The pics in this was the best i liked till now, the beauty of the mountains is just breath taking !! Wonderfully captured too.!!!

Thanks buddy!

awesome pics Ketan Bhau

Mitra, bhava! Photos 1ch number!

Ketan bhau, keep it coming! Its treat! Its awesome!

Thank you!

YouTube - ‪Crossing the Mighty Zozila on R15 - Part 1‬‏

YouTube - ‪Crossing the Mighty Zozila on R15 - Part 2‬‏

Vids looking quiet scary with those football sized boulders on your left on the road and the biggies coming right on to you. I had a very bad experience with that boulder once on the highway so now a days I always keep an eye for that

Yes Kartik, that was a scary situation!

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YouTube - ‪Glimpse of Nubra Valley, Ladakh‬‏

@Ketan & Mandar: Sorry guys for being late. A heartly congratulations on the successful completion of the trip. Enjoyed your travelogue till now. However, unable to check the pics due to some format issue (office systems sucks!).

I hope you have also enjoyed your time spent with me, Shivanshu and Nardev at the dhaba in Delhi..

Would love to ride with you someday brother. I want to learn to tackle R15 in all kind of terrain and you are few of the best person for that..

Wish you good luck for future rides. Waiting for more..

Hey MJ, of course I remember you man. In fact I often asked Shivanshu about you and Chib on phone/sms. How are you man. How can I forget you all and the awesome night out we had at xBhp dhaba. Chib and his one liners... .

And me no expert in tackling bike man....

Catch me on FB. You can find me in Shivanshu's friends list. There you can view some of the ride pics

Thanks for wishing and stay in touch!

Day 8: Drass - Namika la - fotu la - Lamayuru - Leh

We were at Drass on Day 7 - The second coldest inhabited place on Earth. And it was really really very cold at night. Mandar was shivering despite wearing so many clothes - tee, army woolen shirt, sweater, thermal pant, track pant, socks, monkey cap.. oh my word.. I was roaming around in half sleeve t-shirt, jeans and woolen gloves till evening but at night temp way too cold and I had to wear socks to keep my feet warm. I carried thermal pant with me but I never used it even once in the entire journey .

As usual, I woke at the alarm and started packing my bag to get ready. I woke up Mandar after several attempts. I can understand how difficult it is to get out of that warm blanket when it's freezing cold outside But we had no choice and I had keep calling his name till he finally woke up. I got fresh, finished packing the bags and went out to load it on the bike. I ordered a cup of tea by the time Mandar got ready. Mandar took a lot of time to come out of the room and I actually had to go back to check what's wrong. He was not feeling well. an upset stomach and loose motion. The reason could be previous night's dinner. I preferred having just the dal rice to be on a safer side where as Mandar had hogged on Raajma rice He called up one of his relatives who's a doctor and he suggested him some medicine. So we were going to start our day with one of the riders unwell and Our destination for the day was Lamayuru.

We started our day's ride and Kargil war memorial was going to be our first pit stop of the day. Road was not in great condition so we moved slowly towards Kargil and after sometime stopped near this board.

Tololing Range


The historic Tololing ranges which were captured by Pakistanis during Kargil war


Just a few minutes later we reached Kargil war memorial and parked our bikes in the parking lot. As we moved towards the main entrance, we were stopped by army officers for making the official entries in visitor's registers. There were two separate registers, one for civilians and one for army officers. Even they thought we are from Army and opened the army register One of them asked us which unit and we told them, no no, we are civilians

One of the officers posted there told us about the history of the memorial and some interesting facts about Kargil war. The feeling was something different. All those mountain tops, all those names which we had seen and heard only on television during and after the Kargil war, we were actually seeing them with our naked eyes. It was just amazing. We clicked a picture with the army officer before moving on towards actual memorial and souvenir shop.



The Kargil War memorial








The mountains where Bofors guns were deployed to bombard on Tiger hill and Tololing ranges. as told by the army officer.


The Souvenir shop. I bought a Kargil war Jacket pit as a souvenir.


Visit to the Kargil War Memorial Museum.
































Visit to Kargil war memorial was a really special experience and with respect in out heart for those who lost their lives in the war and for those who are living there in such hostile conditions to protect our country, we proceeded towards Kargil village.

The medicines which Mandar had in the morning for loose motion did work and he had some relief from that evil sensation of dysentery but an even worst and severe problem had cropped up. He was now feeling extremely dizzy and vomiting sensation. He was somehow trying to concentrate on riding. He called up his relative once again and he suggested him to buy some stuff from a medical store.

