[masterChief007]

I have a personal philosophy to try a new thing every year, this keeps the clock ticking and helps in building new memories to replace some old one's which one needs to let go.

Skippable Background:
I was doing too much google searches on KTM vs Interceptor 650, once I found that my Bullet Std 350 CI though a sweet thumper is not anymore a mile muncher in the highways. Sure she can do 600-650 kms rides, but it's always filled with more exhaustion, than relaxation due to the sluggish nature of the ride.

I really liked the KTM adv and the interceptor 650, but was leaning more towards the KTM. Eventually I decided that the 5 km test ride is not enough to plonk lakhs of rupees into a bike which will be stuck with me for next 15 years (possibly). Browsing through the KTM sites and internet I came across a group rides with KTM bikes for spiti/leh. This will give me enough "test-ride" to make a solid decision.

In between I also had the most irritating task of searching a new house for rent. The dates for the spiti trips were all set for June and I had to vacate my house in June too. Thus my frantic house search began which consisted of 100 kms minimum of travel in my bullet and finalized one dwelling. In between I was juggling office work, FC renewal of my bullet, personal issues and zillions of miscellaneous items. I booked the trip with the company for the June 1st week slot and started getting ready for the trip.

Gearing Up:
I had a 10 yrs old Dsg Nero jacket which is clearly not at all capable for Himalayan adventure anymore. So I went to the Rynox showroom and got hold of stealth Evo3 jacket, couple of bungee cords, rain liners for the jacket and rain pants. Also I got a tank pouch from Guardian Gears for a princely sum of 600/- which I think is good accessory that could possibly free up your pockets from bulging up and cheap enough to let it stick to the bike unattended.

Trip Plan

The trip was planned as below.
Day 1: BLR to Chandigarh arrival and bike assignment
Day 2: Ride from Chandigarh to Narkanda
Day 3: Narkanda to Chitkul
Day 4: Chitkul to Nako
Day 5: Nako to Kaza
Day 6: Kaza and nearby places
Day 7: Kaza to Batal
Day 8: Batal to Manali
Day 9: Manali to Chandigarh
Day 10: Chandigarh to BLR



There were some concerns about not being able to explore chandratal due to ice on the roads, but for me I was oblivious to where I go, for me going was the destination in itself, where it didn't matter. Sometimes life sets you up with pieces you can't really play, those times it's important to just play for the sake of it, win or lose doesn't matter. If not this then the next game will be better, but for that to happen you need to get along and play the current one.

Day 1: Red eye flight to Chandigarh

Being of middle class disposition it was always paramount that I will save a few thousand bucks over the comfort of a good sleep, so not as a surprise to myself I ended up clicking on the 4.45 am flight and doomed myself to a sleepless night for catching the flight. 2 days back I had already checklisted my things to carry and dumped everything in my 70L trekking rucksack.

For the riding gear I planned to carry them in my hand-baggage as losing them was not an option. Other clothes I will get in Chandigarh too. So I dismantled all the armor inserts from the Jackets and Pants and stowed them precisely in the hand baggage. Whose weight came out to be 6.5 kgs and thus within the carrying limit.

Got a cab at 12 am reaching airport by 1 am and finishing off the baggage drop and security check I prepared myself for the long wait for boarding. I had carried "A life over two Beers" by Sanjeev Sanyal which is a light read, so delved into the book and a few of the songs from my mobile.

Slowly the time creeped up and I got into the flight for an amazing view of the morning sun.


The Chandigarh Airport is shared with IAF so multiple Antonovs were sighted when the flight landed. As is the norm with us Indian fliers, before even the gates were open passengers started jostling with their luggage as if all the windows will turn doors. I admire their zeal to get down the plane even knowing that they will anyways have to wait in the baggage belt for their luggage. Ignoring all the hustle I read up a page more of the book and once the queue started moving I got my gears and got my luggage and headed out for the "Airport Pre Paid Taxi", Which is a scam of 800/- vs 450/- as shown by OLA/UBER apps. Based on the trip coordinators suggestion and against my better judgement I opted for the scammy pre-paid and headed towards the hotel near the chandigarh railway station.

