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This is a travelogue of our motorcycle ride from Bangalore to Ladakh and back, in September 2023 on a Honda Africa Twin 1100 and a BMW R1250 GS.

I follow my heart … and it usually leads me to the motorcycle!

TL;DR

Annual ride 2023 from Bangalore to cover the Leh-Ladakh circuit has been a phenomenon that's going to stay in our memories for our lifetime. It was massive in terms of the distance covered, number of days taken, variables in terms of weather, altitude, terrain, road conditions, some days of extreme off-roading, etc. The toughest part for us riders (Deepak and I) was the fact that we rode heavy ~250 kilo motorcycles in some of the toughest terrains our Country offers along with pillions and luggage on the motorcycles.

Of course, a big shout out to our pillions Sandhya & Varuni for being on the saddle for 3000+ km in extremely tough conditions! It's not easy at all... And clicking some amazing pictures and videos for us to cherish these memories!

No tour operator, no backup vehicle etc. implies that the plan has to be meticulous and precise. It's an amazingly satisfying feeling to plan the intricate details, routes, and hotels over 18 days and to see it all fall into place! Like they say, fortune favors the brave and we were able to stick to the plan every single day!

No amount of pics/videos can do justice to what we experienced..

Some stats below for all of you fellow nerds!

• 18 days
• 14 States/UTs - Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, (a small part of) Rajasthan, New Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh
• 7,600+ Kilometres
• 10+ High passes - Zoji La, Fotu La, Khardung La, Tsato La, Kaksang La, Photi La, Umling La (Highest motorable pass in the world currently), Lachung La, Barlacha La, Nakee La
• 2 bikers and 2 bikernis
• 2 legendary Motorcycles!

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If you’ve come to this post, read on!

I’ve been actively touring on motorcycles and doing cross-country rides (Technically another neighboring Country too) for a good part of the last decade or so. However, one place that remained elusive for one reason or the other was Ladakh. And due to this, the joke within my close biker circle was that I wasn’t a “biker” yet (Hey I hadn’t got Leh’d on a motorcycle! ).

Jokes apart, it is indeed true the Ladakh circuit is considered the holy grail for motorcyclists in the Country, and it is for a good reason, considering the challenges and uncertainties it offers in terms of terrain, weather, altitude and more. Having covered Spiti valley a couple of years back, I was itching to cover the Leh circuit soon. Since my better half couldn’t join my Spiti ride back in 2021, she was smitten by the pictures and stories and was very clear that she wants to cover the mountains on the motorcycle next time around.

2023 has been extremely erratic in terms of the weather in the mountains. The shoulder season which usually stretches till May went on till June/July this year as it continued snowing intermittently leading to a lot of ambiguity. And then it poured like there’s no tomorrow across Northern India and Himachal Pradesh bore the brunt of it in the form of devastating floods and resulting destruction in and around Manali and Kullu.

With all of these variables and more, our plan was set around September with the hope that the weather will be relatively stable, and we will be able to visit all the places we intend to. It’s taken me a decade to ride there, who knows if/when it’ll happen again!

The plan and the people:

On a trip of this magnitude, I always prefer to ride with a small group of seasoned, experienced, and level-headed riders and more importantly reliable people, who I have known both on and off the saddle for a long time. A big group ride with strangers is just not my thing!

The plan started with 2 couples – Myself and my better half, and my cousin Deepak and his better half. On a casual morning ride a few months back, my good friend Mahesh (bhpian Roomy) discussed his intent to do the Ladakh circuit along with his wife, and soon, the 6 of us were discussing the dates and draft plan over dinner at my place. In the next couple of weeks, the plan was finalized.

• The gents were to ride all the way from Bangalore and (if everything goes as per plan) back to Bangalore as well. However, if we got delayed in the mountains, plan B was to ship the bikes on the return from Delhi and fly back to Bangalore in time for Ganesh Chaturthi.
• The ladies were to fly to Delhi and back to Bangalore. So they would be on motorcycles from Delhi to Delhi through the entire Ladakh circuit.

Soon, leaves were planned and applied, all the motorcycles were prepped with the preventive maintenance and checks done and air tickets were booked for the 3 ladies who were to fly to Delhi and join us on the motorcycle for the ride onwards. We had also booked flight tickets for the gents in case we were to ship the bikes. However, sadly, after all the preparation, Mr. and Mrs. Mahesh had to pull out a week before the ride due to some work-related commitments. This was a disappointing blow. The only positive in the sad scenario was, foreseeing and planning for the worst, we had ensured to book air tickets under different PNRs to ensure anybody can cancel their tickets without affecting the others.

The final plan looked like this:

Overall Route map:

That brings us to the steeds and the bikers+bikernis on the ride!

1. Deepak (Tbhp handle ‘Deepak Saligram’) and Varuni on the BMW R1250GS a.k.a Maximus

2. Suhas (Yours truly) and Sandhya on the Honda Africa Twin 1100 a.k.a Bagheera

Index:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14 - 15

Day 16 - 18

FAOs

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Day 1 to Day 3: Marathon Riding from Bangalore to Delhi

Day 1 Stats:
Distance covered: ~900 kms
Start time: 4.30 AM from Hebbal, Bangalore
End time: 5.30 PM at Kakaku guest house, Adilabad.


The first three days of a ride of this magnitude will always be marathon mile munching. The idea is to cover distance efficiently as the bodies and minds are fresh. We also wanted to ensure that we reach Delhi on day 3 well before the ladies land in Delhi. As usual, I had a lot of butterflies the day before the ride. All the packing was done and finalized by 8 PM. But as expected, I couldn’t sleep well and kept waiting for the alarm to go off at 3.30 AM. And then the annual ride 2023 began!

Heading off from home!


Meeting point at Hebbal and roll!


A quick breakfast stop before Kurnool.. and the regular questions around the motorcycles answered!

Soon after Kurnool, we encountered a huge traffic jam on the highway. Later we realized that this was due to some construction happening and a big trailer carrying a windmill blade had broken down on a narrow stretch of the under-construction section of the highway. Cursing our bad luck and fighting through traffic at high mid-day temperatures, we proceeded towards Hyderabad.

