[aviorp]

It is a dream for anyone to witness the mighty Himalyas, with its snow capped mountains, mystical lakes, glaciers & valleys. As for a biker, riding their favorite machine in those treacherous terrains & winding roads, is a bliss. Though Ladakh does offer most of it, 'Land of the Gods', has its unique offering - lush green meadows & innumerable waterfalls. Traversing through the pristine greenery to the highest plateau in India was indeed a dream come true for the three of us.

Before I post the day wise events, here is a summary with few short videos, that pretty much sums up our ride. Hope you guys enjoy it!
(Please pardon me for my amateurish editing)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtvZbTbONGQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob7RKiUDNIc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA8DaMV0vW0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIfzIQcPfdc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni8KuUN_7d4

Summary

This ride was done between August 25th & September 15th 2017.

Riders

Avinash: Yamaha R3
Joshua: Duke 390
Bibhuti: Dominar 400

Route

Itinerary: Plan vs Execution

[aviorp]

Planning Phase

Preparing for a ride, that may last over a period of 3 weeks, requires a lot of planning & the foremost thing, for me especially, was to convince my wife. Fortunately, she dint have any qualms, even though it was less than a year ago I rode to Arunachal (Nov 2016) & was away for over 20 days. Financially & emotionally, she was my backbone during this whole phase of planning (even now ). Most importantly her support in taking care of our little one (who was then a year old) allowed me to run around doing the chores at my pace. The bachelors (back then) took care of their stuff and things were slowly beginning to fall in place.

Bibs, Josh & I have known each other for a few years and have done multiple rides together. Since I had been to both Himachal & Ladakh earlier, it was easier for me to sketch the route map. We all agreed upon certain dates that would fit our requirement & split certain tasks between us with one being to exercise regularly & be fit, which is critical on such long distance rides.

On the top of my checklist was a rear luggage carrier. I researched a lot about one for the R3 but some of them were either over priced or it was not available here. So, I had to customize it and had something in mind which I was hoping to explain to someone who could execute it. This is when I had the opportunity to meet 'Bali' sir, who owns 'MotoKraft' in Vijayanagar. He was as excited as me explaining how he could get what I wanted, which gained my confidence and did a fabulous job for a reasonable price. It may not be aesthetically pleasing but did what it was meant to.

Rear Carrier on my R3

Dirtsack panniers on Josh's D390 & Bibhuti's brand new D400

While Bibs was running in his new steed, Josh & I did a test run to Kodachadari, in June. This to me was the perfect terrain, to test how well the carriers held on my bike and the panniers on the Duke. This was also the time for Josh to experience the Sena, which a good friend lent it - Thank you 'Mahesh(ku69rd)' for lending it. He realized how it enhanced the ride & relished it. He later convinced Bibs to pick up one too and they ordered a pair from the US. He also got a set of aluminium fuel cans, as the plastic one's he tested were not durable.

The purpose of this ride was fruitful in many ways: No rattles/squeaks/loose nuts from my rear carrier nor from the panniers on the Duke. I got a fair bit of idea to organize the stuff on my Viaterra Claw so it would be easily accessible when needed. Then, Josh got a taste of what it would be like riding in the mountains for a few hundreds of kms

Thanks to Josh for this lovely video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8QoeSAIzSw

We later did a short ride to Dandiganahalli Dam to practice pitching a tent. Honestly, we just needed a reason to ride.



Two worthy investments were a pair of gum boots & water proof gloves

The final one on the checklist was the bike itself. Besides the normal service, replaced the stock tyre's with a set of Michelin Pilot street radial (Pic 1 & 2) and the stock headlights with Osram H7 P64210 Night Breaker lights (Pic 3 & 4). Pic 5- Ilangovan, is a kind and friendly mechanic. Did a great job in making sure the bike was in perfect condition. Pic 6 - A little grooming.

[aviorp]

Bengaluru - Amritsar

Route: Bengaluru-Pune-Vadodara-Ajmer-Hanumangarh-Amritsar
Distance: 2800 Kms
Started: August 25th, Friday - 2PM.
Reached : August 29th, Tuesday - 10AM.
Interesting Event: Curfew in Punjab/Haryana.

