Motorbreath: Yeah liked it the way in Leisure Most prolly will be heading to Pune and i am not sure of Mumbai

Bankim: Glad to keep your interest in the log still. Will be leaving to Jodhpur tomm morning. Will call you for the time i will be leaving. Would be nice to catch up along the way.


Day 145 - July 31 - Keylong to Manali

July31 at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Travel Community

122 KMs Trip meter 18834 KMs

Just when i was thinking that i am done with Nala crossings, i had been enlightened about a Big one near koksar by Yogesh, the previous day. So All morning i was just thinking about it. It was a pleasant morning and hoped it the the rest of the day over rothang also as i have heard of very bad roads on the other side of rothang, thanks to the ppl i met who were on the way to Leh. But no choice but to go through it. Head out of town and the valley looked very pretty in the bright warm morning sunshine. Pass Tandi and ride towards koksar as the valley opens up.

Ran into a cyclist with a board and was easy to recognize him as a tourer and stopped for a chat. He had just the normal cycle and carried his stuff in a big cement bag on the carrier. This was his second trip and this would last for years he says as he has managed only uttaranchal in the last 5 months. He would be covering J&K then heading to Nepal and then Northeast india and then south! Pretty simple stuff he had with him as he was taking a few things across the town! How to ppl do such things... he wanted to contact Limca book of records about his trip. And asked i should have by now. But mine's aint such unique thing to contact them and i am afraid his trip as well. But i took his number so that i could let him know the contact info. Hope things work out for him.

Road ahead towards koksar and lucky me there was a bridge on the scary looking nala! So guess i am done with Nalas for quite some time :d Start the ascent to Rothang taking my own time. stopping at will for pix and taking break when i want. Nearing the top the mist seemed to be pouring out from the other side kinda giving the hint of the weather the other side. Soon its rain drops and i am forced to crawl into my rain gear. The road seems to have vanished under the widening process and its all misty getting to the top. There were a parked vehicles this side, belonged to visitors. Guess they had come here as rothang top was completely misted out and hardly 10-15 feet visibility. Reach the top and it was very unlike the last time i visited it. hardly any people, the board is gone to be replaced by new one i guess. Nothing can be seen and i ride ahead to find the dhabas and all empty. No snow near the road side. I was told that to get to snow one has to go up on ponies. Ride across and start the descent. The road was progressively getting worse. Out of the mist and into the rain. The rained out slush paths were taxing. Have to cope with the impatient cars who honk expecting me to just fly out of the path! Plus have to catch one of the tire tracks to ride slowly hoping not to drop the bike and a long line of impatient vehicles behind. Lot of slush monsters to deal with and it went on for more than a hour. Got me real tired i must say. Glad that i did this trip counter clock wise else Manali Leh strech would have taken the wind out of me.

Manage to get my self to tarmac with rubber side down and its still raining only to let go near solan. Then places get familiar to my last ride near rothang and how far down from rothang we were stopped by ice! It was drizzling all the way and first went to vashisht to check out the rooms. There were available, but wanted to take a spin of manali town before i could settle. Rode onto manali via a bridge and the main road is now blocked for vehicles. Rode to the top till Hadimba devi temple. But since my bike was loaded did not go in. Found a hotel with parking on the way down and settled in hotel devlok. Nice bargain for a offseason price. The evening i took a stroll in the manali bazar area and wasted some time trying to get my wireless modem get going again. Tomm is a long ride to Delhi.

Mountain view from the room in the Hotel Tashi Deleg...


Get to see this walking out of the room...





The room...


The bike parking place...


Riding out of Keylong...


Valley leading to Rothang...


Bike at the famous bilboard... Just teasing the board here as i am riding the opposite direction and did not fell any fuel


Rothong looks cloudy...





Pretty places enroute...





Purple flowers bring color to the dull boring browns...


The pretty valley with rothang to the left ridge...


Mountain top glaciers...


Houses looking tiny on the Hillside...


Some rough path...





Glacier giving out a water fall!


More Glaciers...


Pretty road for a change...


Then i meet the All india cycle tourer... This is his second trip...


The board says it all....


The two tourers intending to do all india ride....Couldnt be more different i guess...


Carries his stuff in there...


Road ahead...


Nice place to live...


Riding up...


Last couple of poses of the bike with the mountains...


A three step water fall which you can ride on!


At the deviation to Spiti, had stopped here 3 years back looking at the now missing board which said, Leh 565 Kms! Then i thought some day and a bigger machine And here i am...


Mist coming from across the pass...


The valley leading to Lahaul and Spiti...


Bike wanted one more pose with the mountains...


