The summer of '25! Cycling the Manali - Leh Highway

Its drizzling, misty, cold and uphill. Fingers stiff cold, I struggle with my glasses, having to wipe them ever so often. The road is patchy and the visibility is bad; Suraj Taal is nothing but a mist of haze. I pass by without being able to spot it. Baralacha La is still some distance away. I concentrate on my breath like a metronome to keep the momentum; every inhale and exhale is one rotation of the pedal each, covering only a little more than a couple of metres. As I lift my head up, I see a sillouhette of a cyclist coming down the road..

Run-Up to the plan

Visiting the "Land of High Passes" Ladakh had been a chilhood dream. Always. 

I remember spending much of my screen time in teenage years on Team-BHP, eyes glued to the screen as I voraciously soaked in all the travel reports on the topic. When destiny presented itself with an opportunity to pedal there, who was I to intervene!

The seed to cycle to Leh, quite paradoxically, had been sown with my old friend Onkar during a discussing to do the Mumbai - Goa coastal route; While the itinerary was being finalised and checklist being prepared, the law of 'might-as-well' hit. And boy did it hit hard! Since we were supposed to be on the road for 7 days, might as well make it 10; Since leaves were supposed to be sanctioned, might as well increase the number of leaves by 4 days and do the Manali - Leh Hwy instead. And just like that, the stage was set.

We began curating the checklist for items and sweeping the web for as much information and the physical (and mental) fitness required for the expedition. I chanced upon some very well written blogs, all of which were of great help to us in getting into the right headspace. I'll mention the link to the Google Sheet here for perusal of anyone interested; It has the intinerary, the item checklist and the blogs that we referred for our preparations. Special mention to the good folks for thegonegoat and vivek.author; both these blogs can serve as a complete and well rounded resource to plan you journey ahead. The elevation charts and route plans were of great help to us.

Itinerary sorted (11th July 2025 was decided as the day we begin) it was time to get the physical fitness in order. While we did not have much time to prep us specially for this ride (save for a couple of 70 kms rides and some 40-45 mins runs), the baseline fitness came in handy (as we were to find out later). The days following the D Day were spent in shopping and getting the checklist ticked; The process to carefully select the kit for the long journey on the road ahead was long, tedious but joyful nevertheless. Leaves approved, tickets booked and stay at Manali confirmed, it was now only a matter of time.

As the month of June closed, news of heavy rainfall and landslides in the Manali region of Himachal Pradesh began trickling; The Delhi - Manali Highway was operational save for a couple of small detours with Delhi - Manali buses still plying, we decided to stick to the plan. Ascertaining the fact that the region beyond Atal Tunnel/Rohtang Pass lies in the Rain Shadow Area, we decided to go ahead with the original plan as we were (hopefully) to face no rains beyond Sissu and could make do with a couple of rainy days in the beginning. 

The following table shows the initial itinerary that we had chalked out. 

Date	Day	Day of wk	Start	End
11-Jul-2025	0	Friday	Pune/Raipur	Delhi/Manali
12-Jul-2025	1	Saturday		Manali
13-Jul-2025	2	Sunday	Manali	Marhi
14-Jul-2025	3	Monday	Marhi	Sissu
15-Jul-2025	4	Tuesday	Sissu	Jispa/Darcha
16-Jul-2025	5	Wednesday	Jispa/Darcha	Zingzingbar
17-Jul-2025	6	Thursday	Zingzingbar	Sarchu
18-Jul-2025	7	Friday	Sarchu	Whiskey Nala
19-Jul-2025	8	Saturday	Whiskey Nala/Pang	Debring
20-Jul-2025	9	Sunday	Debring	Rumste/Lato
21-Jul-2025	10	Monday	Rumste/Lato	Leh
22-Jul-2025	11	Tuesday	Leh	Khardung La

The Logistics:
11th-13th July 2025 (Manali, 2050 m/ 6726 ft ASL)

The plan was to reach Delhi by Friday and then board the overnight Volvo (Laxmi Holidays Volvo 9600) to Manali thereby reaching there by early nexy morning. We were on schedule following our brief rendezvous at Arpit's pad in Gurgaon and then boarding the bus to Manali. However, as the day broke the following morning, it seemed the schedule would no longer be followed. The bus had a flat tyre which took much of the time in the morning and no sooner had we began, it started raining resulting in a jam; think, a kilometre long pile-up of vehicles along the highway- most of them Volvo. Never had I ever seen that many Volvo buses in a single stretch of road, stuck! By noon, it was clear that the buses were going nowhere, they had been grounded by the local administration under the premis of roads being washed away and the track width of Volvos being too wide to be able to cross it. 

