beautiful road in-between. 


Our goods carrier vehicle :) .. Ever-ready and very active man "Hari" with his Bully. Jammu Srinagar road.


Strictly follow team rules...  

Night riding is not a good idea because you loose lots of scenery, So we stopped our riding near place called Kud (Around 8 KM before Patnitop) in hotel Prem food house.
Odo : 138 KM
Day ride : 138 KM.

2nd day : 31st Aug 2014 – From Kud to Srinagar.
Morning 7:00 O'Clock all set to go towards our day's destination - Srinagar, around 190 KM away from Kud. Journey in National highway 1A, in most of the places it was under construction so little dusty. 
The roads in between green mountain looks like, they are tied each other with a big rope and silently flowing rivers next to road are made scenery more beautiful. 

Some pose to click.

Time 1:15 PM we crossed Jawahar tunnel, the tunnel is around 2.8 KM in length and it connects Jammu and Srinagar. It is Guarded by military round the clock.
Fist view of Kashmiri Valley, Titanic View Point.

Some guest to our vehicle. Ohh Balle Balle... 

Reached Srinagar at evening 6:30, day halt in Hotel Town Center. First time we tasted Kashmiri Biriyani and realized that, the Biriyani what we are getting in Bangalore is only for namesake.
Odo : 354 KM
Day ride : 216 KM

Hotel town centre contact details : Mushtaq – Manager,
Mob : 09419324261, 09906706279.

3rd day : 1st Sep 2014 – From Srinagar to Kargil
Scheduled start time from Srinagar is at morning 6:30 but heavy rainfall made little delay. Outside temperature is around 4-5 degrees Celsius, even though we cannot postpone our plan for a day or half. So everyone ready with their Jacket and raincoat, without any hesitation we started further.  Hands are shivering and pain like hell but no chance of change in our plan, we made our mind strong and controlled our body by willpower. Finally it become like One of our most challenging ride. 
Srinagar rain, Just one day before Flood.

Crossed Sonamarg at around 12:30 PM now no rain (Actually we crossed rainfall territory), First place we felt fragrance of Ladakh over here. All around white shining mountains, crystal clear flowing water next to road, little yellowish green grass - are all made this place shine like gold. May be the reason why it is Sonamarg (Meadow of Gold).


Sonamarg

Sonamarg

Another challenging moment was crossing Zoji Pass (Zoji La), second highest pass in J&K, around 11500 ft elevation from sea level. Landslide is one of the common thing over here, most of the cases roads are closed because of this. Same thing happened with us also Zoji La is block, if it not opens, then again we have to ride all the way back to Srinagar. Thanks to BRO (Border Road Organization), to clear the pass within couple of hours. Our journey started again towards Kargil at around 3 PM from Zoji La.
The Zoji la.

The Zoji la.


Time evening 6:15 we are in "Kargil War Memorial" called as Zero Point. Touched the land of war, land of witness - about Kargil war and Vijay divas. Heard briefing about real challenges faced by our great heroes while at the time of war by one of the army officer.
Kargil war memorial, War ground in background.

Kargil Zero point, Amar Jyothi. 

 After hearing the real story in live place we moved towards Kargil city, it is around 50 KM away, reached at around 9 PM and day halt in City Guest House.
Odo : 570 KM
Day ride : 216 KM

After couple of days we realized that the decision what we taken in Srinagar was saved our life, Yes... the Srinagar flood is started very next day of our departure.

4th day : 2nd Sep 2014 – Kargil to Basgo Chakse
Because of previous day ride in rain our bikes are messed up with mud and dust, need to take little more care on bike chain. So morning before start we cleaned our bikes and applied oil to chain. Started at 9:00 AM all the way towards Leh. 



Now we are almost into ladakh reajon, you can feel the changes over here like, Most of the mountains are naked (no trees) and beautiful, Gompa- monasteries- stupas instead of temple, The most trusted ladakhi people every ware.



Visited one of the oldest Gompa- Lamayuru Monastery in Kargil district. Very clean and silent in inside the Gompa, you can hardly hear some chanting of Theravada by Lama's. 
 
