A 7,600 km trip to Ladakh on a BMW R1250 GS & Honda Africa Twin

I’ve been actively touring on motorcycles and doing cross-country rides for a good part of the last decade or so. However, one place that remained elusive for one reason or the other was Ladakh.

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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!

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!

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:

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

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!

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.

Continue reading BHPian Added_flavour's travelogue for more insights and information.