Trip Report - Ant's Himalayan Adventure

[ant]

Ok, gonna do this one day at a time as there are too many pics that need editing and selection. I'll post about 5 pics a day, but I'll link to the Google Photos drive if anyone wants to see more or download hi-rez.

Day 1, 26 June 2024 - Manali, Ladakh

We met the crew and other riders in Delhi - six Aussies including my friend Paul who rides a GSA out of Melbourne who was the common link of the Aussie group, three English guys, and seven Indians who all live in Virginia, USA but ride back there and this was on their bucket list too. Manali is a well-known tourist town - sort of gateway to the Ladakh part of the Himalayas, and was a beautiful place in itself. We also got to select the bikes (I just took what was left given what had the most tread on the hoops) and did a test ride up into the hills to diagnose any issues. Dehli was hot - high 30s and maybe over 40 on the three days I was there. Saw some of the regular tourist sites including the Red Fort, Taj Mahal in Aggra and my favourite, Humayan's Tomb (Mughal predecessor to the builder of the Taj Mahal) in Dehli which was less ornate but beautiful (and far fewer tourists)!



We had the stereotypical overnight bus ride from Dehli to Manali which was only around 5-600km but took around 14 hours arriving early morning. Stopped in the dead of night to wait for roadworks - landslides and rockfalls are common in the mountains here and although it is mid-Summer, there are still snow/glacier melts going on which means that there is plenty of water to erode rivers and slopes. Three of the Aussies decided last minute to skip the bus and fly direct to Kulu, about an hour from Manali - great choice, I'd pick this if I had my time again. Manali reminded me of the Swiss Alps - the hotels seemed consciously modelled on this as well. Manali is about 2500 metres in altitude and climbing hills/stairs had you blowing pretty hard.



The bikes were rentals, stock 2nd gen 411 Himas so EFI/ABS, pretty beaten up, seemed to have done about 30K clicks on average. But we did have support vehicles including mechanics, parts, etc. As people fell off/things broke the mechanics would have you up and running pretty quickly. If you got a flat they'd just swap out the whole wheel. Why don't we have support vehicles and crew Pete? Seems like a good system.



You know how I love a beaten up motorbike so I was happy with my basic black model with bent crash bars, but it ran well the whole time. Some of the bikes that were chosen for cosmetic reasons (red/green camo) had more issues than I did, don't judge a book by its cover!



Manali is a great town, nice markets, good food, amazing views. I picked up some sunglasses with help from our local driver who insisted on getting me fake Oakleys because he noticed my t-shirt. He also hooked us up with some "Manali Cream", a local oily substance that you can mix with tobacco and smoke. I highly recommend this guy if you happen to be in Manali and need a driver



Then it was beers, dinner and the usual nervous/excited feelings you have just before the adventure begins.

 

[ant]

Just a quick reminder of location and itinerary - Ladakh is a far northern province, so borders with China and what was Tibet mostly. It's next to part of Kashmir and is a united territory that is disputed by China and Pakistan who border it. Most of the roads are built for the Indian military by the hilariously named Border Roads Organisation (BRO for short) and we saw plenty of military trucks, bases and army personnel. As far as I know all our travel was within Ladakh. We got to within 6-7km of the Chinese border at times.





The tour was run by Ride the Himalayas https://www.ridethehimalayas.com/ who I can't recommend highly enough. They solved political problems (more of this later), looked after us when we fell/broke bikes/got sick, and generally went the extra mile.

Could you do this tour or similar by yourself? Yes, you could hire bikes, plan the trip, get accommodation or bring camping gear for nights when no accommodation was available. There would be hassles getting through military/local area checkpoints, but absolutely doable. We did need special permits to get into some of the more sensitive areas particularly close to the Chinese border.

As a last note - those that know me will be amazed to learn I didn't drop the bike once during the trip - I'm usually the first. Not sure why, as I had numerous close calls and only stayed up by luck more than good riding, but there it is. Maybe it was familiarity with the Hima which is low, stable and pretty forgiving. Two of the other Aussies also didn't drop their bikes - we had a running tally with drop-outs every night.

 

[glitch]

As a last note - those that know me will be amazed to learn I didn't drop the bike once during the trip - I'm usually the first. Not sure why, as I had numerous close calls and only stayed up by luck more than good riding, but there it is. Maybe it was familiarity with the Hima which is low, stable and pretty forgiving. Two of the other Aussies also didn't drop their bikes - we had a running tally with drop-outs every night.

Big thanks for the info and extras Ant.
It sure makes things easier to grasp, giving lots more weight and fill to the pics.
Considering the situation and political kerfuffle typical for that part of the world, I wouldn't waste huge time or effort to try and doing this solo.... a smallish, guided group looks ideal.

