Just dreamed it and made it possible..!!
Here's our self driven expedition Mumbai-Leh Ladakh-Mumbai
Dayanand, Ganesh & Pankaj, three buddies, three Machines, one goal..
Here,s our route starting from the economic capital of India challenging 8 states
Mumbai-Godhra-Ajmer-Panipat-Manali-Keylong-Pang-Leh-Khardungla-Kargil-Sonamarg-Udhampur-Amritsar-Ludhiana-Jaipur-Mehsana-Mumbai
Day-1: Mumbai-Godhra: We started our journey at 6.30 am form mumbai with the loud chanting of "Ganpati Bappa Morya" . All three with full of energy fighting through heavy rains, hoping that it ends soon:P. Had a great lunch , Dal bati :) and then headed towards our destination godhra. Godhra public gave us a memorable experience. 10 mins after entering the city it was,the whole city was knowing that 3 guys in all different getup have arrived in our city and everybody eager to help us and know about us. Day one concluded at Hotel City In Godhra (Gujrat).
Day-2 Godhra- Ajmer: Early Morning escape through the city kept us away from the public's attention heading towards our next destination Ajmer specially known for Darga Sharif. Refueling our machines at first petrol pump in Rajastan,we continued, the roads were pit hole free but full of cattle's which made the day a bit hectic. Evening we visited "Darga Sharif", & the day ended with Dinner with Rajastani touch.
Day-3 Ajmer-Panipat: We started late today due to heavy rains in Ajmer, but this rain help us to relax after the 2 days heavy driving . Driving through the plain roads of Rajasthan & Harayana we reached the historic battle ground. The greeneary aside the road was awesome to see and the cool breze passing throung them.
Day-4 Panipat-Manali : The journey started with the heavy traffic in Panipat. the beautiful and clean city "Chandigarh"overwhelmed us which was very well planned. we had parathas as lunch and soon rain stroked us as we reached the foot of Himalayas. The visibility was almost 10 meters and we started climbing the mountains on the dirt tracks with some patches.we reached late at Manali. The River water sound was so scary.
Day-5 Manali-Jispa: Morning Manali, Awesome weather, snow capped mountains were visible, and so call the first pass-'Rohtang Pass' to be covered in the days journey. we took the permits, serviced our machines, filled the petrol cans, engine oil and the main journey started. Reached the top of Rohtang Pass, had some clicks and the decent journey continued. We had our first camp stay at Jispa.
Day-6 Jispa-Pang: The Day started with taking clicks of the river flowing besides the Camp.we started the journey after enjoying the Breakfast and tea at camp in the chilled weather. soon we entered the rough terrain road, snowing sometimes. Weather was getting worst as we covered the distance. with the sunset we reached "Pang"the highest stay of our journey. we were lucky enough that we got a chance to visit the army camp at Pang and also we could make a call to our family members through satellite call.
Day-7 Pang-leh: The worst day of our journey, seemed as if we were not going to live tomorrow. we felt heavy breathing due to less oxygen. soon we had tea and started as we have not even removed our shoes last night. after we completed a pass we now had some plain roads to travel. all thanks to the "Indian Army". soon the Third highest Pass of the world "Tangangla Pass"started. but the roads are fine here. till the sunset we reached Leh and now there was some greenery around :)
Day-8 Leh-Khardungla-Leh: After the heavy rough terrains, we as well as our Machines were tired, so thought of visiting Khardungla pass & enjoying Leh in the evening. we started towards the highest Motor-able road in the world, a bit snow filled roads didn't break us even our machines. soon we were at the top of the highest Motor-able road in the word. we enjoyed the environment there & our decent journey started. we reached Leh by late afternoon & got our bikes serviced. we enjoyed shopping at Leh-Market and met few interesting persons. one of them was an 74 years old young German man called 'Hans'. Interestingly he knew all the special food places not only in Leh but in most of the parts of India.
Day-9 Leh-Kargil_Sonamarg: we started early in the morning as we had to cover a long distance, but as usual the road took more time. We had our break fast at "Pathar Saheb Gurdwara"which is built & maintained by Indian Army.Just before its dawn we reached the must Visit place of our tour "Kargil War Memorial". we were lucky enough for getting the conditions briefed by the Army Personnel. As we heard the stories we had goosebumps. we could see the last India Post on the top of Tololing hill, which is just behind the Kragil War Memorial. After passing the Zojilla Pass in night, where we were just missed by a Bear encounter, we reached Sonmarg.
Day-10 Sonamarg-Udhampur: As the environment in Srinagar a tensed to much extent, our conditions got tensed too. we started too early to avoid the tensed situation at Srinagar. Refueling our machines be headed through the beautiful valley and had a sigh of relief when we crossed the Jawahar Tunnel.Running down the Himalayas was much risky than climbing it. we washed our machines as we reached Udhampur.
Day-11 Udhampur-Ludhiana: With lot of joy in mind of having crossed the main part of our journey and also of going to visit the most holy place "The Golden temple". we were feeling as if we were in heaven. we had beautiful lunch at Langar. Our tour was incomplete without visiting this divine place.we halted at Ludhiana.
Day-12 Ludhiana-Jaipur: As our descent journey started our machines picked up speed as we need to reach our hometown in our planned time. Driving was much easy now as the dirt roads were no more. we were riding plane roads. The day ended at the Pink city Jaipur.
Day-13 Jaipur-Mehsana: To avoid the traffic in Jaipur our day started early as we needed to cover more distance and only one day was left to complete the journey. Having lunch at dhaba we soon reached Gujarat. Gujarati thali was the perfect finish to the day.
Day-14 Mehsana-Mumbai: The much awaited day after this long journey.we accelerated our machines to reach our home. The most wonderful moment was yet to come at the end of the day i.e. the completion of this Epic Journey. As we covered the miles the excitation was growing. The couldn't avoid our-self from clicking pics with the milestone. soon we entered Mumbai. As Ganesh Festival was going on, the first thing we could do is to Visit Ganesh temple.
Next day Tired at lot was the wishes of completing this journey made us more relaxed. we were off the wheels with the mixed feeling.