Leh Triplog Approved

1st Picture is not correctly visible. Please check the link.

thaks bro for this thread.. Was just thinking if you can post the name of the place also somewhere in the post.
Was taking time searching the road conditions and places.. And your thread came just in time (not planning any trip this season though).

Just uploaded the pic again. Should look fine now. Thanks.

Ya sure man will add the trip log also along with the details.

waiting

Still waiting for the travelogue and photos.

Preparations & Day 1

Day 1: Delhi-Manali(570 kms)
Start date: 27-08-2011
No. of people: 4
Bikes : FZ, Pulsar's & Karizma

It was the 2nd week of August, my brother(Retesh) informed about having two weeks by the month end for a Leh trip and that is when we started to get ready for the big ride. Two of his friends, Gopal & Abhinav joined us.

We had only 1 week to make all the preparations. Me and my bro decided to drive from Delhi while the other 2 were to join us from Manali. I was in Chennai while the other 3 were in Delhi. So I booked my flight ticket from Chennai to New Delhi while my bro got all the stuff for the journey like cold clothing, eatables, bags, rope, rain coats, etc. from the Army canteen in Delhi.

I had my bike, a Yamaha FZ and another friends Pulsar 150 for my bro. Gopal and Abhinav had booked a Pulsar and a Karizma from a rental in Manali.

After servicing the bikes I loaded the FZ and Pulsar in train from Chennai central on 23rd August. I had to get an agents help since I did not have train tickets. He got 2 second class tickets till Delhi and booked the bikes with them. I sent the bike keys and the receipt to my brother thru Blue Dart. The bikes reached Delhi without even a scratch and my brother took them on Thursday as soon as they reached.

Since I had applied for 10 days of leave, I had to finish all the pending work. For the whole week before the trip I had to stay late in office to finish off the work. In the few hours of sleep that I got, I only dreamt about the trip.

I took an evening flight to Delhi on 26th August and reached New Delhi airport by mid-night where my brother was waiting to pick me up. After reaching home we started packing the stuff which had already been bought. The other 2 guys had reached Manali a day before to check on the bikes.

The route planned was Delhi - Manali - Leh - Srinagar - Delhi as mentioned before.

The plan for day 1 was to do the whole Delhi to Manali stretch in a single day as others were waiting in Manali. We planned to start by early morning 4 AM so that we could reach Manali by evening if we stopped for few short breaks.

Day 1:

We slept at 1 AM and woke up at around 3.30 AM and got ready. It had rained that night and was still drizzling. Still we got ready and tied our bags to the bikes and were ready to start by 4.15 AM.


The petrol pump near our house was closed and so we drove till we found the next open pump near ISBT. After full tanks we found our way out of Delhi and hit the highway crossing the by-pass by 5.00 AM. We drove for few hours and stopped for a tea break after nearly 100 kms.


The road was awesome till Panipat, after that it was good in pieces as work was going on till Ambala. We stopped for breakfast just after Ambala. Hot parathas and curd, it was an awesome breakfast. We reached Chandigarh and missed the by-pass road, so had to drive through the city which was irritating with the traffic and the hot sun. Still with difficulties we were just out of Chandigarh when it started to drizzle. We put on our rain coats, covered our bags and were back on the track.

The plains were coming to an end and the mountains were at sight. For the next few hours we drove through the mountains along with the trucks which were in plenty on the road. It again started to drizzle as we approached Bilaspur. Our next stop was for lunch, just after crossing Bilaspur. A late lunch at around 4.00 PM and we hit the road again as we still had a long way to cover.

After Bilaspur we reached Mandi in a couple of hour enroute Sundarnagar. We were supposed to meet our uncle at Sundar nagar but dint stop as it would further delay our schedule. The route from Mandi to Manali was picturesque and really awesome. The 3 km long Bhubhu-Jot tunnel between Mandi and Kullu was unexpected as we had not known about it.


The road from Kullu to Manali was really bad. We had to drive in the dark for a few hours and by the time we reached Manali it was almost 10.30 PM. The guys had already booked a room near the old town. The long, hard drive had come to an end after 570 kms on the trip meter. We were completely exhausted and were sleepy after driving for nearly 18 hours.


We dint find time to take pics on the first day as we were in a rush.

Day 2 and more to follow.

WOW!
Another Leh trip log ...
Aane do..
Subscribed

Nice one. What type of bag did you tie on the FZ tail. Looks like a large garbage bag

If I read your log correctly, you guys took 18 hours to reach Manali?

Day 2 and more by tonight. Just started writing.

he he he... Its not a garbage bag, it was a big backpack covered with large plastic bags to protect from rain and it was easier to take out things when needed compared to covering it with sheets.

And yes it took us 18 hours as it was raining all along and there were places where it was so heavy that we had to stop for long durations.

