Manali Leh Cycling 2016
(Here’s the link for all photos- http://s347.photobucket.com/user/girish2016/library/Manali%20Leh%202016
)
"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."
"When you go to the mountains, you see them and you admire them. In a sense, they give you a challenge, and you try to express that challenge by climbing them."-
Edmund Hillary
"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."
"When you go to the mountains, you see them and you admire them. In a sense, they give you a challenge, and you try to express that challenge by climbing them."-
Edmund Hillary
This is an attempt to pen down my
experience of cycling on Manali Leh highway with YHAI in July 2016. After
recalling all those memories, I’m already feeing pumped up to get back on the
bike to climb all over again. But the things were different way back, when I
registered for the program in March. Most of my friends who had driven on Royal
Enfields on this route told me that the idea to ride on cycle is insane due to
multiple difficulties like steep climbs, unmetalled roads which increase the
risks of accidents, frequently changing extreme weather conditions, Altitude
sickness etc. During my return journey from Leh, I happened to travel on same
highway as plans to return from Shrinagar had to be cancelled due to tense
situation in that region. While returning, when I evaluated the complete route
at a stretch, then only I could understand what madness have I performed. If I
might have known this route earlier, then I might not have dared to cycle on it
as suggested by other experienced people. After all, Ignorance can be bliss at
times.
Anyways, inspite of all the wisely
advices about why I shouldn’t be doing this, I decided to go for it. The major reason
for me was to test my own endurance capabilities along with a chance to explore
an altogether different mountainous terrain of Himalayas.
Keeping
in mind the physical requirements for the journey, I started riding frequently
in April. But couldn’t do much practice due to oppressive summer. About a month
before actual journey, a mail was sent by YHAI organizers mentioning the details
about the Test ride which has to be passed in order to continue rest of the
journey. The first day of the tour was declared as a test ride in which we had
to cover around 48 KM distance with elevation gain of around 2100 m.
After managing office leaves and other routine tasks, on 10th July reached 15 mile base camp which is located 14 km before Manali. The program was scheduled from 13th with first day being the D-day. Around 490 km distance had to be covered in 10 days which included crossing 4 mountain passes. There were 3 batches of around 50 participants each leaving on consecutive days. Our batch was named as “Rohtang La”.
Field director of the program, Mr.
Sumit Patil briefed us multiple times about various steps to be taken for
completing the journey. He’s done a lot of long distance cycling, but he didn’t
brag or even mentioned about any of his achievements to create an impression on
participants. On the last day, during conversation with him, I got some
glimpses of his down to earth personality. According to him, when you spend a
lot of time with the mountains, they make you loose your identity, you just have
to let yourself sink into them. Mountains will break all your unrealistic
superiority conceptions about yourself. If you think that you can easily
conquer these mountains and try to go too fast during the initial climb, then
you might get tired sooner. So you have to understand your potential, respect
the limits set by mountains and drive into your zone in order to finish the
climb. Break the whole journey of thousands of meters into single pedal at a time and try to expand your potential step by
step. As long as you keep pedaling, you are going to reach there.
For the whole journey, many kept discussing
how Sumit completed the Manali Leh cycling non stop in 2 to 3 days. But he was
more concerned about how maximum number of people will finish the journey. He
mainly focused on utilizing group synergy by treating all the group members as
family and helping each other at the time of need. This principle indeed helped
many of us at later stages…
On 11th and 12th
we had two trips to a nearby place called Naggar castle at about 7 km from base
camp with some steep climbing. Just ahead of castle, there’s a Russian couple’s
house converted into museum. We enjoyed fresh apples from orchards on the
route. This ride was like a dress rehearsal for our actual journey.
Finally on 13th our
actual voyage began when we flagged off for Marhi at early morning hours of 6
o’clock. Some people chose to leave at 8 o’clock waiting for SDM to arrive for
flag off. We were provided with Trek and Firefox Target bikes, which performed upto the mark on the rough roads. We passed through Manali with a brief hault of about an hour at Mall
road. On the road, we met a monk who was travelling on foot. He seemed to be a
modern day monk with possession of smart phone. He clicked photos with some of us and wished us luck for the completion of
task. From Manali onwards the actual climbing began. We avoided some heavy
traffic till Solang valley by leaving early in the morning. Still some steep
climbs and loops were waiting for us after Palchan to test our mettle. Beas
river was visible along the roadside till Palchan after which the road got
diverted.
