Post getting the confirmation, planning for the ride continued, while excitement continued to build up slowly and steadily.
Weather is always expected to play a major role in the mountains and at that altitude, even more, so a wary eye always kept looking at the forecast. There was some rain, thunderstorms predicted in Leh, early on but after that it was mostly showing as sunny. We kept our fingers crossed for having clear skies and sun in the open or may be somewhat overcast but nothing beyond that.
Skipper through his contact point in the Army, Captain Ashray, kept sharing information about the route, plans for the ride, weather etc. That kept us happily engaged, as if we weren’t engaged deep down up to our bone marrow already.
Rohan also shared some information regarding expected weather conditions learnt through his cousin Maj Trisham and advised heavy gear to be kept along for managing extreme cold.
Prior to the travel, got the mandatory servicing of the “Black Beauty”, aka my trusted ride for the mountains and had it packed a day in advance to avoid any rush on the last day.
On the day of travel, things went about like clockwork, and in no time was there at Leh and experienced the cold, crisp and dry air at 11,500 ft. It felt wonderful and absolutely fresh.
Rest of the group was supposed to reach about 4-5 hours later and till then I had time to do my work & rest. Focused on the former, realized later was not possible and worked through my makeshift office for the day.
As per the plan, today was supposed to be a complete rest day, which meant, just about no physical activity at all besides the mandatory office work.
Soon rest of the gang arrived and there were shouts and hugs all around, it was nearly 2 years after the Spiti ride, since we got a chance to meet the entire, most of the group. Another rider from our group, Doc aka Dr. Shankar TV, was also reaching Leh today, but with much more style and panache than all of us.
He’s like the finest single malts, maturing and getting better with age. At 59, he was riding from Manali to Leh (for the 2nd time) and today was the culmination of the ride.
As providence had it, our folks caught up with Doc, as he was riding strongly into Leh, defying age and everything that it stands for.
Captain Ashray made a brief stopover at our place while we were having lunch and we not surprised to get introduced to an absolutely young leader of our armed forces, though he might have been taken aback by the middle aged cyclists planning to sweat it out in the cold desert. During this brief meet and greet, also got to meet up with Maj Trisham (courtesy: Rohan), who was planning to host us at Chisumle and suddenly we were all energised and charged up for the daunting task in front of us. We learnt that we would be accompanying 15 jawans / officers from the army, including Captain Ashray and it caused some bit of goosebumps knowing the amazing and august company we are going to have for this expedition.
Lunch done, evening tea done but our tales and stories were nowhere close to getting over. Our bikes were assembled later in the evening, post which, we went around for a pre-dinner stroll to the bike shop, met up with the owner (3 times in 3 years) and then enjoyed authentic Ladakhi cuisine at Namza dining, before retracing the route back to the hotel.
Next morning, after a nice hearty breakfast, enjoying the morning chill, clear skies and sun, we got in the gear to get a small flavour of Leh on our bikes.
It started off with an incline and in a few minutes, we were all huffing and puffing and gasping for breath. Skipper led us to the route towards Khardungla climb, with a thought that we might bump into Doc enroute. We didn’t bump into him but were subjected to an almost unadulterated climb in an area with sparse traffic. We were barely able to make the bikes roll. Guess it was a hot a warm up that we were subjected to.
Riding, pausing, catching our breath, we rode nearly for 5 kms, before getting the instructions to stop and retrace. During this short ride, serendipitously met up with Rahul Kale, who was also in Leh as a part of Manali – Leh – Khardungla expedition and on that way had decided to ride towards Khardungla.
Exchanged quick hellos and a few pics later, started my descent and it was a such a breeze and all that sweat on the body suddenly made the temperature drop a few degrees. Made a mental note to have right layers for the descents.
Had a nice and leisurely lunch at Rendezvous in the main market and came back to the hotel. Doc was arriving in less than hour to meet up. Yay!
We were all a bit sleepy with all that heavy food settled in, but decided to kill the sleep with some light chat but soon Doc was there and we were all energised to see him.
He regaled us with some of his tales from MLK expedition while we shared with nervous excitement about our plans for Leh-Umlingla expedition. We tried to get him to join us, mentioning that he’s most acclimatised and ready for this, but he didn’t budge, citing some elusive “papers”.
Alas we had to settle for just a pic of his presence and then get ready for the evening practice ride.
This ride was supposed to be a bit longer than morning and not as treacherous as well. Winds were on in their full glory, so had to wait and see what we would get. He headed towards Ghoda Chowk and then towards Airport as the skipper instructed. It was mostly downhill and we were a little hassled thinking the amount of uphill that we would need to do on our way back.
Rode through some blocked roads, end of path and as the sun was setting down, we started the slow trudging back to the main market and with much huffing and puffing were finally back.
This evening, we decided to eat at the hotel, to save some time and give minimal stress to the body. Had done enough for Day 2 of acclimatisation.
Tomorrow was the last day of rest, practice and acclimitization, so decided to wake up a bit early, do a slightly longer ride, eat up and just REST.
We stayed mostly true to the plan and after a good breakfast, headed towards Manali highway. It was a bit of a roller coaster, not much gradients, but good road for saddle time and this was also supposed to be the road that we would be taking on Day 1 of expedition.
Plan was to ride for about 2:30 – 3 hours to get reasonable saddle time and see how far we could go. We agreed to head up Karu and then turn back. Weather looked great and we were off.
Had some headwinds on our way out, but it was good practice for the next day. Bike was riding nicely, systems were responding and all looked fine.
Reached Karu and was waiting for rest of the group to arrive when Raj bhai called to inform that they’ve turned back slightly sooner and I should return back.
I, immediately started back and realised the joy of riding in tailwinds in Leh, my bike was cruising and it was quite effortless to ride back. In some time, I was able to meet up with the group, where they had a taken a short break for honey, ginger lemon.
With this nice, warm and cosy break our Skipper forgot to pick his helmet, so Raj bhai and I paused, with a great snow capped Mountain View and waited for others to join in. Managed to get a few good pics, did a couple of video calls and then once Sachin cruised through, we picked our bikes and started again.
We had a great riding practice in the morning and now just needed to re-fuel and rest up as much as we could. Lunch was again at Rendezvous in the main market, this time heavier than before to load up the carbs for the upcoming ride days.
Raj bhai and I managed to squeeze in a few minutes to get to the hotel, shower and change before going for our lunch and then gloriously feasted and then strolled around as tourists to get the food settled in and capture some nice pics for memoirs.
Had a peaceful rest of the day, wrapping up the packing, sorting of bags and all and then more carb loading in the evening. We might have given gluttony a new name that evening.
We were playing out all our cards to ensure that there’s no stone unturned for us to complete the expedition.
Fingers crossed.
Tonight was a crucial night to sleep and fully recharge for the next morning.
…to be continued
P.S. photos courtesy extended by Rohan Jelkie, Nilay Arun, Raj bhai, skipper – Sachin Rustagi (very rare but still might be there) and Indian Army. Hence for each of the photos in the subsequent posts, it may not be extensively called out.
It’s important to note that most of the gorgeous photos or most gorgeous photos have been shot by none other than Rohan Jelkie. Massive thanks buddy! 😊🙏
Pedalling thru Life 