Somehow managed to get an early checkin, then freshened up and restored my riding gear with the armor inserts and got it ready. Slowly more rider/pillions started joining in and we started cussing the trip coordinator en masse upon the location of the hotel. The hotel staff and interiors were nice but the location was of a serious concern for all. As being a dilligent foodie I had already prepared a list of places to cover and first of them was Pal dhaba. So myself and a bunch of other fellow riders and pillions headed towards the shop and ordered a jumbo serving of tandoori chickens, butter chicken, naan and tandoori roti apart from malai lassi. Butter chicken was okay but not upto the mark but rest all stuff was quite good. Lassi was awesome though and we had a second glass too.

In the evening we got introduced to our rides. I did a customary check and picked up a bike which I felt was decent enough. The not being able to flat-foot the ground hit me immediately as to turn the bike's orientation it was difficult from the saddle as I was not getting enough traction from the ground. So as would be the norm in future, I would get down and would steer the vehicle off the saddle. The first ride itself was off-road and I was a bit anxious of a fall, this was bound to happen but today was not the day.

I took the bike out and got the tank filled and fumbled with the tank cap when closing (riding a new bike comes with it's own challenges as I was faithful to my bullet all these years, and these simple operations seemed like piloting a fighter jet )



Then took the bike for LS2 shopping as the accompanying helmet was like a papad. So got it from the famed helmet shoppe in sector 21/22. After that returned back to hotel chatted and made acquaintances with many of the riders/pillions while sitting on the hotel terrace. At night we had a sumptuous dinner. Discussed next day's plan with the ride captain. And then headed back to our rooms for rest.

[masterChief007]

Day 2: Chandigarh to Narkanda - Jam jam jammy

I woke up early as I am used to, finished off my chores and then headed out for a cup of tea, which in the location was difficult to find and was a bit of walk away. Returned back and slowly everyone started getting ready. There were KTMs, a yezdi, 3 Himalayans, out of which 1 each of KTM, yezdi and Himalayan were personal vehicles of the riders. The riders were from all over india Maharashtra, Gujrat, West Bengal, Odisha, Rajasthan. But namma Bengaluru was over-represented

As usual in a group there is bound to be delay and thus we were waiting on our bikes and sweating in the typical Chandigarh heat. Finally the time had come and we started the ride after fueling up. Chandigarh being in the foothills, we didn't take much time to reach the hilly sections of the highway towards Solang. The roads were excellent and we started to get into the lap of Himalayas.


Feeling upbeat about the ride we were all happily cruising on our mighty 390 Advs, I was still getting used to the mirrored controls in every aspect of gear and rear brake operations but it was a smooth shifting motorcycle with immense pickup on the road. Overtaking of larger vehicles was just with a slight twist of the wrist. It was a totally different experience than the bullet, and I was loving it.

But all good things come to an end and so did the smooth rides as we entered Shimla. It had already started raining and on top of that the miles long traffic Jam's were a car driver's nightmare. We being in bikes made a faster progress but here I realised that the tank pouch was unable to help me navigate easily as via the helmet the mobile was not easily visible. I started missing my bobo holder, which I forgot to bring to the trip. Everytime I lost my way I would stop the bike, check the map in the mobile and remember the next turns to take and ride again, which was quite a tedious process.



After getting out of Shimla, we headed out for Narkanda and on the way we stopped at an eatery to have simple dal-rice. With Shimla on our rear view now, the roads were quite less congested and we again started enjoying the ride. Riding in a group has its disadvantages as you don't get to stop where you want to take a pic and you have to stop and stop for longer when you don't want to. So a few pics which I managed to get on the way to our camp at Narkanda.



We had already made good acquaintances with the fellow riders and pillions by this time, all were friendly and nice people including the ride-captain and the support staff in the backup vehicle. It was a friendly journey together and I was enjoying my time riding.

Finally after a few hours of riding I had my first real experience of off-roading when we took a steep gravelled downhill path to the camp stay at Narkanda. To top it off I was not using the rear brake as it was confusing enough to operate the mirrored gear controls so had to handle the gravel path by using only the front brakes (Which is not advisable on turns, but it was too confusing to use the read break for my 4-speed RS brain ). In a tall bike where you don't have the guarantee to reach the ground I negotiated a bit carefully to not make a mistake.

A Note to self: need to learn managing tall bikes in uneven terrain. Due to not being flexible/aware enough I had 2-3 parking falls in the trip. More on that later.

The views from the campsite was gorgeous.