As it was my first long climbing experience, I
had to stop after each 10-15 minutes for break. There are plenty of dhabas
available in the route. By 12 o’clock people got spread out over a long
distance with some strong ones zooming away towards the destination. I was
lying somewhere in the middle of the pack. By 2 pm some fast riders from 2nd
batch leaving at 8 o’clock started overtaking me. That’s good enough reason for
me to speed up, but I kept calm and maintained my own pace keeping in mind that
I’ve to conserve the energy for 9 more days.
By 3 pm we had a break of half an
hour. At that time, still there was around 15 km to be covered. Clouds started
gathering and the mountain top became invisible. Someone told that after
reaching the cloud cover, there will be a flat road. So there was a ray of hope
to reach Marhi sooner. But weather gods had some different plans for us. By 4
pm, cloud cover suddenly thickened reducing the visibility beyond 10 feets. Temperatures
went down drastically. Constant traffic was there. There were only 2 other
members accompanying me. For the last 10km stretch, we had to travel in similar
conditions. I was riding with a whistle in my mouth as no head lamp or tail
light was available with us. By 5 pm, it felt like, we were travelling through
a dark night. The ever rising climbs never ended, so the energy was draining
away and we weren’t aware exactly how much distance is yet to be covered. There
were no signs of human habitation, suddenly in the left side valley, we saw a
damaged vehicle. After seeing that, all sorts of negative thoughts started
running through my mind and for the first time I was thinking, which was that
day when I decided to register for this program. But somewhere at the back of
my mind, I was enjoying this challenging situation and pain, which kept me
going till we reached Marhi by 6pm. Some other members kept arriving by 9 pm in
the night. Throughout the ride, the climb song from Miley Cyrus was ringing
through my head. Considering the physical efforts, By far, this was one of the
toughest days of my life. As the pain was subsiding, I was feeling more excited
about what remaining 9 days might have in store for us. It kept drizzling till
morning so the wet conditions prevailed around our tents throughout night.
Almost everyone in the tent got off to sleep early without much chit chat.
One of our tentmates Rajiv had a funny incident at this camp site. He had an urgent nature's call during late night. By that time, all the lights around the camp were switched off as everyone was sleeping. So he went outside with a head torch in search of a toilet. The toilet was located at a far away location so he had to roam around in dark without knowing the exact direction in which he was going. The head lamp provided limited visibility upto certain distance only. Suddenly from nowhere in the dark, a cow appeared in front of his face. :) Just after few minutes he bumped into another one. He got somewhat scared and dropped any further search plans. Straight away he came back to the tent and went to sleep. :)
One of our tentmates Rajiv had a funny incident at this camp site. He had an urgent nature's call during late night. By that time, all the lights around the camp were switched off as everyone was sleeping. So he went outside with a head torch in search of a toilet. The toilet was located at a far away location so he had to roam around in dark without knowing the exact direction in which he was going. The head lamp provided limited visibility upto certain distance only. Suddenly from nowhere in the dark, a cow appeared in front of his face. :) Just after few minutes he bumped into another one. He got somewhat scared and dropped any further search plans. Straight away he came back to the tent and went to sleep. :)
Day 2- Marhi to Sissu (50+ km)
Today we were supposed to cross
Rohtang Pass (Elevation- 3978m) located in Pir Panjal mountains. The climb till
Rohtang was of 17 km with elevation gain around 700 metres. Daily only 800
vehicles are given permit to go to Rohtang pass. Out of these more than 150
must be bikers only as per my guess. Some private vehicle owners are unable to
visit as they aren’t aware about permit requirement. Obviously we were allowed
to roam freely without any permits or checks. Many bikers were saluting us or
giving thumbs up through out the route, which boosts your morale periodically. On the other hand one of the car riders had asked me sarcastically "Bhai kya majburi hai tumhari? Cycle pe kyu ja rahe ho?" (what's the necessity of traveling on cycle here?). Now how do I make him understand why am I doing this? :) I was like, tum nahi samajhoge pagle. Kuch kuch hota hai...(You won't get it. It's a special connection) :P
We left in the morning around 8 am.
Thankfully the weather was partially cleared and there was some sunshine by the
time we reached Rohtang pass. The views from the pass appeared spectacular to
me as it was my first glimpse of mountains from such high elevation. I was
completely mesmerized and was thinking ki ab agar yeha se bhi vaapis jana pade
fir bhi paisa vasool hai boss. I sat there in silence for 15 minutes to enjoy the views of clouds moving
across the mountains. Even while typing this, I can clearly recall the pictures
from my photographic memory.
