...continued from-
Day 1
Day 2, June 03: Manali-Keylong
Tagret for the day was Keylong, a 115 km destination from Manali. A moderate breakfast set us going towards Manali where we refueled the tanks and bought some chocolates. The ascent from Manali to Rohtang was as beautiful as ever…. with newly leaden road complementing it. Somewhere at looped roads, not very far from Manali, Amit stopped for tea and cigarettes. A guy was struggling with his Enfield. The dhaba-walla arranged for a mechanic and the latter took the bike and the guy for a ‘ride test’. The lady who was with that guy told us that the bike was having some clutch issues. She told her name was Cal Turner and she was a resident of U.K. “Thank gawd!! The mekhanickh waa notso faa….”, sighed she. The guy was Rick. We wished her luck [
] and set off again. A couple of minutes late we saw Rick with the mechanic and the Enfield trying to figure out the issues. Suddenly, while in an attempt to overtake a train of cars, my bike began to make strange noises as if something was messing up with the rear tire. That was my rucksack touching it, I discovered. Tied it tightly and bought the relief.
Next stop was Rohtang. The smell at Rohtang was different. It was somewhere between the dioxide-monoxide clad winds of Delhi and the fresh breeze present at those looped roads we had come from. The kind of traffic jam there took me, but for the quality of the road, to the clumsy streets of Meerut’s Sadar Bajaar where everyone, with a knowledge-cum-belief that sooner or later they will get out of it, knew that honking in those conditions, would place them no better than where they currently were. Such jam there is a normal practice. But the arrangement of certain trucks on the front was in such a manner that the jam was heading towards a complete-mess that day. However few military personal intervened to set the things in order and our bikes requiring the least amount of space to get going were among the first lot of vehicles to move ahead…However Amit was stuck with a truck which was in the front. Working on the racing principles of the deployment of the Safety Car, it controlled the speeds of the entire lot. I continuously observed the caravan standing atop a small cliff while taking some pictures. Overtaking the goats, the tourists, the BRO earthmover and a lot of population Amit finally reached the cliff. Took some photos just where descent from Rohtang begins. “Chandni Chowk fail kar diya inhone”, said he grabbling the pints of that ‘naturally-cold’ Aquafina water.
Traffic at Rohtang
The jam at Rohtang
Barely a couple of km ahead of Rohtang, we met Cal and Rick again who had two more Enfields in their company. We met Alistair and his friend. They were going to Leh. As we moved I happened to saw someone man-powering his Enfield. I stopped just to check whether the bike had run out of fuel or what.
“Problem mate..?” I asked.
“Yeah, theyizz no layif I blieve in the aengine”, another British accent briefed the situation.
“Hmmm….”, said I as I got off my bike. Another guy turned up who was with former. “What exactly happened?”, I asked looking at the clearly visible drops of black engine oil dripping from the nut bolts of the ancient engine. His name was Luke. He told me that it didn’t start after a small butt-break.
“There is no combustion in the engine”, I kick checked the engine. “Possible problem is that either spark plug is not…”.
“O I’ve checked the plug. Its working fayine”, the quite-till-now guy with Luke said interrupting me as the term “spark plug” kicked something on within him.
“Well than the engine might not be getting the fuel at all….”
Rick & Cal and Alistair & his partner had joined us too by now. I explained the few essentials and told them to take the bike to the village of Koksar nearby and that they would not face any problem as the till there was on descent. In Koksar after a futile exercise by all of us, the problem remained same. I decided to check the plug once more and on my instance Luke’s friend pulled it again.
“Damnn….”, the metal was no longer visible on the head of the plug being covered by a thick coat of carbon.
“Abey kala pada hai ye toh gorey!” said Amit banging his own forehead with his palm, pointing towards the plug.
The new spark plug took one kick to get the engine to life… “Thanks man…”, said a smiling Luke.
From there we all eight decided to ride along till Keylong. The spark plug saga took almost an hour and half. Well the road ahead was beautiful and touching a hundred an hour was possible at times. However the road selected the ‘Spiti-mode’ soon and we moderated our speeds to sub 20 mark. Amit reached the Tandi petrol pump a couple of minutes before us. We began to refuel as we noticed absence of one bike. Alistair and his partner were missing. I was last and barely 3-4 kms from Tandi pump I had overtaken them.
“Did they cross us? Any idea Rick?” I asked. Rick denied and as did Amit and Luke. Rick took his bike and left to check them with Cal. For next 20-25 minutes no one returned. We were clueless. Amit then spotted a vehicle’s light. It was Rick with another person holding the Bullet’s rear tire. Woo…..a flat in hills. Fixing it took another 15-20 mins. The punctured bike was around 2 kms from there and Alistair and Cal were with the bike. We replaced the tube and then Rick and that guy took it back and took another half an hour before the two bikes returned. We reached Keylong at around 09:15 p.m. in total darkness. Check in a good hotel.
For next day, we had plans to shoot straight to Pang.
Rest of the photos:
Find-the-Focus Contest
Rick and Cal
Next Day-
Day 3 Part I
Rest of the days-
Day 3 Part II
Day 4
Day 5
Total distance covered in the day: 134 kms
Riding hours: 0830-2130
Cumulative distance: 685 kms