As the night started settling in, the cold started hitting us fast. Being in the heat of Chandigarh, the first bite of the Himalayan chill was starting to register. I sat a while near the campfire after dinner and as the crowd there started dissolving I headed downstairs where the party had just begun with torches as disco lights and what not. It was a fun time there sitting there and enjoying the songs and the vibe.

[masterChief007]

Day 3 : Narkanda to Chitkul

After the last night's festivities and the ride from Chandigarh, waking up at 5 am for the sunrise viewing to Hatu peak (the site for Hatu Mata Temple) was a task not for a lazy bone like me, even then when the Ride Captain M's xpulse rumbled, I got myself lit by the excitement and got off the bed and into my cold riding gear sans the riding pants in a record time. Things get easier when you see views like these from the washroom:



After basic hygiene done, I stepped into the launching pad of the KTM 390 Adv (yes it's a rocket indeed) where a subset of the riders were waiting for the trip. One by one we started off in our bikes towards the Hatu Peak. As our ride captain had warned that the roads are narrow and steep, I thought this will be a good test for the so called "absence of low end torque" of the KTM.

As we started riding through the graveled access road to the camp, I realized all this talk of low end torque being not there is too much overstated. With a little bit of clutch slippage you can start the bike even a quite high gradient slope. I started appreciating the bike more and more.

As we reached the peak, we were actually late for the sunrise. Hatu Peak is at 11k feets so it was a sort of acclimatization too for us. The views from the top were mesmerizing and we saw snow clad mountain peaks from there.





A few pictures, chitchats and selfies later we decided it's time to head back for the breakfast and wake up the rest of our riders for the ride to Chitkul. So slowly we started our ride down to the camp. On the way down we stopped for a few pics near the pond and a few snaps I took for getting the essence of the road to the peak.





One generous rider did click me posing on the KTM, which was my social media DP for next couple of hours. Yes that's what the average timeline for DPs in this trip.




Reaching campsite we were greeted by a couple of gorgeous dogs and I had to pet them as I can't resist petting a friendly dog. After everyone had their breakfast. The daily chore of loading luggage in the backup vehicle began and we started off for Chitkul after filling up of tanks in the Petrol Bunk in Narkanda.

Roads were smooth and relatively traffic free. However before entering Kinnaur we were stopped due to drilling activity on the hill to prevent landslides. The bikes had an easy time as we were allowed to move ahead of the car queue. Roads were all twisty but without any hairpins, so one could do good speeds. Achieving 90-100s was not an issue for the KTM and overtaking larger vehicles was a piece of cake.






To reach Chitkul one has to pass through the Karchem Dam area, via Sangla. This region will forever be etched in my memory as this was where my life's first Himalayan trek had ended, and I took a major life decision. Some bitter sweet memories.

After Sangla the roads were narrower and someplaces it was off-road, and people travelling in buses will say scary. But for a motorcyclist they were scenic. Chitkul is the Army's border outpost, so an Army truck stopped me and asked me about the RJ number plate, he must be from Rajasthan I guessed but I had to disappoint the soldier that I am from Bengaluru.

All throughout the way I felt like a superstar owing to the school boys and girls waving at us and asking for high fives. I obliged wherever I could safely, but one small kid asked me at a hairpin where I couldn't do so, a disappointed look flashed in his face.

So what could I do, didn't want to see that look in his face. So after the hairpin, stopped called him back and gave him his high five, which brought a big smile on that cute face. Feels so good sometimes to do some insignificant thing which brings joy to someone.

Finally reached Chitkul camp.


Got the luggage unloaded and went to the assigned tents. Changed out of the riding gear and headed towards the campfire. Food was ok, and after listening to excited but out of tune campfire songs headed back to our fellow riders tent and partook in some R&R. After a couple of hours of chatting about the day and our past experiences headed back to my tent for sleep.

[masterChief007]

Day 4: Chitkul to Nako

Got up in the morning by around 6 am, brushed and headed out for a little walk in the morning. Most of the camp was asleep after they spent long hours around the campfire. I too went to sleep late at 1.30 am so was not feeling 100 percent fresh. But the early morning walk in the chilly weather helped resolve it to a bit and got some nice pics in return.





As was the norm nowadays, we had to pack the luggage again and load it to the backup van. This was fast becoming the most irritating part of my schedule over the trip. So somehow made a rolled lump of my clothes and dumped them into the bag, geared up and headed for the nice breakfast of aloo paratha and achaar along with 2-3 cups of tea.