Every South Indian motorcyclist who travels across the Country will agree that Hyderabad is the toughest and most frustrating city to pass through, because of the senseless blanket rule of not allowing motorcycles on the outer ring road. Due to this, we are left with 2 options. Either ride through the city in the maddening heat and unruly traffic or take the service road of the outer ring road. During my previous travels across the country, I have tried both and they are equally bad in their own ways. The ORR service road was in tatters the last time I tried it in 2021 and it even discontinues at multiple places making you take remote kaccha roads in these sections consuming a lot of time and tiring you out. Between the two, the city traffic ironically seemed the lesser evil.

However, Deepak came up with a seemingly brilliant 3rd option the day before the ride. He happened to notice that in the ‘bike mode’ of Google map was deviating left just before Hyderabad and directing us through Shabad and Sangareddy. We discussed this and decided to ask around on the WhatsApp groups if anybody had taken this route. Luckily, some of our fellow riders responded saying it’s the best possible option to bypass Hyderabad and the road surface is also decent. One gentleman even gave the exact route and the specifics of where we need to join the NH towards Nagpur after Hyderabad.

This is the route we took: Kurnool – Jadcharla - (Deviate left at) Shadnagar - Shabad - Sangareddy - Narsapur – (And join back the NH at) Toopran.

This experiment was a grand success for us! The roads were decent enough for most parts of this stretch, traffic was sparse, and we ended up saving a lot of time and energy. As soon as we joined back the highway at Toopran, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant and thanked our friends who had guided us on this route.

At a much needed hydration and chai break post lunch

From here on, the roads were fantastic through Nizamabad, Nirmal and Adilabad. We were able to keep up good average speeds and reached the accommodation for the day in Adilabad by 5.30 PM. We had covered 900 kms in about 13 hours today. There was a small thought of continuing further towards Nagpur, but we shelved it as our hotel was already booked at Adilabad and more importantly, we knew the roads at the Telangana-Maharashtra border were not in great shape and there was no point tackling them in the dark after a long day on the saddle. Starting and finishing a long riding day early always pays off. One gets to rest well and rejuvenate before the next day, and you also get the evening off to explore some of these small towns which would otherwise be only a pit-stop for the night.

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Day 2 Stats:
Distance covered: ~800 kms
Start time: 6 AM from Adilabad
End time: 5.15 PM at Jhansi Hotel, Jhansi.

We were ready to roll at 6 AM the next day and the destination for the day was Jhansi. I’d taken out my hotel shortlist the previous evening and blocked one of the hotels after my routine set of questions around price and most importantly, safe, guarded parking for the motorcycles.

As expected, the roads at the Telangana-MH border were inconsistent and in shambles on some stretches. We witnessed huge trucks swaying from left to right like they were mopeds, only to avoid the huge potholes that would crop up out of nowhere. While we patted ourselves for the right decision to stay at Adilabad, we had no idea of what was waiting for us later in the day in Madhya Pradesh!

A breakfast stop on the Nagpur ORR


MH = Devouring some amazing Chana-Poha !!


A quick photo-stop at Khawasa.. Reminiscing some great safaris at Pench and Tadoba a few years ago.

We made good progress towards Seoni and soon entered Madhya Pradesh. The roads gradually started deteriorating. During my Spiti ride in 2021, I took the same route through Lakhnadon – Narsinghpur, Sagar and Lalitpur. The roads were in great shape back then. However, we soon realized it’s not the case anymore. The moment we crossed Lakhnadon, the NH turned horrid. Deep, big potholes started cropping up everywhere, sometimes for the entire width of the road. This was coupled with the usual cattle menace and humans riding/driving the wrong way. We had to have above-average concentration on the road every moment as a small lapse would mean a potential collision with a cow or a bent rim due to a monstrous pothole!
Soon, hunger pangs started, and we found a decent-looking Dhaba after Sagar.

A Sublime Dhaba in MP and a few more admirers for our motorcycles!


Lip-smacking food and lassis recharged us and ensured we forgot all about the road conditions in MP

Holy-cow! What a National Highway!!

Once we reached Lalitpur and crossed over to Uttar Pradesh, the road conditions started improving and our average speeds went up again. By about 5 PM we had entered Jhansi and navigated through the city to our hotel of the day, which turned out to be surprisingly great.

Motorcycles with a moon view!

While this seemed to be another successful marathon riding day, a potential headache started creeping up as we reached the hotel. As I parked and walked towards the reception, I heard Deepak’s worried voice talking to a BMW technician from Bangalore. One glance at the console on his Maximus and I could see the dreaded error message - “Fault in engine control: Onward journey possible. Ride carefully to next specialist workshop”.

The first thought we had was that this could be as trivial as moisture on a sensor, or adulterated fuel or a more serious issue. We could only speculate until it was inspected by connecting an OBD tool at an authorized workshop. Over the next 15 minutes, we tried all the fixes suggested by the technician on the video call – remove and refit the throttle body sensor to hear an assured “click”, remove the negative terminal of the battery and reconnect after 30 seconds, etc. Finally, he asked us to rev the engine to observe any abnormal noises – Nothing, it all sounded normal. He finally suggested we shut off the bike and don’t start it till morning and pray.

The only positive here was that we were headed to Delhi next and that meant the authorized workshop was only 500 km away, whether we need to ride there or worst case, call for RSA. While we figured the contacts at the authorized workshop, it’s location and distance from our Noida hotel, it had been an hour or so since we shut off the bike. Instead of just sitting and praying, I suggested we start the bike and take it for a spin to observe. If we notice anything abnormal, let’s call up RSA so that they reach asap, and we don’t lose time. Both of us agreed on this and switched Maximus on.. the usual boot-up process, engine cranked on and Voila! No error to be seen !!!

For the next 30 minutes, we took a spin in the city, ensuring the heat cycles happen and radiator comes on. Everything felt and sounded great, and it brought back the smile on Deepak’s sullen face! What followed was a relaxed evening and a good night’s sleep.

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Day 3 Stats:
Distance covered: ~500 kms
Start time: 6 AM from Jhansi
End time: 12.45 PM PM at House of Comfort, Noida.

