The Journey - Manali to Khardung La - on bicycle!

THE JOURNEY
On 26th Aug 2012, I started a journey – one, to get away from cluttered Mumbai life and two, to explore my personal physical limits – from Mumbai to Chandigarh (my home town) and then took a late night Volvo bus to Manali on 27th Aug.
So here, ladies and gentlemen, me along with 6 other riders, were going to ride from Manali to Khardung La via Leh on bicycles. This trip was 10 days long, where we took 9 days to reach Leh and 10th day for climbing Khardung La, the mother (and father) of all passes, the highest motorable road in the world at 18380 feet.
The itinerary was sorted out, with stop-overs for food and rest. Sleeping bags were packed, camping tents folded and we started a journey to top of the world.
Journeys like these are so full of madness, that you sometimes skip the moment where it all should sink in, the feel of the task that you are going to undertake for next 10 days, the preparation that you have done and training that you have gone through. You skip all this because there are so many things to take care off, cycling gears, food, warm clothes, cycling gear again!!
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MOMENT OF REALIZATION
So when is the first moment that you realise the craziness and have that moment where it starts to sink in? Its when you have your first talk to another traveller, outside your group. He could be the one who has taken 20 weeks off to travel India on a bicycle from KhardungLa to Bangalore, in search for real India that you often miss when travelling by Air or by car. Trains, of course, give you a better experience but then, nothing matches months and months of cycling, staying over at stranger’s house, eating food off the street and then back to saddle, without a clue of where to spend the next night!
Or it could be a talk with 4 British girls, who have started their self supported journey on bicycles from Kyrgyzstan, travelling all the way to Pakistan and then reaching India and god knows where they want to end up, but all they know is that want to spend next 6 months on that saddle.
After listening to their stories, they ask you what is yours. And then you start from the very start, going step by step to explain how a friend came up with this idea, how you said yes without putting too much thought, how you almost started panicking 2 weeks before when the costs and efforts started to mount and how you almost quit 2 days before you fly just to be brought back to your senses.
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BACK TO THE JOURNEY
Each day you start with a briefing, of what to expect – 10 km of climb to start with and then few kilometres of descend, which is the most exciting part and make the initial effort to make that climb, totally worth it.
We stopped at Marhi, Sissu, Jispa, Upper Zingzing Bar, Sarchu, Whisky Nallah, Debring, Rumptse and finally Leh. By this time, I had mixed emotions going through my head. Had to see off a dear friend in between the journey due to health problems, then waking up to find there is no power in the legs to paddle on but what other option do I have? From going down hill at 60kmph with adrenanline pumping through the viens to hard climbs at 6kmph where every second that passes by leaves pain. All that remained was mental strength to test the limits.
But who knew the toughest test is yet to come. After 9 days of extreme cycling, crossing highest mountain peaks in the world on bicycle, after conquering Rohtang La, Baralacha La, Lachulung La, Tanglang La, we came to our last day, with no power and strength whatsoever to Leh. With no rest day since we started, our next job was to climb KHARDUNGLA. The 40km ride took me 8 hours, to be honest, which included times when any number of bottles of Getorade or Red Bull would not help, Oxygen at lowest possible level, and times when I had to cross around 2 to 3 km by foot, dragging my Merida Matts 20 cycle along. By this time, taking pictures was the last thing on my mind.
And what an accomplishment it feels, like a True Wanderer when you get to the top, finally take pictures with every moving and immovable object lying there, to create and never forget these memories, sit down with friends with a hot bowl of Maggi (yes its the staple food in the mountains) & tea and then discuss what the hell were we thinking when we agreed to do this!! And sharing a good laugh... and did I mention, the pain in the legs was long gone!!
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ON THE BIKE (IN INDIAN SENSE)
Then finally I hopped on to the motorcycle, which I rented in Leh and took the Leh-Srinagar highway. After 10 days on the bicycle, the Hero Impulse felt like I was sitting on a sofa, large comfortable sofa. Did 200km through the most amazing roads you can find anywhere in the world, complete with long winding curves, sharp cuts and long straights going up and down the hill. The main attraction was the rafting centre where Zanskar and Indus river meet.
Overall, those 15 days were complete with all modes of travel, the main being bicycle, riding on the toughest mountain roads, without a care of the world outside. Just you and your free mind...