As for the not-dropping-it....oooch, you're just getting old.

Thanks for the yarn and info.....great stuff.

 

[Agrid]

Thanks for the add admins. I'm 66, ride a Hypermotard, vintage Ducati single and Indian FTR 1200. I mostly ride in the city but have done three adventure rides in India and a lap around Tasmania.

Thanks For your report Ant. Hey, I did pretty much the same ride back in 2019 August 4-19 with Nevermind, the weather was almost perfect, hot in Delhi and torrential rain one evening as we rode into our hotel two days out of Manali. Pretty cold over the mountain passes but not uncomfortable.

Our groups has grown, so we now organise our tours directly with a local bloke and have done rides through Rajasthan and Kerala. Both highly recommended. I reckon one of the best roads in the world is the one into Munnar.

Many of our group haven't done the Himalayas and so have organised a ride next year. Its a couple of weeks earlier July 19 - Aug 4. So I wondered about the weather and have been regularly checking the forecasts. Basically it has been reported to be rain almost everywhere almost every day, samenfienthe next 10 days. This seems odd so I'm wondering how you found the weather?

 

[glitch]

Thanks for the add admins. I'm 66, ride a Hypermotard, vintage Ducati single and Indian FTR 1200. I mostly ride in the city but have done three adventure rides in India and a lap around Tasmania.

Thanks For your report Ant. Hey, I did pretty much the same ride back in 2019 August 4-19 with Nevermind, the weather was almost perfect, hot in Delhi and torrential rain one evening as we rode into our hotel two days out of Manali. Pretty cold over the mountain passes but not uncomfortable.

Our groups has grown, so we now organise our tours directly with a local bloke and have done rides through Rajasthan and Kerala. Both highly recommended. I reckon one of the best roads in the world is the one into Munnar.

Looks like you've gotten around a bit

Nevermind rings a bell...aren't they the guys from Geelong way?
Remember one of their Tassie groups in the early days of the RE Hima/350 Bullets release, they used to offer fly-in, fly-out long weekends/ mid-week rides in Tassie

Anyways, welcome to the board and hopefully we get to hear more of your rides and trips.
I'll also try to copy your post into the Welcome Lounge

 

[ant]

Thanks for the add admins. I'm 66, ride a Hypermotard, vintage Ducati single and Indian FTR 1200. I mostly ride in the city but have done three adventure rides in India and a lap around Tasmania.

Thanks For your report Ant. Hey, I did pretty much the same ride back in 2019 August 4-19 with Nevermind, the weather was almost perfect, hot in Delhi and torrential rain one evening as we rode into our hotel two days out of Manali. Pretty cold over the mountain passes but not uncomfortable.

Our groups has grown, so we now organise our tours directly with a local bloke and have done rides through Rajasthan and Kerala. Both highly recommended. I reckon one of the best roads in the world is the one into Munnar.

Many of our group haven't done the Himalayas and so have organised a ride next year. Its a couple of weeks earlier July 19 - Aug 4. So I wondered about the weather and have been regularly checking the forecasts. Basically it has been reported to be rain almost everywhere almost every day, samenfienthe next 10 days. This seems odd so I'm wondering how you found the weather?

Welcome brother! I'd love to ride in that part of the world again.

Midsummer right now in India and weather was almost perfect for our ride. We had one day where there was light drizzle in the morning but not even enough to put rain gear on. Sunny almost every day - I got hot. I guess temp low 20s at the peak but hotter in the sun. Nights were cool at altitude of course, the higher we were, the colder the nights. Must be so cold in winter up there. If I had to pack my gear for the trip again, I would have brought more lightweight riding options as my gloves were too hot and my jacket didn't have enough vents so I had to ride with the chest open.

The rule at altitude is if it's sunny, it will be warm but if it clouds over and is windy, it can be damn cold.

 

[ant]

Day 2 - Manali to Ani - 27 June 24

First real day of riding. Not spectacular, some very hot and basic double lane highway in the morning once we got out of Manali, we descended a fair way before we headed into the mountains again through some beautiful little towns, but the roads were broken up and there was a lot of school/bus/business traffic.

Ride Briefing


the Mighty Mohit - our ride leader. Good rider, would yell at truck drivers as necessary. He'd also glare at us at the end of breaks if we took too long to get ready.

This particular stop was about 20kms out of Manali - we had to wait as someone in the rear group had had a minor off due to rear brake failure (so he claimed) but no harm done.