Today would be a relatively short riding day and the goal was to reach Delhi before the girls could land and reach the hotel. We rolled by 6 AM as usual and crossed the usual cattle menace on the MP highways around Gwalior and Morena. We kept hopping between UP, MP and Rajasthan in this area receiving welcome messages from each state from the mobile networks. Soon we were in Agra, fueled up before Yamuna expressway and within no time, we were cruising on YEH.

A quick photo-stop on Yamuna Expressway

We had decided to push breakfast by a bit today and stop at one of the food stops on the Yamuna expressway. During breakfast, we had to ponder over whether to go get Maximus checked at the BMW-authorized workshop once we reached Noida, or to forget about the whole episode and move on. While the bike was running absolutely fine and the error had not resurfaced, I was of the opinion that it might be better to get it checked to understand what’s the cause of it so that we could be at peace. Eventually, we did not do that and headed directly to our hotel for the day in Noida. This was to haunt us later.

The heat in this part of the Country was practically unbearable. It was 39 degrees when we were on YEH and we had to stop every 45 minutes to hydrate ourselves. Thankfully, the traffic from YEH exit on the Noida-Greater Noida expressway was free-flowing and by 12.30 PM we had checked in to the hotel.

By then the ladies were already flying and would land in Delhi and eventually check-in to the hotel by around 4 PM. Things were perfectly on track. The rest of the day was spent in the hotel rooms watching the Asia Cup cricket match as it was extremely hot to go out anywhere.

And the ladies are here! The number of pictures and videos will exponentially increase now

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Day 4 Stats:
Distance covered: ~480 kms
Start time: 5.30 AM from Noida
End time: 1.30 PM at Cozzet Stay, Amritsar.

Now that the ladies have joined in, tyre pressure and suspension settings had to be changed on the bikes. From now on we’ll be riding at full load. Riding with pillions also needed a slight change in mindset for us riders as the complete geometry and behavior of the bike changes with a pillion. The plan for the day was quite straightforward. Reach Amritsar as soon as possible to avoid riding in the heat as much as possible. We also wanted to cover Wagah border and Golden Temple in the evening.

Maximus gives us another scare: We started the day early at 5:30 AM and cruised through the city. We started from Noida in the South-east and rode all the way through the city crossing Red Fort and Akshardham temple, now that the Eastern peripheral expressway has also senselessly banned motorcycles. Soon we were out of Delhi and crossing the famous dhabas around Murthal. We wanted to cross Karnal and stop at a nice-looking dhaba for breakfast. Around the Karnal bypass, Deepak mentioned that the dreaded error had come back on the beemer’s console, and this time the bike even spluttered/misfired giving a momentary jerk. This was not a good sign at all and we decided to stop near the next decent-looking hotel so that we could stop, inspect, and decide what’s next. At this point, my mind was on overdrive on what to do next as we had already covered a good 150 km from Delhi and moreover, it was 7.30 AM a Sunday morning!

Parked and Contemplating what next!

Again the behavior was similar. A bit of revving the bike and the error went away, however, this time it had dented our confidence as we felt there was some underlying issue that’s causing this recurring error without any pattern to it. We were certain it had nothing to do with adulterated fuel now and it had to be something else. We couldn’t ignore it anymore as it might amplify and cause more problems as we proceeded farther from bigger cities into the mountains which would throw us harsher conditions and terrains.

While we ordered paranthas for breakfast in the shady-looking hotel, we called up some friends to wake them up early on their Sunday! After a bit of discussion and suggestions, it was clear that heading to the authorized workshop in Chandigarh makes more sense than going back all the way to Delhi. A few more calls and the good folks at the BMW workshop in Chandigarh confirmed that they’ll open shop to look at Maximus. Between the 4 of us, we decided that we’ll split ways for the day at this point. While Deepak and Varuni will head to Chandigarh to get Maximus checked, Sandhya, I, and Bagheera will go to Amritsar as per the original plan. While we were sad doing this, we decided to go ahead since Deepak and Varuni had visited Wagah border before, and they insisted we continue with the original plan, and hopefully, they’ll sort the issue out and catch up with us – either in Amritsar by evening or worst case in Pathankot the next morning.

A group pic before we split ways.

Soon, after Ambala, we continued towards Ludhiana, and they turned right towards Chandigarh. Sandhya and I kept discussing and contemplating all the possibilities from here onwards, while we hoped the issue would be a small one and our folks would soon be with us.

A quick hydration break around Ludhiana

From here onwards, the ride was uneventful for me and Sandhya except for the heat and a small detour due to a truck accident. In spite of the slight delay at breakfast, we managed to reach our hotel for the day at 1.30 PM in Amritsar.

We had booked a taxi to go from Amritsar to Atari-Wagah border and started post lunch by around 3.30 PM. To be honest, we felt Wagah border parade was a very commercialized show and did not invoke any sense of patriotism. The heat in Amritsar at 40 degrees made things worse as we were severely dehydrated. I’d say you won’t miss much if you skip this.

Entry to the Wagah border area


Posing at Wagah!

While we were going to Wagah border in the taxi, we received the great news from Deepak that the issue had been traced down to a loose ignition coil. Apparently, it was a workmanship issue at the authorized workshop in Bangalore. Whoever did it, did not secure the coil with a “click” and that resulted in loose contact of sorts. The moment the ECU detected this, it resulted in an error on the console. That also explained the intermittent nature of the issue.

The issue was resolved soon, and Maximus and its riders were soon on the way to Amritsar. They were to join us in Amritsar by the time we returned from Wagah.

The steeds and “The biker family” reunited in Amritsar after a brief splitting of ways.

Soon, the four of us were off to the beautiful and peaceful Golden temple of Amritsar – Sri Harminder Sahib!

Post Golden Temple and street food around it, we retired for the day. We had a long day next as we had to ride all the way to Sonamarg!

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Day 5 Stats:
Distance covered: ~500 kms
Start time: 6.30 AM from Amritsar
End time: 6.30 PM at Hotel Sonamarg Inn, Sonamarg

While we wanted to start at 6 today, we got delayed at the reception of the hotel in Amritsar due to some billing confusion between the staff. With this 30-minute delay behind us, we were soon out of Amritsar towards Pathankot.

