LEH Trip on Bike – Journey on a Winding Road
- amolkhanapurkar6
- Aug 10
- 4 min read
Started the journey on 5th August from Pune towards the world’s highest motorable road “KHARDUNG LA (18,380 ft)”. It took me almost 2 months to prepare everything for this amazing and lifetime experience of traveling by bike.
On 6th Aug, we started from Chandigarh to Manali. It is around a 300 km drive and full of scenic beauty. We are accompanied by the Beas River with us from Mandi till Manali. The major attraction on this road is the stunning valley across the road with the Beas River, Kullu Tunnel, and mouth-watering apple gardens beside the road. Kullu Tunnel is one of the longest tunnels, around 2.8 km.
The next day begins with a difficult journey to ROHTANG PASS. It is around 50 km from Manali, but it really took the heart out of us while driving. After Marhi, the road was pathetic, and to top it off, God greeted us with rain. We crossed around 6-9 km of muddy road, which was covered by 1-1.5 ft of mud. We traveled to JISPA, which is around 100 km from Rohtang. On the way to JISPA, after riding through a few villages, one signboard stops you, saying “Next filling station is 364 km away.” The place is Tandi, with the last petrol bunk after Manali.
Next day, we packed our bags and set off for SARCHU, which was the tiniest hop on our tour. Just a mere 70 Km from JISPA, where we danced past Dipak Tal, Baralacha, and Suraj Tal. SARCHU is snuggled right in the middle of the mountains, chilling at a cool 12,500 feet. Now, SARCHU is a place where the air likes to play hard to get, offering only 60% oxygen. So, we had to pretend we were on a lazy vacation, avoiding any activity that might make us breathe like a panting dog. SARCHU felt like a VIP lounge in Heaven on our trip. It was straight out of a fairy tale, surrounded by mountains with a river doing a catwalk right through the middle.
From SARCHU, we embarked on the epic, never-ending, multi-terrain road trip of our journey to LEH. This stretch was jam-packed with adventures and nature's rollercoaster thrills. On our way to LEH, we encountered the legendary 21 GATA LOOPS. These loops started at 13,702 feet, and by the time we conquered all 21 U-pin loops, we were strutting at a dizzying 15,300 feet.
After navigating these Loops, we stumbled upon the legendary MOREY PLANES, a 45 km stretch of dust-covered table land. The Border Roads Organization kindly paved 25 km of it, but the remaining 20 km? Well, let's just say it was like trying to drive through a giant sandbox. It was the ultimate stress test for both our vehicles and our patience!
Once we conquered the dusty MOREY PLANES, we faced our next epic quest: crossing one of the world’s highest passes, “TANGLANG LA.” It took us around 2 hours of huffing and puffing to reach the top. After some much-needed hot black tea at Tanglang La, we descended to Rumtsey, battling the coldest wind we've encountered yet. As you descend, the scenery does a little magic trick and changes completely. Welcome to Ladakh! The name comes from 'LA' meaning Pass and 'DAKH' meaning Land, so Ladakh is literally the 'Land of Passes' (KHARDUNG LA, CHANG LA, FOTU LA, JOZI LA, TANGLANG LA, and a whole bunch more).
The day I had been eagerly waiting for finally arrived, and everything was set. We got the green light from the Army officers in LEH to visit KHARDUNG LA. Our adventure kicked off at 6 am sharp from LEH. By 7 am, we rolled up to South Pullu – the Army Checkpost. Mother Nature decided to give us a frosty welcome with snowfall starting right from South Pullu. Just 15 km stood between us and KHARDUNG LA. As we climbed higher, the temperature decided to play limbo and kept dropping. Our hands and bodies were turning into popsicles as we drove. We even had to cross some ice-cold waterfalls that thought they were roads. After some nail-biting driving for 2-3 hours, our fearless leader suddenly hit the brakes in the middle of traffic. That's when it hit us—we were on the “TOP of the World”! It was an epic moment. Thanks to the snowfall, a massive traffic jam formed, and the army suggested we chill out for the next half hour until some trucks cleared the road.
We start descending in the similar atmosphere towards North Pullu. As per our plan we reach DISKIT – a Cold Dessert (Nubra Valley) by 3 pm. Here we enjoyed a double hump Camel ride and visited a 103 Ft BUDDHA Statue.
Rest of the journey is also wonderful, ride away from LEH to KARGIL till Srinagar. From LEH – till KARGIL was really a pathetic dust road. After KARGIL one sign board frightens you with its message “CAUTION – ENEMY IS WATCHING YOU”. Still there are some PAKISTANI Posts from where they can see our NH-1 (LEH – SRINAGAR). But after Kargil War our Indian Posts are against them to protect us. Also in some patches of this road you will find big wall constructed by Army, so that this road can’t be seen by Pakistani Army.
Now the moment comes where we should salute all those SOLDIERS who fought for our better future. We visited “WAR MEMORIAL”, where we observed how the KARGIL war happened and how our soldiers face them in such tough conditions. Rest journey was not interesting driving back to Srinagar and be back to Pune.
It was a journey of life I have seen many ups and downs, moments of achievements; saw the culture of Ladakh and many more. It is not only journey but it is a stress test put up by the nature. Even though I am atheist, still I would say if there is something like GOD then he must have made this place for him. It is an experience of being in HEAVEN….
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