Another reason for being happy was,
finally after long arduous climbs, we were going to enjoy downslope rides. As
the roads on downslope were mostly unmetalled and damaged, the ride was going
to be very bumpy. Not many people liked the roads as they are more accident
prone. But I personally enjoyed the downslope ride very much. It gave me some
real feeling of actual off road mountain biking performed in unknown terrain.
Such roads test your bike control skills as tyres keep skidding every now and
then. Also your body position has to be continuously adjusted to absorb the
shocks and to negotiate the turns. Also this was the only road where I could
easily overtake Royal Enfield riders with almost double speed as they had to
slow down due to bad conditions of road.
The downhill ride ended near
Koksar, where we had lunch at roadside dhaba. In all the the dhabas, various
types of maggies, omletes and noodles are common here along with ginger lemon
honey tea. I’m not that foodie so don’t remember much details about food
items. My only concern was to add some carbs and proteins in my stomach to keep
my body going. After Koksar there were some plain straight downhill roads towards Sissu where
many of us might have touched the speeds of 70’s or 80’s. The camp site at
sissu was wonderful with Chenab river flowing in the backyard. There was a
waterfall flowing through a heart shaped rock structure. Usually at most of the
YHAI camps, camp fire program is held after dinner, which is in the form of
cultural activity involving performances from group members. Our camp leader
Mithun da attempted to hold a similar camp fire activity but only around 15-20
members remained present for it. Others went to sleep due to fatigue and pain.
There was no camp fire held during rest of the journey, so you can imagine how
the ride was taking its toll on most of the members.
I also remember this camp due to
legendary debate that happened between some of the girls and boys, which began
with girl’s driving abilities and went in the direction of male vs female
discrimination, inequality issues. I thoroughly enjoyed it like a bystander as
I had already witnessed similar debates multiple times in the past.
Day 3- Sissu to Jispa (53+ km)
After slight climbing for few km in
the beginning, there was a downhill ride till Tandi running along with Chenab
river. Here also the roads were under construction in many places. But compared
to Rohtang pass roads, these were slightly riskier as loose gravel and red soil
was spread across the road making it difficult to control the bike under speed.
Whereas Rohtang pass downhill road had fixed boulders, where more accurate
judgment was possible.
From Tandi, there is a climbing road
towards Keylong which runs along Bhaga river. Further there is little more
climb after Keylong and the final stretch towards Jispa is a complete downhill
with sharp turns in between. Jispa was the only place where we got built up
location for stay. It was perhaps the last big civilian settlement on Manali
Leh highway, After this only some dhabas were found in remote locations. The
mountain at Jispa camp site reminded us of mountain from Lakshya movie due to
similarity in looks. My prepaid bsnl network was available for last time in Jispa after which
only satellite phones were working for next few days. Postpaid connections
started working on last day after reaching near Leh.
Day 4: Jispa to Zing zing bar. (Around
35km)
From Jispa to Darcha, there is slightly climbing road for 6km, after
which main climb towards zing zing bar begins where around 1000 meter of
elevation to be gained in 26 km. There were multiple waterfalls to be crossed
along the road. At the base of waterfall, there were loose boulders so crossing
the water through those boulders while riding on cycle required some skill. Few
of us fell into that freezing cold water while trying the same. On the road, we had a
brief hault in the afternoon at Patsio near Deepak Taal. From here onwards the
roadside mile stone was showing that Zing zing bar is only 10 km away from
here. So all of us were driving in a relaxed mood. The climb also was appearing
moderate. The milestones were passing by 9,8,7….3,2,1 and finally the zing zing
bar 0 mile stone arrived. There was a small settlement at this place but no
signs of our camp site. When I looked towards the ongoing road, there was a
steep climb along the mountain. I was among the front riders on that day, so couldn’t
see anybody ahead of me going over that climb and more importantly, mentally I wasn’t
prepared to go further as I was expecting the camp site at present location.
Anyways, I started climbing in dual mind set. After completing half the climb,
I was thinking about going at base again just to ensure that I haven’t missed
our camp site. Finally after reaching the top, I came across the YHAI banner,
which ensured that all my climbing efforts are not in vain. For most of us it was
a bitter surprise that at the time when we thought that we are finished for the
day, there was yet some serious climbing with elevation gain of around 500 m
waiting ahead of that.
Zing zing bar camp was at 4300 m
altitude. So the most bothered ghost of Altitude Mountain Sickness was becoming
real for most of us. It’s the most widely discussed issue on whatsapp group
formed just before the beginning of journey. So people were well prepared with
steps like taking diamox, smelling camphor, eating raw garlic, etc. I too had a
sleepless night due to difficulty in breathing. Some others had issues like
nausea, headaches, etc. The oxygen levels were periodically checked for those
feeling uncomfortable, but none of us showed serious level of symptoms as all
of us were gradually climbing.
