Riding to Khardung La

This Video courtsey Apjoo.

Hez shaking Partly because of the cold and Partly coz hez high on Diamox :). Sandhu sliding and sherry pushing on Ice. Enroute Khardung La

Pangong Tso - Leh - Khardung La

Day 8
every time the ride conversation comes up the most asked question is! "How many days did you reach Leh?" , and i calculate every time, i don't even remember because it doesn't matter, what we have been through ,getting to Leh, is what matters:

The rented bikes somehow managed to reach leh. We split in Leh into 2 groups. we (me, Sandhu Sherry) stayed for a night at the army mess and the others took up a hotel.

and yeah just before reaching Leh the road from Karu to Leh was so amazing, that we went berserk, all of us. :) what do you expect 7 days of butt ache and then you get a road like that: whose gonna hold back.
We had dinner with Capt Priyansh who was planning to cycle up the next day yo Kla, wonder what happened of him! because the day after we found out of fresh snow there.

Day 9
We had kept this as a rest Day, so we had a decent breakfast, In a German Bakery Gesmo i think. Excellent food.

Shopped in the Leh Market, it was rainy that day and we were shopping. i hated that portion of the trip.

Then finally some sanity prevailed and we went to Shanti Stupa.









Thiksey and Also Shey Palace here are the Pics.



The 2 storey Padm Sambhava Statue @Thiksey


Day 10
EUPHORIA: i do understand now, whats the meaning of this word.
We had to ride to Khardung La today. Some of us had planned to do Nubra as well which we could not.

When we started i had no special feeling, for Apjoo this was it. He had missed Pangong just so he could ride to Kla, in fact he rode from Delhi just for this, and his excitement was evident: he was ripping ahead of all of us, high on Diamox: he wanted to get there quickly.

This without a doubt was the BEST day in the ride.."Paisa vasool day" and you will know after looking at the Pics.

I don't know about others but on reaching the top i felt so much of euphoria, i don't know why?
Highest Motor able road in the World: 18380 Ft : half way to Mt Everest wow!, I'm sure my emotions got the better of me a couple of times.

till now we rode over Stones Mud, dirt, boulders ,slush gravel etc etc, Today it was going to be Ice. yeeehaaa

It was so cold our fingers turned blue despite the protection, this stop was just to warm our hands, sherry at the back using the engine, Sandhu on the right tucked away for engine heat and me gripping the silencer.










Waiting at South Pullu Sliding on Ice

Akhils rented bike in the meanwhile was giving trouble, Amar Pandey and Akhil were way behind repairing a broken accel cable. We were stopped at South Pullu because the route was not clear due to snow. Thank god for the Bukhari at the army post we had a breather from the cold.

Kunal on the other hand after the puncture at Pangong decide to skip this ride altogether..he was sleeping at the hotel :)


So that was our euphoric moment at Kla.

We headed back to Leh later in the day after spending more than 2 hours on top and buying souvineers. Apjoo bought a whole crokery set.

Chandigarh - Lahul and Spiti - Pangong Tso

We had all started this trip with different or no expectations and emerged with a completely new experience. (I think i can say this for all involved)

It was a tough ride no rosy picture, at times i had the feeling if we had bitten into more than we could chew, and i have no qualms in accepting "ki phat gayi thi" but at the same time there were moments that made it magical, the Snow at Khardungla, the solitude at More plains( yeah there was dust too ;-) ) Kinnaur Landscape (Tunnels on the road... remember) and the Joy of getting a 20 ft stretch of Asphalt when we covered 60 kms in 5 hours.

For me it started on the 29th of July, Me and Apjoo.We started late.... :) . And i had this problem throughout the ride ...i just kept getting Late all the time :)) (no offence meant guys)

We had an uneventfull ride upto chandigarh, burnt ouselves in the HOT sun, Reached Amar's place in Chandigarh and relaxed a bit. Spent the Night at Sherry's place.

Sandhu had reached chandigarh, Sherry late in the evening and me and Apjoo too Amar of course stayed in chandigarh.

Here are the 6 of us

Me-Gurgaon (troubled by time, i coudnt sort this out thru out the ride :))

Apjoo- Gurgaon (he had everything packed candel,umbrella: you name it, he had it)

Sandhu - Pune (he coudnt find gloves that fit him "Yeti beware")

Sherry- Bangalore (He was our tracking beacon)

Amar - Chandigarh (talk less ride more)

Pandey- Kolkata (Where the F&*& is he, no horn, no mirror all all you see is: him zip past)

Day 1

Our start from Chandigarh had to be on time, 4 :00 am sharp: Kharcham was a long way away.
Pandey reached Chd only early morning , his flight delayed, and we put him straight on the bike for a long day ahead. (sorry Pandey :) )
We started at 6:00 i think..

Sherry, Apjoo and Amar waiting for the ride to begin

Sherry, Apjoo and Amar STILL waiting for it to begin

It started getting quite cold on way to Narkhanda. A hearty lunch at Narkhanda and we were off again. After that came the entrance to Kinnaur the landscape change delightfully after that. Roads cut out of the mountains made us feel like kids, jostling for a photograph.

