This all started, with me thinking about an outing in Himalayas. First it was the mountaineering course, but that is for 4 weeks. I couldn't afford that. Then it was an organized SUV trip to Leh by road. That was for one week, and it didn't materialize for me. Then, I some how read about people doing it on bikes, then came across Capt Nandu, who had also done it on a Bajaj Avenger, and that was when the flame got burning.
I was finally going to live my dream.
I had two more people for the company, who were to join me from Kalka, while I had to start from Ghaziabad. I started from my place on 14th June, afternoon 2 O'clock and stayed at Chandigarh for the night.
I overslept the day they were arriving in Kalka. The monsoon rains playing daemon for the day, still creating the most pleasant and cloudy day we have ever seen in hills.
The noon, before Solan had so less visibility, all were plying with high beams and headlights on. Wet roads, near zero visibility, yourself completely wet and so is all the luggage, what else can you ask for, on the very first day of your ride.
Simla was our stop for the night, barely 121 kms from Chandigarh. This was the least we had traveled. Still it was a fantastic day, with all rains and all our plans going haywire.
Next day, we couldn't live up to our dream of an early start, and started around 10, moving on the Hindustan-Tibet road. The route is fantastic, the cloud views we had that day were the best of my life, yet.
This was again a wet day, and so the progress was still slow, but better than yesterday, as up till now, we had learn t to ride in rains, a little.
First view of Sutlej river around 100kms from Simla.
If you see in the photo above, you see, that we are on one side of the road and another road is going on the other side of the river. When we saw the Sutlej for the first time in the route here, we stopped to click. And then, when people were having water and fag, I said, I will reach the other side and then you click my photo. With a little murmur, they agreed. I started riding, and after 7-8 kms, I saw that the road forks into two there, the one which I have to ride is not the one which goes there. I tried calling them, by God, its just that the signal was still barely there, I could tell them to start. Else they would at least have waited there for half an hour or more.
Later on I realized. Almost all the roads are made along with river and that generally we have roads on both the sides, with slip roads to small places on the other sides of the river.
Some where I had read that bhawanagar had places to halt for the night, so we reached there, only to find out, that there is no place at all to stay there. The next good stop to stay is only 45 kms, Recong peo, which we were not ready to go to in the night. So, by God's grace, we found an angel, who arranged lodging and boarding for us in the state guest house.
The place was fantastic. And the views early morning from there were out of the world. I set up the tripod and click a few pics, including a self portrait.
View from Rest House, BhawaNagar.
We had a good start from Bhawa Nagar and were soon crossing Rampur, Jeori. The whole Kinnaur area, the route is fantastic, hilly with Sutlej as a constant companion all through the route.
Roaring waterfall en route, we stood there agape with wonder.
The Tapri, Powari area, the road is bad due the heavy machnery traffic for the hydro electric power project there. I was trying to look for the route Salil and Dixit had taken from Tapri to Rohru. The ultimate thing that they did, carved out the route for themselves, am fan of your, guys. But the main road, itself was so bad, that I couldn't concentrate anywhere else. Although it was fun to ride through the power plant area. A lot of people working there and happily waving to us.
I saw the snow clad peaks for real for the first time in my life. I wanted to capture them in the camera so that they look as real as I see them. But that never happens.
I also happen to cross my first water stream here. I can't express well, but I was far more afraid of water streams than of the passes, AMS, etc.
My life's first water stream.
We had lunch at pooh. It is a few kms higher than the main highway. Then we started our onwards journey, crossed Khab and were about to reach Nako. When, suddenly on a turn, three bulleteers were coming from the other side. We recognizd, they are the same ones, who had crossed us in Simla a couple of days ago. They told us, the road is closed ahead, the ubiquitous Malling Nullah. We have been hearing this for last two days, but were still progressing and had now hit the road block finally. Those guys left, we took a break
thinking, what is to be done now. After half an hour thought, we turned back, and reached pooh in time to stay for the night. Pooh had such fantastic mountain views, they took our breath away.
