It was mid-July, and it was either hot and humid or pouring. Bugged by it all, Pritish Shah and I of Calcutta Walks (the only walking tours company in Calcutta), decided to take off to cooler climes — to Ladakh on Bullets, to be exact. So we dialled the numbers of a few people we knew, and voila, the Bullets were booked, the trains reserved and our shopping for the trip had started. Another friend, Abhijit Poddar (better known as Poddy), agreed to go too. So here it was Pritish, Poddy and I out to get some tents and sleeping bags on hire and to buy a good pair of sunglasses, a balaclava, a waist belt and other essentials of the trip.

Our itinerary, when we started, looked somewhat easy and relaxed, but by the time we got through to doing so much we realised that it was quite a fast-paced and hectic journey, and none of us knew what exactly we were in for. We’d also posted the riding dates on the Internet and were pleasantly surprised to find that more people from all over the country had confirmed. Among them being: Sushil Kumar from Nainital — our buddy till almost the end, until a severe eye infection forced him to catch a flight back from Srinagar ; Rohit Rodrigues from Delhi — The Royal Beast from Delhi, that’s what his club was called, and he proved his pedigree by ensuring that he reached each point first and was back home three days before us; Ashwin Kumar from Ahmedabad with his girlfriend Reshmi from Mumbai; Varun Soni and his buddy from Jalandhar — these guys joined us midway from Keylong, believed in the no-drink-no-drive policy and were the only ones who could keep up with Rohit’s speed.

After getting to Delhi on a Rajdhani, we shopped around for helmets and bungee cords and took the overnight bus to Manali. An entire day was spent trying to get the bikes ready with a side luggage carrier called the Ladakhi carrier, making sure all the lights worked and understanding how to handle small repairs in case of eventualities.

By the way, this whole Royal Enfield Bullet idea (for which we were paying Rs 750 per day) was crazy to begin with, but we realised that any other bike would not have been able to see this kind of riding.

Day 1: All rise at 6am, get ready by around 7am. Rohit and Sushil got their bikes checked, while we loaded the huge bags onto the Ladakhi carriers on the Bullets. All agreed to meet at the petrol station to tank up. Since this was the first day, excitement was super high. Riding the 500cc Bullet that I’d got felt like heaven. Clear smooth roads, the gentle thud of the bike below me, luggage on the side and all the other riders at a comfortable distance.

The route

Beautiful mountains, the river flowing in between, greenery all over, in short amazing stuff till we approached the Rohtang La (La, as we realised much to our delight, was Ladakhi for pass, a mountain pass). We continued on a cold and drizzly but nonetheless beautiful descent into a small village in the valley called Koksar. Upon reaching the village we get a call on Poddy’s mobile from Sushil asking for help as his front tyre had punctured.

Once we met up and Poddy showed his skills with the tools by fixing the tyre, we left for as far as we could’ve made that day. Which we realised was not much as we reached this point called Tandi. This was to be our halt for the night, and our fuel refilling point as a hoarding at the petrol station smugly exclaimed: “The next fuel station is 365 km from here.”

After filling the bike tanks to the brim and also the empty fuel cans that we were carrying from Manali we went scouting for a place to camp. Excited, as this was going to be our first camp, we managed to set them up after much ado.

Day 2: When we woke up in the morning we realised that it had got awfully cold but the site that we had chosen to rest the night was the prettiest place we’d seen in ages.

Upon moving further we encountered one of the more dangerous hindrances of this kind of terrain — a stream. We faltered and almost toppled into it a couple of times.

A man in awe at Lachulung La

We reached Baralacha La after some serious riding through gravel. Situated at 16,500 feet above mean sea level, we were greatly tempted to stay on and enjoy the beautiful views but heeded the advice of experienced bikers and left after some rest.

Though we’d started the day expecting to reach Pang and staying the night, which meant that we would’ve done not much riding on the next day to reach Leh, we had to halt at Sarchu. Most guys were already feeling the effects of high altitude sickness and aspirins were being freely popped to contain that. We stayed put with the others in a parachute tent.

Sarchu was probably the coldest place we encountered in the course of the ride that was not a mountain pass. A night at the tent, lots of Maggi for dinner and the company of like-minded travellers, and the greatest view on earth cost us Rs 150, all in all.

Day 3: We were refreshed after a night at Sarchu and there was a hugely optimistic vibe in the air that the terrain ahead will be much more bike-friendly. Enjoyed the ride till Pang.

More Plains was a huge tract of land which was flat for miles. Upon reaching it we were thrilled to find such a huge tract of flat land, but slowly and steadily as the miles kept adding up, and the track became more and more sandy, we were praying to God that it would end soon.

The road that led to Upshi, our next stop, was lined with quite a bit of greenery, which was soothing to the eye after riding through the glare of the desert for the past few days. We rode through Tanglang La, the second highest motorable road in the world at 17,500 feet.

Here we were thinking that Leh was only a few kilometres away and were expecting to cover it within a couple of hours at best, and there Ashwin was standing with a big problem — tyre puncture.

By the time we sorted it out, with half tools and half “jugaad” it was already 8pm and we had planned to rush to Leh and dump ourselves on the bed. But only a few kilometres ahead was Ashwin waiting with the same problem aggravated, which meant that we hadn’t been successful in changing the tube.

It was not before midnight that we reached Leh. Here we found the most fantastic chicken butter masala in the world and also the best hotel room (Nezer View Guest House) that Rs 600 could buy. Sleep was unsound as everybody kept struggling to breathe. But then for what we’d seen all through the day we had no option but to sleep like logs.

Day 4: We were told to acclimatise ourselves upon reaching Leh, which meant that for a day or two we must do nothing but relax. Though we’d thought we won’t do anything, we did end up getting a massage, visiting the Leh palace and shopping at the market.

Picture courtesy Calcutta Walks

(To be continued)