Before I scribble down anything, the first thing I learnt during The Mountain Trail Days was "Mountains and Motorcycles they both simply go with each other". You are on your bike around mountains and definitely you are gonna live those days throughout your life. Nature has so much to offer. No one can explain the essence, you yourself need to be there to understand and live it. Each and every day in the mountains you will end up with a smile and the next day you will wake up with the urge to witness more. And I bet you my friend, every time you will be blown away with its magnificence. Leh-Ladakh is on the top checklist list of every traveler and a biker. There in the mountains you live in the sunshine, swim in the water and drink the wild air. Before starting the article let's give you a brief idea about what is THE MOUNTAIN TRAIL.

What is the Mountain Trail?
It was a 14 nights and 15 days expedition organized by Mahindra for the Mojo and Non Mojo owners to ride across the beautiful passes around the Leh-Ladakh region. It was a ride mainly focusing on the brand new Mahindra Mojo and also testing its capabilities. Despite Mahindra took care of each and everything but mountains are never easy. Indeed The Mountain Trail was a mammoth journey.

The journey Begins:
Although the ride has already begun, but I was assigned to join the Mojo tribe from 30th of July. I flew from Bangalore on 28th July evening. I can't describe I was feeling while flying over the mountains into the clouds. Leh airport is not one those mega giant buildings. Its an open runway covered under delightful clouds and surrounded by stunning mountains. I landed early in the morning and headed towards the hotel. The complete Mojo Tribe made Hotel Thongsal in Leh as its base camp. The whole team was riding from past 6 days so 29th was a buffer day for them. One must take break during such rides because human body needs to accumulate to the present temperature and altitude. Had a quick interaction session with the fellow riders during breakfast. I also got a chance to meet Rtd. Major Iqbal Singh Singha father of famous video jockey Mr. Ranvijay Singha. They were also the part of Mojo tribe but unfortunately Mr. Ranvijay had to leave early because of his other commitments. As the day was off I found few of the riders went off for river rafting after the breakfast. The rest of the group had a plan to visit Hall Of Fame post lunch. It was bright and sunny outside when I woke up after good 3-4 hours of sleep. Now because I skipped the lunch plan, I directly headed to the Hall Of Fame. An army personnel was our host for the evening. He took us around the war memorial shared different encountered of kargil war and different experiences of Indian Army. After this the whole team headed back to the hotel and guess what as it was a rest day the whole group was in a party mood. Around 9:00 P.M the party started and the fun continued for good 3-4 hours. People were singing songs together, laughing. Almost all of them were meeting each other for the first time but the biking brotherhood was clearly visible. During the party we all had a small brief up session for the next morning ride. All the riders were asked to geared up and be on their bikes till 8:00 A.M. Because I already had a good sleep during the day time I was not able to sleep at night. I woke up little early and visited Shanti Stupa Monastry which was located just few away from our hotel.

The climb:
Despite of scheduled plan of starting at 8 in the morning the Mojo Tribe started their climb for Khardungla at 9 in the morning. Yes; you heard it right, first menu was Khardungla, also known as "Worlds Highest Motorable Road". The itinerary was to ride towards Khardungla followed by lunch en-route Khardungla Village and explore the beautiful Nubra Valley. Tribe was asked to not stay longer on Khardungla Top because of AMS and other health issues. We didnt took any pictures as it was on other day bucket list as we were about to cross the same place very next day. Even though its just 45kms journey from Leh city towards Khardungla, everyone was excited to conquer it. But destiny had its own plan as due to new motor rules laid by local taxi union, everyone need to ride his own bike but since several riders were riding rented Mojo bikes provided by Mahindra were stopped and the hassle went for 5 hours. All riders were shattered with this and were being forced to turn back. But after intervention of DC along with Mahindra officials and taxi union things got sorted out and everyone just started zooming towards Khardungla. Soon the black tarmac turned into narrow mud lane filled with black ice and stone, everyone was found struggling with rough terrain of mighty Himalayas. But mighty Mojo made it very easily maneuverable over this terrain. With increasing altitude it was becoming bit difficult to breathe but Mojo showed its mantle and made it very easy to ride along the rugged path. Turn by turn group got separated into small sub groups while ascending towards Khardungla and as the moment arrived, everyone was happy and filled with excitement to reach the top. Riders shared moments and feelings while clicking pictures and greeted each other. Soon everyone started descending towards the other side towards Nubra Valley as it was already past 3 in afternoon and as planned Marshal started pushing riders to move quickly in order to avoid bead weather conditions while the sunset. After having late lunch at North Pullu whole convey started together to cross 2 water bodies along Nubra Valley. It was already very late in evening and after reaching hotel at 9PM, everyone gathered to enjoy the bonfire and dinner together. After an eventful and tiring day everyone crashed to their bed early.

Sand Dunes to Leh:
I woke up in the morning o see the wonders of Himalayas. Tribe visited Sand Dunes in the middle of Himalayas and they spell were bound to see a desert in middle of snow capped mountains. After a Jolley ride on double hump Camels, everyone started gearing up for the return ride. Before leaving for Leh everyone visited the spiritual Diskit Monastery. As the ride started again, everyone easily reached Khardungla Top again and spent more time there to enjoy it completely. Tribe reached Leh early in the
evening and had their leisure time at bonfire enjoying the local folk dance. Nevertheless to mention, this night was completely used by Mahindra mechanics to service and pimp up the bikes in order to make the onward journey pleasurable.