Over dinner, the plan changed now, to cross Jalori Pass and to go towards Leh via Kullu Manali route.
It was an ambitious target, and so we got up early and were out for the day soon. We had thought of having lunch at Rampur. But we overshot, and had lunch at Sainj, which is the junction where we took our turn towards
Manali. The state road, from Sainj to Aut, unbelievably was fantastic. That was the best part of our trip till now.
Clouds playing just near Jalori Pass.
Although, as we were nearing the sunset, we didn't get much time to photograph it and also,
it was again raining, as we were back in the monsoon zone.Still, we reached Jalori Pass in the evening, I think around 6 PM. The road was terrible and I enjoyed it. The bike gave me full support. My first pass of life, the Jalori Pass.
)
My first, Jalori Pass, I had called up Sumeet before going towards it, to confirm how high it is.
After having many tea's over there and meeting Pali boys roaming there, we soon moved to see the worst descents from any pass ever. We stayed back at Ghayagi village, Natures' Lap Resort. It was dense forest and we were scared of the forest insects flying into our rooms.
Again, started from Ghayagi at good time, we wanted to reach Sissu for the night, i.e., crossing Rohtang in the evening again. Still, Started from there, no issues, so we lost Haider. His phone was also not responding, we got worried,
more than a couple of hours later, when we were at Kullu Najaj service centre. He called up, he was trailing us by 15 kms, and had lost his way before Aut somewhere. So, we waited for him at Manali, and then started our march towards Rohtang.
Traffic and vehicles, near Rohtang Pass.
It was traffic mess till we reached Rohtang. Around 5 kms before reaching the pass, I was ahead of both the guys.
Kept the lead and when we were descending and descending every turn, I stopped and asked then, why are we descending
before the pass. Oops, I had missed the Rohtang Pass and now we were already a couple of kilometers ahead of it.
The scenery had changed altogether and it was ultimately beautiful after Rohtang.
First shot after crossing Rohtang Pass.
There on one sharp turn, I had my first fall. That too, when trucks were approaching from the other side, almost 6-8 feet from me.
Not a bad fall, nothing is broken, just the leg guards are bent a little, a GREF worker helped me. The bike, in itself is 152 kgs,
plus the tank full petrol, plus the luggage I had, must have made it 200+ kgs and so was impossible for me to lift.
Reaching Sissu was not a problem, it was a huge problem. The road and the boulders, were hellish. I thought they would end now, and then now, but they continued for tens of kilometers. But thankfully, the bike handled it well and we hit the target for the day, before Sun went down.
Views from Sissu were the best we have had till now, at any place yet.
Started from Sissu, a bit lazily. It is eighth straight day of riding, and the highest passes of my life are ahead during the day for me.
Am tired after riding for seven days. I have never ridden this much ever in my life. And the target for the day was Leh, more than 250 kms, that too
in the hill, with minimum height ranging from 11000 ft and above upto 17000 ft or so.
What I did to prepare myself, or rather to test myself for Ladakh was, I went on a weekend Jaipur ride, alone, to see if I can sit on the saddle for many hours without breaking down. And I survived that test and decided to go ahead with this, biggest challenge of my life.
So here I am , trying to live upto the expectations, trying to live upto myself, in front of me only. Filled up to brim at Tandi, had bought a plastic can , filled it up as well here. Fortunately, the bike was giving good average and I never went short of petrol.
Last petrol pump at Tandi.
The views en route, as usual were fantastic. They used to make one stop the bike and take photographs all the more. The days are better now, no rains and bright sun till 7-7:30 PM in the evenings.
Will try to complete it tomorrow.
fantastic stuff, waiting for more 
All the more inspirational as I would be treading on similar paths when I embark on that journey in August, on an avenger! do let us knw how your machine performed, and what do i say abt the pics, left me spellbound 
