‘From the Trip diary of a dreamer’ is experiences, incidents that I faced during my solo cycle expedition from Manali to Leh, starting from July 27 2015 to August 9 2015. Different pages from the diary will be shared here time and again. It is a journey of patience, passion and willpower, where riding solo to cross 6 high altitude mountain passes and gained 12000feet height starting from 6000 feet at (Manali) to 18300 (Khardung La) ahead of Leh.
Dreams, imaginations we build in our minds with a determination to accomplish them someday. Every day, every moment we dream and aspire to do something spectacular, something that we have never done before. Some dreams are too high to catch, some are lazily dwelling in our comfort zone and some are just waiting for their calling.
Gazing back to 2008, my motorbike ride from Delhi to Leh, a dream was sowed. The dream which was born out of the enthusiasm I saw on the faces of cyclists who were cycling their way to Leh. At an altitude where I could barely breath they were pedalling their bicycles. A dream was imagined, though I was still unsure if I shall accomplish cycling on the world’s highest motorabel road.
Some visions are embedded in our memories forever, such was the vision of the cyclists I saw in 2008. The thought of cycling solo across the toughest roads of the world. The experience certainly had to be splendid. It had to taste the waters of cycling solo.
I was affirmative about cycling solo to Leh and Khardung La, a perfect plan to break out from the monotonous life. A good start is half done, I began with physical training to ensure I conquer those roads, it took 6 months of physical training to attain the confidence of cycling at high attitudes. There was a lot of planning and ideation involved behind the trip, 4 months of planning, envisaging solutions in case of breakdown, accidents, natural calamities etc. Money is the fuel that runs your passion, I was glad to have backup from friends, family and sponsors who gave me the push to accomplish my dream.
27th July 2015, the big day was here, I was all set to embark upon my journey at 4 a.m. A dreamer, with his greatest weapon his bicycle along with two all-weather buddies packed up with 100kg of supplies and mechanics and settled to drive from Gandhinagar to Manali. I was going to begin my cycling expedition from Manali all the way to Leh a distance of 550KM covering 6 mountain passes in a span of 10 days as I cross the World’s highest motorable road Khardung-La. The question, deep inside back of my mind was still there, despite spending so much time preparing, money shopping and days to achieve to reach to World’s highest motorable road, Will it be really possible for me who is average built and not an athletic physique?
Stay tuned to see how i do my journey, day to day trip diary will be posted here.
I have been wanting to go to Leh for a long time but have always heard or read about it from regular kind of travellers.It is going to be interesting to know the journey from a cyclist’s point of view.Will be looking forward to the next post.
Let your dreams be big . You dream it and it’s half done . It’s like riding in heaven. It’s tuff but small distances at a time just did the trick . The natural beauty around you makes you forget the tiredness .. Well done Alok . Solo is something different. I went with a group which is much much easier .
Thank you Arvindbhai for inspiring. Yes I keep dreaming and chasing the strongest one. Keep reading here. I plan to share my entire trip diary here every alternate day.