When we reached Kargil, we started searching for Medical store. People were staring at us with amazement, may be cause of the R15 and the army pants. Small school going kids gathered around my bike as we stopped at a medical store. Mandar had some medicines and sat there for around 20 minuted before resumed our ride. I think he still wasn't feeling well.

As we moved on, just after crossing Kargil village Mandar stopped his bike. He usually honked before stopping the bike so that I could understand that he wants to stop. But this time he was so down with the vomiting sensation and dizziness that he didn't even honk. Good that I saw him in the RVM and stopped by myself. Looked behind and he was resting his head on the tank bag and wasn't moving. I turned around and went back to him. He said it's getting unbearable and that he's just not able to concentrate on road. There was a small resting point a few meters ahead, a cement construction used by army officers to wait for their convoys. We rode there and Mandar slept horizontal on the floor. Meanwhile I tanked up my bike at a petrol pump which was just 100 meters away from this place and returned to Mandar. Couple of Army officers were waiting for their trucks. They inquired if everything's ok. Mandar even puked once while I tanked up my bike. We took rest for almost 45-50 minutes there. We had no choice. We didn't want to take risk by riding when Mandar was not well and felt dizzy. We decided to move only when Mandar himself felt it's safe to move. He was feeling slightly better after that resting period.

Later, We stopped at this place to click a few pics.






After sometime, I saw a small dhaba on our way and stopped for breakfast. I was feeling hungry as I had nothing except a cup of tea in the morning. I asked Mandar if he wanted to have some food but he rejected. I ordered a paratha and while I was waiting for it, we heard some loud sounds, like those of gun shots. I got scared and asked the dhaba owner what the hell was that? He said probably they are training new army officers across a particular mountain. Seriously, that sound was awesome!

The dhaba


The mountain or the direction from where we heard gun fire.


I had paratha and tea at dhaba while Mandar slept on one of the benches and took some more rest. He was drinking Glucon-D water to retain water level and energy in his body. By the time we left the dhaba, he was feeling much better and we could cruise comfortably towards Lamayuru.

After a good 3 hours ride and ample water/pee breaks in between we reached the village called as Mulbekh. We stopped near the famous Chamba statue, a kilometer beyond Mulbekh village. It is a striking enormous figure carved into the rock face on the right hand side of the road. People believe it dates back to eighth century. Unfortunately, the lower part of the statue is partly obscured by a small temple built in 1975.

The Chamba statue










I remember asking Mandar how he was feeling at Mulbekh and he replied he was feeling perfectly fine then. As we moved on, we were soon climbing the next high altitude pass on our way, Namika La. Road was in very good condition till we were some 6-7 Kms from the top and then like all the high altitude passes we had to find our way through some rough patches to reach Namika La top. But I won't say roads were bad or worst, especially after riding in Zozila, these roads felt much smoother .

At Namika La top




I've recorded an on-board video while descending Namika la. Will post the youtube link soon.

We had crossed one of the two high altitude passes, the Namika La and were heading towards the second high altitude pass of the day, Fotu La. This is pass is also the highest point on the Srinagar - Leh highway. Roads till Fotu la were a mix of good and bad roads. Sometimes there were really bad rough roads where as sometimes we found ourselves on recently resurfaced, smooth tarmac roads like the ones in pictures posted below.









A treacherous 45 minutes ride from this place took us to Fotu La - the highest point on Srinagar - Leh highway. Road was not great at all but by then we were used to bad roads and there's nothing special to mention about the roads. More than road condition it was the view around us that kept our spirit and confidence high. Some really breathtaking views.











There's a point just after Fotu la where they've placed a board which says "first view of Lamayuru town." The over all view from there was marvelous and I stopped to click a picture. Confused which one of the three looks better, I am posting all three of them.







As you can see in the above pictures, road towards Lamayuru was in good condition and we reached Lamayuru in around 20-25 minutes. Remember, Lamayuru was supposed to be our destination for the day. We checked the time and it was 5.20pm. We had some time in hand before the sun set. So we decided to visit Lamayuru monastery and carry on to Khalsi for night stay.















Photography is strictly prohibited inside the main monastery, hence we clicked couple of pictures outside the monastery, by these wall paintings. There was pin-drop silence inside the monastery and the aura was beautiful. Very pleasant and rejuvenating.





