Prelude to the Ride

The Leh ride was the most talked about ride among us friends whenever we talked about a trip in the hills. No doubt its a dream trip for everyone but such dream trips need extensive planning and decision making.

The first hints of the ride emerged on April 14th 2008 when Deepak forwarded a mail about the Ladakh bike ride that he and his friends decided to go. He added us. Infact all decision was already done at that point and Deep just added us to comment.

My first reaction was apprehension. Bike rides are ok but Ladakh ! I read articles on the same on the net and my first reaction from all those were forget it , i cannot do it. Seriously some of the experiences of riders going there are horrendous with bad roads , landslides , huge water crossings and what not.

Sometime later I sent a mail on the thread saying I couldn't come for the trip due to unavailability of leaves et. all , Saurabh replied back saying that he had anticipated that from me. I felt bad at that point of time and didn't want to miss out on the trip and that too of this magnitude. Saurabh was right i was jittery about the thought of the bike ride but then I thought what the heck. Purvesh called me and asked me the reason of not coming. He just said 1 sentence "Sai mai tujhe wahan se safe lekar aaunga - you don't worry , mujhe tujhme confidence hain tu ye kar sakta hain".

I decided to go ahead with the ride , fears be damned. I applied for leave and surprisingly it got approved. The dates we were to start were 5th July 2008 and return back by 20th July 2008.

I talked to Vick on chat about this and he said that he was also interested. I then put a mail about this to others too but no response from them. So Vick was left out , i felt bad but Vick wasn't confident riding in hills, but still.... anyways ...

The train reservations were done by Saurabh and the members who were to come were Me,Saurabh,Purvesh,Deepak,Abhijeet,Shailesh,Vishal,Amit. The mail threads started and then various decisions were taken. Somehow I feel that the mail threads were used for nothing. A meeting was needed but then Saurabh , Deepak had met Abhijeet and Vishal and they had a talk already so I was convinced.

There was another guy Shantanu (Deepak's friend) who was to join. But this guy dropped of before the trip as he had joined a new organization and couldn't get leaves.

Then I conveyed this to my family members , they were OK with that as long as I rode safe. I also talked about this with friends and they were like "Ladakh!! on bike? " safe hain kya, "Pulsar chadegi kya?" (i own a pulsar 150) and all such questions. I was confident that my bike could do it without problems.

The preparations started, servicing of bike, shopping et. all. We were all prepared for the trip. Our planned routes were Ambala - Manali - Keylong - Sarchu - Pang - Leh and return was via Leh - Lamayaru - Kargil - Dras - Sonamarg - Ganderbal - Srinagar - Jammu.

Finally 1 1/2 week before the trip the Amarnath fiasco begin in J&K and we had apprehensions of returning via Jammu but we had booked the tickets and crossed our fingers that there shouldnt be any tension there when we were there :)

One more twist was the addition of Nikhil (Amit's friend) during the last week where he expressed willingness to come on to the ride. We had a ticket which we had to cancel where we accomodated Nikhil.

All set and done we had a small meeting a week before departure at Pataleshwar caves and discussed about various options to go ahead. We also discussed about backup riders in case the main riders got sick or had some problem and it was decided that we carry 7 bikes for 9 people so that 2 people could be always available to drive in case of any problems.

The last week was particularly very hectic with all things to be purchased , spares , warm clothes and all. Everything was managed but there were still apprehensions of sending the bikes by train (luggage).

Saurabh had enquired earlier about the same and he was optimistic about the train stuff but then others had different thoughts so we decided to check out courier pick up services from Pune to Ambala and then pick up our bikes from their godown there and continue. Later we decided we load our bikes by train only and start on our trip.

Purvesh had made cages for luggage for me and himself for our luggage and he did try to advocate the uses of those to others too but to no avail. I however decided to go ahead with the cage idea , i wasnt optimistic of tying my sack at the bag with a rope given the rough terrain the ropes usually go loose and i didnt want to spend my time tying loose ropes.

I shopped for other bike spares - a friend who hadn't used his riding gear gave it to me (for which I have to pay :)) a riding jacket and gloves which were amazing (DSG make) for the trip.

Thus ended the decision making and stuff...we were ready..... Mission Ladakh :)