Wow! That snow sliding down in a mini-avalanche looks interesting. Yes, you are indeed lucky to get out unhurt. From your photographs however it does not look like the 4-wheelers could do it easily!

thanks all...

A Panorama of the lake...

awesome logs man..! AMan.. the sliding thing was scary.. good you made it..!!
the achievement is not riding thru it, but its in the initial dare & then making it safely..!! well done aman... U are the man.. the pix are as usual drooling..
Just one suggestion.. Why dont u watermark your pix.. Not to protect them, but to carry your credits with them..!!
Please keep making us more stunned.. The start of my day was superb.. Thanks

^^ thanks Rachit for the kind words...

watermark... yeah i realized it much later, shud hav done in the initial stages.. now nothing much is left to post.

Yeah but at least watermark the ones you are posting from here-on after so at least SOME of your work gets duly credited. I'm watermarking all your pics as and when I use them. For now I haven't used any because I've just reached Delhi in the blog. I guess from this point onward in my blog your images will start becoming relevant

not until you reach Amritsar!... thats when I took out my cam for the first time.

Nice pics of the Pangong Lake Aman ...!!

another panaroma...

Some pics from Day 9, rest day.

Local sheep....


The first tree in Ladakh region, planted by Guru Nanak Dev Ji....


Local buns...


I wanted to stay away from my bike on Day 9, after all the riding done. We had to catch a train from Jammu, and break the journey at Delhi. Manali side was still closed officially, and taking that route meant taking a risk, a 50-50 chance of crossing it in desired time and reaching Delhi. So we decided to go back the same route.

Met up with Hyd guys and Beru for dinner. They had come via Batalik, so we decided to take that detour to reach Kargil. Atleast some part of route would be different. The plan was to ride till Drass, overnight, and then Srinagar. Didnt happen.

Day 10: Leh - Kargil - Drass - Zozila - Srinagar!

I wanted to visit the Gurudwara (Pathar Sahib, 30kms from Leh), so me and Inder left 30-45mins before Vishwas and Rudra (5:30am). After that we kept riding till the point (some 100kms from Leh) from where we had to take the alternate route to Kargil via Batalik. Me and Inder had ordered breakfast, and we were soon joined by the rest two.

The last few kms before entering Kargil were in a bad condition, Inder and me were way behind Vishwas/Rudra. Entered the city, couldnt spot them anywhere, so just zoomed through. Or maybe zoomed through, so coudnt spot them! Vishwas would agree with the later. My idea was to ride till Drass so that we atleast reach the final resting spot. We were not even sure if they were behind us or ahead. Anyways you've read that part of the story already in Vishwas's log.

Me and Inder stopped at the war memorial, thinking if they are behind us, they would also stop, as they had not visited it. Or if they are ahead of us, they would have already taken a room in Drass, I would call Vishwas once I reach Drass.

War memorial pics....




























We moved ahead to Drass and found Vishwas waiting for us with a different plan. Cross Zozila at 6pm and reach atleast Sonmarg! So I went ahead with the flow, Inder wanted a room. Zozila was worse than before this time, and it had even started raining. Asked Vishwas to keep me in sight as I was riding the slowest. I had both my boots filled with water (I was wearing polythene bags, and the water had enetered them too!). We reached Sonmarg around 8pm I guess. Inder again wanted a room. I, along with Vishwas and Rudra were in full josh. If we did Zozila at this hour of the day, we can sure do Sonmarg-Srinagar (100kms). The only fear being dark.

So we refreshed, dried ourselves, and left for Srinagar in pitch dark. Initially we were riding together, then after a while I got disengaged with the group as I was taking it slow. I dont understand why they were blindly assuming that roads we are riding on would be perfect. Inder was zooming ahead, making full use of his owl genes. The voice of river flowing below was scary at that time. Vishwas waited for me a couple of times to keep check, but then he too got bored with my speeds and went ahead. Reached the crossing from where we turn towards Dal Lake. I wanted to check up with the house boats for night stay, but that plan didnt prove cost effective. So we were back to our ex-hotel in Srinagar.

Tires and cramster

Hi,
which tires were you using on the 15 and were the cramsters enough to carry all your gear for the long ride?
Did you carry any puncture kit/foot pump?

^^ Sir those are Ceat Vertigo Sport Tubeless (same profile as the stock one).
Thats not Cramster, but it or Cramster for that matter wud be sufficient if u intelligently carry your clothes. I was carrying a puncture kit, foot pump was with another rider.

I would agree with neither. You were not zooming or spotting.

You just kept looking straight ahead and being mere mortals, we couldn't stand in the middle of road to catch your eye.

No long shot??? I wanna see the FULL tree!

^^ naaa... didnt have enough space around to shoot a full view.

Day 11: Srinagar - Patnitop - Udhampur - Katra

I wanted to stay in Srinagar this day for local sightseeing as we had two more days to cath our train from Jammu. But morning got the news that some bandh is on as police kileld a boy in firing. We were suggested to leave Srinagar and head to Jammu as things could worsen.

So we left for Jammu; somewhere after Jawahar tunnel we stopped for food, there them three decided to go to Katra and do the darshan. I decided to ride further to Delhi, stay home for 2 days, catch a flight back to Mumbai!

Day 12: Katra - Jammu - Punjab-vanjab - Delhi! -650kms/10.5hrs

As the weather was getting bad, I decided to go along with these guys till Katra, sleep for a while, and leave early morning for Delhi. So I left from Katra around 5am towards Delhi. After 10am the heat was killing, but kept riding. Sun was bright, ass paining, mouth dried, just wanted to close-in and see a board which showed "Azadpur", my bua's place. Crashed there, got re-hydrated, called my parents for the surprise, and then it rained in Delhi! Excellent! Got my Mumbai flight booked, rode further to my home, Dwarka, and a happy ending!