Good roads and a beautiful sunrise on the way to Pathankot!

Soon we were in Kathua and hopping over from Punjab to J&K. Before leaving Bangalore, all of us had converted our Jio prepaid Sim cards to postpaid on the ‘MyJio’ app since prepaid connections don’t work in J&K. However, weirdly, all of us noticed that none of the Jio Sims were working. Discussing what could possibly have gone wrong, we moved ahead with the idea that we’ll visit a Jio store in Srinagar or Kargil going forward.

Entry to J&K!


Deepak posing with the machines during the breakfast stop for the day.


First boards of Srinagar and Leh started appearing... reminding us that we’ll be entering the mountains today.

It was around 10 AM by now and the Sun was beating down on us! It was extremely hot, and we were restless to cross Patnitop/Banihal since the heat would start reducing as we started climbing up. The roads on the Jammu bypass around Samba, Mansar Lake, and Udhampur were nothing to write home about. There were quite a few potholes, and the road was surprisingly deserted making us wonder if we were on the correct route. A quick stop and double check on the maps and we were indeed on the correct route.

Entering the Chenani tunnel – The first of many we’ll pass through during the entire trip.


Inside the tunnel, it was pleasant and a momentary break from the heat.

And soon enough we started getting glimpses of the mountains!


Soon we crossed the infamous Ramban area and stopped at Banihal for lunch

The roads after Banihal were in great shape and ride till Srinagar was an absolute breeze with the heat reducing as well. As we reached Srinagar, we couldn’t help but notice the sheer amount of military personnel deployed practically every 200 meters! What was also ubiquitous were the convoys of army trucks which would bring the entire traffic to a halt!

At Srinagar, our plan was to visit the Jio store to sort out the sim card issue and also click a picture in front of Dal Lake before we proceeded to Sonamarg for the night. However, we took the western bypass as the maps showed it was a few minutes faster than the route inside the city. This proved to be a mistake mainly because every right turn to be taken to go towards the core city was for some reason barricaded. We had to go a long way ahead to finally get a U-turn to head towards Sonamarg. Eventually, we joined the Srinagar – Leh away at Wayul and continued to Sonamarg. From here we had some great views of the mountains.

Our beautifully located hotel in Sonamarg


From 38 degrees in the morning to 6 degrees in the evening!

With this, we had completed the hot parts of the ride. From now on, we had to prepare well for the cold and altitude. The next day would take us to Zoji La and then to Kargil and Leh. After a good dinner in the hotel, we called it a night.

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Day 6 Stats:
Distance covered: ~335 kms
Start time: 7.45 AM from Sonamarg
End time: 7 PM at Kang Lha Chen, Leh

The morning at Sonamarg Inn was beautiful. The views around us were simply mesmerizing and added to our excitement of riding in the mountains. After 2500+ kilometers and 5 days of riding, we were finally here riding the mountains and the high passes! All the winter wear had come out the previous evening and luggage was rearranged. Today we’d be first crossing Zoji La, then heading towards Kargil to visit the war memorial, and finally to Leh. As we moved, the landscape was so phenomenal that we wanted to stop and take pictures at every turn! Let the pictures do the talking further..

Roll from Sonamarg!


The Road, the Motorcycle, the Mountains, and the Morning Sun!

And more posing !!

As we got moving, we started the ascent to Zoji La! Traffic was sparse and the roads were alternating between tarmac and broken tarmac. After a while the road was made of cement tiles as we approached the top. Soon, we were asked to pull over at a narrow section of the road by the army to let a long convoy of trucks going towards Srinagar. After what felt like 10 minutes, we continued and were soon on top of Zoji La! We started spotting many tents here and enthusiastic shop keepers trying to stop people for breakfast. We decided to have breakfast here as the views were beautiful and pulled over at one of the tents.

When in the mountains, eat omelette and Maggi !!

The dudes and their steeds!




And then some more posing !!

At our first mountain pass of the ride – Zoji La!


More amazing views !!


A glimpse of the mountains and terrain !!

We continued riding on the mountain roads and were approaching Kargil next. Before Kargil town, we get the Kargil war memorial at Dras.

Bikes parked in the designated lot opposite the memorial.

It was heartrending to see some of the last letters written by our men to their families. Truly brought tears to my eyes reading them. We also got to watch a documentary on the 1999 Kargil war. Overall, the memorial is very well maintained, and it was worth the visit. As we came back to the parking lot, it was filled with bikes and bikers. Most of them were riding rented Himalayans and a few riding their own machines across the Country.

The Landscape continued to be awesome.

We started from the war memorial and continued beyond Kargil. The bypass of Kargil town is a bit confusing as it makes you climb up the hill. We took the bypass and somehow managed to climb back into the town in the middle. We figured out the mistake and then exited the town towards Leh. Soon we were at the highest point on the Leh Manali highway – Fotu La!

The steeds at Fotu La top


Posing at Fotu La !! – We are well and truly Leh’d now!

Moving on from here, the next place on our list was the beautiful Lamayuru monastery. It’s a small detour from the main highway.

The Beautiful Lamayuru Monastery!


Taking some time off and relaxing at the monastery


A quick Kahwa and chai break!

As we got moving, our final destination for the day was our hotel in Leh. A few kilometers further, I stopped to click this special number on my Bagheera’s odometer.

35035 kilometers! What better place to reach this nice milestone than the Srinagar – Leh highway!

The roads continued to be awesome, curvaceous and scenic. We had a hundred more km to cover to reach Leh city and wanted to reach before it got too late.

Arrow straight roads near Magnetic Hill!!


Another beautiful capture !!

By around 7 PM, we reached our hotel for the night in Leh! After 6 continuous riding days for Deepak and me, we were looking forward to some much-needed rest tomorrow off the saddle. It would also help with acclimatization as we would go to higher altitudes in the coming days.

