Over 400 kms on some of the worst roads (and no roads in some places) but the most beau­ti­ful coun­try­side. Man­ali to Leh on cycle span­ning 10 days and many many breath­less moments (both because of the alti­tude and the sight of the mighty Himalayan ranges!).

The jour­ney took us through lush ever­green forests, green hills and val­leys to bar­ren desert-like moun­tains with not a sight of tree for a whole day. Many a times we had just the river gush­ing beside us, end­less miles of road in front and the moun­tains fring­ing the hori­zon chal­leng­ing us as we embarked on our numer­ous climbs.

Span­ning many high passes, numer­ous climbs, bone rat­tling down­hills and some amaz­ingly scenic land­scapes made it the ride of a life­time and a high like no other!

Mean­while, here are some pictures:

Day 1–3 | Day 4–6 | Day 7–10

And some pic­tures of the team members!

It’s been a while since I headed North. A few years in fact. I still have some vivid mem­o­ries ski­ing down the lovely while slopes of Auli. And roam­ing around the gal­lis of Dhara­masala in search of the per­fect momo and of course vis­it­ing the Indian abode of HH The Dalai Lama.

It’s time to go back! This time I head towards Man­ali and will make my way towards Leh, all depend­ing on the road con­di­tions. There have already been a lot of reports about the exces­sive rain and snow­fall this time around. But then, that’s the fun of travel and adven­ture. Some amount of unpre­dictabil­ity — the plans are all well laid but we don’t quite know what will hap­pen until we get there!

The travel will extend towards the end of July and I will try and keep my twit­ter updated wher­ever I have sig­nal. But I intend to fully enjoy a sig­nal free life :-)

• 4 motor­bikes
• 5 mus­ke­teers
• Gen­er­ous doses of rain
• Dol­lops of deli­cious food
• Loads of scenic routes and trails
• Plate­fuls of hot bhajjiya
• A few bot­tles of Coorg wine to taste
• And 1 place to Linger around

Mix all of them and shake gen­er­ously. And voila — you get a per­fect mon­soon week­end!

The rains came down on us as soon as we entered Coorg. It was, as if, the higher pow­ers had lis­tened to us and granted our col­lec­tive wish. We started off at around 6 am in the morn­ing from Ban­ga­lore, stop­ping first at Kamat Lokaruchi (and how could we not?). Many idlis, chow chow baths and cof­fees later, we were back on the road again. If this would have gone as planned, we should have reached, in 5 hours. Ah, but it was not to be!
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Rahul Vergh­ese, founder of Run­ning and Liv­ing has doc­u­mented his expe­ri­ence in this video of the Com­rades Marathon.
Watch it here.

Tan­vir Kazmi has writ­ten about his expe­ri­ence too.

Times Cycle to Work is orga­niz­ing this event on Sun­day. Do show your sup­port and par­tic­i­pate — lots of fun stuff for the kids too!

And Run­ner­GirlsIn­dia and Mother Earth are orga­niz­ing a 5k run on World Envi­ron­ment Day — be there at the Mother Earth store (oppo­site Dell on Inner Ring Road) at 6 am on Sat­ur­day, June 5 and show your support!

The Tour of the Nil­giris enters its third edi­tion. It’s got an over­whelm­ing response this time around — 100 rid­ers will be selected to go on this 1000km ride of a life­time! Here’s some cov­er­age of the event.