The Trip - 21 April

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step ... Lao Tzu

It has been a long time since the trip has captured my imagination to travel across India, A dream that's been with me since the days of my riding began. I guess I can be sure every biker dreams of travelling on their beloved friend across the stretch of the Globe and Mine has been no different.

Finally the countdown has started towards the start of this realisation, The Trip is happening and its just a few weeks away.

This Trip has been in planning for a whole 2+years, as I had to have sufficient holidays to be away for 3 months from work.

The Calendar is finally set and dates confirmed. The Journey will begin from Kannur, Kerala (My Hometown) on the 21st of April. I'll be riding to Bangalore from where I will catch a train to Guwahati.

The Train Tickets are booked and The PAP (Protected Area Permit) is in place.

During this Trip I'll be covering more than 13000 kilometres across India with approximately 8000 of it on Motorcycle. It will be in total, 57 days on road.

The Entire Journey

The Bike Trip

The Journey is going to take me through some extreme roads and conditions, with Altitude changes of 5400 meters and variations in temperatures of about 40 deg C. It is going to be exhausting and at the same time exhilarating.

Some of the Destinations along this Journey will include TAWANG, KATHMANDU, MUKTINATH, AMRITSAR, SRINAGAR, KARGIL, LEH, TURTUK, MANALI, AGRA and More.Accommodations along the way shouldn't be a problem as they seem to be in abundance, Else there is always the option to pitch a tent.

The Trip Calendar is the link below, if you are interested to join, with detailed dates and their corresponding destination, weather, distance and duration.

http://nitinjayanand.wixsite.com/me-mytrips/nitins-bike-trip-calendar

The itinerary is not excessive, and is a doable one in my thoughts. Its something that has finally taken shape after probably going through nearly 12 different variations. I have received a lot of help from forums and previous travellers in sorting out my itinerary and am thankful for their input.

I had to omit quite a few Places and Events which were on my initial Itinerary. The Major ones were Ziro (Arunachal Pradesh), Kaziranga National Park (Assam), Bhutan, Tiji Festival 12/05-14/05 @Lo Manthang(Nepal) & Jaipur/Ajmer (Rajastan) and Spiti Valley(Himachal Pradesh).

Bhutan and Tiji Festival was taken off due to cost reasons,

Bhutan on an average costs USD250/day for Foreign Nationals (Not Indians) and Permit to Lo Manthang was USD500 for 10 days + Guide.

I'll be riding a Royal Enfield Himalayan (BS4 Version) which I have purchased just for this purpose.

This Bike has been advertised built to purpose for adventure touring to take on harsh roads and conditions, with its long suspension and high ground clearance. I have not ridden this bike except for the test ride I did when I was in India last year, I did like its Riding position and think it will make my ride quite comfortable.Being 190kg + luggage its not going to be be the lightest of bikes.

I Own a Yamaha FZ6 which is a Sports Tourer in Australia and the Riding styles are quite different.

Accompanying me on this trip is BEN PATRICK and DON DAVIS both friends of mine from Australia.

BEN is currently on a round the world trip on his motorcycle from Australia, which he has started in January this year. He has currently covered Indonesia and Malaysia and is currently in Thailand. He will ride across into India via Myanmar after he has covered Vietnam and Cambodia, and will be joining me in Guwahati. You can follow Ben's Journey at https://www.adventurinwithbenjamin.com/.

DON will be joining us in Ambala for the last leg of journey from Amritsar to Delhi via Leh.

Most of my Gears and Accessories needed for this trip has been acquired and ready. I have to now install all the accessories and make sure it all works and that I'm comfortable with them. I will do a couple of test rides when I'm in my home town of Kannur to get used to it and make it as efficient as possible.

My list of items that I'm carrying with me are in the link below.

http://nitinjayanand.wixsite.com/me-mytrips/diary/packing-list

And My list of Riding Gears and other equipments for the trip are in the link below.

http://nitinjayanand.wixsite.com/me-mytrips/trip-gear

Do become a Member to subscribe to my Diaries, Comment on them and keep up to date with my trip.

If you are Interested to know more about this trip and maybe interested to join, Please feel free to Contact me