Ladakh has adventure bikers from Kerala in a thrall

Sheena Joffi
| Photo Credit: TH

It is a different exhilarating and offbeat experience for many to ride through the scintillating Leh and Ladakh landscape, feeling the fresh and cool wind on one’s face, relaxing the body, mind, and soul.

Nestled in the Himalayas, this popular hill station has now emerged as one of the favourite destinations for adventure bikers from Kerala, including women .

According to PI Safari, an agency conducting adventure bike rides to Leh from Kerala,until recently, adventure motorcyclists from Kerala were undertaking solo and group Leh and Ladakh trips with the help of agencies from Delhi. But the overwhelming number of Keralites going on bike expeditions has forced four Malayali youths to start a venture here to aid adventure biking to Ladakh.

There is a two-fold rise in the number of bikers going on solo and group trips to Leh and Ladakh from Kerala, says Fijoy Joseph, travel consultant and a partner of PI Safari.

“First, we provide customised service for bikers from Kerala which one would not often get when going on a trip with a north Indian team or group. In fact, our past experiences have forced us to come up with an agency to offer adventure rides to Leh for Malayalis,” says Mr. Joseph. 

Sheena Joffi, a sales manager with a shipping company in West Asia, who went on a bike trip with two other women, says she zeroed in on the agency after months-long search and the trip was a exhilarating experience.

Ramesh Ranganath (left) on the trip to Ladakh.
| Photo Credit:
TH

“All that we need to ensure before the trip is our fitness. Although it seems to be a heavenly trip, the terrain is equally infamous for serpentine winding roads, high altitude blind curves, off-roads, lofty cliffs on one side and gorges on the another and, at times, unforgiving weather. But at the end of the day, it was one of the most gratifying trips for us,” says Joffi.

Ramesh Ranganath, a native of Kochi, who went on a trip with seven others and was down for a couple of days with acute mountain sickness, says whatever challenges we had to face as part of the trip, the beautiful but rugged landscape and snow-capped peaks provided a rejuvenating experience.

Now, the Ladakh administration’s plan to make all its forbidden zones accessible to tourists will have more adventure tourists from Kerala make a beeline to the destination.