I love my early morning tea in the chilly climates, and no not black/green/red tea, the pure desi tea with enough sugar is my fix. The day comes when I have to choose the non-milk and sugar tea I will give it up all together.

Overnight the support team had lubed and tightened the chains so our bikes were good to go. One of our fellow riders A from Bengaluru had managed to get the silencer fall off
his KTM during the off-road section towards Chitkul, so the exhaust note was quite sweet to hear. We all asked him to rev a bit like audience do to a musician, to play their favorite song. The throaty rumble was nothing less than a Beethoven to our ears.

Soon it started raining so out came my Rynox rain liners (which had been difficult to find in the stores of BLR and got just in time before my trip). We started the ride to the Chitkul check-post.





After getting some clicks there we then took a U-turn and headed towards the destination of the day Nako Village. This meant we had to get back to the Karchem bridge and head towards Reckong Reo and on way to Nako via Khab and Pooh.

Near Rakchham some of us got a little confused and got split in multiple groups trying to find the way. Some confusing kilometers of back and forth we finally asked the locals who pointed us the right way. It again started drizzling and then another KTM started giving trouble with the side-stand sensor. The KTM doesn't allow the bike to start if the side stand is extended, due to the sensor not getting the proper input due to the mechanical connection getting loose, the side stand sensor was always on getting the bike unable to start. So we all huddled and tried to get some jugaad done.
Rider S fiddled with the mechanism and we somehow got the side stand sensor to become sensible again.

Too much electronics on basic things is never a good idea. In case of a crash if the side stand gets busted, this can be a major problem. Note to self: learn how to remove the side stand sensor if I get the KTM in future. This is too much babysitting of the rider causing avoidable hassle.

Standing at the side


After doing the jugaad, our group started off towards the destination of Nako. We had stretches of off roads followed by again free flowing roads. One must commend the BRO for their work in these remote and daunting areas. The roads not only are important from security aspect but is a lifeline for these remote locations. You generally see people smiling in places where it is hard to survive in these mountains and more helpful, whereas in the plains you see those smiles replaced by frowns.

The road to Nako is picturusque with tall cliffs on either side of the road, one feels like an ant making way to it's anthill. The whole road runs besides the rivers Sutlej and Spiti (according to google maps Spiti lies north of Sangam and south it is called Sutlej). We stopped for lunch in a place which was understaffed, and they took their time to get our orders ready. It easy cost us 1.5 hours just to have lunch and move on. Another problem with large groups, these rest/food stops tend to get long, this is not my riding style but yes for group rides you trade off your preferences for the security and carmaderie it provides. I got introduced to "Sting" a caffeine drink quite popular with many of the riders, though I didn't feel the sting I did enjoy the taste.







Attachment 2464878







After lunch we had a very short ride left to Nako. So we headed out again and through the picturusque landscape reached our destination for today. In the guesthouse we unwinded and relaxed a bit. Though the geyser was present it was impossible to take bath as the water ran cold. Today we had reached early so had ample time to catch up with fellow riders. Nako is an idyllic and quaint little village, with a beautiful lake in the middle where some tourists were enjoying boating.

In the evening we sat in for the campfire and had a wonderful time. A family from Gujarat had come in their Fortuner so we had a chat with them too. Finally local liquid courage made rounds and we headed for dinner. I was too hungry to count the amount of rotis and rice I had. With stomach full I headed back to the room and had a good sleep. This was the end to our ride till the Nako village.

Some pictures of the Nako village from my next day morning walk:

[masterChief007]

Day 5: Nako to Kaza - Via Tabo

In Nako we stayed in 2 hotels as accommodation could not be arranged in a single one. After a good sleep, I woke up early for a morning walk, and found the whole village to be asleep.
Only a white do kept its distance from me unaware of my intentions so early, when I called it out a twitch in it's tail informed all that I wanted to know - that it's a "cuddle monster". So after a few pets it kept me company for quite some time.

I wanted to sit near the lake and contemplate on my life and self meditate on things which I was running from. So did some pathfinding on my own which the dog was not so sure of, or maybe I had taken some way where his nemesis would be waiting so left my company. I headed on through some paths, scrambled on top of some wall and reached the lake and sat there quietly for sometime. Walked around it and then found the company of another rider who saw me and decided to jump over the farm fields (which I had avoided !). So after sometime we headed back for breakfast.

