Journey of a Lifetime to Ladakh

My pre-trip post on our journey to the "Land of Passes". It was around the same time last year when we had decided to plan for this journey and believe me there was so much of information available on internet on this topic that it took me about 6-8 months to finalize our plans.

Highlights of the trip:

- 13 days/12 nights of nomads life

- 2000+ Kms of riding on the roads as good as no roads

- Riding on "Worlds Highest Motorable Road"

- Crossing top 3 highest motorable pass of the world

- Riding on the succession of 21 hairpin bends

And here is how our plan looks like..

Starting from Pune - 2nd July

Coming back to Pune - 18th July

Day 1 - Delhi- Manali

Day 2 - Manali-Keylong-Jispa

Day 3 - Jispa - Sarchu

Day 4 - Sarchu-Leh

Day 5 - Leh Sightseeing

Day 6 - Leh- Diskit

Day 7 - Diskit - Leh

Day 8 - Leh - Pangong

Day 9 - Pangong-Leh

Day 10 - Leh - Kargil

Day 11 - Kargil - Srinagar

Day 12 - Srinagar - Patanitop

Day 13 - Patanitop - Jammu

With our bikes shipped to Manali yesterday, everything is real now - 9 bikes, one back-up vehicle and 15 of us.

Keep you updated!

Rutu Farm - A Refreshing Weekend

Travel Date: 29th - 30th May, 2010

No of travelers: 2

Type of Trip: Thrill

Mode of Transport: Bike

Approx Expense: 3500/- for 2

Best suitable for: Friends & Family

Website: http://www.rutufarm.com/

Contact: Mr. Nilesh Mahangade 9822777551, Mrs. Manisha Mahangade 9823099727

Day 1

The countdown begins…just a month to go for the major event in our life and we are all geared up for it. All set for the LEH LADAKH BIKE SAFARI in July and here we begin with our first practice ride at Wai and Panchgani today.

As our plan we were to start early in the morning and reach Panchgani for brunch….which didn’t happened bcoz I couldn’t wake up early in the morning…..as usual. So we actually left Pune around 11.15 am…which was really too late…then to add to it I wanted to prove my riding skills which took us two and half hours to reach Wai phata with a quick breakfast at the famous Shriram Vada pav centre near Shirval.

Around 2.30 pm we were at Rutu Farm…where they welcomed us with the chilled cucumber juice. Followed by it was a tempting meal full of Sukha chicken with red Chicken Tarri and garam garam bhakris…and the best part of it was ……he sagya jevan chuli var banavla hota..!!! We almost took an hour to finish our meal and were left with our fingers licking. Later we took a small nap, played some indoor games till our rest gang joined us at around 5 pm. After having the evening tea by sitting and chatting in the lawns just in front of the cottage…we decided to go for boating at Dhom dam.

Places to visit

Dhom Dam : Just about a at a 15 min distance ahead of Rutu Farm is the Dhom dam. One can enjoy Swimming, Boating, Camel ride, Horse ride over there. Or just go and enjoy the scenic beauty of the place.

Dholya Ganapti : On the way from Wai to Rutu Farm is the temple of Dholya Ganapati. The deity is acquired it name Dholya Ganapati from its massive size (In Marathi, Dholya means huge or fat). The Ganapati idol is carved out of monolith, and is about 10 ft tall and 8 ft wide. The rear part of the temple is shaped like a fish. The temple of Dholya Ganapati is located along the Krishna River. It was built in 1762 by Raja Bhoja of the Shilahar dynasty to protect the town.

Once we were back from the dam….we tried playing badminton, but it was so windy that we could hardly hit any shots. So finally we decided to play our conventional game of sitting kho-kho and use the extensive lawns of Rutu Farm. We all had last played it when we were in school…that is some 10-15 yrs back. It was great fun playing with the kids after such a long time. The evening meal was equally delicious as the morning one. Our night plan was to play cards in the backyard of the rooms. For sometime we enjoyed the moonlit night but later we decided to play in our room bcoz we were too loud to disturb other people.

Day 2

Our morning started with a bullock cart ride to the near by Amrai…where we could go and pick mangoes on our own from trees which were not very tall. It was a fantastic experience to go around the village in their mode of transport. Once we were back we went on farm tour with Manisha Maushi who guided us through the corn fields into the tomato garden, from cabbage flowers to ladyfinger plants. It was refreshing and a different experience to pick up all these things fresh from the plants. They actually serve veg food right fresh from their vegetable garden. It almost took us an hour to go through the whole farm which was worthwhile. The bitter gourd on the plant looked so tempting…I actually felt like having that vegetable for the first time in my life. We had idli sambar as breakfast and decided to meet up for lunch.

The lunch was the best thing that happened to us in the whole trip….Sukha mutton, Mutton Gravy, Mutton Soup, Bhakris was so mouth watering and our lunch went on and on for an hour almost. After such a heavy treat to ourselves…none of us looked excited enough to leave for Panchgani immediately.

Finally we left for Panchgani at around 4.00pm. We all had decided only to have ice-cream at Mapro….but the tempting sandwiches made their way to our table followed by ice-creams. Almost around 5.30pm we started our journey back for Pune. We reached Pune at around 8.30pm with a small break for tea in Shivral.