Lamayuru Monastery - Kargil.

Lamayuru Village.

Time evening 4:30 started further from Lamayuru towards Bikers heaven Leh. Riding fast and concentrating only on road is not a good idea because you loss lots of sceneries, so same thing happened with us, we didn't able to compete within the time, lag behind  from our destination. 
Basgo Chakse.

Time is evening 6:30 temperature is almost near to zero, we are still 50 KM away from the destination but no one willing to ride further in dark, so we selected the place Basgo Chakse around 45 KM before Leh city. It is a village next to road and having only one guest house "Chamba view".
Odo :  791 KM
Day ride : 221 KM

5th day : 3rd Sep 2014 – Basgo Chakse to Leh
The best thing in our trip was buffer days and this has been decided in our initial days of planning. The distance covered per day was very less when we compare it to our other rides (Hardly 100 to 200 km average distance in a day).  

We had 2 buffering days in Leh, to check-up our vehicle, roam around Leh city and visit some Monastery, Shanthisthopa, Ranco’s school etc.
Only 45 km away from the days-destination and it was a buffer day so we had not any such hurry-burry to start our ride early in the morning. But as usual we are on track at morning 7:30 AM with our team uniform to click photos. Our photo expert Mr. Rajendra was ready with his camera, different lenses and tripod, and we the models to pose .... LOL.. :).
Our photo expert Raju









Breakfast at 10 am and started further at 11 am from Chamba view. First time in my life I have seen a apple tree with lots of apple on it, and eaten fresh apples by plucking it directly from tree. Owners dialog with his smily face "Jitna chahiye utna lelo sahab, vaisa bhi hame itna nahi chahiye, hum usko bejte bhi nahi he".  I cannot explain the taste, it was simply superb and we cannot get such a crispy and tasty apple over here in Bangalore.



This buetiful 45 km road was fully covered with many historical places like sangam of Zanskar and Indus river, Magnetic hill, Sri Pathar Sahib Gurudwara, the Hall of fame etc. We reached guest house at 3:00 pm after enjoying all these beautiful places.

The day's special lunch was "Masala dosa" and that was the only one different option we found in the hotel, otherwise most of the cases options are only roti, parata or maggie. 


Sangam of  Zanskar and Indus river

In-front of Magnetic Hill. 

The beautiful scene captured by our specialist @Raju, Between Basgo Chakse to Magnetic Hill.

It's a SELFY time.

The One and only "Shay palace"







Chai time.

Roamed around in Leh market and visited two  monasteries, Shay palace and Thiksey gompa. The day ended by visiting Druk White Lotus school which is more famous after 3-idiots movie. Had a great coffee in "Rancho's Coffee shop" and back to our Guest house.

Guest house owner name : Rinchen, Mob 9622959198/9469158996.
Odo : 879 KM
Day ride : 88 KM


6th day : 4th Sep 2014 – Leh to Hunder via Khardung la.
It was the most expected day in our entire trip to reach highest motor-able path of the world. The elevation of Khardungl la is 18379 ft and it is around 40 KM away from Leh. We started at 11 O'clack in the morning, little rainfall and cold weather outside. The full ride was inside cloud, felt like thick fog around us and hardly we can able to see 10-15 ft ahead with high-beam.


South Pullu.

The nature was plotting against us, as soon as we reached south pullu (The place on the way to Khardung la), the road was blocked for two wheelers. We were literally next to snow and also it was spread around the road, that was the main reason why Police restricted us to go further in two wheelers. 

As per our plan we had to reach Hunder but because of bad whether it forced us to adopt plan B. Our ad-hoc plan experts Raju and Navaneeth decided go back to Leh and stay there for one more night. If whether would supports then same trip would be conducted on following day else ride to Pangong Lake (Pongong tso). 
Shanti stoopa


Fun time :) ...

Odo : 939 KM
Day ride : 60 KM


7th Day : 5th Sep 2014 – Leh to Pangong Lake, Back to Leh
Due to sudden climate change we put our plan on hold, road should be clear to take any further decision. To confirm the same we made a call to local police station early in the morning 4:00 am but the result was still negative. Whether was still not good enough to two wheelers. Anyhow there was no point to sit idle in Leh so the next decision was - book a four wheeler and visit Pangong Lake and come back before end of day.