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Day 7 Stats:
Distance covered on the motorcycle: 0
Day dedicated for rest and sightseeing

Day 7 was a much-needed needed rest-day. While we woke up lazily around 8 after a long time, we first wanted to sort out the issue with the Jio sim cards, which we couldn’t in Srinagar, as we’d be traveling to no-network zones and also more of no-Airtel zones going forward. However, soon, we received bummer news to start the day with. There was a ‘bandh’ situation in Leh today due to some inter-caste marriage that had happened. Due to this the shops in Leh and the Leh market remained closed. Luckily, we were also told that all the tourist spots will remain open.

Soon, the plan for the day was made. A local taxi we booked with the help of the hotel would take us to Leh Palace, Shanthi Stupa, and also the war memorial (Hall of Fame) for the laser show in the evening. As we started in the taxi, we also took a chance by visiting the Jio store which was surprisingly open even though all the surrounding shops were closed. However, we learned that we had to do a physical (in-store) KYC in Bangalore after postpaid conversion as J&K and Ladakh fall under a ‘special category’ of states. This couldn’t be done in Leh and we never received any communication from Jio when we converted prepaid sim cards to postpaid. This was a lesson learnt and we had no option but to get a new sim card from Leh which would stay with us for the rest of the journey until we left Ladakh.

We progressed for the sight-seeing of the day.

Gorging on the amply available apricots in our hotel in Leh


View of the beautiful Leh city as seen from the Leh palace.

One never gets enough of the views of snow-clad mountains


Shanthi Stupa as seen from Leh palace


And some more posing !!

We moved to Shanthi Stupa from the palace and the views were even better, if that’s even possible!












And some ‘defeating the devil’ in between!


And posing again!

The café at the Shanthi Stupa looked inviting and we decided to have lunch there.

Lunch with a view!

After this, we returned to the hotel to relax and laze around for some time. Some folks in the city were of the opinion that the shops will open after 6 PM, however sadly it wasn’t to be. Hence we proceeded to watch the laser show at the ‘Hall of Fame’ museum at 7.30 PM. Turned out to be a nice show about the martyrs of war. The ladies, however, retired for the day with grim faces, as they couldn’t shop in the Leh market. In hindsight, on the entire trip, it was only the Leh market that we missed. Sheer bad luck and timing for us!

In the midst of all this, we were checking on the exact schedule of the Ladakh marathon as Khardung La and some other roads were to be closed during certain times for the marathon. Upon checking online and with locals, it was clear that we didn’t have to change our plans. Hence the plan the next day was to head to Nubra Valley via Khardung La.

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Day 8 Stats:
Distance covered: ~220 km
Start time: 7.45 AM from Leh
End time: ~4 PM at Tyakshi Eco village Resort

Today would be a big day as we’d be riding the erstwhile highest motorable pass – Khardung La! The plan was to start as early as possible and reach K’top so that we beat the crowds and the chaos! We started around 7.45 and filled up both the bikes to the brim. The ride towards Khardung La was quite straightforward. The roads were decent and within no time we were at South Pallu and onwards towards K-top. We were well equipped and dressed to handle the cold and as expected it got colder as we ascended K-top. As we reached the top, there was a sense of jubilation in the group with all of us appreciating each other. As planned and hoped for, it was not very crowded with an odd group or two at the top. The temperature was -1 degrees, but the heated grips and adrenaline kept us warm
And for the pictures..

Some tourists wanted pictures with the celebrities too!

After taking a lot of pictures to our heart’s content, we continued onwards.. only to be met by some stunning views. We decided on a quick photo shoot of the bikes... because why not?!

Heartfelt thank you Bagheera for getting us here and keeping us safe! You’re a legendary motorcycle!

As we started moving, we were pleasantly surprised to see a few snow-flakes as well even though the weather was clear and sunny! Soon, we descended from K’top and were at North Pallu, where stopped for some much-needed chai.

A friend of Deepak’s and my acquaintance (Erstwhile AT owner) was climbing K’top from Nubra along with his family and was to meet us somewhere on the road. We rode on and navigated some sections where road expansion/repair work was in progress keeping a watch on all the cars coming from the opposite side as we were to stop when we spotted a white Scorpio-N. Soon enough, we met VV and his family and exchanged pleasantries.

Our hotel for the day was booked in Tyakshi, a small village close to Turtuk. We had decided to ride through Diskit and Hunder without stopping today as we were to return on the same route tomorrow. We rode on towards T-Morh and then took the arrow straight road towards Diskit.

As we were cruising towards Diskit and enjoying the views, we suddenly happened to join a long line of vehicles. ‘A traffic jam here?’ we thought. We soon realized the reason for the jam as we crossed a couple of cars and went ahead. The reason was a fresh landslide that had perhaps happened a few minutes before we reached there. The JCB seemed to have just reached the site and had just started clearing the road and there was a long way to go. Soon, we noticed all the local taxis taking a U-turn on the narrow road. Upon checking with one of them, we were told there’s an alternate road through Diskit town. We followed the cabs practically eating the dust they were kicking up on the muddy roads inside the town. However, this was a small stretch, and we joined the highway on the other side of the landslide in a few minutes.

Landslide being cleared by the JCB.

After the dusty stretch, we wanted to stop for an early lunch in Diskit. While the food was decent, it took an awfully long time to be served. We lost quite a bit of time here. However, we were on the move soon and crossed Hunder and proceeded towards Turtuk. The roads were largely good except for a few rough stretches and the views continued to be great all the way.

Soon we were at the hotel for the day. After Leh, Tyakshi and Turtuk were feeling rather warm. The manager at the hotel was very welcoming and served us with a chai as we entered. Soon we dumped the luggage in our tents and headed to Thang, which was only 10 minutes away from the hotel.

The other side of the river is the Pakistani village. We also got some binoculars for a closer view of the same.










Someday soon POK will be ours and we’ll ride there !! 😉


Some more fresh apricot juice? Why not!

After spending some more time at Thang, we returned to our hotel in Tyakshi. The property was beautiful, and we were pleasantly surprised that such a classy property exists in a small village like Tyakshi. The tents were well kept too and since it was not unbearably cold in this region, we were comfortable and warm in the night as well.

