Trip de LEH

The Biker Fraternity has done a lot of traveling across K’taka, TN, kerala, Andhra and Goa and the 1 eyed Jack “my bike” has almost clocked 35,000 kms doing so. All of us just went down to Gokarna and I must say it was a very satisfying ride for me personally, as I got the chance to ride my baby who missed the action couple of times. After our tyre marks have run over most of the hills down south, all we can cast our eyes on are “ The Mighty HIMALAYAS”.

We are still working out on the dates so that every biker gets this once in a lifetime opportunity to live their dream. The tentative month for this one hell of a journey has been slated for June. We would be traveling to a region where you’ll get to see so many lunatic suicide jihadis walking in the streets just like the maddening crowd one gets to see in Ranganathan street , T Nagar.

The Trip would start from Chennai as both the biker brothers Sandy and Raul head towards B’lore where they would meet the rest of the bikers.

June 6- Morning 3am. Head towards Bangalore. Bikers Sandy and Raul on bikes Avenger and Pulsar respectively.

June 6- Reach B’lore by 9am. Head towards the restaurant in tavarekere road and then to the workshop at Banashakari for final check-up for the bikes. CHE- B’LORE- 333 KMS

June 7- Reach Panaji, Goa. B’LORE TO GOA-600 KMS

June 8- Reach Mumbai, Maharashtra. GOA TO MUMBAI-600 KMS

June 9- Reach Ahmedabad, Gujrat. MUMBAI TO AHMEDABAD-545 KMS

June 10- Reach Jaipur, Rajasthan. AHMEDABAD TO JAIPUR- 657 KMS

June 11- Reach Delhi. JAIPUR TO DELHI- 258 KMS

June 12- Reach Chandigarh, Punjab & Haryana. DELHI TO CHANDIGARH-238 KMS

June 13- Reach Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir. CHANDIGARH TO SRINAGAR- 646 KMS

June 14- Reach LEH, Jammu & Kashmir-SRINAGAR TO LEH-

June 15- Reach Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. SRINAGAR TO SHIMLA-

June 16- Reach Dehradun, Uttarakhand. SHIMLA TO DEHRADUN-

June 17- Reach Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. DEHRADUN TO LUCKNOW-

June 18-- Reach Ranchi, Jharkhand. LUCKNOW TO RANCHI-

June 19- Reach Bhubneshwar, Orissa. BHUB’WAR TO HYDERABAD-

June 20- Reach Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. HYDERABAD- CHENNAI-

June 21- Reach Chennai, Tamil Nadu

View India Map in : Hindi, Kannad, Malayalam, Nepali, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, English

This is just a rough idea as to how we could go about it. My plan is to touch all the Capital of every State for the entire trip making it one of the highlights of this trip. If you guys have other ideas about shorter routes etc please do let me know. I’m sure we would require another 7-10 days for

Sightseeing and not to mention the technical snags we will encounter with our bikes on the way.

I have gone through few sites and just read the posts written by few bike enthusiasts who were describing their journey to Leh. The information provided can give us an clear cut insight as to how

it could be 12,000 ft above sea level.

The following link also give gyan on how to prepare yourself for such a long trip and so on.

http://www.bikeindia.in/tipstricks/safetytips/Winter-Riding/

Planning
Get a map and familiarize yourself with the route.

Leh, the capital of Ladakh is situated at an altitude of 11,483 feet. It is nestled in the mighty Himalayas, surrounded by some of the highest peaks in the world. There are two routes linking Leh to the rest of the world. The longer one is via Srinagar and involves riding up from the Kashmir valley side. The shorter route, is via Manali. Starting from Delhi, the 570km ride to Manali can comfortably be done in 12-14hours. The real adventure however, starts the next day. The 480km odd distance should ideally be completed in two days, with a stopover at Sarchu admist camps. The road before Sarchu is the worst patch on the Manali-Leh highway on any given year with maximum streams flowing untamed on the road. The Manali-Leh highway remains operational from June to early October, sometimes even opening in November if there is no snowfall. We, however, recommend you go before October, as the chances of snowfall are quite high. This route also involves traversing four high altitude passes, which should never be attempted after evenings as the chances of visibility going down due to fog / snowfall is very high.

Last but not the least, always talk to truck and taxi drivers coming your way for the latest updates on the road ahead. It is not uncommon for small bridges to break down on this route.


Essential items

This is not your regular long weekend road trip but probably one of the toughest routes anywhere in the world. The weather is totally unpredictable, steep, unpaved roads are common and the high altitude will rob you and your machine of a lot of power. Pack essential items like maps, route guide, all essential electronic devices like watches, cameras with an extra set of batteries. Hydration packs make sense here too - you might be fooled into believing that your body doesn’t need water in cold weather.

But infact, at high altitudes, to combat syndromes like AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness), regular fluid intake helps.The Manali-Leh highway has a shortage of fuel pumps and in case you wish to wander off the course to locations like the Pangong Tso lake, do carry extra fuel in 10 / 20 L jerry cans which can be tied with the rope with the saree guard.

Also, carry a water-proof sheet to cover all your luggage. It does rain a lot (and snow at high altitudes) between July and October, so better be prepared for it. Ditto for water proof riding gear.