We started our ride to Kaza today and the scenic beauty throughout is mesmerizing. We stopped at a checkpost and there we heard some blasting happening in a high mountain, must be our BRO working their magic.



Crossing this area through gravel roads which were being graveled before getting tar treatment we reached the Tabo monastery, which has a mummy of a monk which is 600 years old. Owing to respect I am not posting his mummy's pic but you can read the history below.





After this, we headed through desolate roads through barren landscapes. Not a single tree visible and long loose rock fields with warnings of shooting rocks. Even though I wanted to take snaps but the contest between mother nature throwing stones at my helmet will go only one way - so I stuck to the highway. After this section all riders stopped and out came drones, and some offroad sessions. I didn't venture too much into the off-road as the bike was rented, and didn't want to do something stupid without much either of training and experience.









The ride kept on and our next target was Dhankar monastery. It's on top of a cliff and there is too much crowd of vehicles, car drivers had to get down quite far away and walk, but we motorcyclists could snake through and park. It had immense view of the pin-parvaty ranges, and our fellow rider A2 whipped out his peak finder app and started scanning for peaks. Modern tech makes life so easy as earlier you would need a terrain map and figure out the peaks, and now it's just a matter of switching on an app and everything comes with labeled and tagged !











After various snaps of the monastery and selfies, we had "Sea Buckthorn Tea", the only tea which didn't have milk and I liked Decided to take some back home due to the greed that fostered there. Heading back on our way to Kaza it was such a mesmerizing and beautiful landscape with river flowing besides, I remembered the Kesari song - "Teri mitti mein mil jawa" and sang it in full volume in my helmet

There were some structures like ant-hills besides the Kaza highway, which had a stone on top. These kind of formations I have also seen in western ghats, I have a theory of such formations, but let's not try to geologist in a T-Bhp travelogue :P







Finally we reached Kaza and from the monastery on top of a hill, the pretty town looked charming. And I was glad we had 2 days here.

[masterChief007]

Kaza in the evening previous day and the view from the room of our hotel was just mesmerizing. The parking for the stay was like Mission impossible/ James Bond motorcycle chase sort of scenario through steep gulley, but that was our usual parking spots for throughout the trip, except for the tent based stays in Chitkul, Batal and Manali.




Previous night after reaching Kaza we scoped out a few good eateries but most of them close by 8 pm so we couldn't visit. The walk through a small hill town at night has always been mesmerizing, it also has a romantic touch to it. Me and a few riders and pillions who had bonded well were out on the hunt for good food as
we felt the hotel menu was drab for the night.

We had some awesome pancakes, chowmein, fried rice, and thalis. In Kaza we couldn't manage to get a single ice cream. After the sumptuous dinner we headed back to our hotel for double dipping into their menu too. The taste of a few items made us feel that we did the right thing after all.

Day 6: Kaza and nearby places - Hikkim, Komic & Langza

Today's plan was simple, visit some nearby tourist places. Our first stop was to be the world's highest post office in Hikkim. So after all got ready we started our ride as usual by making the already busy Petrol Bunk by reserving one pump exclusively with our train of bikes. This usual fare used to be a longish affair of 20 min where our ride-captain M patiently turned into a Petrol Bunk Assistant and used to fill up all our bikes.

As soon as we headed towards Hikkim off-roads started, but the beautiful and capable KTM 390 Adventure had already won my heart. The ride was easy with ample power and torque to take on any sort of roads that I faced. Sure if you are expecting it to hold 15 kmph at 2nd gear it will lug and protest, but why should one be lazy to shift lower as the clutch and gear shift operation was not that clunky.

On the way we stopped at a nice scenic place from where we could see Kaza below.








At the Hikkim post office, there was a huge rush of people to buy post-cards and stamps and post it in the post-office. I refrained in this activity as there was too much rush, and there wasn't an address I had that I would take so much trouble to post. Instead I absorbed the atmosphere and we got our first snow fall there in the trip. White little homeopathic balls falling from the sky and getting absorbed in the ground.

After this we headed to Komic village. This again is a picturesque spot where there is a restaurant doing brisk business. We had some maggi, but our Sea Buckthorn tea order got lost in the crowed and never received. So I decided to catch hold of a friend who never knew I was there and although I wanted to pet him but maintaining hygiene I just had to get licked on the leather gloves instead of my hand.