Sandhu and Sherry sharing the Lime light: sorry tunnel light

we reached Kharcham after a 12 hour ride and some bad roads towards the end. Her's my landing place for the night where everyone posed to claim it their own

Day 2
It started Raining on Day 2. Thanks to Sandhu we covered all our bags in blue tarpaulin that lasted us the entire trip, no to mention the different sized plastics he had for mob. phones cameras and garbage bags.. he had it all Thanks Sandhu.
This was the only day we coudnt complete outr trip to Kaza and halted at Tabo, and thankfully at that. Tabo is a great place to stay :small village: Phirangs: a german Bakery: Israieli and italian food: a very old monastery and a lot of peace and quiet. Tabo is a great place to stay, the monastery offers decent rooms and there is another guest house, Himanchal tourism i think, which was unfortunately overbooked by the army so we could not get it.here are 2nd day shots.

Apjoo riding on slush

This was a nice place: huge waterfall, we clicked a few here, and all 6 of us are here from Left to right Amar, Me,Apjoo,Sherry,Pandey,Sandhu








No Yeti boots that, Rain protection for Sherry! :)





The terrain was bad but the Views were Awesome

Tabo Town and Tabo Monastery on the right.

Day 3

We began early this day to cover up the lost distance last day. Only to find out that the Kaza pet pump will open at 9:00. We had to wait for Petrol.

We started off as soon as we topped up on petrol towards Kye monastery.

Just check out the view of the KYE monastery in the background.This was the first monastery we visited and it was great, a must see if you come this side.

The road on the right straight up to Kye and Kibber, turn left on the bridge towards Kunzum Top, i think Kunzum was 78 km from here, and boy what a bumpy stretch that was after a few kms from the bridge.




We stopped at this dhaba before Losar to Have Tea and i started feeling a headache...the bike wasnt doing more than 70 at full throttle in 5th gear, "we were high up" twinkle*

The road upto Kunzum La was a stone path, it was bumpy and steep.

towards Kunzum La

Kunzum Finally on the right, every vehicle goes round this temple before leaving.

But our troubles were'nt over, the ride to Chandrataal was bad, stoney bumpy,wet and steep too. We managed to reach Chandrataal on an awfully cold evening. It seemed to be a never ending track to chandrataal. Its on the Detour towards Batal

The road/river enroute Chandrataal

Sherry lost his silencer on this road

Frankly its not worth going on a bike, If you want to trek there its good, it isnt something you will miss if you ride through there, there are better places. Its famous i think because it lies on the trekking route. Although we had food and and tents to survive the night at chandrataal, we were thankfull to god to find this Dhaba there in Tents, he had food, beding, everything you can ask for in a place like that.
Oh and Just for information he opens 4 moths a year july to Sept, so if you plan to go there he will be there
The Dhaba that made us comfy in Chandrataal (Chandra dhaba).

Chandrataal for you. Chandrataal was at the same height approx as Kunzum, so we were camping really high. Some of us were down with Headache. One of us. :)

Day 4

Today we had to reach Keylang and Hit the Manali Leh Highway. The ride to Gramphoo was bumpy. We covered 60 kms in 5 hours,

This the reason we took that much time. :).Reaching
the manali leh higway was such a relif, we found this road
a nice ride compared to Lahul spiti roads.

Relif after reaching the manali Leh Highway. and it was a freezing day to ride. Snow on all mountain tops and clouds: it was like a freezer in many parts. the wind was really biting in.

We stayed at Chandra Bhaga in Keylong HP tourism guest house. It was really nice. The shot on the left was from my Bed in the 6 room dorm we got. I managed the best location again he he..

Day 5

Had to reach Pang today. The first Pass was Baralach La: we were all excited. Enroute were Deepak Tal and Suraj Tal.

Deepak Tal on the left

Suraj Tal on the Right

The Ascent to Baralachla was smooth roads, I almost missed the top it was somewhat of a dissapointment. Just a little board, i guess we were expecting too much :)

Amazing Scenery enroute to Pang this was one of the best rides especially towards the end, terrific mountains of Dirt. Also Gata loops, Nakee La and Lachulang La pass. Here are the pics

Finally we reached Pang, to find out that it was one of the highest transit camps in the world at over 16000 ft i guess. Pandey and Apjoo HAD oxy shots there and were HIGH on it.

Day 6

We could have reached Leh today, but we stopped at Karu so we could go to Pang Gong Tso the next day, a relaxed day of riding with Mori plains and Tanglang la enroute.

We got covered heat to toe and insides as well in loose dirt in mori plains, i got stuck behind a truck and he made me pay for it. It was difficult riding on half a foot of fluffy dust, the bike was skiddin all over, wasn't for long though.

Tanglang La ("unbelieaveable is not it?") was also a steep climb, the road was also a bit rough towards the top.

Mori Plains: Tanglang la: Just before Karu

Day 7

Destination Pang gong Tso today. And the mighty Chang La enroute. A tough climb that sucked our Petrol, i ran low on it while returning and was paranoid about it. Sherry too ran low but his bike made it back. I got some extra fuel from Some guys who had come from Bangalore. Snow at Changla was awesome.

Tip: carry extra Fuel to Pangong Tso lake, Changla is thirsty as hell.

Pangong Tso was Awesome, unfortunately Our Cameras did not do justice to the place. Akhil and Kunal had also joined us here on there rented bikes.

PS do not come on rented bikes here they are a pain, Kunals bike got punctured and it was a nothing short of a miracle that Akhils bike was running, all credit to Army EME engineers.

We stayed at the beautifull Tangtse mess that day and next day were off to Leh.

The remainder of the Log Later. Damm it was a long trip

The photostream which by no means is complete is at
http://picasaweb.google.com/nitin1joshi/LahulSpitiLeh

this is just my Camera we plan to collate it and put it on the later so till then enjoy these shots.

PS: SPL mistakes should be overlooked! i'm really bad at this :) ..