Friends I present before you “Ladakh Odyssey on Victor” my first trip to Mecca of bikers.
A ride to the “Land of High Passes” is a challenge worth accepting. For me the ride that started a love affair with land of high passes which is still going strong.
I wish to share my thrilling experience with you through this travelogue. Although I am neither an interesting narrator nor a good photographer but sincerely hope you all will enjoy reading it.
Suggested Read: Best Time For A Road Trip To Ladakh
Prologue
Whole thing started in June 2009, when the name Leh cropped up while discussing various destination with one of my friend’s acquaintance for their summer vacations. With one question leading to another and searching for the information, Mission Leh started taking shape in my mind. With this excitement and curiosity started gathering details of road trip to Ladakh . While doing this I came across a beautiful, addictive forum known as BCMTouring which I joined in Nov 2009. Surfing through the forum read many beautifully written travelogue, which re-ignited the touring bug which was dormant for a considerable time.
Recommended Read: How to Plan Your Winter(White) Ladakh Trip: Complete Travel Guide
Planning
From June2009 started dreaming Day and Night of making it to the Top of the world-Ladakh on My TVS Victor till 1st, june2012 when dream become reality, the day when I started for my 2 week odyssey.
“You can never plan enough to ride on this highway. There are just too many unknowns. Even if everything else is all hunky dory, the weather can play spoilsport anytime. The only way to ride on this route is to keep an open mind and be open to exploring new options”. the words I have read somewhere started my planning and preparation.
I had a slight apprehension about my bike how it will perform under those conditions as I was not riding it regularly for last few years. In April 2011 BCMT planned a group ride “North India Ride 22-24th to Shoja. It was a good opportunity to check my bike, it’s performance was excellent. The real morale booster for both the rider and the bike came in June 2011 when I went to Hemkunt Sahib Solo. With the confidence gained from the experience started preparing for Ladakh ride.
In June 2011, after reading a lot of clutch burning stories of Rohtang la, the route via Srinagar was finalised, by Jan 2012 Itinerary was also finalised and in last week of Mar 2012 date 1st June was locked as the D-Day.
By the end of April 2012, the preparation for the trip which started in Apr 2011, was almost complete, only first aid kit and helmet were to be added.
Safety gears for riding- Knee guard, elbow guard, gloves were procured from Delhi by one of my friends before my ride to Shoja. Saddle bag for luggage was bought online before Hemkunt Sahib ride. Now Helmet was my main concern. I was not able to find any good helmet in Ludhiana. For that in first week of May 2012, I visited Helmet Shoppe in Chandigarh. Up to that time I was mentally prepared to go solo. By the time I returned back from Chandigarh I got a riding partner along with helmet. From then onwards for next twenty days whole time was spent in preparation and procuring things for my riding partner and fine tuning everything.
With everything in place waited for the D-day excitedly.
To be continued…
Ladakh Odyssey on Victor- Beginning of an exciting Journey