Manali to Leh by BRO

With these photos of the signs along the highway from Manali to Leh through the Indian Himalaya I want to give you a taste of what it is like ‚up there‘ – blogs about my journey will follow.

From Manali to Leh it is around 470km and the road leads over mountain passes higher than 5000m. The road is only open from June to October and closed due to snow fall the rest of the year.

You can travel it by state bus, private bus, in a jeep, on a motorbike or a bicycle and even hike it aside the road with or without horse support.

For me it is ‚the slower the better‘. It is so beautiful, untouched and pure up there that I enjoyed it a lot on my bicycle with tent and water filter even though it is sometimes tough. So I risk to say, the cyclists (and all which are even slower) are the most ’normal‘ persons travelling this road. Everybody else, rushing through and missing the whole beauty is absolutely crazy!

What’s up BRO ? 🙂

It took me some days to understand the meaning of BRO:

B order

R oads

O rganisation

Due to the conflict with Pakistan and the border to China this road is very important for India and the name of the ‚road builders‘ is BRO.

They are the real heroes, especially the guys doing the hard work.

They’re living in tents on the construction site along the road often without proper facilities like toilets and being paid the absolute minimum. Once again, my effort on my bicycle (riding for ‚fun‘ or ‚whatever‘) is nothing compared to the hardships they have to cope with and the life they have to live because of no other choices.

So the signs were an absolute pleasure for me and sometimes made me smile a lot! I hope you too!