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Thirteen days, 2000 Kms, but still that was a fraction of the Himalayas that we covered. Mandi to Leh, Leh to Jammu via Kargil, Leh to Pangong Tso and Leh to Nubra, was the itinerary. As we landed in Mandi tall coniferous trees, green mountains welcomed us into this small town located on the banks of Beas. As we started off from Mandi on a long journey into the Himalayan and Ladakh mountain ranges, light shower blessed us and cleaned the dusty road side trees. As it showered we were riding through the mountain roads to make up for the time we had lost due to the lately arrived bikes. The ride was so awesome with beautiful surroundings, green mountains, tall trees, Beas flowing next to the road all along making scary sound as she gushes through the rocks and boulders on her way. We crossed Manali and headed towards Rohtang, the first pass on our way. The road is in its worst condition and added to this traffic makes the 55 Km journey very tiresome. As we reach Rohtang, the chilly wind and cold welcome us and give us a trailer of what we could be facing going ahead. In Rohtang one could clearly make out what a pass means and its importance in the mountain ranges. It is a fairly large plane land connecting two mountains at a higher altitude that can be helpful in crossing between the mountains.
The greenery ends at Rohtang. As we descend towards Koksar, the grass cover on the mountains is the last sight of greenery for us for the next few hundreds of kms. As the sun descends we still have one third of the planned journey to be done and suddenly we come cross this stream flowing right through the road. The water from the melting snow is so cold that even our bones could feel the cold. It is about 300 meters of road completely in water and full of rocks and boulders. Riding through this is the only option we were left with and we either had to push our bikes through it over the rocks getting our shoes and legs wet or ride through it balancing between the rocks. I still see this ‘Paagal naala’ as it is called, in my dreams even after few months.
As the night was getting darker, we were cruising through these mountain roads to reach Keylong. It was only the next morning that we realized the risk we took by riding our bikes at 70-80Kmph on these roads.
As we leave Keylong, it was a bright sunny morning, but the wind was equally cold. From keylong the terrain is entirely different. Huge tall mountains covered only with soil and rock. No greenery to be seen around for miles, not even grass. Some where in the distance we could see few of these mountains covered with snow. On our way we came across numerous streams that were flowing down the mountains and cutting through the road. We literally had to drive through these streams. The sight of water in this kind of terrain seems unrealistic; the snow on top of the mountains melts to create these streams. The water is so cold even to touch, leave alone drinking. I had never experienced this kind of a terrain before. And riding a bike through this terrain with lot of uncertainties and no human settlements to seek help for hundreds of miles, but there is a road well laid, that is taking us to some larger human settlement in these mountains. Roads built by cutting through the huge mountains that are covered with snow for about two thirds of a year, shows the human struggle with nature. The roads and bridges are destroyed year after year by the covered snow, by the water flowing from top of the mountains through the road. But BRO gets back into action every year to bring the roads back to a usable state. The road as we approached Baralach La, the second highest motor able paas in the world, is so good that we nearly missed the board saying “Baralach La”. Rivers Chandra and Bhagha originate from here and flow down towards Tandi to meet each other and to be called ChandraBhagha. Later this river is called Chinaab as it enters Jammu Kashmir from Himachal Pradesh.
Beyond Baralach La the mountains move away from each other to form a plain land, that we called ‘Sarchu Palin’. A plain land stretching a few Kms in width lined by thousands of feet high mountains on either side A small valley of about a couple of hundred feet created by a river and a road along the path of the river was a fantastic formation to watch. We thoroughly enjoyed the scenery before we halted for the night in a tented accommodation. Sarchu is a temporary settlement, where in people come only to serve the tourists during the season. Though the tents were expensive, it was the need of the hour for us to shelter from the chill wind that blowing through the plains as the sun went behind the mountains. Shridhar experienced his quota of Altitude sickness, though that was not very serious.
The next day as we bid good bye to Sarchu, we knew that this one was a long, about 270 Kms, and interesting journey, that included crossing Nakee La, Lachulung La, TangLang La Gata Loops and Mooray plains. First we across this set of 21 loops (hairpin curves) called the Gata loops that take us close to 1500 feet up in less than few km.s. Then crossing nakee La and Lachulung La, we came across the much awaited Moray plains. Moray plains is a feast for eyes. Though Sarchu was another plain like Moray, that was just a trailer. Moray plains is vast spanning about 20-30 Kms in width and about 70 Kms in Length. After riding through the mountains for 2 and a half days, the bikes seemed to got energetic to see their kind of a terrain and speeded to the max they could get. But this ride wasn’t easy as the BRO is working on widening this stretch of the road. Within no time we covered the plain stretch of moray and were getting ready for another steep climb to Tanglang La.
