Travelogue approved.

Beautiful pictures there. You live in a beautiful part of this world

Please share more

Its never too late buddy....keep them coming...

Thanks Sunilg!! Its beautiful indeed!!

It was one fine morning of July 2010 when me and my friend were sitting on the rooftop of his house and were talking about the movie "Into the wild" which we had seen lately!! Lol I feel like a kid while saying this!!
There is this big mountain that can be seen from my town Kathua towards the north, its covered with snow almost round the year. I looked towards it and said "we should go there"! We had no idea where exactly it was or rather I should say that I had no real intentions to go there either. But this idea somehow got embedded in my friend's mind and he told me to search this place on Google Earth, which we did and found out that there was a road (more of a track i should say) that goes right besides this mountain. And we really started making plans to go there.
The mountain is actually called Kaplas Kund, as it has a small lake on its top at an altitude of around 4000 mtrs, and people go there for pilgrimage. It lies on the Bani-Bhaderwah route, about 220 kms from Kathua.
In the beginning we were planing to scale the mountain and reach the lake and had even booked ourselves a two men tent and sleeping bags at the JKTDC center at Bhaderwah. We couldn't reach there though, which i'll tell you later.

We chose the first week of Aug for our trip as our summer internship was officially getting over on 7th of Aug and we had persuaded our mentor to relieve us by 31st July. We finished our project in one week, about which we had done nothing in the first one month lol. So we were free by 31st July, on 1st Aug got our bikes serviced, purchased all the necessary items, made last minute checks and plans etc etc.......



So we were finally ready to roll the next day!!!

I woke up at 5 in the morning though I was intending to wake up at 6 . We had planned to leave at around 7 in the morning as we didn't have to travel much, just around 170 kms that day. I was ready by around 6 and decided to call Neeraj and ask if he was up. He said that he was up and was getting ready. The weather outside was a little cloudy but not unmanageable.



At around 7 I decided to call him up again to ask if he was ready. He said "I have to tell my parents"......rather by his tone he meant "I have to ask my parents yet and please don't abuse me, I'm sorry". And i was like "WTF, @@#%&" . So he told me that he will come for sure but it might take him an hour more. So I told him that I'll start moving and wait for him at the Ranjit Sagar Dam or Thein Dam as we call it. Its around 30 kms away from our place.



Just outside my house.



Lucky me!! Twists and turns start just around 10 kms from my place.



Some kids on the way.





I reached Ranjit Sagar Dam at around 8 and called Neeraj. He had just started rolling! So i had a nice half an hour sutta break, this is how i like to travel....small distances and a lot of breaks!



Ranjit Sagar Dam, Distt Kathua, on river Ravi





Neeraj decides to show up at last!!

I'm sorry guys ,but most, actually all the pics are without proper riding gear. These pics are two years old and we were young and reckless then and foolish too! Please ride safe and use proper riding gear, a lid at least.



The guy with a black umbrella!!

So at around 9 we actually started rolling together.



Can it get better than this!!

Thanks @itsmevini123!!

nice pics!! especially the first one!!

Thanks Somen!!

After travelling about a 50 kms more we decided to have another small break. We had crossed the Basohli town about 10 kms back, that is where my dad actually belongs to, a very beautiful place. I will post a pic, though it was not taken on this trip.



Basohli, Kathua!!



Sutta break!





Photo Session lol!



Hills of "Bhoond" from a distance.....lol funny name!!



Big rock in the middle of the road!!

The condition of the roads was pretty bad. Though now it has improved quits a bit upto Bhoond.



Another sutta break, after around 30 kms more

We were having tea inside this small shack when all of a sudden there came a "PHAT" sound from my bike. I thought ive got a flat, but when i approached my bike the tyres felt pretty ok but there was some LPG smell coming from somewhere. "Last time i checked my bike used to run on petrol,lol!!" thats what I thought!! Then I asked the shack owner to check his LPG cylinders, but he had none, infact he was making tea on fire. Took a drag and and all of a sudden it struck me "I had a lighter in my bag". And yes it had shattered into pieces!!
Please don't buy cheap lighters!!

Great Pictures, would like to see more...

Thanks Avijit !

I like this one!!



Bhoond is visible at a distance.



Reached Bhoond.





Stopped by a small waterfall!





Dracula Falls

Now this was really scary. There was this huge nullah with an orange colored waterfall........yes orange!! The fall is something like 750 mtrs higher from the road below.....i checked it on google earth.......close to burj Dubai!!

Its the huge overhang and the orange water that makes it scary as hell!!



I named it, "Dracula Falls"!!

There is Dalhousie somewhere in the clouds behind me towards the right.



Neeraj rides his FZ

I don't know if its only his bike, but it feels to be out of breath quiet a few times on difficult stretches.



Reached Mashka

Now at this point there is a road coming in from Himachal via Mashka project(J&K Govt.) (there is some other hydro project there as wellof HP, don't remember the name though). People coming in from Dalhousie can take this route, Dalhousie is around 40-50 kms from this point.



The hydro project below, Himachal on the other side!

Notice the road winding down this side and crawling back up a hill on the other side. The total distance from here to that spot is around 28 kms app. We measured it on our way back!!!

Me waiting for neeraj to show up.



Landslide...around 30 kms before Bani.







Very light drizzle!!





It was already around 5 pm till we reached this spot, and we had done only about 150 kms in the last 9 hrs





Reservoir of the Sewa Project.



Thats why I love travelling in the monsoon season, water and greenery everywhere.



Some more kids



Near Bani Atlast!



Small bridge on Sewa river



Beautiful Bani!!

We had booked a room at the forest department rest house, looked for it around, rooms were clean, very basic.
Searched for food thereafter, there are only two dhabas here and no hotels or rooms available. There used to be one hotel the locals said but they were not sure if it is still working.
Neeraj is usually a vegetarian but wanted non veg today so we had to look for it, found the only non veg dhaba but he had no food. He told us if we could get him a chicken he would cook it for us. lol so we were there roaming around at a new place, with a live chicken in our hands! Now I know how foreigners feel when people stare at them!!

So here I end our day one!! With only around 170-180 kms on the odo in around 10 hrs lol!! Bani-Sarthal and ahead tomorrow!!

aaah man u made my day ... i m from basholi ..and love to ride there ...

wow....really?? Where in basohli? I'm from Karanwara actually near Sawar.
World is indeed a small place!