Day 5: Zing Zing bar to Sarchu
(Around 50 km)
The Baralacha la pass (Elevation
4890m) in Zaskar range mountains was our prime target today. Till the pass
distance was around 18 km with elevation gain of 600 m. Although the numbers
might look small compared to earlier day rides, but higher altitude means lower
oxygen availability, so the efforts get automatically multiplied. Just before
the pass, there is a beautiful lake called Suraj taal, from where Bhaga river
originates. With lunch break near Bharatpur after pass, we moved quickly
towards Sarchu.
After the pass, there is continuous
descent till sarchu and one can enjoy the views of plains and mountains for
last few km with zero pedaling. I liked this ride so much, that I even asked
2-3 truck drivers, whether they can give me lift till the point where flat
roads towards Sarchu began.
Once again weather changed
drastically by afternoon. There were strong winds and rains at Baralacha la pass
by 2 pm. So some of our friends riding behind got stuck in the rain and they
had to be deported in support vehicle later on. Sarchu is the border point
between Himachal and Jammu Kashmir so there was a police check point. At the
camp site, some fierce wind was blowing on and our tents were filled with dust
due to that. Here I made a mistake of staying out in the wind for longer
duration. My body became colder and on the next day there was numbness and
tingling feelings in areas around shoulders and neck for first few hours of ride.
Breathing difficulty was partially reduced due to better acclimatization.
Here we met a solo cycle rider from
Ahmednagar named Ravindra Rathod. He started from his home for more than a
month ago and was travelling without anybody’s support all alone. He was
planning to reach Kargil by 26th July for Indian Army’s Vijay Diwas
celebrations. He was riding on a low end Hero sprint cycle so one can imagine
the difficulties he might have faced during the rough route after Manali. I
salute the spirit of this young fellow who showed courage to undertake such a
long journey on his own. The last we knew, he was in Leh with us on 23rd
July morning and I am pretty sure he must have made it to Kargil in time.
Day 6: Sarchu to Whiskey nallah (48 km)
This proved to be yet another toughest
day of our journey. While leaving, we were told that there
will be Gata loops climb with 21 loops(hairpins) and after that there is a flat
road towards Nakee la pass. But alas, there was yet another surprise waiting
for us. After fininishing gata loops only we came to know that equal amount of
climbing is to be done till Nakee la pass. Somehow, this day was also managed and we reached Whiskey nallah camp by
evening. Here, the dhabavala that we visited had a cute son of 15 months named
Tenzing, who used to join his hands for Namaste after seeing every new
customer.
Day 7: Whiskey nallah to Pang (28
km)
This was the easiest day of the
journey, so there was no hurry of leaving early in the morning. There was
around 6 km of climb till Lachungla pass and then downhill ride till Pang. It
was completed without any hiccups. Pang is one of the world's highest transit camps of army. In the evening I enjoyed watching the cricket match between local residents. Our friend Nayan had forgotten his backpack at Lachungla, which contained his wallet and some other documents. He realised it after reaching Pang. With some persistent efforts of Shivani and Kalpesh bhai, they arranged a vehicle to go back to the pass from Pang. To his utter surprise, Nayan found the bag as it's at the pass. It seemed like the Lachungla pass was guarding his bag and waiting for him to come back for taking it. :)
Day 8: Pang to Debring (43 km)
After climbing few km initially, we
reached wonderful Moreh plains, we could spot few wild asses on the route. I tried
some off road cycling through open plains. It’s fun to ride through partially
loose soils and sediments. The rear tyre was skidding every now and then.
However in order to come out of the plains, I had to drag the cycle for some
distance till reaching the main road. There were some dried up lakes along the
roads, which can be recognized from whitish soil colour spread over certain
areas. For long long distances, there used to be nobody. So one can truly
experience the feeling of getting lost in a desert. The Debring was the highest camp site on our route with some 4600+ m altitude. It was
another windy site and we experienced very low temperatures during night.
Day 9: Debring to Rumtse. (56 km)
This was perhaps the last real
testing day of our journey. Today we had to cross the highest pass on Manali
Leh route, Tanglalng la pass ( elevation- 5328m). The distance to be climbed
was around 20 km with elevation gain of around 700m. Once again, numbers might
look smaller, but we were passing through highest altitude on the route and
energy levels were down as this was the 9th day of our journey.