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Day 9 Stats:
Distance covered: ~130 km
Start time: 8 AM from Leh
End time: ~1 PM at Hotel Rimo, Tiggur (Near Panamik)

The plan for the day was looking a little hectic since we had to reach our hotel in Tiggur, then go to Siachen base camp, and return to the same hotel. We started at 8 and first reached the camel site in Hundar. These Bactrian camels were a tad shorter than regular camels, but the bigger distinguishing aspect was the 2 humps they had. We traced the same route as the previous day and reached Hunder in about 90 minutes.

The cold desert landscape around Hunder in Nubra Valley




Camels having the morning sun-bath for the day

After about 100 more pictures of the camels, we decided to have breakfast at one of the cafes in Hunder. The route back was the same and we noticed that the road near Diskit was still closed, but now, it was cordoned off much earlier with barricades to notify the vehicles of the road closure. Soon we were back to T-Morh where we topped up fuel in both the bikes. We would next get fuel only in Hanle/Karu depending on the route we took the next day.

As we approached the hotel in Tiggur, a small village between Sumur and Panamik, the discussion was on the plan for the rest of the day. Our destination was Siachen base camp which was about a 2.5-hour ride one way from the hotel on narrow slow roads similar to the ones around Turtuk. So riding up and down meant reaching the hotel post Sunset and again starting early tomorrow as we had a tough offroad ride waiting for us the next day. I proposed that we take a taxi to Siachen base camp and get some physical and mental rest and the others agreed. We got the help of the good-hearted manager at Hotel Rimo who even negotiated a reasonable price for the taxi on our behalf and soon were on our way to Siachen base camp in a brand new Scorpio-N.

Views as usual were awesome around the Nubra River. Some pictures as we traversed through Panamik and Warshi onto the base camp.

First view of the Siachen glacier!






Siachen War memorial

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to go up to OP Baba shrine apparently due to a non-Indian sneaking up there some time back which was a security threat. There’s a café near the war memorial where had a late lunch.
The return was uneventful and a slow, peaceful drive soaking in the views. We also visited Panamik Hot Springs on the way back which turned out to be a poorly planned/maintained place.

Once we returned to the hotel, I was in overdrive to book the resort/homestay/hotel for the next two days – Pangong Tso and Hanle. Since the contact numbers for most of my shortlisted places were not reachable, I had to put a lot more effort into finding some new places as well. I was looking for a resort (a permanent structure) since sleeping in tents in Pangong Tso would be extremely cold and potentially lead to AMS symptoms. Eventually, we found good places and we were at peace for the rest of the evening.

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Day 10 Stats:
Distance covered: ~190 km
Start time: 7.30 AM from Tiggur,
End time: ~2 PM at Pangong Nest, Man Village, Pangong

I’ve been tracking the route from Panamik/Sumur to Durbuk/Pangong via Agham and Shyok village for a long time. After the recent cloud burst in the region, the Shyok River had usurped the good roads built on this route and what was left was a combination of off-road and pure river bed. However, there was one alternative route via Tsati and Rongo that was slightly lesser known earlier but had become the primary route after the original roads were damaged by Shyok.

When we met VV a couple of days back, he had taken the same route and gave us a huge, vehement no for taking this route as he had traversed through the same from Pangong to Nubra. The only other alternative for us was to go back to Leh via Khardung, spend a night in Leh, and go to Pangong via Chang La the day after. This would mean we lose 2 days and an additional night for the same journey.

However, since VV was in a car, I was willing to wait for a perspective from a biker who’s ridden this route recently. Luckily, my good friend and Bhpian ku69rd was on the same route 2 days ahead of us on his Xpulse and I had requested him to share his input on this route. He promptly called me from Durbuk and reported in a nutshell that it is doable, but a few sections will be challenging, especially on the bigger bikes with pillions. He’s somebody who understands the challenges of riding a big bike with a pillion on these terrains and with his green (with a tinge of orange/red) signal, we decided to take it on – “Hey challenges mean we’d have some stories to tell” we thought and boy, were we right !!!

The first few kilometers up to Tsati village were completely black-top with some small sections of soft sand. We had already learned that gravel and stones were not tough to handle, but our biggest enemy was soft sand, patches of which would appear out of nowhere.

Beautiful landscape with the morning Sun!


Such soft sand patches on a tarmac road can catch you off guard as the front wheel goes haywire!

The road conditions were as if we were being prepared for things to come and were gradually being trained for it. Soon we crossed Tsati village and continued towards Rhongo village. From here on blacktop changed to broken tarmac and gradually into an off-road pathway. After we crossed Rhongo village, as expected, Google map went blank. As per Google, we were floating on no man’s land without a road!

For any of you who want to get a glimpse of the terrain through some mobile-phone-captured videos, the link for the raw videos is here - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...sWbQ59MM_emK2D

As the difficulty level kept increasing, there were some sections where we had to ask the pillions to get down for their own safety and walk to the other side.

And in some sections, we had to literally cross one bike at a time taking turns.

When the going got tough, we had each other’s support!

And then we had some water crossings. Since it was early in the morning, the water level was on the lower side.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=kDPMZbvd...r6dSc75g-gBx4E

And then some more !!

As we proceeded, we reached civilization in Agham village and some semblance of metalled and small stretches of broken tarmac roads turned up. We had covered about 35-40 km of off-roads with some sections being rather technical, difficult ones. If I look back now, it’s a tad unbelievable that we did such sections on ~250-kilo motorcycles fully loaded with luggage and with pillions. Did we have stories to tell? Hell yeah !!

We proceeded towards Shyok village and spotted some BRO road work activities. Met a group of bikers here coming from the opposite side who said roads till Durbuk are decent enough. Post Shyok village, good tarmac appeared, and we reached Durbuk in no time. We also came back to mobile network and updated our friends and families on our whereabouts while having paranthas and Maggi over a late breakfast.

From here roads to Pangong, even with some off-road sections, were a cakewalk considering what we had covered. We were ecstatic when the first glimpse of the legendary Pangong Tso came our way!

First Glimpse of the legendary Pangong Tso !!

And the views only kept getting better and better... I have no more words to describe the sheer beauty of Mother Nature !!

Our resort in Pangong was located in Man village and in no time, we reached the place, which turned out to be fantastic! Surely, one of the best hotels we stayed in on the entire trip!