Mighty Changla:
This day holds most important memory in my trip. Marshal informed us that even though Khardungla was of higher altitude ride to Changla Pass is going to be more treacherous and will test our endurance and skills. total distance to be travelled was 130km but it was majorly off-road and very less Tarmac aand even encounters of mud and boulders. As usual we started at 8am in the morning and since the off tarmac route started early we were riding while standing on the foot pegs. Steadily i gained much confidence on my Mojo and soon I made connection with the bike. Took a small butt break at Soltak and had lunch at Thangse village. As we were rolling down from in between the mountains and suddenly we got the first view of the Pangong Tso lake, the very famous 3 Idiots Lake. Zeal and enthusiasm was uncontrollable and we just accelerated towards the lake. Tribe reached way early before evening and the adventure began after listening that we are going to camp there. Sub groups were allocated with tents and then everybody just went to explore the place at every possible corners. Pictures were clicked at millisecond rate and everyone tried to portray their favorite movie star style. After having a very plain dinner, we went out for a walk in chilly night and star gazing. Milky way Galaxy was in its full glow and had a view of one of the best natural phenomenon.

Return back to ground zero:
Woke up late but managed to click numerous pictures. Whole tribe was divided into 2 sub groups and was decided to ride back along with their respective marshalls. Meeting point was karu and nothing much adventurous happened on the way back. Since this was a free ride so everyone had their own comfortable time to stop anywhere and even some of the members went to Shey Monastery.

Kargil Visit:
This day was filled with multiple episodes. Leh Kargil route is one of the best tarmac routes in Leh Ladakh region and on this day whole convoy was riding together along with backup vehicle. even though it was decided not to stop at Magnetic Hill, but since many media representatives were part of this trip, bazooka lenses and drone were out and it was a complete shooting set on Magnetic Hill. We even stopped at Nakeela and Fothula Passes and had good time to absorb the fresh wind coming from Lamayuru monastery after lunch. After Lamayuru only I stopped to capture convoy shots. Tribe reached at Kargil in the evening and many got into business of using free wi-fi available there. Even I contacted my family down in the plains and shared pictures with them. Best part of this day was that rider Sarath Shenoy aka Baba Mojo completed 50000 kms on his mojo and it was also his birthday. After the celebration everyone slept for another eventful day.

War Stories:
Menu for the day was visiting Kargil War memorial stationed at Drass-42 kms from Kargil. even the whole tribe was riding down in one line formation and reached Drass. One army personnel took us through the stories of unsung Kargil war heroes, other different military activities, weather conditions and army life style. After visiting Drass it was time to return back to Leh and group divided into multiple sub groups which lacked coordination. There were many break downs like punctures, techincal issues like brake fail, disc bend and even small falls(inexperienced riders). Slowly slowly everyone coordinated with each other and by the time we reached Leh it was already dark. Trouble didn't end there, after riding 2 hours in dark and a complete day of exhausting ride, half of the tribe came to know the hotel has been changed. Spent couple of hours searching the new hotel. Everyone had dinner first before going to their rooms, but soon realized 6 bikes and a backup car was still missing and there was no connectivity with them. All questions were unanswered until they arrived at 1am in the midnight. There were issues with those bikes which delayed them. Kudos to the servicing team who worked whole night after a tiring day and prepared the bike again for another ride.

Ride Back Home:
The trip was about to get over. I woke up and came to know teams were divided into 2. People who reached early the last night, left early in the morning but another group who were late at night were supposed to leave at 10 but left at 12 in the noon. I was part of the 2nd group. a successfull ride is always includes riding back home safely. Marshal informed the same thing to us and strictly emphasized us to stick with there groups and only stop after reaching Sarchu. Obviously we took butt breaks but every tried to adhere with the team. Reached Tanglangla in the evening and then your truly also had a breakdown with a punctured tyre. Left stranded for an hour I was just gazing at the clouds waiting for it to come and shower its thunder upon me. I planned not to take out my camera and after some time backup vehcile arrived and they directly replaced the whole tyre. Since I was already at last, gave the backup vehicle a heads-up to go ahead to avoid any delay for any breakdowns happened ahead. I had the most thrilling ride from Tanglang La to Pang riding alone in rains and after reaching there I was already numb and was bit lost in my own thoughts. There was already 2 more breakdowns in Pang and since it was already late and raining, half of the stranded team decided to stay back in Pang whereas other half had already reached Sarchu. Support vehicle and Marshal Submit decided to go ahead to check the first team status.They came to know that first team was also not able to reach Sarchu since a bridge has collapsed. Accommodations were made for them near that place and Marshal ride back in middle of night and instructed the team to be prepared to ride back to Manali directly the next day. Tribe had a gala time in chilly night by playing fun games and lot of laughter.

Rain ride:
People didnt had a pleasant morning as they had to attend natures call under open sky. Everyone got ready after wearing there wet gears and with determination to ride back in rains. We joined the first team in Keylong and started the ascend towards Rohtang Top. It was 8 o'clock in evening when we reached Rohtang top and the last treacherous ride started through rain, fog and with almost zero visibility. Took us 3hrs more to reach Manali and everyone took a sigh of relief from there wet gears. Next morning again it was raining and it was all about just riding back to Chandigarh as soon as possible without instructions of any pit stop or any planned nutt breaks. Ride ended at Pal Dhaba, Mohali with lots of celebrations and memories. One Digital team showcased small video clips of each day, buffet dinner was served and we from the respective media team handed over our keys with lot of acknowledgement and gratitude.



Never stop wondering, Never stop wandering.