Revvin' It Up

A SPANKING NEW MOTORCYCLE, AND THE UNFETTERED BEAUTY OF THE HIMALAYA IN LADAKH.

- Puneet K. Paliwal

I was 11,480 feet up in the mountains. Amid the freezing thin air, my lungs were aggressively at work, my heartbeat clear and audible. It wasn’t necessarily a good feeling when I was about to begin the JAWA Ibex Trail Expedition, which would go through some of the most challenging terrains in the world. A long-haul motorcycle journey, 31 other bikers and I would be covering more than 1,600 kilometers in only five days. We would cross one of the world’s highest motorable passes—the Khardung La—at 17,582 feet via Leh, the Nubra Valley, Pangong Tso, Hanle, and Tso Moriri and back to Leh. You could call it a circumnavigation of eastern Ladakh.

Rider or not a rider? The question rang in my head more than once when I saw my fellow participants all geared up with their fancy helmets, jackets and riding shoes. I felt like a misfit, wondering if riding a 1980s JAWA 250 ‘A’ on city streets really qualified me to take part in this rugged-terrain journey. That is until I saw 32 fresh JAWAs—including the new JAWA Forty Twos—lined up at the huge Buddha statue near the Stok Monastery, 15 kilometers to the south of Leh. Having come all the way from Maharashtra, they stood shiny and ready to flag off.