Ekta's Cycling Trip to Leh

I met Ekta about 6 months back when I shifted to Hyd ( she's my neighbour).

Our first meeting was on the terrace over an early morning cup of coffee. Normal introductions...she's a doctor, an eye cosmetologist, a specialization of Opthalmology, which was news to me, as I didn't know Opthalmology had further specializations. And in passing she'd casually mentioned that she was planning on doing a cycling trip to Leh. Manali to Leh.

Five months down, around four weeks back I pinged her about something, and she said, "Smitha I'm in Leh, on my cycling trip, remember? will talk to you when I'm back" And I was like.... wow, that wasn't so casual after all ! 

Today I got to do a long chat (cum interview) with her on the trip. A 480 kms cycling trip from Manali to Leh. It's so fascinating that I have to write in depth about it, q & a style, so it stays all her perspective.

Me: Since when have you been into cycling? How did it all start, tell me the story.

Ekta: No story actually. It was 2010, I lived in Chennai then, and a friend said they were going cycling from Chennai to Mahabalipuram and would I be interested. It was 45 kms and being done in three phases, and I joined them. In fact my cycle had a flat tyre in the second phase, so I did the first and third, about 20 kms, and I really liked it. 

Then another friend Suresh, who owned a cycle shop, said I should buy a good cycle. And that's how I got my first cycle. A Schwin.

Five years later, I did my first big cycling trip, one in Rajasthan, organized by Nitin Yadav, who does organized cycling trips (his org is called cycleit.in) which was a wonderful experience. That was in 2015. And then this happened.

Me: Tell me about this...how did this trip come about?

Ekta: I moved to Hyderabad in 2014, and this felt like being in hilly region, the ups and downs of Hyderabad demoralized me, so I just let things be. Then sometime early this year my milkman asked me if I'd sell my cycle ( it was just sitting in the parking lot collecting dust). 

I was like 'meri cycle ke taraf aankh utake bhi math dekhna'...and funnily it was that which made me tell myself, 'time to get back into the saddle ma'am'. 

I started with going around KBR park. At first I couldn't do even one round...the up near the Jagannath temple was so steep, that I had to get off and push my cycle up the slope. I kept at it. A few days in, and I did a full round without getting off..... I felt so great. And then I went from one round to two rounds, to three rounds, and then to four. 

Me: How much cycling is that? How many kms do you do per day?

Ekta: Each round in 5.2 kms, so once I got this thought in my head that I was ready for another big trip, I started doing 20 kms per day.

Me: What's the kind of preparation you needed for the Manali - Leh trip? How long since you started preparing?

Ekta: How long since you've been here? ( I moved in April, I said) . Well, when I told you that day, in April, was around when I started thinking about it. So six months of preparation I'd say. For 3 months I did 20 kms a day. Then I had to start running, as we need to up the strength in the leg muscles. 

Me: How much running? 

Ekta: About 5 to 8 kms two times a week. ( I was like wowwww). Yeah, for three months I did a lot of running. And then the diet. I slowly shifted to a protein rich - low carb diet. ( She's lost atleast 10 kgs between when I saw her in April to now)

Me: What about mental preparation, anything needed there?

Ekta: It was about getting completely focused on the trip. I had to make sure I didn't fall sick, or more significantly take care that I didn't fall, as even a small injury could have jeopardized the whole trip.

Me: Were you the only one from Hyderabad? What's the route? How long was it? Where do you meet and start. Just give me a framework.

Ekta: It's from Manali to Leh, a distance of 480 kms. It's covered in 10 days. We met at Manali. Yes I was the only one from Hyd.

Me: How many of you, What age group,  How many women?

Ekta: There were just 4 of us, Sandeep and Harmanjit from Amritsar, Anirudh from Gurgaon, and me. Three of us in our forties, and Anirudh, eighteen. And I was the only woman.

So it's organized such that we have two support vehicles with Nitin and his team; in addition to Nitin, the team consisting of one chef, one medic, and one helper.

Me: How many kilometers do you do per day? Like, tell me about how each day goes. And the nights, where do you stay?

Ekta: We do a minimum of 40 kms a day,  and easier days can go upto 80 kms. 

Nights are in tents. The first three days we had hotels, but once we went higher, it was tents.

Me:  Tell me a little about the terrain.

Ekta: It's all Himalayas right....very mountainous ...so it's mostly tough, like even if it's not uphill, it's still very rocky.  Each halt is a pass. Very uphill. The downhill was in fact even more tough in spaces...it's really rocky terrain, so we'd have to keep our hands almost constantly on the brakes, and by end of day the shoulders and arms would be gone.

Me: What would you say were the most challenging parts of the trip?

Ekta: The altitude. There was one particular day when I couldn't breath. I had to be put on oxygen cylinders. In fact the next morning my face was all swollen for lack of oxygen. 