Reaching Tangalang La, the highest pass in this stretch and the second highest motor able road in the world, wasn’t that difficult except for the cold wind that made staying in the pass for even for few minutes difficult. As we get down TangLang LA, we came across Rumtse, probably the first permanent settlement we saw in the last two days. From here, the there is very little ascent or descent and soon we come across Karu. Few Kms before Karu, we get the first glimpse of the river Indus. Though it looks like a small stream from a distance, only as we cross the bridge over it that we realize, this river is big enough to have given birth to a civilization as she flows down the mountains. And as we cross Karu, we come across the much awaited city of Leh.
The greenery ends at Rohtang. As we descend towards Koksar, the grass cover on the mountains is the last sight of greenery for us for the next few hundreds of kms. As the sun descends we still have one third of the planned journey to be done and suddenly we come cross this stream flowing right through the road. The water from the melting snow is so cold that even our bones could feel the cold. It is about 300 meters of road completely in water and full of rocks and boulders. Riding through this is the only option we were left with and we either had to push our bikes through it over the rocks getting our shoes and legs wet or ride through it balancing between the rocks. I still see this ‘Paagal naala’ as it is called, in my dreams even after few months.
As the night was getting darker, we were cruising through these mountain roads to reach Keylong. It was only the next morning that we realized the risk we took by riding our bikes at 70-80Kmph on these roads.
As we leave Keylong, it was a bright sunny morning, but the wind was equally cold. From keylong the terrain is entirely different. Huge tall mountains covered only with soil and rock. No greenery to be seen around for miles, not even grass. Some where in the distance we could see few of these mountains covered with snow. On our way we came across numerous streams that were flowing down the mountains and cutting through the road. We literally had to drive through these streams. The sight of water in this kind of terrain seems unrealistic; the snow on top of the mountains melts to create these streams. The water is so cold even to touch, leave alone drinking. I had never experienced this kind of a terrain before. And riding a bike through this terrain with lot of uncertainties and no human settlements to seek help for hundreds of miles, but there is a road well laid, that is taking us to some larger human settlement in these mountains. Roads built by cutting through the huge mountains that are covered with snow for about two thirds of a year, shows the human struggle with nature. The roads and bridges are destroyed year after year by the covered snow, by the water flowing from top of the mountains through the road. But BRO gets back into action every year to bring the roads back to a usable state. The road as we approached Baralach La, the second highest motor able paas in the world, is so good that we nearly missed the board saying “Baralach La”. Rivers Chandra and Bhagha originate from here and flow down towards Tandi to meet each other and to be called ChandraBhagha. Later this river is called Chinaab as it enters Jammu Kashmir from Himachal Pradesh.
Beyond Baralach La the mountains move away from each other to form a plain land, that we called ‘Sarchu Palin’. A plain land stretching a few Kms in width lined by thousands of feet high mountains on either side A small valley of about a couple of hundred feet created by a river and a road along the path of the river was a fantastic formation to watch. We thoroughly enjoyed the scenery before we halted for the night in a tented accommodation. Sarchu is a temporary settlement, where in people come only to serve the tourists during the season. Though the tents were expensive, it was the need of the hour for us to shelter from the chill wind that blowing through the plains as the sun went behind the mountains. Shridhar experienced his quota of Altitude sickness, though that was not very serious.
The next day as we bid good bye to Sarchu, we knew that this one was a long, about 270 Kms, and interesting journey, that included crossing Nakee La, Lachulung La, TangLang La Gata Loops and Mooray plains. First we across this set of 21 loops (hairpin curves) called the Gata loops that take us close to 1500 feet up in less than few km.s. Then crossing nakee La and Lachulung La, we came across the much awaited Moray plains. Moray plains is a feast for eyes. Though Sarchu was another plain like Moray, that was just a trailer. Moray plains is vast spanning about 20-30 Kms in width and about 70 Kms in Length. After riding through the mountains for 2 and a half days, the bikes seemed to got energetic to see their kind of a terrain and speeded to the max they could get. But this ride wasn’t easy as the BRO is working on widening this stretch of the road. Within no time we covered the plain stretch of moray and were getting ready for another steep climb to Tanglang La.
Reaching Tangalang La, the highest pass in this stretch and the second highest motor able road in the world, wasn’t that difficult except for the cold wind that made staying in the pass for even for few minutes difficult. As we get down TangLang LA, we came across Rumtse, probably the first permanent settlement we saw in the last two days. From here, the there is very little ascent or descent and soon we come across Karu. Few Kms before Karu, we get the first glimpse of the river Indus. Though it looks like a small stream from a distance, only as we cross the bridge over it that we realize, this river is big enough to have given birth to a civilization as she flows down the mountains. And as we cross Karu, we come across the much awaited city of Leh.
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