After the komic visit we headed towards Langza which has a giant Budhdha statue. Road as usual was going through the martian landscapes, and the place was too windy. Due to wind I never really opened my helmet. So a few snaps later we headed back to a nice spot which could land a helicopter. This was some loose gravel area and some people were having fun spinning their wheels. Meanwhile I managed to get a profile pic worthy snap of myself by a fellow rider






Next stop was to be the Kee Monastery, I am not too much into Monastery and Temple Visits, but I will go there for the rides/sceneries. This was a spot that didn't disappoint in that. The Spiti river was flowing through a mostly sandy river bed. The powerful winds blowing the sand upto the mountains was a meditative view in itself. The philosophical and introspective side of my brain popped up quipping - That's why people meditate in such areas, the wind blowing sound itself has a calming effect on the mind. And for a moment or two I found an inner peace which I was missing for quite some time in my life. I had the feeling all the worries will blow away like the dust in the winds of time. Meanwhile, it's enough to exist.






Last itinerary of the day was Chicham Bridge, which was a good offroad away from the Kee Monastery. Since we were already done with our visit and I prefered not to eat anything 3 bikes started off for covering the Chicham Bridge as the other riders were not ready yet and were still ordering food. It was a good decision to start early because as we reached the bridge the weather started deteriorating and rains started soon after. The bridge is located on top of a deep Chasm and to do it justice I had to take the picture from afar so as to show the depth.




After our Chicham visit we headed back to our rooms, changed freshened up and immediately planned to start for the "Sol's Cafe" in Kaza. They have a charity program and you can buy items which will fund their charity activities in Kaza. They had wonderful rum-balls and pancakes and finally we got hold of our "Sea Buckthorn Tea" again and each one of our gang of 6 (2 couples and 2 solo riders) had 2 cups each of the elixir. With much freshness we headed back to our hotel rooms and had "Horror Story night", I shared some of my village stories and the others too shared about what they had in stock. However old or bold be get ghost stories always manage to chill you out a bit !!

[masterChief007]

Day 7: Kaza to Batal - via Kunzum La and Chandratal

Today was the D-day of the whole ride, we were to cross the mighty Kunzum La and visit the Chandratal Lake and head to Batal camp near to the Chacha Chachi dhaba. The ride started from Kaza and we first headed to the Chicham bridge barring 4 bikes none of the other bikes made it to the Chicham Bridge due to rains and bad weather last evening. As I had already been there I just dipped into the music and got lost in thoughts. Got a pic of the bridge from the opposite side. Slowly I started getting irritated by the wait at the bridge which dragged on for much longer than it demanded. One of the woes of group rides. The Kibber village lies just above the Chicham bridge so we who had already visited Chicham could have visited that instead of waiting around in frustration here. Anyways after some time the group started and so did I.



Going forward from the Chicham Bridge we had good roads for some distance, in between we got to see some ant-hill like geological formations that I should have captured more pics of but due to riding in a group couldn't take too many stops.

Finally we came across a small hill the access to which was soft sand, having dropped the bike already in parking I was sure that I will drop it here as some riders were getting stuck in that sand. But the KTM is such a nice bike that it will fish tail but not drop you if you react properly to its movements. I managed to get past it all without much hassle and got a view worth cherishing from the top of the hill.





Right after this area we headed towards the Kunzum La, I couldn't take any pics while going up due to tailing traffic and irritating tempo travellers honking at you from behind even though they knew that they were slow. The steep turns, wet patches, slippery muddy trail, rocky and gravel prone sections were all flawlessly handled by the Adv. I had no complaints whatsoever with the bike. It was easily cruising along through it all and never felt out of place against its "low-end torquey" competitors.

