Ladakh Bike Trip - Manali to Keylong, Test of our preparedness by Rohtang Pass (Day 2)

Day 2, we started our day at Manali. Late risers, we were way behind our target start time. Blaming each others we set our bikes for ride and easily forgot that few of us need to carry extra petrol. We wasted almost an hour just to search containers for petrol and fill petrol in bikes and containers.

Anurag & Sudhir nailing corner on the way to Rohtang Pass

The ride from Manali starts with uphill ride towards Rohtang Top. We really enjoyed terrains till few kilometers. When I got busy with clicking some pictures and leaning my 500 CC machine on hilly corners, three riders disappeared. As I thought of catching up with them, the road full of slush and mud welcomed me. The mud kept increasing with each meter I crossed. Above this, huge traffic jam was awaiting for all of us. I rode almost 3 kilometers in slush and broke down. I stopped the bike and took some breath. Since I had to catch up three riders ahead of me, I again started to ride in water, slush and mud. Soon I got to see our two riders waiting in traffic.

Rohtang Pass on the way struggle with Mud

We wasted almost 2 hours at the same spot. As we started to ride again, the slush and mud looked damn horrible ahead. Long patches of slush were all set to test the capability of each rider. It was not a children game, a serious rider could only take on it.

We had planned our breakfast at Rohtang Top but we reached there for lunch only. Now plan to reach Sarchu looked difficult, so we decided to stay at Keylong. Food at 13000 Feet height after struggle of 4 hours tasted delicious. After lazying for couple of minutes, we all started our journey downhill to reach Keylong.

Ride on the other side of Rohtang Top was steep downhill with bad roads but no slush or mud. In an hour, we realised that Mohit is not seen for long time. We waited for him, we inquired other fellow riders but no body had seen him. Akshay and Anurag decided to go back. As these guys went back, Sudhir and me started downhill ride slowly so that they can catch us later. The roads were good and no traffic as everyone was stuck at Rohtang top in traffic.

In later part of day, Akshay and Anurag reached us on the way. Mohit's bike had ignition problem at Rohtang Top so he had to go back to Manali for repair. Now we were only four riders riding towards Keylong. After spending sometime with at Mechanic shop for basic maintenance, we reached Keylong well on time.

Keylong is small town of Lauhal spiti district of Himachal. The place was very quite and calm. 

Day 2 was way harder than Day 1, and we knew that Day 3 is going to be very challenging with River Crossing, passes with low oxygen and extreme weather conditions. We discussed our plan again as there were so many things which had changed in last two days.

My beast resting on the way

Everyday I closed my eyes with expecting more excitement and challenges on the trip. Day 2 was the only day when my mind gave up at one moment, but determination of finishing the challenge kept me going.