Tour Spiti - Jispa - Leh / July 2023

sam2019

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Before the rainy season (and before you have to cross knee deep water in Spiti) I suggest a tour from Rishikesh via Spiti valley to Jispa and onward to Leh. From Leh with inline permit (600 INR) the lakes are another possible target. Then back either via air (if time is a constraint) or Jammu/Kashmir (long and potentially dangerous) or just the quick reverse via Rohtang tunnel and Manali (the road from Mandi to Chandigarh is total shit and you have to overtake ca. 500 trucks uphill - bring a gas mask).
 
I posted this 2 month ago - still no response. Is there nobody planing to ride the Himalayan in its natural habitat? Or you guys all love boring and expensive "group" rides where your luggage is carried by a truck? The hive mind ...
 
How many seats has the Truck got ? and can it take Motorcycles ?

The Knee deep water in Spiti may be a Put Off for some ;)

I would like to put my hand up for next year, Dinkum!
Still under contract.
 
there are 2 ways to do this:

1) I help in renting a bike for the time you specify - and you join a lose group of people who agree to travel together for a part of the trip, each deciding for himself how long that part is and when it ends (or re-meets the gang along the way after taking off for a while)
2) its a strictly planned tour where all bikes are from one source, hotels are pre booked and a Jeep with a mechanic is part of the group for luggage and emergencies.

No 1) is relatively cheap - but all responsibility rests with you to get a room or repair the bike when it fails
No 2) is expensive and kinda predictable - but for people with limited time the preferred method as they cant be stuck somewhere bc of a missing part or whatever if they have a job to return to at a given time.
 
For option 1, what are must see places (preferable off the beaten track)? And what would be the approx. budget per day in your experience? Minimum number of days too.
 
For option 1, what are must see places (preferable off the beaten track)? And what would be the approx. budget per day in your experience? Minimum number of days too.
I cant really say - if you can live in a dorm its way less than in a decent hotel, if you are happy with a used-up rental rather than one of my 477 top notch bikes it is way cheaper again. One can do the trip in under 2 weeks but its not much fun. For option 1 to work the participants should be about similar in financial stature and leisure time. If not too much stress is generated from the fact to coordinate meeting points etc. - in which case meetings would be rare and basically spontaneous. In the mountains there is not coverage so lots of things needed to be agreed upon beforehand. Finally there is the issue of speed. I love to ride fast. Others are more the sightseeing types. for this reason no.1 would be only a loose "lets all meet for a coffee in Leh" arrangement than a group effort. The group members would meet at the end of a leg in a specified hotel but mostly ride separately. A Hima here from any of the local outfits is 1500 INR/day (older model) or 2000 INR/day for a new one. For a month that would be likely 40.000 for a new bike, 30.000 for an older one. They come without any extras, no panniers, no carriers. Hotels are now all in the 1000-2000 INR/day range unless pre-booked. Food is up to you. 2000/day should suffice.
 
This is a very attractive option indeed. Just found a roundtrip to Delhi in 1300 USD plus the numbers you mention makes up a trip of around $4000 for 15 days.
 
15 days is a bit narrow. It can work but probably only in one direction meaning you will have to fly back from Leh which means someone will have to ride the bike back to Rishikesh (thats add. 50.000 INR).

If you can get 1 month off everything is more relaxed and the 50.000 you save for the bike return will get you over at least half of that time as well.
if you calculate the time: you need 2 days to reach Rishikesh if you fly into Dehradun (thats the nearest airport) - then 2-3 days to get over your jetlag and to get accustomed to local traffic. The spiti - manali - jispa - sarchu - leh -pangong trip is 9 days if done without local sightseeing but a 2 days rest in Manali and Leh respectively (which you would want). Now you already exceeded you 15 days and there is not time for the flight back.
make it 30 days and you ride back - even the long way via Jammu - and have time to fly out of Dehradun.

there are variations to save some time, e.g. taking a train to delhi from chandigarh (ca. 4h) - where a friend would ride your bike back from there which will cost only maybe 2000 INR (its only 220km to rishikesh and busses go all the time).
 
I have tried to show a route for this trip on mymaps.google.com but that tool is not sufficient for such a large project, I ran out of layers halfway thru it.
So it runs something like this: check this on google maps yourself

Rishikesh / Tapovan
Shimla
Kalpa
Kaza
Manali (2 day break)
Keylong (lunch)
Jispa
Sarchu (overnite camp site)
Pang (lunch)
Leh (2 days rest)
Kardung La
Nubra valley
Return to Leh
Kargil
Srinagar
Jammu
Amritsar (2 days)
Ambala
Rishikesh
 
Is Kargil the S,,, Hole it was referred to as in the Past, I have bad memories of that place, and the Bus trip the next day over some friggin high road.
 
Obviously there are SOME challenges on this route but relatively few. I would estimate 70% being top notch black top, 20% being kinda pretty run down black top but still good enough for bikes (one can maneuver around the broken parts easily) and 10% either water crossings or really bad rubble/mud/cobble stone river bed type stretches.
In July - my preferred travel time, before the onset of the heavy part of the rainy season - riding these parts is easiest. The snow is almost fully gone and the mud has not yet appeared.
 
I was able to get the tour outlined up to Kargil - then it ran "out of layers". Maybe there is a way around it but I have never used this feature before so still learning:

 
That software is a piece of shit really. in some cases it wont let you choose your own route but ALWAYS jumps on another route it deems "better".
Absolute junk. I dont know why a rich company like google releases half baked shit like that into the public.
 
Some Parasites are not ugly under the microscope and do not bury themselves under your skin.
Some are embraced and cherished, Google is like that.
We are being Farmed for our data under the guise of being helped.
If you have doubts Google it ;)
 
The IT age hasn't made us any smarter then, we need apps for everything.
Not least so they can harvest data
 
with google, absolutely, with Kurviger, I dont know but unlikely. their business model is selling their map service ( 9 bucks a year for the advance version). you can read them for free, just not make them in the same way I can do. the free version has some limitations on map creation.
 
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