An accident on April 4, 2008, poured cold water on Neeraj Saini’s plans for the SJOBA Rally, for which he had been preparing since October 2007 along with a friend.

A crash at 80 kmph during practice resulted in multiple wrist fracture and doctors suggested that Saini, a biker and techie with Adobe India, remain off the bike for at least the next six months.

Not one to be deterred, he went on a solo ride to Leh four months later—something few would attempt, especially with a partially healed injury. Despite the injury, he clocked 2,200 km in less than 30 hours.

“There have been others who have taken this arduous ride before, but none with an injury to worry about. I had a partially healed wrist with a screw and a plate embedded and had to cover around 3,600 km in 11 days with possibilities of perils as complex as a complete breakdown of the bike and altitude sickness,” says Saini, who lives in Noida.

All his friends had just come back from their first trip to Leh, the Mecca of riders. So in August, when none of them responded to his calls for a trip, he decided to go solo. Of course, there was the usual advice from his biker buddies, suggesting he give up his plan. A breakdown at such high altitude would prove to be a nightmare, they said, and rightly so. He got his share of flat tyres and other problems on the trip. The most difficult part of the stretch, according to him, was Marsimek-La, which is a 22-km dirt track from the ITBP post in Phobrang village on the Indo-China border road, on a detour 2-3 kms left off Pangong Lake (Pangong Tso). Even his 500cc Machismo began to stall and gasp for breath.

... contd.