The initial plan was to start around 9PM, as we had decided to ride through the night. The idea was to sleep well the previous day, in order to cover the maximum distance riding through the night on Day 1 & the whole of Day 2 there by targeting Ahmedabad as our first base. As the D-Day got close, we decided to leave in the noon, packed some home food & planned to meet near Vidhana Soudha around 1PM. Some of our good friends joined to see us off. Thank you Santosh (rk_sans) and Nischal for joining us.

The journey began on the auspicious day of Ganesha Chaturthi

Late lunch somewhere near Sira



Long way to go

Though we were well prepared for the rains, the downpour simply got incessant. At one point we were exhausted and riding in the dark made it even worse, with the rain God's showing no mercy and every other passing truck splashing mucky water all over us, we had no choice but to take frequent breaks which reduced our pace quite a lot.

The first tunnel we encountered

Birla Ganapati Mandir

After riding for 16 hours, we reached the outskirts of Pune around 6 & found a dhaba to stop for some tea. While Josh used this break to took a nap, Bibs & I made a short video of the epic ride from Bengaluru to Pune

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK_qCB6sK8I

After a good long break, we decided to ride as there were no signs of the rain stopping. This was pretty much the scene the whole day.

27th Aug: Around 6 in the evening, somewhere around Vapi, we stopped at a petrol bunk as the rains got quite heavy. This is when a truck driver, mentioned about a curfew in Punjab & all highways were closed. I made a few calls to understand what was going on and learnt Ram Rahim Singh was arrested and there was a curfew. We were exhausted, angry, speechless and were definitely not in the right frame of mind to ride. So, we just decided to first find a place to halt. Luckily we found a good place to stay and watching the news, we learnt, it was not just Punjab, there was no entry to Haryana as well. It kind of shattered our hopes of any possibility of reaching Himachal nor Jammu. After a few phone calls and lots of discussions, we decided to ride the next morning since it would take us a couple of days to reach Punjab & hopefully things would get better by then.

The following day, we rolled out around 7AM and managed to cover some good distance with shorter breaks, with rains on & off. Reached Udaipur around 4PM & stopped for lunch covering around 600 Kms in 10 hours. Decided to push as much as we could before calling it day in Ajmer around 10PM. In all a good 850 Kms.

28th Aug: After a good long sleep, we began our day around 8AM. As we hit the highway, the rain hit us. It was like the rain was travelling with us
Soon after the exit from Kishangarh, we were on the single lane stretch towards Hanumangarh. The road is well paved in most parts but has quite a few railway crossings & villages, that reduced our average speed. In addition we did some photoshoot in this stretch and took ample amount of breaks, before we finally reached Hanumangarh around 8PM.

.

After a sumptuous meal, we headed towards Abohar & soon noticed a whole lot of trucks parked on either side of the road and a makeshift checkpost. Fearing the worst, we approached the cop and asked if we could be permitted to go. He politely refused and asked us to wait till 8AM the next day, as the curfew might be removed, but we had no other choice than to wait. While Bibs and Josh, went looking for a place for us to stay, I approached the truck drivers to check if there were any other alternate routes. Just then, an Inspector drove towards us, from the other end & some of the drivers rushed towards him and after a brief conversation, he soon asked them to leave. I wasn't sure if this only for trucks but thought I'll give it a try and explained him our plight - it worked like a charm. He said, 'Aap hamara mehmaan ho' and do not worry, take down my number and if anyone stops you, give them my name. I was elated & quickly asked the other two to get going. He was kind enough to take pic a with us too. Thank you Sirji!

Though we were happy that the Inspector let us go, we were unsure about what might happen in the morning. More so, if the curfew was not called off, we might be stuck for a day or even more. So, with a heavy heart had to drop the plans of visiting the Golden Temple & simply exit Amritsar as fast as we could and head towards Khajjiar. However, we were running short of fuel & were wondering if there would be any bunks open. Fortunately, we found an Essar bunk around 2AM in the morning. We requested the attendant to fill our jerry cans as well, as we had a long way to go but he exclaimed they were instructed not to fill any bottle's or cans due to the curfew. A little while later, seeing our plight, he agreed to filled our cans - Thank you guys!

We came across quite a few checkposts but there were no real hindrance anywhere. By morning, as we approached Amritsar, everything appeared normal and people all over with good traffic, which was a blessing in disguise as we were eager to visit Wagah border & Golden Temple. Checked into a hotel and rested for a few hours before heading to Wagah around 3PM and then to the Golden Temple. We could not help but talk about the events that unfolded on this day and how fortunate we were.