Our steeds parked in Pangong Nest !!


Beautiful Ladakhi-style dining area at Pangong Nest!


Room with a view, anyone?


Picture of the property from outside.


The Mesmerizing Pangong Tso!

We were in a photo-clicking frenzy, but honestly, no amount of photos can do justice to the beauty of this place!

The rest of the evening was spent in the warm confines of the property in the company of the wonderful owner, Mr. Padma. He kept us engrossed with stories of the local region, how this part of the world fared during Covid, and the challenges the local people in their day-to-day lives. All in all, today was the most challenging day on the entire ride till now, but the most satisfying and fun one !!

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Day 11 Stats:
Distance covered: ~200 km
Start time: 8.30 AM from Pangong Tso,
End time: ~4.30 PM at Padma Guest House, Hanle

While we had mobile network coverage in almost all the places till now, we knew Pangong and Hanle are remote, and we wouldn’t have the slightest of coverage in these areas. Jio did work briefly in Man Village, and we were able to make a couple of calls (Data never worked), but it just stopped working later! No network coverage meant no UPI/card transactions as well. We had foreseen this and withdrawn some additional cash before leaving Leh. However, to our dismay, we realized we had under-calculated the amount of cash we’d need considering the fact that we’d need to spend it for both accommodation (including food) as well as fuel for the bikes. During our conversation the previous evening with Mr. Padma, we brought up this conversation and informed him of the gaffe from our end. While we could pay him for the stay in the resort comfortably, we were wary of finding ATMs during our journey ahead from Pangong to Karu to Hanle. The conversation after this goes as follows…

Mr. Padma: Sir, why are you going all the way back to Karu to go to Hanle? It’s in the totally opposite direction!

Me: Sir we understand. However, we do not want to go via Chushul and Rezang La even though we know it’s shorter in distance. We have done a lot of off-roading to reach here, and the Rezang La route is known to be even tougher. With pillions, we are compelled to take the tarmac road, and this was our original plan. Also, we plan to fuel up both the bikes in the bunk at Karu since we don’t know if we’ll find fuel at Nyoma/Hanle. We might also find an ATM in Karu for more cash.

Mr. Padma: Sir, please listen to me.

1. Don’t take the Chushul – Rezang La route. I agree with you that it is tough off-road. Please take Chushul - Kaksang La – Mahe – Nyoma Hanle. This is a complete black-top and you will have no issues. I took this route just a week ago and you can trust me on this!
2. Don’t pay me cash now. Go to Chushul and there you’ll find Jio 4G. You can make the payment to me over UPI from there.
3. I have a 40-litre can of fuel in the boot of my car. Please fill up both your bikes. Later, you will definitely find fuel in Hanle. Every homestay stores fuel. Don’t worry about it.
4. You will find an ATM in Nyoma. You can withdraw more cash from there.

Me (With my mouth wide open): Sir how do you trust me to check out without paying you a single penny?

Mr. Padma: The world runs on trust, Sir!

Me: *Speechless*

This way, all our problems were solved by one Big-Hearted Super-human – Mr. Padma, the owner of Pangong Nest !!

The next morning, on a casual stroll outside the property, I received an SMS on the Jio number from my good friend, Bhpian rk_sans to call him back. The first thing I hear from him is “I’ve tried to reach you all night to tell you this - Take Kaksang La, I have confirmed update that it is in good condition”. I quickly updated him that we got the same input from the resort owner, and we’ll be taking the same.

We then finish breakfast, load up the bikes, fill up both of them to the brim from the can, profusely thank Padma ji again, and get moving towards Chushul. In hindsight, I’m gutted that it never occurred to any of us to take a picture along with this wonderful man.

We continued towards Merak and the views continued to be breathtaking. We stopped for a quick last photoshoot with the bikes along with Pangong Tso!

We reached Chushul soon and as expected Jio 4G was up and running here. We stopped for a quick chai break and transferred the amount to Padmaji for the stay, food, and fuel. We then double-confirmed the deviation to Kaksang La and Mahe and continued onwards.

On the route to Kaksang La, we first ascend to Thato La, descend, and then again ascend to kaksang La. The climb to Thato La was like an RTO-designed riding test. Narrow road and tight first-gear corners. We were also informed by Mr. Padma that this route will be deserted and that we’ll find two more beautiful lakes – Mirpal Tso and Yeye Tso.

A snapshot of the climb to Thato La on Gmaps!


First glimpse of the beautiful Mirpal Tso


If at all there was a road to Heaven !!


Kaksang La top @17,851 feet !!


Spotting a beautiful Yak on the way


Beautiful Yeye Tso


Another pic of Yeye Tso

We continued taking in the delightful views and reminded ourselves that we had actually spotted a grand total of 2 four-wheelers in the entire ride of 105 km from Pangong Tso to Mahe! No wonder this route is considered deserted.
We soon joined the Leh – Hanle highway at Mahe, from where we could pick up good speeds as it is a wide two-lane highway till Loma. Some pics from the Leh – Hanle highway…

The mountains kept changing colors at every turn!

We reached Nyoma town and the presence of army and airforce personnel was in big numbers. We managed to withdraw cash from the ATM here, grab some lunch, and continue onwards to Hanle.

As we approached Hanle, I was just telling the others on the intercom that we’ll probably meet my good friend ku69rd and his group in Hanle, and sure enough in a few km I spot 3 Xpulse’s slowing down and waving at me from the opposite direction.

Always a pleasure to catch up with rider buddies thousands to kms away from home!

L-R: Nischal, Srinivasan, Mahesh, Suhas & Deepak

While we men were exchanging ride updates, the women were busy with their photo-shoot!

We bid adieu to our friends and continued towards Hanle. In the next few minutes, we checked in to our stay for the day, to relax and prepare for the ride tomorrow. Meanwhile, this was a Sunday evening and Hanle was buzzing with people. In our homestay, half of Bangalore seemed to be present! We spent the rest of the evening getting acquainted with other travelers in the homestay and star-gazing in the beautiful skies of Hanle !!

