Bajaj Avenger FLG Ride To Leh Ladakh – The Dream Ride

Day 4: Ride to Tso Kar. With an early start, the whole group started moving but it wasn’t effective as we had to go through 3 Nala’s (river crossings), one of it was the Pagal (mad) Nala, the biggest and the wildest and with bad news, a truck was stuck in that Nala since 4 hours. With efforts being put through by the locals and the men around, a path to pass one car was made and the local taxi crowd moved through. Next up were the bikers, our group of 34 people with few Royal Enfield bikes. With some extra help, all the Avengers made it through but all the Royal Enfield bikes got stuck atleast once. With two more such nala crossings, serious off-roading and an amazing 50 km stretch of the More’ planes waiting us, the convoy had its pace and kept moving. On the way to Tso Kar, our lunch stop was at a Sarchu checkpoint. Everybody had their lunch but the break time went a little longer than expected.

Tourists travel and capture pictures, on our ride we were capturing memories

As everyone was trying to acclimatize to the high altitude, many failed to follow our doctor’s instruction of continuously keeping ourselves hydrated and hence a few fell sick. The lunch also became a problem for a few including me, as I went through a bad stomach ache in the evening. We had a support vehicle and the doctor came to everyone’s rescue. Oxygen cylinders for people running low on body oxygen and injections and medicines for people falling sick. On Day 4 itself, we got to know why it’s not an easy task to ride to Leh-Ladakh. By the time now, we had already crossed a few passes and were riding at about 16,000 ft. The roads were bad and the ride was getting exhilarating.

Day 5: Tso Kar to Tso Moriri. The tent stay at Tso Kar were just about alright as it was in a complete open plateau land. We could gaze at the stars over here but as it was cloudy, we couldn’t find any. The Day 5 ride was the worst of all the rides. 85 kms of complete off-road. Although the group started together, we split into multiple groups. At the end, the distance between both the leader and the sweeper was over 10 kms. This small patch had taken a toll over a lot of riders. But the view of the Tso Moriri lake made it worth a while. I was exhausted to such an extent that I couldn’t click a single picture over there. Also, we did not have electricity for two days which led to almost all our electronics going dead. I almost skipped lunch, slept the whole afternoon, got up for dinner and slept like a baby for the night in the windy tent area of Tso Moriri lake.

Day 6: Tso Moriri to Leh. I thought we would have to ride the deadly 85 kms of off-road back towards Leh. But with God’s grace, we had a split road after 30 kms and we could see tarmac with lesser off-road patches on it. As we were riding towards Leh, the roads got better. As we stopped at our lunch spot, the whole group was not far but the tail group took a lot of time to reach. They arrived with a bad news that one of the rider had an incident and was injured. The injury was slightly major and required hospitalization which was available at an Army camp 30 kms ahead of us. The doctor with the backup vehicle made it to the camp on time and got the basic first aid done for the rider. Post this incident, everyone stayed alert and together. As we entered Leh, the whole group of 33 bikes made an entrance like no other. Everyone in the town was recording us and clicking pictures. The convoy of Avengers did make a grand entrance in Leh.

Day 7: Khardung La Pass. We made it to Leh and we were very happy about it. It was the highest motorable road, Khardung La Pass, waiting for us. But everyone’s priority was to let their family know that they were alright. Because after Keylong, nobody had any network to communicate. Left early morning at 8 AM, half the road was tarmac while the other half was serious off-road. With the off-road, we got about 3 landslides which took about an hour to clear up and we made it to the top before noon. As we came back to our hotel, a few guys took rest while others on their own visited magnetic hill and were back by evening for some Leh market shopping. Except for a few handicrafts, badges and Leh t-shirts, the market was just like any hill station mall road.

Day 8: Leh to Sarchu. This was the longest travel day as we had to travel over 250 kms, the similar distance from Tso Moriri to Leh but crossing three passes and various different nalas. However, we ran almost 10 riders short as 6 riders split their way and rode via the Srinagar route while the other 4 had completed their ride and didn’t want to ride back. This time, the smaller group stuck together till the end and we made it to Sarchu before sunset. This was the last day of our tent stay and I must say, the tent stay at Sarchu was the most luxurious tent stay in the whole trip. I must say, all our stay and food arrangements for the price the riders were charged, they were pretty amazing. With a great get-together over dinner, everyone was sharing their experiences and there was a great level of bonding between every rider. Although the whole group had tiny groups within, everyone was finally having a really great time.