We had separated fairly quickly into a "fast" and a "slow" group with the Aussies and a couple of the English guys in the "fast" group and the Indian/American guys in the slow group. The slow group had a second lead rider and a sweeper. I would stop to take photos and could usually stay ahead of the second group, but if I couldn't I had the fun of overtaking them and chasing the lead group down. The indian guys all had bluetooth coms so no doubt there was the messaging "look out guys, Ant is coming through again" so they all kept left when this was happening. Some of the Indian guys could ride well but as a group they tended to stay together.


Here we have the Aussies on the left, my mate Paul who invited me on the ride centre, Jodie at the back and two of the English guys on the right.


The other two support riders - Naveeng who tended to lead the second group and Nitin (on bike) who was generally the sweeper. He could also ride, if I was taking photos and then took off after the groups he was able to keep up without difficulty.



Love the antiquated Indian English language formality.


Lunch break at one of our first mountain passes.





I got to meet plenty of friendly dogs on this trip which was great therapy as I lost my best mate Cooper to Lymphoma in April this year.



RIP Cooper 2009-2024

Dogs in the towns or around camp were without exception friendly - one of the Indian guys said if a dog misbehaves or is aggressive it won't get fed, so bad dogs self-select out. They had this great habit of joining people walking up the road and escorting them.



This guy was a friendly but obviously had issues with other dogs judging by the scars on his head, some old and some recent.



We got into camp at Ani around 5pm - pretty tired after a long day's riding so it was great to see the tents as we rolled down the hill. Ride The Himalayas started another tour group the day after us, so the crew who set up the tents and cook the food set up for two nights, then move onto the next location to meet us again.



No showers so we jumped in the river to wash of the road dust. The water was clean and cold, but it's a fair way from the peaks here so it had warmed up enough to make it pleasant.



Quick note here - the handsome bald guy in the river is not me, but a lovely Melbourne based chef called Shaun, similar height and physique so people were always confusing us.



Abandoned farm house. Lots of wild marijuana around but also stinging nettles!

The next morning I walked up the road to have a look and had a nice escort with four local guides.




Great first day - nothing too spectacular but a chance to get used to the bikes and the other riders. Food was as suspected, basic Indian rice, dal, paneer, pakoras, but perfectly fine. I drank a lot of Chai tea which was traditional Indian tea with milk boiled in, sometimes sweetened, sometimes not. They also had instant coffee/tea bags.Breakfast was usually more Indian basics and french toast or cheese/tomato toasties.

 

[ant]

Playing a bit of catch up here so without further ado here's

Day 3 - Ani to Kalpa/Sangla - 28 June 24

So this is where the ride got serious! Some easy tarmac in the morning, then a very long ascent up a variable quality road to Kalpa/Sangla - sheer 1000 foot drops on one side. Sometimes cars/small trucks coming the other way. Amazing cliff faces above and below.



Ready to roll




Typical ascent up to Kalpa on a good stretch of road



As we got higher we could see the Buddhist influence growing, with colourful prayer flags on bridges and signs. This was also where you could see military controlled roads built by BRO, hydro power infrastructure and the like.



Rolled into camp after a hard ride up. Some of the riders in the group had not done much gravel/broken road riding so this was a baptism of fire - I hadn't ridden that much in the past six months but coped OK technically, was just tired and again we were at significant altitude (2900m). Tonight's beds were in Swiss tents with hot water, a relief after the previous night.


Arriving at camp



This was really our last night below the tree line, and it was amazing.





Magic hour!

 

[glitch]

Quick note here - the handsome bald guy in the river is not me, but a lovely Melbourne based chef called Shaun, similar height and physique so people were always confusing us.

No way...I can pick you out of a mob from miles away

(and not by the smell )

 

[glitch]

Playing a bit of catch up here so without further ado here's

Day 3 - Ani to Kalpa/Sangla - 28 June 24

So this is where the ride got serious! Some easy tarmac in the morning, then a very long ascent up a variable quality road to Kalpa/Sangla - sheer 1000 foot drops on one side. Sometimes cars/small trucks coming the other way. Amazing cliff faces above and below.

View attachment 5747

Ready to roll

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Typical ascent up to Kalpa on a good stretch of road

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As we got higher we could see the Buddhist influence growing, with colourful prayer flags on bridges and signs. This was also where you could see military controlled roads built by BRO, hydro power infrastructure and the like.

View attachment 5750

Rolled into camp after a hard ride up. Some of the riders in the group had not done much gravel/broken road riding so this was a baptism of fire - I hadn't ridden that much in the past six months but coped OK technically, was just tired and again we were at significant altitude (2900m). Tonight's beds were in Swiss tents with hot water, a relief after the previous night.

View attachment 5754
Arriving at camp

View attachment 5752

This was really our last night below the tree line, and it was amazing.


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Magic hour!

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Those last 2 pics...wowww!

Hope you'll keep this going, it's fabulous!!