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Day 12 Stats:
Distance covered: ~200 km
Start time: 9 AM from Hanle towards Umling La
End time: ~2.30 PM at Hanle

The plan for the day was simple… ride to the highest motorable pass in the world! The roads via Photi La are tarmac all the way and we chose to take the same. Similar to the Kaksang La route, here we climbed up and down Photi La and then ascended Umling La. We passed by quite a few two-wheelers and cars towards Umling La and knew it was going to be crowded. While some of the bikes were huffing and puffing on the ascent, our bikes cruised through effortlessly. Neither of us felt any significant change in the performance of the bikes even at such high altitudes!

On top of the world!




Spot the ladies!

The board says it all !!


Photi La @ 18,124 feet !!


Picture or a painting !?


The Ladakhi Kiang – Spotted herds of these around Hanle and Umling La







Unbelievable landscape !!


And a photo shoot has to be done !!

By about 2.30 PM, we were back in Hanle and had a relaxed lunch at a local café and then back in the homestay at about 5 PM. Spent the rest of the evening star-gazing and planning for the day ahead. Umling La was the last place to be visited in our plan. From here on, we were officially on the return leg of the ride! Was the adventure over? As we would discover the next day, definitely not !!!!

A beautiful capture of the Milky Way. Full credits to Varuni for capturing this on a mobile phone!

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Day 13 Stats:
Distance covered: ~375 km
Start time: 7.45 AM from Hanle
End time: ~6 PM at Padma lodge, Jispa

We always knew the tougher parts of the ride – off-road, tough terrain, altitude, and high passes are all towards the latter half. The Leh – Manali is highway is full of all of these. While we would have preferred to do it first, there were two reasons we didn’t. One being the fact that starting from Srinagar and doing the circuit clockwise ensures a gradual climb in altitude, helping us acclimatize better and reducing the chances of AMS, and the second is that when we started, Mandi – Kullu - Manali road was still not open after the recent devastation due to floods in HP.

From Hanle, we had two route options primarily due to the uncertainty on fuel availability: One via Nyoma – Mahe – Sumdo – Puga and joining Leh – Manali highway at Debring; and the second was going back to Karu, filling up fuel and staying back for the night to continue towards Manali the next day. The second route would need an additional night.

In Hanle, we met a bunch of bikers from Bangalore who had flown to Leh and hired Himalayans to do the Leh circuit. They were on the last leg from Hanle – Leh and checked if they could give the excess fuel in barrels to us. This fuel was filled in Leh and was stored in their backup vehicle. This seemed like a convenient arrangement especially since we’d pay them the regular prices. After we filled up both the bikes with this fuel, we needed 7 more litres which was purchased from the homestay at a slight premium of INR 150 per litre. We were fine to pay the premium as long as the fuel wasn’t adulterated, and this was promised by the homestay owner. True to his words, we never faced any issues.

With the fuel arrangements in place for the bikes, the other pending point of discussion was the route. A quick check with a couple of friends who had done the same route a few months ago gave us the information that the road from Mahe to Debring was largely asphalt and involved a few km of off-road.
We discussed and decided that we’ll go ahead with the Mahe – Debring road since we had all the aspects covered and it didn’t make any sense to go back to Karu. In terms of the target for the day, we wanted to cross Barlacha La and reach Jispa for the day. It was decided that if we didn’t reach Sarchu till 4 PM, then we’d stay back in Sarchu for the night. We had managed to block hotels/tents in both Jispa and Sarchu.

With all the prep in place, we started after a quick breakfast at 7.45 AM from Hanle. The roads till Mahe were great and we were familiar with them.

Riding parallel to the Indus River!

After the deviation from Mahe, the roads were decent till Sumdo and then Puga. We crossed the Puga hot water springs with the strong smell of Sulphur in the air.

Post Puga, the tarmac vanished, and a muddy pathway appeared. In some stretches, this was closed for repairs and a pathway on the sides was created. These pathways were full of soft sand, and we had to get the pillions down and wrestle our way through to the other side.

After about 10-12 km of such rough roads, tarmac appeared again as we approached Tso-kar and in a few more minutes, we reached Debring and intersected with the Leh – Manali highway. We took the much-needed first chai break of the day here.

As we were sipping chai, I opened my phone to check messages that were delivered around Nyoma where we last had network coverage. I opened ku69rd’s messages, a screenshot of which is below

Ironically, I was reading these messages while sipping chai on the Leh-Manali highway

I showed this to Deepak, and we discussed that there’s no looking back now. There’s no point going back to Leh and then to Srinagar to avoid this stretch of road. We decided to just go ahead. We have done a lot of challenging stretches and sections till now. Whatever is thrown at us, we will support each other and proceed!

And with this, we started towards Pang. As Mahesh had mentioned, the roads from More Plains to Pang were excellent. After Pang, the roads started to deteriorate and after a while, it was just a muddy path. We soon learned that the toughest thing to handle here was the truck traffic. The oil tankers that were going towards Manali from Leh were empty and were racing against each other. So if we overtook them, they’d tailgate us and if we were behind them, we’d be continuously inhaling dust. We couldn’t outrun them on those roads, especially with pillion on our bikes and even if we did, the regulars on those roads would know the shortcuts in the mountains and would appear ahead of us! This continued for about 40-50 km from Pang to a few km before Sarchu! We crossed Lachung La, Nakeela Pass, and Gata loops. Since the terrain was very difficult and we were covered head to toe in dust, we don’t have too many pictures of this section.

Well, this seems like littering. But there’s a story to this. Click on the link for – Ghost Temple of Gata Loops.


Gata Loops !!

Post Lachung La, roads improved and got better as we went closer to Sarchu. By about 2.30 PM, we had reached Sarchu where we cleaned up helmets and had lunch.

Navigating a small off-road stretch and water crossing due to the closure of Sarchu bridge

Soon we were on the way to Barlacha La. The roads going up the pass were in bad condition and we had to ask the pillions to get down in a couple of places.

After a long, tiring, and tough day on the saddle, on the dot at 6 PM, we reached our hotel for the day in Jispa. The owner who knew we were riding from Hanle expressed surprise looking at us entering at 6 and said he just blocked the room but did not expect us to reach today!

Tired and dirty faces after a long, tough day