Still most of us managed to complete the climb by afternoon and after reaching
there we all burst into ecstatic feeling of joy, happiness. We started
celebrating as if our tour has ended here only.
One of our friend who was slightly struggling on climb during last 2-3 days had a different experience today. He found climbing Tanglang la wasn't that difficult as 4 other friends were continuously accompanying him on the climb, 2 at the front and 2 at back. This was the perfect example of how group synergy can bring the best out of you.
Once again, the downhill ride to Rumtse was awesome as the roads were nice and views were mindblowing. The camp site at Rumtse was one of the best we had come across. There were mountains and farms spread on the sides of tent with water stream flowing alongside.
One of our friend who was slightly struggling on climb during last 2-3 days had a different experience today. He found climbing Tanglang la wasn't that difficult as 4 other friends were continuously accompanying him on the climb, 2 at the front and 2 at back. This was the perfect example of how group synergy can bring the best out of you.
Once again, the downhill ride to Rumtse was awesome as the roads were nice and views were mindblowing. The camp site at Rumtse was one of the best we had come across. There were mountains and farms spread on the sides of tent with water stream flowing alongside.
Day 10: Rumtse to Leh (76+ km)
All were happy today as it was
expected to be an easy downhill journey. But surprises didn’t stop coming. After completing first
30 km downhill till Upshi, we had first glimpses of Ladakh valley and Indus river. After
this rolling plains began near Karu, where there were alternate ups and downs along
the road. Further strong head wind started blowing. It was so strong that we even had to pedal along the downslopes. On the route we came across rancho’s
school, Thiksey, Shey monsatries. Finally at the gates of Leh, another huge climb was smiling at us. After looking at that climb, I felt like
Po from Kung Fu panda movie and somehow kept dragging myself to finish this
climb. It felt like heaven, when we finally reached our last base camp in Leh.
This journey couldn’t have been
possible without the initiative and support from YHAI team. They did their best
to arrange quality food, sleeping arrangements, support vehicles, etc. Special
thanks to our camp leaders Mithun da, Guru bhai and Neerja, mechanic Tiwari ji
and Vineet, Kalpesh bhai, Dr. Jigisha madam and YHAI director Manoj Joshi sir
for being there at the time of our needs.
We had 53 members in our batch at
the beginning out of which 43 managed to reach till Leh successfully. We cycled for about 70 hours throughout the journey. We had few participants in their 50s and 60s, who proved that age is just a number. One of them was Kalishankar da, who had been extensively travelling since his retirement with some 60+ treks in last few years. He always remained among the fastest rider at the front and was the only reliable person to know the exact details of next day journey. Similarly there was Ramkrishna sir with us, who kept motivating others falling behind. Many times he rode with them just to boost their morale. He proved that strongest rider is not someone who can go fastest, but he's the one who can help others to finish the task. Hats off to your perseverance RK Sir. Venkat sir (58) met with an accident just few days before coming to manali, but still he drove till the end with straps tied on his shoulder. All of them were true inspiration for rest of us throughout the journey. There
were 6 female participants in our batch and I’m proud to say that all of them
finished successfully irrespective of the various difficulties faced by them.
Even though all the participants had arrived from different parts of country, throughout the journey we were part of a team with a common mission of reaching Leh. By the end of the tour, although we might not have become the best friends as 10 days is very short time period for that, but still we all have developed a soft corner for each other as we faced the hardships together. Often strong linkages are developed among us, when we have to go through unpredictable, tough situations together. Buddies who stand by our sides during such times always have a special place in our hearts throughout the lifetime. I am thankful to all the group members for being a part of this journey with me.
Finally quoting a fb post from one of the friends in our group, which sums up the whole journey.
Mountains, they test you, bring you on your knees, break your over-confidence, sometimes part you in millions of pieces and then all you know is-
"Life is not about getting stuck in complications but about living the simplicities"
- Sorrab Singha
Even though all the participants had arrived from different parts of country, throughout the journey we were part of a team with a common mission of reaching Leh. By the end of the tour, although we might not have become the best friends as 10 days is very short time period for that, but still we all have developed a soft corner for each other as we faced the hardships together. Often strong linkages are developed among us, when we have to go through unpredictable, tough situations together. Buddies who stand by our sides during such times always have a special place in our hearts throughout the lifetime. I am thankful to all the group members for being a part of this journey with me.
Finally quoting a fb post from one of the friends in our group, which sums up the whole journey.
Mountains, they test you, bring you on your knees, break your over-confidence, sometimes part you in millions of pieces and then all you know is-
"Life is not about getting stuck in complications but about living the simplicities"
- Sorrab Singha
