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The Tourer
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06-20-2009, 01:13 PM
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#1 (permalink) |
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ride_core
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Noida
Posts: 108
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Leh Voyage
This ride belonged to the first week of June. the dates: June 02 to June 10
Here is the first day travelogue and photos: Day 1, June 02: Delhi-Manali 0130 hrs. June 02. Almost Midnight. While packing my stuff into those Cramster saddles, I suddenly saw the screen of my phone, which was lying on the table blinking continuously. Oopes!! I had forgot to change the ‘Silent’ profile to ‘General’. I got the phone and was hardly surprised to see 4 missed calls and two messages on that. Amit and I were scheduled to leave our places at 0200 hrs to meet up at 0245 somewhere near the Nizamuddin Bridge flyover on the Ring Road. Well the surprise came when none of the missed calls and messages was from Amit. Another friend was calling me to ask the details of the ride. After telling him the schedule in brief, I called to check upon Amit. I just prayed he didn’t miss his alarm. Well he was already out and was in his Gurgaon office to say bye to his office-mates. It didn’t took me long to see him waiting at the meeting place sharp at 0235. The traffic was mild primarily made up of those “phir milenge, ok tata bye bye” Tata and Leyland trucks spelling out more smoke than bhps. He received me with his witty smile that was visibly drenched with the question-cum-declaration of ‘kaun pehle?” A day before it we were arguing about his lack of punctuality in such rides and now, we had our winner. After refueling from IOC pump, North Campus, D.U. we rode out of Delhi and continued till the dusk light began to overtake the headlamps’ wattage. The first major stop was as per the body clock’s demand for breakfast somewhere near Karnal. The first food of the ride was the traditional ‘paranthas’ with curd and ‘achaar’.      By 0910 we were in Chandigarh. Took a small break at a petrol pump where we refueled and answered our body’s demand for liquids. It was getting hot and we just had cool and pleasant HP roads that awaited us in our minds. From there we headed toward Bilaspur via Ropar and Kirtapur. Barely half an hour before Bilaspur we halted for lunch, where I had a sms chat with old_fox. I told him about the heat that was continuously chasing us. He told that weather will be pleasant once you cross Bilaspur and head towards Mandi. I told him the scenery was getting more beautiful as we progressed. He replied, “Go get find a suitable law college up there for yourself. You wont like your Delhi college once you get back home”. Later while in Leh, I realized why did he say so.           At Aut, we met a cyclict. He was Richards from London. He was cycling for Manali and was on his way to Leh!! Kudos man…Then little ahead came the river-crossing exercise. Amit left the road for a river just before the tunnel. The tunnel was little more than 3 kms. We stopped again after it. Two guy on their Platina met us there. This was the second time they did so. The first meeting was at Mandi. They were enroute to a gurdwara near Manali and were from Chandigarh. Met another European guy there after they left. Can’t recall his name but he was from Spain and had an Enfield with a healthy stock of desi ‘Beedis’. Soon Richards joined us again for the third time in less than an hour (he also met us at the river). “You bet mate…. I’ll reach Leh before your engines do”, giggled he.        Sudden rains hit the night-in-Manali plan. We made the halt some 19 kms from Manali. Got a decent hotel and checked in. Next day's plans were to just get to Keylong, which even after adjusting for a bag full of photography breaks, I calculated, would be easily reachable at max by 3 or 4 in the evening. Next day- Day 2 Rest of the Days- Day 3 Part I Day 3 Part II Day 4 Day 05 Total distance covered in the day: 551 kms Riding hours: 0230-1740 Cumulative distance: 551 kms Last edited by shailay; 08-05-2009 at 09:07 PM. |
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06-20-2009, 02:03 PM
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#4 (permalink) |
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The Devil RXrider
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: New Delhi
Posts: 1,724
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Shailay was waiting for your thread...well at last its here
now dont keep us waiting more brother
__________________
Save the Earth - We are the one who are running out of time, as Earth will take it own time to heal but that time may not be enough for us. http://www.ridesafewith.me I dont just ride my bikes, I live with them. Yamaha RX100 (1987) Yamaha YZF R15 (2010) |
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06-20-2009, 02:37 PM
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#5 (permalink) |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Capital, God's Own Country
Posts: 1,276
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AMAZING Pics...
nice thread, so another leh action on narration.. waiting eagerly for more for Leh nothing less than some pics would do justice.. Bring them on Last edited by Nio; 06-20-2009 at 02:39 PM. |
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06-20-2009, 07:05 PM
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#9 (permalink) |
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ride_core
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Noida
Posts: 108
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June 03, Day Two: Manali-Keylong
...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 Last edited by shailay; 08-05-2009 at 09:08 PM. |
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