Mist roads and mist... great combination


Some foreign cyclists braving it all...


Looking pretty nearing the top...


but gets hidden behind the mist...


The under construction roads going up to rothang...


At Rothang top... 13002 feet says my fone...


Me and the bike there...


Rothang top misted out...





No snow around the rothang top road, have to use these horses to ride up to the snow this season!!


Starting a misty decent...





Long way down...


But have to deal with slush monsters before getting down...





Its looks pretty down there...


Some traffic jams...


Slush...


Not to easy to get down there cos...


slushy paths to deal with...








Finally on tarmac.. In Kannada Kothi means a monkey! Could chuckle when i saw the hotel names like Kothi view hotel


Getting down to familiar planet earth...








This pic was just as i got nostalgic as i have similar pic there of my old stead cbz the last time i visited rothang


One last look at the great wall to Ladakh...


The temple in Vashist...


could not go in as the bike was loaded...


A wet manali town..





Deodars enroute Hadimba Devi temple


Again a click from outside of Hadimba Devi temple...


Manali by night


A colorful fruit shop...


The evening croud...


Vertical travel for the day...

Awesome buddy! I am hooked to this thread. Thanks for taking all the pains and bringing us all those beautiful pics and wonderful logs. Would surely love to meet you someday. I must say man, you are truly UNSTOPPABLE!!!

no problemo man... Pune is just stone throw away from Mumbai (actually a bit more than that ) Do visit LAVASA GHATS in Rains.. it's nearby Pune.. if it's Weekend we'll accompany you.

congrats praveen

150 days of your trip is completed now

truly amazing feat.and congrats for completing 150 days....Helmets off bro.

Motorbreath: Sure man. Will update when i will be riding to pune

Thanks Nabendu and srini

Day146 - Aug 1 - Manali to Delhi

Aug01 at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: GPS Trip Sharing with Google Maps

572 KMs Trip Meter 19407 KMs

The room was pretty cozy and kinda felt like staying for one more day. But had decided to move on. Started by 9.30 am thinking Delhi should be reached by late evening. The first thing i noticed in the morning was the increased power of the bike and felt like i got a super bike! Had been used to the low power for a month now. If not the scenery the riding fun was good. Going is slow as there is still lot of hills to cover. Looked like i wont get to the capital any time soon in the evening. Lot of ride of nostalgic remembering my previous ride back to Delhi on my old faithful steed and following the same path on my new one. Remember have a great time at the mandi to ropar twisties on the cbz but have to be cautious on the zma with all heavy load and panniers....

Was already like 4pm when the reached the plains near Roper. Could feel the heat increase as i ride. It was getting pretty late but the going got slow due to the bad roads and roads under construction. Get a call from Prem inviting me to stay at his place. If things weren't late enough i missed bypass to chandighar and it was a lot of time crossing the city. Was tempted to stay over at panchkula. It would only be tougher to ride to delhi in the heat the next day. Just as i geared to ride out the rest of the distance, i feel the wobble riding at 100. Yes it was puncture! Cant even put the bike on stand without help. What luck the puncture shop is just near by! So my bike gets attended and made use of the forced break by have a couple of somasa and Jalebi from a nearby Dhaba. Puncture is done and it was 7pm and 250 kms to still go. Should be like 3-4 hours atleast. 580 kms turning out to be quite tiring.

Take a last break and stretch myself and get on the saddle with the fading sunlight. Quite some time since i rode post dusk and bike in its full power in plains and it was just play with throttle after that. Back to the highway fun taking on cars. Yogesh and Salil informed me that they would be waiting at the entrance of the capital as i ride in. That was such a relief. Finding any place in the metropolis with all the heat would have been very very troublesome. Kinda hard to believe seeing the speedo run so fast. Felt nice at using the 5th gear after a long time.

10.30 as i approached Delhi and asked my around to the said bypass and found Yogesh and Salil waiting for me there. It was great meeting them after couple of years. But the journey for the day was not over as Delhi is a big place! Had to ride out some 40 more kms accompanied by the Delhi tourers. Settled at Prem's place by like 11.30 PM. Great to be in a comfortable place to stay. This was the second longest clocking of kms in a day in this trip. Kinda dazed as the last four days were tire some rides.


The big spacious room at Manali...


The Hotel Devlok...


One last look at Manali town...


Pretty hill sides...





Glad there was a bridge over it


Some great looking mountain scenery before i get down to the plains...











I was wondering shouldn't i be on the high below?


The Kullu town...


The bike and nice road...


Inside Auit Tunnel..


Head out of darkness...


road along the mountains...