We met a group of young tourists where we had parked our bikes. They were touring in a car and most of them were from Mumbai. They talked to us after seeing MH 01 registered bikes. They were shocked when we told them we've ridden all the way from Mumbai, especially the girls. Some of them asked us really silly questions..

It was an awesome ride towards Khalsi as the road was in superb condition. Very smooth surface, excellent corners and with proper white paint markings. I opened the throttle and enjoyed the corners where as Mandar carried on with his usual speed. After half an hour of sporty riding I reached this place and was awestruck by the sheer size of these huge cliff overhangs. Mandar was anyway far behind. So I stopped for a quick photo break so that Mandar could catch up with me.

Look how small my bike looks when compared with the overhangs


We resumed the ride as soon as I saw Mandar in my RVM and another half an hour's ride took us to the small village of Khalsi. We immediately started looking for accommodation but could not find a good place to stay. The one which looked a bit decent had no parking at all and the rent was high as well. He asked us to park our bikes on the road and tie them with chain. I looked at the time and the sign board ahead. Time was 6.30 PM and Leh was another 90 odd Km ahead. I asked Mandar can we carry on till Leh? Looking at the kms and time we knew it was going to be a night ride and I was ready to take the risk. I just wanted Mandar's confirmation because I would have never taken a decision on my own, especially when there's night ride involved. Mandar looked a bit confused but finally agreed and then without wasting a minute we zoomed off towards Leh. It was a gamble, a total gamble. Road till Khalsi was superb but who knows what's the road condition till Leh? What if there's a landslide or something on the way? 90 Kms is a long distance and here road condition can change in just a matter of 10-12 Kms. All such questions flooded my mind as we rode towards Leh. After all it was my idea to go to Leh. And just when I trying to get my mind out of that cloud of questions, our worst nightmare came true. We found ourselves in the middle of a traffic jam. Reason? A landslide ahead. F**k! was my first reaction It wasn't a major landslide but since the road was narrow and most vehicles were trucks and buses, it resulted in a traffic jam. By squeezing our bikes through every inch possible in that traffic jam we reached a point from where we could see an open road ahead. But our way was blocked by the landslide which covered half the road and a long queue of buses and trucks which blocked the remaining half part of road. For some time everything stopped where it was. No one understood what to do. Even we were in a dilemma of going back to Khalsi or waiting till the traffic clears. Fortunately I saw some gaps between those parked buses and trucks. I hurriedly got off my bike and requested all the parked vehicles to reverse their respective vehicles a bit to create enough gap between the landslide and the bus. They agreed and then one by one everyone reversed their vehicles which opened just enough gap for a two wheeler to pass through..... F**kin hell!! Yeah.. we were through the traffic jam and once again on a smooth open road. Our gamble paid off as it was a smooth ride all the way till Leh. Road was in superb condition. I was riding at insane speeds and was way ahead of Mandar. I used to stop for him at regular intervals but after nightfall it was very scary to stop and wait for him alone. At times I had to wait for him for more than 10-12 minutes on a completely dark road with not a single soul around and only weird sounds from the plains around. To make matters worse I spotted wild foxes at three different spots while riding. Even the temperature plunged after nightfall. Finally I waited for Mandar at the outskirts of Leh city, near a cross road. The only good thing was we need not search for accommodation in Leh. Deepan had messaged Mandar the complete address of Hotel Dreamland where they had stayed. We wanted to stay at the same hotel to collect our permits from the manager. We had given necessary documents to Deepan so that our permits would be ready by the time we reached Leh. After a bit of fumble and confusion, we found Hotel Dreamland and checked in. Mr. Raj Kumar gave us a room for Rs. 400/- for two. A very nice and comfy room. Thanks Deepan and group for all your help and for the permits. We were so happy to reach Leh without any unwanted incident, especially after riding in dark for so long. We got fresh, had dinner at Dreamland restaurant and went to bed.

Day 9: Leh sightseeing!...
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Ketan,
I am enjoying your log. You are a brave man! Keep it up.
Henry

Thank you very much

I've been hooked to this thread ever since you've started it, what a dream ride. Excellent, detailed trip log and pictures, keep them coming. Atleast I can vicariously feel the thrill of riding through those beautiful mountains

Sleeveless in Drass?

We were tucked into two blankets of 10 kg's, 3 pairs of dresses, gloves, socks and what not!

Anyway, Nice pictures and sooper log! Cant wait to see Nubra through your lens!