Our guest house owner Rinchen helped us to get a vehicle, we started from guest house at 8:15 in the morning. Passed through worlds second highest motarable path Chang la  at around 11:30 am  (elevation of 17,590 ft), the place was fully covered with snow. 

Photo explains every thing.

Reached Pangong lake at 1:30 pm, it is one of the longest lake in the world, exactly 134 km long but only 30% is lies in India remaining part in Tibet/Chaina. 


Marmot.

The salty water - Pangong Lake

Pangong tso

Pangong tso

It is one and only salty water lake in India and you can feel the exact reflection of blue sky in water. Because of bad whether we unable to see this scenery, it was fully covered with cloud But we experienced this in Sto_mo_ri_ri. Started back from Pangong at around 3:00 pm and reached our guest house at 7:45 pm.
Distance from Leh to Pangong is 130 KM.
Odo : 939 KM
Day ride : 0 KM

8th Day : 6th Sep 2014 – Leh to Chumatang
Good bye Leh, Our three days camp over here was ended with lots of sweet memories and all the way towards Chumatang. The place is around 150 km away from Leh city. As usual we though the days target will be easily achieved because of the distance. But under construction road made our plan ULTA !!!!.. almost 100 km out of 150 was under construction and in one place the road was fully blocked, it was taken around 1 Hr to clear, Thanks to BRO again :). 


Just after passing Leh, Photo describes every thing.


It was evening 6:30 pm when we reach Chumatang. The place speciality is hot water spring, this is because the soil over here is contains huge sulphate content, So heat will be the reaction when it mix with water (around 90 degree in temperature).
Chumatang Village


River next to Chumatang.

Hot water spring

Verities of rooms and houses are available to the tourist people, so you can easily plan to stay over here (Hot water is free to bath ...LOL..). Next to this place one beautiful river is flowing so you can also enjoy by getting into it.
Odo: 1097 KM
Day ride : 158 KM

9th Day : 7th Sep 2014 – Chumatang to Debring Via Tso Moriri
Long way to ride, so plan was to start early in the morning and as per the plan check out done from room at morning 6:15 am, 7:00 am ready to ride. Again there was not any improvement in the road it was same like previous day but now it is increased to 150 km instead of 100.
Under construction road.

On the why to Tso-moriri

One of the pic from Ashwath, (Selected to CBR group- year calendar).

 Before tso moriri lake, there is one more lake called Kyagar-tso, first time we saw a crystal clear reflection of mountains and blue sky in the water. 


Just before tso-moriri & the mirror image reflection in water.



Off-roading.

The reflection of sky in water. tso-moriri

tso-moriri

After having lunch started further from tso-moriri at around 12:30 pm. Spotted some wild animals on the way near Tsokar (Tiberan Ass - called as Kiang). In Tsokar there were many rooms, houses and camps available to stay but it is little costly when compared to other places in Ladakh. 
We were not ready to compromise on that so we decided to stay in Debring (Around 20 km away). Only tent houses are available there to stay and now it was all about tent house, snowfall outside :) .

Hari with Ladakhi little doll... 

Tent house in Debring. our 9th day stay here.

We used to sleep inside the tent normally when we go for trekking, But  in -ve temperature it was first and wonderful experience. 
Odo : 1286
Day ride: 189 km

10th Day : 8th Sep 2014 – Debring to Jispa
Our tent house was just next to Leh-Manali highway NH01, so the route was not at all a problem and it is a one and only road to Manali. Morinig 9:00 am it's time to proceed. Spotted a herd of deer near Lungalacha pass
Sarchu is the one and only option to have lunch, time was 2:30 pm and started towards Keylong. 










The day was  fully filled with challenging experiences, like crossing many Passes (Curved road), ride in minus temperature, snowfall. Even we cannot stop in between because of the altitude and also we cannot ride faster because of cold whether. Constantly we maintained around 30-40 kmph speed and somewhat crossed the pass. Plan was to reach Keylong but the situation made us to stay in Jispa, around 25 km away from Keylong. 


