Passion for Travelling...

                         After exploring Srinagar , we continued on the Srinagar – Leh highway on the fourth day with our destination set as Kargil. The mountains in this part of the Himalayas takes green color in most of the parts, as it is covered with grasslands, bushes and coniferous trees. The river Sind flows in the valley below, which makes the entire nature around look like a beautiful painting. We stopped at the banks of the Sind River for a snacks-break in the afternoon, soaking in the captivating beauty of the valley. Sind River                                                    We reached Sonmarg by 2 in the evening, a historically important place that was a gateway on the ancient Silk Road. This beautiful hill station with grassy-meadows in the hill slopes and pristine wat...

                         Day 3 began from Udhampur where we stopped the previous day , with the target being set as Srinagar. The roads were very poor for about 50 kms from Udhampur, because of the previous day rains and also because of the road maintenance works going on. My bike even got skidded in the slush at some point, but nothing harmful happened to me. We came through two tunnels that day. The first one was the Chenani - Nashri Tunnel also known as Patnitop Tunnel that was opened for traffic in 2017. This is the longest road tunnel in India as of 2018, with a length of 9.28kms situated at an elevation of 3937ft. It was so thrilling to ride through NH44 on the mountains with the Chenab River flowing alongside in the valley below. The second tunnel we passed through was the Jawahar Tunnel , operational since 1956. This 2.85kms long tunnel situated at an elevation of 9200ft has one-lane road on either direction. ...

                         After ending our first day at Amritsar, we began the  second day  with an early morning visit to the Golden Temple . I was a bit reluctant to get up from bed, partly due to the mild head ache I felt but the major reason being the laziness to getup early  at 5 in the morning . But, thanks to Sreerag, because of whose compulsion I joined them to visit this spectacular temple constructed in the 16 th century. This is a place where one can closely observe the Sikh traditions, beliefs and manners. Everyone irrespective of their faith and religion can enter the place. The first sight of this temple silhouetted against the morning sky itself was a sight to behold.                           The heart of this temple is the two-storeyed sanctum surrounded by a man-made pool called ‘Amritsarovar’, hence the place name Am...

                         Our first day of the ride started from Delhi at 5 in the morning. The target for the day was the Wagah Border, to attend the ‘Beating Retreat ceremony’. We took the New Delhi – Karnal – Patiala – Ludhiana – Amritsar – Wagah route, and it was absolutely thrilling to throttle the bike at 3-digit speeds through the wide and smooth NH44.  It started raining from Ludhiana onwards, and the rains continued till the end of the day. We were a bit worried on whether we can make it to Wagah before the parade begins. But, we reached Wagah by 4PM, and immediately got our passes and entered the venue.  The closed gate. View from Indian side The BSF man who cheered and entertained the crowd throughout The one-legged man who was entertaining the Pakistani crowd                          The atmosphere there was electr...

                         It was too cold when we woke gradually beneath the sheets that morning. The owner of the tent was boiling water using huge logs of wood outside the tent, which helped us to spend some time around it to get a little warmth. After freshening up within an hour, we began the ride on day 9 from Hundar, our hub  the day before . Few of us got their tanks filled from a nearby and only petrol pump. Mine was almost full, and had a couple of 5 liter cans of extra petrol as well. So we decided to manage with that. The road amidst sand dunes of the desert was a perfect canvas to do some really nice photo-shoot, and obviously we were not ready to miss it. After clicking a number of brilliant photos we continued the ride.                           The ride of the day was one of the most challenging ones. Three-fourth of the dist...

                         After fixing the bike issues we had the previous day , we finally resumed the ride on Day 5, but a bit late in the morning than our normal starting time. The first spot for the day was the Kargil War Memorial, near Dras. After spending some quality time there, we continued our ride with our target being set as Lamayuru, for the day. The road snaked through the hills was smooth enough to cruise along without any problems. By evening we started riding uphill on the Namika La - one of the high passes in the Leh - Srinagar highway, also known as pillar of the sky passes. Unlike Zoji La, the road here was on good condition and we never expected any damage to happen to our bikes in this route. But, sometimes unlikely things do happen, especially in the mountains. This time it was my bike's turn to give us some trouble...            ...