Confusion writ large on everyone's face as there was no clarity as to when the buses would be allowed to play again (if at all!), and we both made a decision to carry our luggage and walk on foot for as far as we could (the place was called "9 mile" if my memory serves me right). Walk we did, and reached the point were the buses were made to halt by the admin and from the looks of it, it didn't look like the roads would be cleared anytime soon that day. After haggling with the taxi drivers we could secure two seats in a little Alto for Rs. 1000 each to Manali and hoped that we would reach there before the sun set for the day. Never could I think a car as small as Alto could swallow five grown adults along with their luggage. It did. We reached Manali close to 20 hours after having started from Delhi. It had been a long and tiring journey, one that nicely set the tone for the 10 days that were to come ahead. Checking-in into our Airbnb, silencing our famished stomachs with some momo and then dinner at Pangi Vaishno Dhaba, we decided to call it a day, but not before pushing the planned itinerary ahead by a day. 

Food at Pangi Vaishno Dhaba (Mall Road): can be avoided

The next day we were supposed to collect our bikes, get the prelimnary checks done, shop for any missing items and get out kit ready and going for the ride from Monday (14th July). 

 

We were of the unanimous opinion to do away with the hassle of carrying our own bikes till Manali but rather rent one there itself. After comparing quotes from various bicycle rentals, we decided to go with Magic Mountains (Jagatsukh, Manali), and pre-booked two bikes of the same make (Scott); The following morning, we were out and about to collect them and to our untrained eye, they were in a good condition; the only notable difference being one had Kenda tyres and the other had Firefox tyres installed on the front and the rear. The owner Mr. Raju was out on an expedition but had and aid to facilitate us with the bicycles. The carriers were sturdy and the bikes good to go. 

The bikes with our luggage
Note the excavator working in the background to manage and direct the flow of the Beas; the furious wrath of which would bring life in Manali to a halt in the month to come, as we were to find out through national news

After having collected the bikes and amking ourselves familiar with the inverted brake controls, hydarulic disc brakes and the general heft of an MTB, we decided to cycle uphill till Atal Tunnel to familiarise ourselves with the new kit and also sort of to acclimitise for what was to be a 8-10 hour affair everyday for the following 10 days. Enroute, decided to have our lunch at cafe 1947, which was nice, offered good views, but did not justify the Rs. 500 a piece bill for a burger. Thing with places like Manali is, there beauty in every general direction and having to pay such a hefty amount for eating by the river did seem outrageous to me. Moving ahead for a couple of hours, it had become clear to the both of us that it wasn't going to be easy, as we cut the ride short and decided to head back to the base but not before visiting the Hidimba Temple. The temple is beautiful and idyllic and the late afternoon sunlight filtered through the foliage of the tall pine trees, only making the whole experience so much nicer! 

It was supposed to be the last day of rest before the ride. The day ended with getting some wet wipes (for-you-know-what), Diamox tabs (which we had one each after lunch till we reached Leh), lots of Electral (cramped legs is the last thing we wanted) and other such sundry items. The evening was spent hand-in-pocket sauntering along the Mall Road, savoring steaming hot roadside Momo and a hearty dinner (of egg fried rice at Zam Zam Mediterranean Restaurant). Before bed, we mock mounted all our luggage on the bikes to make ourselves familiar and it finally started to feel real. Mission was finally a go; what seemed like a distant dream, seemed well within reach now. Content, we go to bed.

Panniers and bags secured on our steeds

However, one crucial piece of kit remained; spare tubes. We were informed by the proprietor of the Magic Mountains that they would deliver the tubes to us in Manali by early next morning (Remember, it was a Sunday when we collected the bikes and the shops, all were closed) and we could have a nice warly start to Marhi, the first stop for the trip. However things were not to go as planned (again).