Fabulous stretch of roads to Amritsar

At the Wagah Border

Majestic Golden Temple

After the visit to the temple, it was time for a small celebration & treat ourselves with some refreshments for all the hard riding we had done in the last 4 days. We crashed quite late and were super excited for the next league of our journey. Fortune did favour the brave during this league.

[aviorp]

Amritsar - Srinagar

Route: Amritsar-Khajjiar-Bairagarh-Sach Pass-Killar-Kishtwar-Srinagar
Distance: 730 Kms
Started: 30th Aug, Wednesday - 9AM
Reached: 5th Sep, Sunday - 6PM
Interesting Event: Riding on the most dangerous road in India.

It felt like a typical weekend, as we woke up late after a good long sleep. Had some delicious breakfast and got our steeds cleaned. We had just a little over 200kms to cover for the day, so we decided to roll out quite late. Covered the first 100 odd kms, to Pathankot, in a couple of hours & the road towards Khajjiar gave us the first taste of riding in the twisties along with some scintillating views. We stopped at various places for both pics & trying some local cuisines, before reaching Khajjiar around 7. The following day, after spending sometime in Khajjiar, we started by 10 towards Bairagarh. Refueled our bikes and the jerry cans at Chamba, as we were venturing into some of the most remote parts of India.

Mini Switzerland

One of the many waterfalls in this stretch

Amazing Vistas

An effort to capture the lightning

Sept 1st: If riding on this terrain was not tough enough, the rains made it even tougher. I was only hoping that we would not encounter any landslides, as I had experienced it in my previous visit to this very place back in 2012. With our luggages packed, we set out by 7.

Satrundi Checkpost

The slippery terrain got our average speeds to probably less than 10, but it did not quite matter as we were here exactly for this. Did this whole stretch at our own pace and enjoyed every passing curve with some mind boggling views of the pristine valley, glaciers and waterfalls. Here is a short glimpse of what we witnessed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ-YCEH10NY

After a quick stopover at the Bagatu checkpost, we tried to increase our pace a little but the slushy terrain made sure we dint. I was hoping to reach Tiyari by 6 or 7, but there was a landslide and we lost quite sometime waiting for it be cleared. At dusk, we decided to stayback in Ishtiyari but finding a place was not easy. There was probably just one house but the owner of the place asked us to check a little ahead, when asked if there were any places around to stay. We could not find anything & returned to his place and asked if we could pitch in our tent, as there was some concrete flat surface, in front of his house. Luckily, the kind man not only provided us a room to stay but also cooked food by getting fresh vegetables from his backyard. Later, we found a gentleman who lent us his phone, so we could inform our families about our whereabouts, who refused to take money for the calls we made. These are the smaller, yet significant moments that makes these rides even more special, as it lets us forget the struggle we had to endure riding in those tough terrains. A memorable day to relish. Few pics enroute!

2012 and 2017

Somewhere in the forest, after crossing the Sansari bridge

Chocolate sauce as we fondly called it

Had it not been for this..

..we would have not experienced his hospitality

Sep 2nd: This was the day we were eagerly anticipating - to ride on the famous stretch of paddar valley. Will let the pics do the talking!

Gulabgarh

Enroute Kishtwar

Reached Kishtwar around 5 and found a decent place to halt for the night. Got our bikes cleaned and had a good rest. The following day was a quiet & peaceful ride to Srinagar via Sinthan Top.











After checking into a hotel, we freshened up & took a stroll along Dal Lake. Had a sumptuous meal & crashed for the day.

[aviorp]

Srinagar - Pangong

Route: Srinagar-Kargil-Leh-Nubra-Shyok-Pangong
Distance: 685 Kms
Started: 4th September, Monday - 9AM
Reached: 8th September, Friday - 6PM
Interesting Event: Rode to Khardung La on my Birthday

At this stage of our journey, we were just one day behind schedule and I knew even though we had completed one of the toughest circuit, we had another one waiting for us at the end which might be equally tough - Spiti Valley. So, we had to find a way to get that additional day. We discussed this on our way to the land of the Lamas. Over years, the roads leading to Leh have improved and the ride was quite smooth, but the transition from lush green picturesque views in Himachal to the Barren mountains is Leh is incredible. Some pics enroute to Kargil & Leh.