There were hundreds of these Piligrim bikers towards and from Manikaran. Boy were they riding to the max of what their bikes can do!


At the dam after Auit


Guess what we do here?


The Mandi town...


Lot of road pix as i am seeing them after long time


Took a food break here...


Hazy mountains getting down to the plains...


Ab Dilli door nahi...


Pretty roads again..


Have landed on to the plains...


Again a nostalgic shot remembering taking a similar pic with my old steed cbz at the same canal just before hitting the ropar chandighar highway....


Full throttle roads...


Elephant and the bike...


International looking toll plaza...


Then i have a puncture right near a puncture shop!


Tube being heat patched on...


Hit the Grand trunk road...


Colorful toll plaza nearing delhi...


Vertical travel for some time as the gps app crashed after hitting the plains....

Praveenkm its AUT not AUIT as u have mentioned above and the tunnel is 2.8 Km in length.
Well u finally made it out of the hills. Congrats mate & have a happy journey to home (I hope u must now surly be goin to HSH).

helmets off to u praveen sir......i have been reading ur posts frm few days n im lost in it...breathtaking pics...treat for the eyes..
yavaga bangalorige baro planu sir....i wud realy lik t meet u once in life..
ur the true inspiration for my small trips....

hai bro,hw's ur health,really u r courage enough to ride through the lonely roads .

Finally you made it to the plains!!

Are you planning to return to Bangalore from Delhi - Rajasthan - Pune route?

If so., Why not Pune - Goa - Mangalore - Kozhikode - Kanyakumari - Madurai - Pondy - CHENNAI - Bangalore ?

This way:

* We people in Chennai could get to see you

* You could travel the Length and Breadth of the country

Oops will correct it. Thanks yeah but with a small detour to kk.

Glad you liked the logs manubhat. Will definetly meet in bangalore once in life

Me still alive and kicking. Lonely roads are fun as long as things are fine

This is freaking! who told you my plan??? Though i may skip pondy...

dude u have a PM!

@praveen: Have you already decided on the dates/schedule for your return to namma Bengalooru?
All the jinga's here want to meet you asap saar !

No One told your plans.. It was just my wish that you do such a route.. thought the whole trip be more meaningful if you complete the southern leg in your trip and hence the suggestion.

Anyway, glad that you are riding by South India too.. Would try my best to meet up once you are in Chennai

As always, Good Luck and Ride Safe!

Helmets off to you bro!

Replied

Hehe nothing is sure, now if not destination, its ETA unknown :P

Thanks Ananth. Was just kidding. It would only kinda complete the ride going till Kanyakumari coming from kashmir. So me thought Would be nice to catch up if i make it till there.



Day 148 - Aug 3 - Bike work in Delhi


Had to brave out the Delhi Humidity today. First up was the service as the bike had not seen one for some time now. Had to get a fork changed as it had got scratched just in Pangong and of course the front fender. The customer lounge not really friendly and the heat and humidity was getting to me. Just worked on my logs while i waited for the bike to get attended! Which happened after quite some time. Things were left to uncertainty about the activities for the rest of the day. Had to make Prem, Salil and Bankim to wait indefinitely as the service was taking much more time than expected. Prem whisked me away for lunch and were joined by Salil. Some reprieve from the heat.

By the time we got back to the service center the bike was ready, but getting it out was a pain as it took us like 45 mins to just get the bill and pay. Boy did they make us run around in that late noon heat to get the bill done. On top of that, they had polished the bike with some cheap wax polish tough i had instructed no polish. Now will have tough time with the tank bag slipping for some days! Left pretty disgusted, after this they employees got interested in the trip and etc which i was in no mood to share with them! Salil got me the after market diskpads from his mech, which works pretty well. Went to Salil's house before we could move out for getting the tires changed at KRP. Yogesh joined us on the way leading us to KRP. Bankim who had patiently keeping track of the progress the whole day joined us at KRP and always nice to meet fellow travellers. But i dont get my front tire. Getting the rear tire fixed, took the wind out of us! Had to scout around to find one that could fix the new tire and it was super pain to negotiate my bike through the impatient peak evening traffic.

We pretty tired with the exercise and could think of only getting back to the places. Bid byes and rode back with Salil. It was agonizing ride in the heat all 1.5 hours of it. The working day is tough here, even with all those beautiful wide and organized roads here. Thought of staying one more day with the hope of getting front tire, but by now i could as well just ride away with the one i have fearing the Delhi heat.

At DND Flyway.. Two wheelers also have to pay the toll!


The Toll plaza..


Super wide roads...


Salil's new car