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shailay · 06-29-2009, 10:40 AM

…continued from
Day 1
Day 2
Day 03 Part I

Day 03: June 04: Keylong To Sarchu Part II

Just before the pass we had also met Alistair again. The unexpected rendezvous brought with it some interesting talks too. As we talked about bike he told me that he use to ride some 200 cc bike at home. He then told me about a guy asked me if I knew him. “Can’t recall his name but I think he was Bundy,” he said to us. Amit was clueless and so was I. "Bundy??" "Ya Bundy.. do ya know him?” he said. "I don’t think so Al" I called him by this name only, (pronounced as 'el'). "He told me a lot about biking in India. I though you must be knowing him".
“Where did you meet him” asked Amit. By now we had begun digging our brains to find who was HE and why were we supposed to know him.
“He met me in Pune. He works for some auto magazine.”
“Was he Bunny?” I tried. “He works for Bike India??”
“Oh yah yah. I think so. Yah” said he, scratching his head.
“Bunny Punia?? Right?”
“O ya ya ya! Now I gaat it. He was Bunny Punia..ya ya” he replied going down his memory lane.
“Woooo” exclaimed Amit.
“Great! Ya I know him.” I said
“Ok.. ya great.."
We all got on our bikes and were just to leave when Al's helmet spoke. "I also came to know about a pan-India road trip. Some four guys took the road to roam around India recently…” he told us in a please-confirm way.
“Yes they did. 14000 kms for two-and-a-half months.” an excited Amit interrupted
“Boy o’boy. They did it on Superbikes I heard. Was it R1?” sidelining me, his now source of information was Amit.
“Yamaha R1 ..yes! and a R15 also…”.
“Great man great!”
“xBhp guys. Check the site xBhp.com” said Amit.
“Oh ya I’ll. See ya then people”
"Bye Al. Take Care"

------------------------------------------------
The descent from BarlachaLa began with “phew!-16k-feets-were-easy” feeling in mind. But the affairs to come didn’t take much time to evaporate those feelings. Soon after the pass we saw some trucks standing still at a distance. We had it in our minds how cumbersome could it become sometimes to overtake a truck at such roads….and there we could see many. But thank god, they were still. However that was not because of no reason, we discovered soon. It was another jam…and this time not entirely because of human forces. We managed to get our bike decently ahead of many trucks and some cars (all SUVs to be precise). I asked Amit to remain with the bike as I went ahead to see the matter on foot. There was a small avalanche and not snow had blocked the road! Simple! Our bikes will face no problems I thought, as the drivers there told me the cause of the stand still. Well, what made the matter worse was that a Tata 407 driver, probably with some belief on his X-Men instinct from within, had tried to pass that snow hump in one go with speed. He tried and got his tires buried well deep in snow with the floor of the truck now almost resting on the hump. “O ji paaji main sochhi ki gaddi fast hogi te vadiyaan renga. Ae toh fans gi…” the truck driver told me when I asked how did it all happen. Surprisingly he seemed to be in his mid-twenties (surprisingly because he was quite young as compared to most of the truck drivers on that route). “O yaar tune toh Supper-man bana ditti gaddi. Ab ki hoyenga? Ae gaddi de naal toh assi bhi fans gaye haan..” Amit said to him in his artificial Punjabi accent. “Supper-man! He he! Supper-man!!” the man seemed delighted with the new tag given to his vehicle.