We reached the top at 15,000 feets and the bike didn't feel out of breath either. The bone chilling winds and my wet leather gloves were another matter though. After taking some snaps and fun at the Kunzum La we started our ride back down. Going down there was more of a problem from these Tempo-travellers, honking all around with no purpose at all. The downhill sections were mostly turned into water channels where the bike kept shifting its weight but never out of balance. During the turns I was a bit anxious of skidding as they had all turned muddy due to melting ice. But thankfully nothing memorable happened






Finally we stopped at the turnoff to Chandratal, the whole section of Kunzum La and Chandratal is offroading and here we saw my life's first water crossing. Though there was ample water, my throat was dry fearing a fall as our ride-captain stopped us all and gave instructions. Meanwhile we saw many bikers crossing some struggling some stalling, and then finally our group made the move and I too started my first water crossing. I didnt depress the clutch and crossed it all in first gear, but while getting out of it there was a step sort of rock where I had to accelerate and had a fear of rear tyre spinning, but everything went fine and I was on the other side thinking not so bad after all.

Reaching Chandratal




The way to Chandratal was fraught with quite a few inexperienced drivers who had no idea what they are doing in the mountains. I bet they will find it tough in MLCPs all around the cities they are coming from. Honking incessantly when there is no space to give and asking us riders to get on top of the mountain while they have 2 feet of excess track on their side of the road. One such driver started honking, and asking me to move a bit more to the ditch. I got irritated and asked him to manage whatever way he can as I am not going to jump off from the cliff just because he can't drive. One of our fellow riders who was new, fell off from his bike and off the track beyond the shoulder. I got alarmed and in half a second I rushed to get hold of his arms fearing that he will fall into the 2 story height of the road to Chandratal, it wouldn't be life threatening, but definitely some fracture would have happened as he didn't get gears. He must have thanked his luck that it didn't happen in higher elevations where the cliffs are sheer, then it would have been all over.

Riding gear is of paramount importance which I too found out soon enough. After retracing back through the water crossing we continued our way to Batal Camp. Just before the camp there was a wooden bridge where the bridge was under repair and it had 2 railway line but a bit wider (say 1.5 feet) planks elevated on 2 sides of the bridge, in center there was again 1.5-2 feet width of lower planks. I did the mistake of entering the middle part which was bounded by these 2 elevated strips. To top it off the metal strips holding the planks together was broken and jutting out in one place.

I tried to avoid it and my front tyre hit the elevated plank on the left side and turned my front wheel and I lost my balance and fell on my side. Got bruised in my bicep and my waist and the majority of the impact I suppose got distributed by the riding pant and jackets armor and not a single scratch was registered. I was riding at max 20 kmph. As soon as I fell there was severe pain on my waist and took a few seconds to recollect myself and then got up. Meanwhile another rider arrived from behind and by the time he came to me I was trying to lift my bike up. Only the hand guard was broken and the bike was safe. Got up and dusted myself off and reached the Batal camp just a hundred meters ahead.




There is one chacha-chachi dhaba where I had 2 cups of tea and Bread omlette and headed off to our tents in Batal. I thought major offroad is over, only next day I came to know while riding that there will be more water-crossings and fly eating contest on the way to Atal Tunnel.

[masterChief007]

Day 8: Batal to Manali - via Atal Tunnel

So finally the day came when we were going back to regular hustle and bustle. As usual had tawa paratha, alu subzi, chai and bread-omlette for breakfast and started off for the way back. Didn't know that there will be multiple water-crossings and one was quite large, I let an oncoming scorpio tread through it so that I get to know how much deep it is and how much water resistance I may face. Saw that it is deep enough to keep the revs on a bit higher side. Hit the patch with rpms of around 3.5 - 4 k and the passing was smooth, with expected bumps on hidden larger rocks under the water.

Like this we came across multiple water-crossings with one quite a large but it had an alternate elevated bypass which I took. One RE classic was struggling inside this water as he may not have seen the bypass trail for that crossing. After that came the flies. Since my LS2 didn't have pin-lock I had kept the visore 1 or 2 notches open, suddenly so many flies/insects were encountered, one entered my nose and sneezed it out, as soon as that happened another entered my helmet and kept buzzing. I shouted profanity and it didn't like that and entered my mouth.

Judiciously I gulped it down as spitting would have meant spitting within the helmet as the breath deflector was intact. When I thought all this is over one flew straight into my eye by navigating around my sunglass !! This I couldn't resist so stopped the bike and got my eye clean and rode off. After so much trouble by flies I kept the helmet shut and my breathing in control so I don't fog up.



Ultimately we reached Atal Tunnel that bypasses the Rohtang Pass and it is a 9 km long engineering marvel along with a 9 km long cigarette. Whereas the cigarette goes in you mouth but here you go into the cigarettes mouth and breathe into the black smoke of any truck/bus that is preceding you. I must have lost a year from my life breathing in those toxic fumes !!


