Keylong to Pang ... and on to Leh

There was no post for the third day as there was no connectivity and the boys were cut off from their famlies back home for more than one-and-a-half days. They came in range only today afternoon to tell us these bits and pieces.

Day 3: The six bikers got up early yesterday and kick-started their bikes. They proceeded to Baralacha-La Pass at 16,500 feet and on to Sarchu. There were two more high passes - Lachlung-La and Naki-La - to be crossed before they reached tented accomodation at Pang to halt for the night.

Day 4: Got up early in the morning again, today, climbed the Tanglang-La Pass at a height of 17,582 feet - the second highest motorable mountain pass in the world - and reached Leh at about 2.30 pm in the afternoon. Arranged for permits to visit Khardungla Pass on the next day. Found a nice shelter to have a night's rest.

Manali to Keylong

The boys had a nice sleep after a long day's ride.

Two bikes needed mechanic's attention and it was 2 p.m. by the time the bikes got tuned up.

They started at 2.30 p.m., crossed Rohtang Pass - the highest motorable road - in a hurry before its scheduled closure at 4 pm. They hardly got any time to stand and stare.. What a pity! 

It was cold and windy thereafter and they could hardly cruise at 20 kmph to reach Keylong at 7.30 pm to halt for the night.

They planned to get up early this morning and leave for Leh.. 

A Tough Ride On Day One

When the going gets tough, the tough get going..

Anurag and his biker friends could start a bit late - around 6.45 a.m. - yesterday morning and had a princely breakfast on the outskirts of Panipat. They faced scorching sun till Chandigarh and halted for lunch some 50 kms beyond Chandigarh around twoish, still having more than 300 kms to go on a hilly track.

As they entered Himachal, it was a bit cooler. They crossed Mandi enjoying the beauty of nature. Then, the bikes started lodging their protest. Mechanical failures on the route were difficult to handle, with mechanics, like our good old Appu Bhaiyya in Indore, nowhere in sight for miles.

As they stopped for evening tea around dusk, a realization began to dawn upon them that they had miles to go and it would be tough once darkness sets in. The blue-green sparkling river by the road had started turning darker and darker by the time they reached a dhaba just before Kullu and stopped for dinner.

They felt a bit tired but still in great spirits to proceed. Usually, bikers break this long 550kms plus stretch from Delhi to Manali into two days. They wanted to have a hard ride on the first day which  gave them a lot of tough time as bonus. Around midnight, there was some confusion regarding the location of resort they had to check into - was it in Kullu or Manali? 

They carried on with their journey well beyond midnight facing the challenge of giant mountains silently and reached their accomodation in Manali after 1.30 in the shorter hours of the morning. Must be having a deep sleep right now after more than a day's of adventourous ride. They have to get a bike repaired in the morning before they start off on a 150 km mountaineous ride to Sarchu where it all begins..