Soon the BRO people got a truck from the other side. Tied the rope to the stuck truck and phishumm!!! The rope got snapped. The BRO truck got pushed a few meters ahead and then from a distance I saw two new developments. First there was some roaring sort of noise that came from didn’t know where and simultaneously BRO people began to run as if they have seen some Bofors aimed at them. However the matter got cleared to me with a tenth of next second. Quintals and tons of white matter fell right at the spot. Second avalanche!! Phew… Well most of the snow, due to its momentum, continued on its path to go directly into the frozen river in the valley on the right hand side. But a certain mass of it had hit the truck, which, now, was looking like a public carrier carrying fresh ice to the market. Fortunately two things happened in the BRO’s (and of course our) favor that the driver’s cabin was not hit, and second that the second avalanche did not deposited the snow on the road. They soon cleared the snow from that truck. The rest of the truckers had, by now, managed to get a metal towing rope from one of the SUVs. This time it worked very nicely and effortlessly BRO team had pulled the truck away within seconds. Being the owner of most compact vehicles of the lot, we two were the first ones to move ahead. We thanked the BRO truck driver and set off. It was already 5 in the evening, and thus we didn’t have much sun time left. Well the road still had some more things for us. Barely 10 minutes away from the place, Amit got his left foot merged completely into water while crossing a stream. The temperatures were such than even a drop of water could have created havoc with your body temperature. Well it did what it was supposed to do. Within few minutes Amit’s head began to feel heavy. We stopped there. He was also feeling while breathing by now. He sat on a rock, got his shoes removed and placed his foot over the engine and the muffler of the bike in order to get some heat. It helped a bit. But still he was not in position to ride properly, he told. “BarlachaLa pe kuch nahi hua, yahan neeche utar kar waat lag gayi yaar…..ajeeb hai” he uttered. However taking deep breathes, he managed to get up some how and got on to his bike. Soon we entered the plains of Sarchu. The rays of setting but still warm sun came as a breather. We stopped again there. Amit was feeling better by now, after having some water at the last stop. I asked him go and check for accommodation ahead as I clicked some picture for few minutes. Crossing the tents as I moved ahead, in hope of getting accommodation a little ahead I saw Amit standing at a big nallah with some workers. “Band hai” he screamed from where he was in such a manner that I was just able to understand his words. It was a downward slope so I left my bike hundred meteres before where he was. The stream had a full flow. “Sahab din mein to pahad par baraf pighalta hai garmi se, toh dopehar aur shaam mein toh ee naala pura zor se behta hai” the worker there told me. “Subah aana saahab bhor mein, paani kum hoga.” Well there I noticed another bridge upstream, way to which was nearby. It will be dark soon, I thought. So we decided to stay at those tents only. Got a decent tent. The food that they provided in the dinner was most
amazing food we have had on the ride till then. We had some doubts about the insulation capacity of the tent material but it served the purpose well.

Next day’s target was to get to Upshi. So we decided to go easy tomorrow morning. Just to mention we slept with our water bottles that night in our quilts, for obvious reasons. See you in Upshi/Leh tomorrow!!

Total distance covered in the day: 101 kms
Riding hours: 0830-1845
Cumulative distance: 786 kms

Photos from the incident

:

At Sarchu plains:

Next Day-
Day 4
Day 5

06-29-2009, 10:40 AM	#52 (permalink)
shailay ride_core Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Noida Posts: 108	…continued from Day 1 Day 2 Day 03 Part I Day 03: June 04: Keylong To Sarchu Part II Just before the pass we had also met Alistair again. The unexpected rendezvous brought with it some interesting talks too. As we talked about bike he told me that he use to ride some 200 cc bike at home. He then told me about a guy asked me if I knew him. “Can’t recall his name but I think he was Bundy,” he said to us. Amit was clueless and so was I. "Bundy??" "Ya Bundy.. do ya know him?” he said. "I don’t think so Al" I called him by this name only, (pronounced as 'el'). "He told me a lot about biking in India. I though you must be knowing him". “Where did you meet him” asked Amit. By now we had begun digging our brains to find who was HE and why were we supposed to know him. “He met me in Pune. He works for some auto magazine.” “Was he Bunny?” I tried. “He works for Bike India??” “Oh yah yah. I think so. Yah” said he, scratching his head. “Bunny Punia?? Right?” “O ya ya ya! Now I gaat it. He was Bunny Punia..ya ya” he replied going down his memory lane. “Woooo” exclaimed Amit. “Great! Ya I know him.” I said “Ok.. ya great.." We all got on our bikes and were just to leave when Al's helmet spoke. "I also came to know about a pan-India road trip. Some four guys took the road to roam around India recently…” he told us in a please-confirm way. “Yes they did. 14000 kms for two-and-a-half months.” an excited Amit interrupted “Boy o’boy. They did it on Superbikes I heard. Was it R1?” sidelining me, his now source of information was Amit. “Yamaha R1 ..yes! and a R15 also…”. “Great man great!” “xBhp guys. Check the site xBhp.com” said Amit. “Oh ya I’ll. See ya then people” "Bye Al. Take Care" ------------------------------------------------ The descent from BarlachaLa began with “phew!-16k-feets-were-easy” feeling in mind. But the affairs to come didn’t take much time to evaporate those feelings. Soon after the pass we saw some trucks standing still at a distance. We had it in our minds how cumbersome could it become sometimes to overtake a truck at such roads….and there we could see many. But thank god, they were still. However that was not because of no reason, we discovered soon. It was another jam…and this time not entirely because of human forces. We managed to get our bike decently ahead of many trucks and some cars (all SUVs to be precise). I asked Amit to remain with the bike as I went ahead to see the matter on foot. There was a small avalanche and not snow had blocked the road! Simple! Our bikes will face no problems I thought, as the drivers there told me the cause of the stand still. Well, what made the matter worse was that a Tata 407 driver, probably with some belief on his X-Men instinct from within, had tried to pass that snow hump in one go with speed. He tried and got his tires buried well deep in snow with the floor of the truck now almost resting on the hump. “O ji paaji main sochhi ki gaddi fast hogi te vadiyaan renga. Ae toh fans gi…” the truck driver told me when I asked how did it all happen. Surprisingly he seemed to be in his mid-twenties (surprisingly because he was quite young as compared to most of the truck drivers on that route). “O yaar tune toh Supper-man bana ditti gaddi. Ab ki hoyenga? Ae gaddi de naal toh assi bhi fans gaye haan..” Amit said to him in his artificial Punjabi accent. “Supper-man! He he! Supper-man!!” the man seemed delighted with the new tag given to his vehicle. Soon the BRO people got a truck from the other side. Tied the rope to the stuck truck and phishumm!!! The rope got snapped. The BRO truck got pushed a few meters ahead and then from a distance I saw two new developments. First there was some roaring sort of noise that came from didn’t know where and simultaneously BRO people began to run as if they have seen some Bofors aimed at them. However the matter got cleared to me with a tenth of next second. Quintals and tons of white matter fell right at the spot. Second avalanche!! Phew… Well most of the snow, due to its momentum, continued on its path to go directly into the frozen river in the valley on the right hand side. But a certain mass of it had hit the truck, which, now, was looking like a public carrier carrying fresh ice to the market. Fortunately two things happened in the BRO’s (and of course our) favor that the driver’s cabin was not hit, and second that the second avalanche did not deposited the snow on the road. They soon cleared the snow from that truck. The rest of the truckers had, by now, managed to get a metal towing rope from one of the SUVs. This time it worked very nicely and effortlessly BRO team had pulled the truck away within seconds. Being the owner of most compact vehicles of the lot, we two were the first ones to move ahead. We thanked the BRO truck driver and set off. It was already 5 in the evening, and thus we didn’t have much sun time left. Well the road still had some more things for us. Barely 10 minutes away from the place, Amit got his left foot merged completely into water while crossing a stream. The temperatures were such than even a drop of water could have created havoc with your body temperature. Well it did what it was supposed to do. Within few minutes Amit’s head began to feel heavy. We stopped there. He was also feeling while breathing by now. He sat on a rock, got his shoes removed and placed his foot over the engine and the muffler of the bike in order to get some heat. It helped a bit. But still he was not in position to ride properly, he told. “BarlachaLa pe kuch nahi hua, yahan neeche utar kar waat lag gayi yaar…..ajeeb hai” he uttered. However taking deep breathes, he managed to get up some how and got on to his bike. Soon we entered the plains of Sarchu. The rays of setting but still warm sun came as a breather. We stopped again there. Amit was feeling better by now, after having some water at the last stop. I asked him go and check for accommodation ahead as I clicked some picture for few minutes. Crossing the tents as I moved ahead, in hope of getting accommodation a little ahead I saw Amit standing at a big nallah with some workers. “Band hai” he screamed from where he was in such a manner that I was just able to understand his words. It was a downward slope so I left my bike hundred meteres before where he was. The stream had a full flow. “Sahab din mein to pahad par baraf pighalta hai garmi se, toh dopehar aur shaam mein toh ee naala pura zor se behta hai” the worker there told me. “Subah aana saahab bhor mein, paani kum hoga.” Well there I noticed another bridge upstream, way to which was nearby. It will be dark soon, I thought. So we decided to stay at those tents only. Got a decent tent. The food that they provided in the dinner was most amazing food we have had on the ride till then. We had some doubts about the insulation capacity of the tent material but it served the purpose well. Next day’s target was to get to Upshi. So we decided to go easy tomorrow morning. Just to mention we slept with our water bottles that night in our quilts, for obvious reasons. See you in Upshi/Leh tomorrow!! Total distance covered in the day: 101 kms Riding hours: 0830-1845 Cumulative distance: 786 kms Photos from the incident: At Sarchu plains: Next Day- Day 4 Day 5 Last edited by shailay; 08-05-2009 at 09:09 PM.