As soon as it spits you out from the other side, the view is awe inspiring. Green hills and snow peaks steal the show. But the traffic gets on your nerves. I didn't stop for any pics as the tourist traffic was huge and irritating. It was a ride for just the sake of it to reach Manali by evening where we reached hotel and freshened up. In the evening we headed to Mall road and experience the hustle. Had cone softies after so many days and the ladies went shopping while myself and another rider from BLR A, decided to search for some good restaurant. Finally zeroed in towards a Cafe 1986 where there was a live band. Had some good time there and as autos were overcharging got hold of a empty can who agreed us to drop to our hotel.



The night was nothing special as we decided to explore another cafe which google map took us through peak Manali traffic making me regret the decision for this adventure. It was a Silk Board/Koramangala Sony signal junction with elevation and hap hazard traffic. Where I could smell burning clutch from some vehicle. It took 1 hour just to know that google location is wrong. I had had enough of this Bangalore traffic experience in Manali, so I decided to head back to hotel while others continued. I went back and crashed out in the bed.

Day 9: Manali to Chandigarh

Return drives/rides are as boring to me as it gets, to top it of we were returning from comfortable climate to heat so I just wanted to finish the last leg without much stoppages. Just when I thought things were going smooth there was a Landslide on the main highway and ETA for cleaning the debris was estimated to be 2 hrs. We decided to go via an alternate route via IIT mandi and that detour also cost us around 2 hours as it is via narrow mountain roads. I was enjoying the mountain roads at my own pace, but the jams due to all that diverted traffic was spoiling the mood.

Somehow I kept on at it regrouped with the fellow riders when they were having lunch. I am generally not that hungry while riding and driving so just had some milk shake and we headed off. There was another diversion again through some hilly village just at the Himalayan foothills around 90 kms from Chandigarh. There was a coolant leak from one Yezdi not from our group and the usual jokes of marking territories ensued.

Last stretch of the trip was drab and boring route through to Chandigarh. We had decided to explore food so next day we were to leave. One rider due to the landslide delay missed his flight. Good that we had a spare day in hand.

In Chandigarh I had the awesome Butter Chicken and Tandoori Chicken at Baba's chicken and called it a day after regrouping with fellow riders who were put up in our hotel. At night the luggage van arrived and dropped us our luggage at 10 pm or so as the luggage vehicle had a flat tyre.

Day 10: Chandigarh to BLR

Today was the last day and back to our Mundane life. I woke up early and headed back to submit my trusty bike to the garage. It had done around 1300 kms in the trip without any fuss or stall. So a parting pic of the bike was necessary. I said my heartfelt thanks to the bike and as well as the road captain who was a great guy.




In the afternoon we left hotel and reached airport for our flight back. Reached home at 1-1.30 am and called it a nice trip.


Thus concluded my first ever himalayan bike trip !!

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[PatienceWins]

Thanks for sharing, very well written. Spiti and Zanskar are in my to do list.

So what do you think of KTM 390 adv after the long trip? Wish you all the best.

[masterChief007]

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

So what do you think of KTM 390 adv after the long trip?

KTM is an excellent bike, be it on the highway or in the mountains and off-roads. You can safely do Spiti with no fuss at all on this bike. Bike has a very good balance and quite stable. Except in heavy cross winds you will be pushed around but it's not that big of a deal at 80-100 kph.

[boniver]

A very nice read, especially for someone who is planning his ride to the Himalayas very soon. Can you share how much you paid for the trip to the organizers and how much they charged from the people who got their own bikes along?

Regards,
Sayantan

[masterChief007]

Originally Posted by boniver

Can you share how much you paid for the trip to the organizers and how much they charged from the people who got their own bikes along?

I think they charged around 25K for owned vehicles (petrol charges self-sponsored) vs a varying amount for the riders and pillions. For me it was 43K (petrol included, but I heard varying amounts from different people) + 2k (as damages to the handguards etc.).

[anshumandun]

Nice travelogue buddy. I did the same circuit last month but rode all the way from Bangalore. You have motivated me to write a blog of my ride of the Spiti valley

[bblost]

Nice trip. Enjoyed the pics and the story.

I need to ride my bike on these roads. These pictures are just amplifying the "mountains are calling" part of my brain.