And the cold. There were nights when it got to minus 5, it was just super cold. We had two sleeping bags each, and Nitin asked us to surround ourselves with whatever clothing we had in our suitcases, and it would still be horribly cold. 

And he would say keep drinking lots of water, but I couldn't because it was too cold to go out of the tent at night to pee. That was tough.

And he would say we needed to keep eating to replenish energy, but there was a total loss of appetite. It was due to exhaustion and altitude too. That was also really tough.

Me: Any one particular time which was scary, or got to you.

Ekta: None, at no point did I ever question my taking up the trip. 

I had a couple of incidents though. One sort of mishap was when we had to pass through these streams of water that would flow across the road. Nitin kept saying don't slow down on them, keep force and speed, but one place I fell and my shoes got wet. Nitin had asked us to get an extra pair of shoes, so I needed to change my shoes.

And oh yes, once I got lost. So each of us is cycling at our own pace and at times there's a distance of about 2 kms between any two of us, and after a couple of hours I realized I hadn't seen anyone for a longish while. Soon the support vehicle came, and  as it stopped near me, I asked 'am I lost' and Nitin said 'yes ekta, you are lost'. There was a turning which had said 'right to Leh', but I was so focused on the road that I'd gone on straight ahead. But there was no fear at all. The team really has you covered.

In fact Nitin is himself a cyclist. He does it so he better understands what his cyclists are feeling and that's also why I have so much faith in him and cycleit.in. 

Me: What was a typical day like? You'd cycle all day? What about food?

Ekta: Yes, pretty much all day. Start after breakfast, we'd do stops inbetween and for lunch, but go on till evening.

Food was so well taken care of. In addition to breakfast, lunch and dinner we'd get hot pakodas and chai each evening, even dessert, and the last day they even baked a cake. 

Me: What about toilets? How do you manage that ?

Ekta: We didn't have a shower for 6 days. And otherwise it's all outdoor. They pitch a kind of tent and it's like the cats. They dig a hole and then you cover it up with mud.

In fact in one of the dhabhas we'd stopped at, I was so relieved to see a door say 'toilet' and I open the door to see that it opens into the mountains. It's just a door...that was really funny.

Me: What was your mindset when you were going through these tough phases. What kept the drive going?

Ekta: There was one particular mountain, the tanglala (la means pass), the ghata loops they are called ...which is a stretch of 21 hair pin bends straight uphill. That was when Nitin told us, this was the toughest, you need to do a 'victory of mind over body here', and maybe because he prepared us that way, we did it fairly well, infact ahead of time.

The mindset I think was just 'constantly striving', like a personal challenge that needed to be accomplished.

On the way when I was taking a breathing break, a sadarji on a bike stopped to ask 'kithe jare ho'. He was a biker going to Leh. When I said 'Leh' he was like 'kya, cycle pe?'. He was so taken aback.

Me: Tell me about some of the most beautiful things you saw on the trip

Ekta: The whole thing was really beautiful, but if I had to pick, I'd say it was seeing the Milky Way. It was spectacular. 

Me: Woohoo ! That's something else ( I asked to see a picture of it then, will put it in here)

I'm so so amazed Ekta. I saw you cycling this morning, so you're back in the saddle after your trip, huh? Anything else you'd like to say?

Ekta: Yeah, I started again only today. I think I would love to do this trip again one day, it was just so beautiful. I'm also checking out a bigger one. Nitin may be organizing a Kashmir to KanyaKumari trip. So maybe....

Me: Wow girl ! So proud of you. I sure have a Wow neighbour. 

Rest in pictures. They were so mind blowing, that I had a tough time picking, and I think I'm just going to go overboard . And Ekta was all praise for Nitin's photography skills too, and I must say I can't agree more. While almost all pictures are Nitin's, some she gave me are officially courtesy Cycleit.in

The group

The route

Rohtang Pass, which was their first halt

The tents they stayed in

The streams are a mix of water and silt flow. They cycle along Indus river a lot she said.

The streams that flow across the road

That's Ekta

These are Tibetan praying places

What a spectacular picture. Behind are three bikers. She said the only people they'd see some days are these bikers who'd pass them

Their two support vehicles. And what a brilliant picture of the  rainbow, almost like going under the rainbow arch

The 'Ladies Also' is so super cute

This one picture made me almost wish I could go, just to be able to see a night sky like that....

Their evening hot onion rings, biscuits and chai

The Thikse monastery in Leh, where the trip ends

Here's one of Cycleit.in's video of the trip, it's just a minute plus long, a must watch



Nitin, if ever you see this, huge congratulations to you on enabling such a wonderful experience !! And again Ekta.....take a bow girl !

Just saw your what's app tagline, which reads :
Better an "Oops" than a "What if"
Lovely !!