Waiting for more. Want to know how FZ fared on those gruesome altitudes Would be taking that next year most probably

Waiting for your Rohtang and Rany Nallah photographs since you told it was raining on the way to Manali

Rohtang was the worst... Rani nallah was a hell... a tempo has jus freshly rolled down at Rani nallah

Updates on the FZ coming up...

Yup its on the way to Rohtang... The worst road everrrr..
Done wit the write-up... wil go home and put the pics and update it first thing...

Lovely pics... Glued here. Following every Leh log as Im getting Lehd this year

Day 2: Rohtang Uphill

"The mountains are calling".

The plan was to start as early as 6.00AM from Manali, but after the tiring ride, we got ready only by 7.

Beautiful is not the word for the Manali morning. It was simply mesmerizing. I was awestruck by the beautiful valley, enthralling mountains, majesty of those peaks and pinnacles, the morning drizzle, the low clouds passing thru the distant peak and the gushing stream. It seemed like a perfect morning for the adventure ahead.


No time for breakfast was my call but the others couldnt just ignore the aroma of the tea and the tossing omlets.


They had their breakfast while I went on to check on the rental bikes. Gopal and Abhinav claimed to have checked their bikes but when we took them out we found problems with the Pulsars chain and the headlight. The mechanic came after a long wait and check the bikes which delayed our plans. Meanwhile we remembered on important thing that we had forgotten, Petrol Cans.

It was almost 9 and we were hours behind our scheduled departure. Few more minutes were not going to hurt anyways. So we looked for plastic cans and finally got two 10 liter cans from the market. Also picked up some extra rope at the same time.
The bags were tied to the bikes and the next stop was filling the tanks.

At around 9.00 AM the tanks were full and the tyre pressures were checked.
Next we were ready to ascend the mighty Rohtang. Amidst slow drizzle we started the ascend.

The initial target was to reach Sarchu(220 kms), Which by all means seemed distantly impossible owing to our delays. However the revised place of halt was not decided.
We decided to ride till our bikes rode us and until the Sun was in the sky.
The ride from Manali uphill was simply breathtaking; wonderful mountain side and water falls. We met a group of cyclists on the way. It was a group of around 30+ people everyone riding at their own pace.Few of them as young as 15 and some in their late 60's. Those guys were very enthusiastic and energetic.Unbelievable. I could never even think of doing it now, god knows what will be the condition at 60's.

Bikes & the view:

Moving on after a photo shoot, we saw something really unexpected. There was no road, only a pool of mud. And it was the same for the next 10 kms till Rohtang. The road was horrendous. It had rained all night and the sight after that was in front of us. The PWD guys working there said the road is bad only till the next turn. I dont know why he lied to us, but initially we believed him only to find later that the road kept getting worst and we ascended.

We were finding it difficult to move our bikes in such terrain. Few smart people stayed behind and returned to Manali, others like us jumped into the pool. I would say it was our best decision to do so but we dint want to go back and wait for another day till things got better. We believed it was only a small stretch which was bad not knowing the whole truth. We revved the engines and kept moving forward. I was in front of others on my FZ. It was fun in the beginning but turned out to be a horror later.

The Highway

The first blow was Gopals Karizma stopped within few meters into the mud. He has worked out the engine so much that the clutch plates gave away. He stopped without knowing what to do. I was in front of him and dint know whats happening behind. I kept on climbing followed by Retesh and Abhinav. Gopal kept shouting but we couldnt hear due to the other vehicles around. Only after taking one bend did I see Gopal standing with his bike.

Gopal & the bike:

Few made it past us after few hours while one couple attempted off-roading and crossed the first turn. Don’t know whether these people made it all the way without any problems.

Few who made it:

But for us, it was the end of the road. With the Karizma down, we had to either get a mechanic up there or go back to Manali. We were already 35 kms from Manali and there was no phone signal. We asked people going down to Manali to send a mechanic but dint hope for anyone to turn up. So it was now plan B, turn back. After literally stopping ever vehicle going down for lift, we finally found a pick-up truck who agreed to take the bike for Rs.400 after bargaining. Meanwhile we found a group of RE’s going down who said one of their teammates bike was broke up near Rohtang and had called for a pick-up truck.
The Karizma was then loaded on to the truck and was tied with heavy ropes. Gopal took my bike and I was given the horrible task of holding the bike.
I never thought it could be such a bad thing, but believe me, nothing can be worse than holding on to a bike behind a truck in a bad mountain road. My hands were red and all my energy was used up trying to hold that bike still. The bike was jumping like crazy along with the bumps and so was I. Finally we reached the Manali and dropped off the bike at the mechanic.

The aftermath:

Day 2 Summary:

Planned distance: Manali - Sarchur (220 kms)
Distance covered: Manali - Manali (80 kms)

At the end of the day we were back to were we started from. Till now FZ had little problems while Karizma has more. The Pulsars were rock solid doing great with no problem what soever.
After the days disaster we had a plan in mind to cross Rohtang.
On how we cross the Rohtang pass in the next post, coming up tomorrow.