Lodge in Jispa Himachal Pradesh.

Odo: 1506
Day ride: 220 km

11th Day : 9th Sep 2014 – Jispa to Manali Via Rohtang Pass
The day all about Rohtang pass one of the toughest and challenging road, tested our off-roading skills it was an breathtaking moment to us. Reached Bahang (Manali) at evening 6:30 pm, the day halt in Bahang. The place is around 5 km away from the main city of Manali.

The apple tree.. with lots of apple.

Level crossing, one of the Common thing in Leh to Manali road. The water current will be more in afternoon so it is better that cross the path before noon (Only for bikers). 


Odo : 1702 km
Day ride : 196 km

12th  Day : 10th Sep 2014 – Time pass in Manali
The whole day spent like a minute, early morning para gliding, mid day Manali City, evening full of apple farm. You can find many pilots over here but in that most of them are without licence. In our case we come to know this after having  a wonderful gliding over Manali mountains.


Para gliding .

Para-gliding

Fashion pared in the City... 



Paragliding person Name : Shivaram, Mob: 9816446538.
Odo : 1753 km
Day ride : 51 km

13th  Day : 11th Sep 2014 – Manali to Chandigarh
After a well required break it was a fresh morning, all set to go at 6:30 am from Manali. One of the worst road to bikers. The road was fully crowded with trucks, so of-course the dust is default gift from them.. :) . Finally we are in our final destination Chandigarh, Reached our milestone at evening 7:30 am. Happy and excited to our successful ride

Booked a lodge near to Chandigarh railway station.
Odo: 2047 km
Day ride: 294 km

14th  Day : 12th Sep 2014 – Chandigarh  
The day was reserved to pack our bikes back to Bangalore. Shipped our bike in Gati packers and movers. Back to lodge and waiting to a fresh morning. 

13th September 2014 - Chandigarh to Delhi in Train and Delhi to Bangalore in flight. Reached Bangalore at evening 9:30 pm, Back to home at night 11:00 pm.. :) . 


Common preparation
1. Good helmet – LS2/Vega preferable brand, It should be comfortable to your head. Avoid tight helmet it may give pain to your ear or head.
2. Jacket – We all had Spartan jacket with us. To online purchase, link - http://spartanprogear.com/Men.aspx?mc=2
3. Face mask – Face mask is very much important to secure our face from cold and dust. Preferred site http://www.outdoortravelgear.com/
4. Hand Gloves – KNOX/CRAMSTER are preferred brands. Link http://www.outdoortravelgear.com/ .
5. Knee guard – CRAMSTER/KNOX are preferred brands. Link http://www.outdoortravelgear.com/ .
6. Shoe – Waterproof is preferable.
7. Bag – Saddle bags are preferable. Site http://www.outdoortravelgear.com/ , DIRTSACK long-range are fits in any type of bullet also to CBR. VIATERRA Claw is good for naked bikes like Duke, NS etc. Also rain cover to bag is important.
8. Raincoat.
9. Medicine - The army first aid center is available for every 10 km in Ladakh. So it is better to get a guidance from them and take only necessary medicines. 

Vehicle preparation before going to ride
1. Check tire condition – Air check, better if tyre is meant for On/Off road.
2. Anti puncture lubricant – tube less tire won’t be there for bullet so we injected a anti puncture   lubricant to our bullet tyre. Only one place we found in Bangalore it is in Indira Nagar "Moto Adda".
3. Oil check – Extra 1L can (20-50w grade)
4. Chain – Check chain oil (any oil is ok for bullet chain), extra chain clip if chain is little old.
5. Clutch cable – replace if old + 1 extra cable.
6. Throttle cable – Replace if old + 1 extra cable.
7. Brake shoe – Replace if old.
8. Disk Brake – Check break oil, Replace if brake shoe is old.
9. Duplicate key.
10. Tool kit (Default comes with bike is more than enough)
11. After servicing minimum 200 KM local ride.
12. Extra 1 spark plug.
13. Replace battery if old.
14. Mobile charger.

Route map.