Leh Trip Day 1: Targeting Manali

Journey through Manali-Leh Highway (MLH in short)

Ladakh - The land of the lamas.  

In the West it is sometimes referred to as Moon country and Little Tibet, framed in a parallel fashion by two of the most imposing mountain ranges, the Karakorams to the North, the Himalayas to the South. 

They seem to have been placed near young and powerful rivers, the Shayok, Siachen, Zanskar and the Indus, to contrast harmoniously with the austere magnificence of the Ladakhi landscapes. 

Statue of Maitreya

Getting down at Leh, the capital, stretching out its human canvas between the Indus and the mountains or while crossing several passes on the road from Manali, the traveler is primarily moved by a single emotion. Yes, his eyes, he feels, are much too small; the altitude combined with the absolute purity of the air, the mountains of varied colours. A world before which one has to relearn how to look, with the large wide-eyed gaze of a wonderstruck child.

To the north of Leh is the Beacon Highway which seems to never stop rising ever higher, an astral quest.

The highest road in the world; Khardung La offers to our gaze a forbidden valley: Nubra. Here the Siachen meets the Shayok in an expanse of greenery contrasting remarkably with the rest of Ladakh.

It is a general practice that the youngest son of each family becomes a monk. To the uninitiated, the Buddhist principle of 'compassion' is perhaps the most visible trait of the religion in Ladakh.

The longest day

We were all set to plan for a place  - planning for a trip during summer holidays. Just then, I got a call of the mountains - Kandy called me if I was willing to join them on a motor bike trip to Leh.

It was an irresistible invitation, which I could not miss. We were five in the team - and four mean machines (two Thunderbirds, one Fiero and one unforgettable Splendour) - set for the journey on fifth of July 2004.

I was the navigator on my Fiero. I had already planned the daily itinerary, route, night stays and briefed our team prior to the journey. 

We were highly charged, crossed Dehradun, Herbertpur enroute to Pinjore.  We encountered a torrential rains, near Asaan Barage but nothing gonna stop us now. Covered with rain suits, we continued. We wished, we had wipers on our visors. 

We are: Sarkar, Alok, Kandy, Sunil & myself

Entering Himachal Pradesh at Paonta Shahib, we had to show our vehicle papers. On the right banks of river Yamuna, Paonta Shahib is a small bustling town, has linkages to the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh.

Nearing Nahan, we took Kala Amb-Narayangarh route towards Chandigarh. We drove on through Pinjore towards Nalagarh. The road was narrow with bushes on both side except near the villages. In most of the places work was going on to widen the road. And, we were behind trucks climbing up slope with full load. Slow speed, black smoke, irritated us. We somehow managed to overtake the vehicles to reach Nalagarh following NH21A. We had our lunch break at Swarghat at a roadside dhaba. Our mean machines performed satisfactorily till now. We were satisfied and still hoping to reach Manali before night fall. And miles to go before we sleep.

We were about to set off and I discovered that I had a puncture at rear wheel. Fortunately, there were a tyre repair shop 50 mtrs ahead. He used to repair truck tyres but not bike tyres, but with our help he did a great job and carried on our journey. We crossed Sutlej river near Slapper and reached Mandi via Sundernagar. There is a Shyama Kali Temple in Mandi. Heard that, this is one of the few temples outside Bengal having the same idol of famous Kalighat temple.  It was afternoon by then, as we lost an hour for puncture repair. 

We had a tea-break at Pandoh overlooking the embankment dam over river Beas. There is a lake formed upstream of the dam along the gorge. The water is used for power generation at the Dehar Power House before being discharged into the Sutlej River, connecting both rivers.

Crossing Beas over Pandoh dam we took the right banks of the river. Constructions were going on for Larji Hydel Project near Aut. A 3 km long traffic tunnel, built on the National Highway 21 (the Kullu-Manali highway), and had to be realigned due to the construction of the power project. 

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It was a well lit tunnel, I was travelling trough this tunnel for the second time. It was another story when I travelled it for the first time.

We reached Aut with an awe on tunnel construction. Tired, exhausted, with evening approaching we called it a day.

We managed to convince a manager of a roadside hotel to keep our loaded bikes in a narrow passage at the entry. On settling down we ordered our dinner, had a walk down the street of this small town.

From here a road goes to Shimla via Jalori Pass. I once missed that route twelve years back as it was snow covered by then. On that route, Larji, is a small hamlet famous for trout fishing. The rivers Sainj and Tirthan join the Beas a few hundred meter below from here. This place is patronised by anglers.

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