Imagine a 140 kms length lake at 15000 ft altitude , A night sky with full of stars and there we are are 6 bikers out in the biting sub zero degree cold allowing ourselves to melt in the beauty of God's great craftmanship!. This is a place that needs to be exprienced. It is a gruelling trip through unforgiven roads, one slip and you have a good chance to meet your fore fathers in Heaven! but Nothing detered us in exploring this un sung beauty!
Early last year there was a sudden rush in my mind to do a bike trip to Kardungla aka K-Top as bikers say! I haven't taken my 2 year old indian cruiser on any serious trip till then. Once it dawned in my mind that it is a definite go! I started preparing my self with long week end bike trips to wayanad / kemmangundi etc. Actually to get my butt used to long trips he he! K-Top is considered a Biker's dream in India, it is claimed as the highest motorable pass in the world (18380 ft!). Just to give a comparison manali lies at 6398 ft and its average elevation is 8612 ft
There are two routes to reach K-Top 1) Easy one - Srinagar - Kargil - ladakh 2) Tough one - Manali - Sarchu - leh - ladakh. The second route is open only during end May till November 1rst week.This route is considered toughest as you need to cross atleast 6 high mountain passes (I lost count :) ) upwards of 13000 ft starting from Rohtang La (13051 ft) ride through freezing streams, broken bridges and what not!. btw La means pass in ladakh.
There are couple of options available to reach there 1) Air - You can take the flight from delhi and reach ladakh in no time and no fun! 2) Bus - I understand there is a bus service available from Manali by HPTDC operated during june to october i guess 3) Bike - Nothing beats this for the obvious facts
* Possible shooting stones can bring you to the edge on seat thrill :)
* You can stop/eat/drink/ pee where ever and when ever you want
* branch out from the roads and take a nap watching the mystic beauty of the hills around
* The possiblity of your bike letting you down and you getting knocked out with depleted oxygen (remember high altitude) keeps you humming your prayers and brings you one step closer to Almighty!
*For the sheer thrill of riding your bike in those curvy roads and getting lost in this mystic beauty
After convincing my bosses that if I don't do this trip I will die heart broken in my eighties! and my delivery will not be impacted in anyway during my absence I got a 10 days leave! I booked my bike through gati (3500 INR) to delhi. Sync'd my trip plan with other bikers and reached delhi by Air. On reaching delhi I learnt my bike was delivered to Gati godown in Okhla enroute there i picked up two litres of petrol. Finished all formalities in gati and after checking my bike which had no injuries started on the first kick!.Excellent packing done by Gati - I strongly recommend them!. It took me more than 30 minutes to figure the way out from this industrial town! by then I got a call from MG and Vivek and we all met near connaught place and later joined ravi in Bajaj pro biking center. After a brief Intro we started discussing our day zero stay in delhi and decided it is better to look some thing around NH1. After few minutes ride (or dragging!) through the hustle bustle of delhi crowd we settled in a tourist resort on NH1.
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