Riding the ranges

Not one to be deterred,he went on a solo ride to Leh four months later—something few would attempt,especially with a partially healed injury. Despite the injury,he clocked 2,200 km in less than 30 hours.

“There have been others who have taken this arduous ride before,but none with an injury to worry about. I had a partially healed wrist with a screw and a plate embedded and had to cover around 3,600 km in 11 days with possibilities of perils as complex as a complete breakdown of the bike and altitude sickness,” says Saini,who lives in Noida.

All his friends had just come back from their first trip to Leh,the Mecca of riders. So in August,when none of them responded to his calls for a trip,he decided to go solo. Of course,there was the usual advice from his biker buddies,suggesting he give up his plan. A breakdown at such high altitude would prove to be a nightmare,they said,and rightly so. He got his share of flat tyres and other problems on the trip. The most difficult part of the stretch,according to him,was Marsimek-La,which is a 22-km dirt track from the ITBP post in Phobrang village on the Indo-China border road,on a detour 2-3 kms left off Pangong Lake (Pangong Tso). Even his 500cc Machismo began to stall and gasp for breath.

But,the feeling of fear and excitement actually began after Saini crossed Rohtang Pass. “I had never been beyond Rohtang. But the joy of being all alone on my own,riding all the way to Leh,was overwhelming,” he says,adding “the determination to reach my dream destination was mightier,and fear had no place in my scheme of things.”

The most cherished memories of the trip,he says,are of the ride on the Bactrian camel (double-humped camel) in Nubra Valley,followed by camping in the middle of nowhere next to the river bank all alone,and finally snowfall at Pangong Tso,where he had camped for the second time.

“It was a scary experience on the first camp night as I paid attention to each and every little sound. The next morning,I found the rear tyre flat and wasted six hours getting it fixed as I could not leave my luggage behind. Around noon some local guys on Royal Enfield motorcycles helped me get the puncture fixed at Diskit. The footpump I was carrying failed to work,though it did render service to an Israeli couple at Baralacha Pass earlier,” he says.

After the Ladakh sojourn,he did another solo ride,Delhi-Pune-Ooty-Coorg-Goa-Delhi,traversing 6,500 km in 15 days and covering the last leg of the journey—Goa to Delhi—in 30 hours. Next in Saini’s diary is a dry run to Spiti Valley for the Raid de Himalaya this year,for which he is looking for sponsors.