Local Delicacies

Shanti Stupa

Adi joined us enroute Leh and rode with us till Chandigarh

Picked this up for my little one

Plan was to take two days off in Leh and visit some monasteries. However, to make up for the lost time and considering we still had to do Spiti, we settled for a day's off. Sep 7th, on my Birthday (lucky me), we rode to Khardung La - the most sort after destination for a biker in India & to Nubra Valley. We could not make it to Turtuk, as we lost a lot of time in Khardung La due to snow. Had to break at Diskit.

Birthday Gift - Snow!

Petrol Bunk at Diskit

Diskit to Pangong via Shyok

[aviorp]

Pangong - Bangalore

Route: Pangong-Manali-Chandigarh-Delhi-Nagpur-Bangalore
Distance: 3323 Kms
Started: 9th Sep, Saturday - 7AM
Reached: 15th Sep, Friday - 4PM
Interesting Event: Rode 1720 Kms in 33 hours

After a night halt in Pang, from Pangong, we were closing in on our next small adventure to Spiti. However, somewhere during this league, Bibs changed his mind and wanted to ride back. My efforts to convince him turned futile but he was fine with me & Josh continuing with the plan. We decided against that idea and ditched Spiti, as it was more important that we do the ride together. Though it was disappointing, I knew, I had another reason to ride back . Final set of pics.

Chang La

The famous Z

How about 'Isle of Man' here

This place is like Nandi Hills

Service in Chandigarh

Enroute Delhi

Keeping ourselves hydrated in the scorching heat

From Jhansi to Hyderabad, it took us close to 23 hours with some heavy rains in UP. While Bibs had a stop over in Hyderabdad, Josh & I rode back home - covering a distance of 1720 Kms in 33 hours

All 3 bikes did exceptionally well in different terrains & weather conditions

Will wrap up this log with one of my favorite quotes:
"Take a journey, soar like an eagle, there are so many roads to explore, so little time"

Thank you for reading. Ride Safe!

[Sheel]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[rk_sans]

Awesome Avi. finally because of the Corona effect you got time to pen this down and we were fortunate to read this now. I guess reading this, most of them would have questions on how R3 could manage kistwhar area then this travelogue is the answer for it. What set of tires you had that time ? Was it the same set for North East you did ? How was the behaviour of them on "Chocolate Sauce" ?

[gkveda]

Awesome journey and fantastic summary.


Am more interested in the performance of the bikes, any unusual events like fall or slip, bike repairs etc

Sorry for being negative but am planning similar journey on my Dominar. So would like to prepare myself for the worst through your experience

Kindly let me know

[aviorp]

Originally Posted by rk_sans

Awesome Avi. What set of tires you had that time? Was it the same set for North East you did?

Thank you Santu. The Michelin Street radials were much better than the MRF's I had during our Arunachal ride.

How was the behaviour of them on "Chocolate Sauce"?

The sauce was overflowing in Himachal . Just after Tiyari, there were a couple of slushy steep stretch, where I lost traction & the other two had to give it a little push. The weight of the luggage I had on the bike may have also played a role, but otherwise there were no issues.

Originally Posted by gkveda

Awesome journey and fantastic summary

Thank you gkveda.

Am more interested in the performance of the bikes

There were no problems with any of the bikes. We pushed them as much as we could have pushed ourselves. No repairs or any other issues.

any unusual events like fall...planning similar journey on my Dominar

This depends on the rider more than the bike. The Dominar is an excellent bike & capable of conquering these terrains with ease, as it did during our ride. Go ahead with your plans

[GTO]

Moving this to our motorcycle forum for the bike fans . Going to homepage very shortly . Thanks for sharing!

[mh09ad5578]

Excellent travelogue! Riding, days on together continuously in rains can be daunting. I did Leh in 2012 and Spiti 2016. Your travels brought back beautiful memories. These are truly lands of the gods, extremely beautiful and extremely thrilling places to ride. The adrenaline rush can make you feel ALIVE! Just curious, what was the odo reading on the Duke? Yours and the Dominar seem to be fairly new bikes. Thanks for sharing

[arun_josie]

Very nice travelogue with detailed information and some excellent pics. 23 days of riding with just two rest days, amazing!

[Laxman9192]

Really nice travelogue. I wish to travel to Leh by road myself one day, your travelogue inspires me to pursue and plan to accomplish this dream soon.

[ku69rd]

Lovely writeup Avi, just like our honorable Saar you seem to be taking the R3 all through.

When do we plan for Spiti??