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Expedition in Himachal - Rohru
Had been planning for a trip to hills for long time. The chance came in form of extended weekend due to Good Friday. I was keen on doing Rohru for quite sometime..... had read a lot about it.
Day 1
We started from Gurgaon on 9th April at 2 pm & made it to Chandigarh by 8:30 pm. Nothing happening on this stretch as wanted to reach Chandigarh asap. Night stay at Dharamshala in sec 15 C.... recommended for a cheap & clean accomodation but beware you'd not find any electrical points for mobile charging & laptops.
Day 2: actual ride begins here
Started for Shimla at 8. I must say that stretch till Shimla is a bliss for riders. You get to see some very good views & can practice leaning & bending without taking much risk. I was hovering at a comfortable speed of 45 kmph occassinally going till 60 kmph, clocked a max of 74 kmph. Saurabh & Mohit were astride on Glady..... so they were behind by good margin.
Made it to Shimla in 3 hrs.... but passed it by taking a good 45 min halt at outskirts. Straightaway headed towards Theog via Kufri. It was on this way we first encountered bad patch of road. Stretch till Theog is very b'ful & I had to stop frequently to admire at the scenic.
The road diverts after Theog. Here we encountered the unexpected..... I was aware that roads are not good but they would be so bad & full of dust was never expected. Its a steep dusty decline for first few kms & then we encountered some real bad stretch. It seemed as if we are competing in a desert rally. My black Pulsar looked like a silver when I stopped to wait for saurabh.... Gladiator was having a bad time for sure with 2 on it.
Rohru is just 80 kms from Theog but the way is not good. We found everything..... dust, bad uneven stretch, narrow tarmac, construction work & b'ful views. But then that's beauty of mountains with maximum riding satisfaction. We were going slow & easy with loads of time in our hand..... taking snap at every possible point. I noticed scarcity of private vehicles on this stretch..... Mahindra taxi & some buses plying. Bikers are aliens. We made it to Rohru by
5 pm.... I'd not suggest riding pillion on this road. It's manageable but takes a toll on bike and riding single is more of a nice experience. Delhi to Rohru can be done in one day w'out any hassles.
It wa a pretty tiring ride from Shimla to Rohru but the views that are seen upon entering Rohru are awesome & worth every effort. Its a small valley by the side of River Pabbar (correct me if I'm wrong). The hills covered with snow invite tourer like us.... the view of riverbed is also enchanting. Overall it was refreshing & heartening. I had this idea of a Govt guest house in Rohru... thanks to blogs from people who have gone to Rohru earlier.... you need not go any place other than this. In 200 bucks you get everything..... big rooms, a small garden & safe parking (most imp).... what more could one ask for ??
We befriended attendant Maniram at guest house & he was like a radio which doesn't stop. We had a nice long chat with him getting an idea of nearby places, weather, etc.
Day 3 - Around Rohru & to Dehradun
We manged to get up earlier then expected in morning, thnx to Maniram. He prepared tea w'out order and banged or door at 7 am. WOW !!
I was informed by him that Chanshal valley is closed due to snowfall some days ago.... but atleast some distance can be done. Its motorable road till Chidgaon & 5 kms trekking thereon for Chanshal. This stretch was ok & I could speed up a bit feeling the breeze on my face. Morning in hills is so b'ful.... no traffic chaos, cool weather aah!! Absolute Nirvana
We were again told by a local about closure of way further. So we dropped the idea of checking it & took our bikes down to riverbed instead. The feeling was of a great war won upon reaching river, the whole thing was making us jump out of excitement. Snaps were inevitable......
We spent a good hour & half at this site. It was time to head forward logically but we didn't want to..... anyhow got back to our room. Packed our bags & headed towards Bajaj service centre. Its the only authorised service centre centre of any make in Rohru.... though its of Bajaj but I could see bike of every brand getting their job done. To name some there was one ZMA, Fiero, Splendor, TVS Star & the usual Bajaj.
So following the trend we also got the oil changed in Glady & no work on Pulsar.
Our next destination was Dehradun via Tiuni, Minas & Vikasnagar.
We thought that roads from Theog to Rohru are perhaps the worst that we gonna face.... we were proved wrong on this stretch. Its fine for first 20 kms but after Tiuni its not road anymore, atleast for me. They are carved ways full of stones of various kind.... mud & water in patches..... steep incline & decline..... and some good patches as well. I'd say that this was most challenging of the route for us. We didn't find any bike throughout, some cars & buses were sighted but in intervals. Forget high speed I couldn't go beyond 35 anytime till Haripur being solo.... no words for the pain Glady was facing.
Nothing to write about this route except that it required absolute concentration, offering b'ful views..... riding satisfaction maximum. A perfect practice before doing Leh... lol !! One interesting thing -- we kept fiddling b/w HP & Uttaranchal. One hill falls under HP & another under Uttaranchal. So we crossed border atleast 4 times.
We reached Dehradun by 6:30 pm. This day was a nice & tough ride.... enriching my experience by gr8 margins. Got a good steal at a relatively cheap Guest house again. Over for the day... lghts off & snoring by 10 pm.
Day 4
I was keen on doing hills above Rishikesh the next day, i.e. 12th April. But somehow the plan couldn't materialise. So we decided to head back to Delhi via Haridwar. Haridwar on sunday is full of vehicles from Delhi.... that caused a traffic jam but bikes are seldom stuck in jams. We managed to carve out easily. Straight plains to Delhi via Muzaffarnagar & Meerut.
Made it ot Delhi by 5 pm.
All in all very good trip quenching my thirst for sometime now. I've promised myself to do it again but with more days in hand in order to leave nothing unexplored.... Chanshal valley to be done for sure.
THANKS.
Day 1
We started from Gurgaon on 9th April at 2 pm & made it to Chandigarh by 8:30 pm. Nothing happening on this stretch as wanted to reach Chandigarh asap. Night stay at Dharamshala in sec 15 C.... recommended for a cheap & clean accomodation but beware you'd not find any electrical points for mobile charging & laptops.
Day 2: actual ride begins here
Started for Shimla at 8. I must say that stretch till Shimla is a bliss for riders. You get to see some very good views & can practice leaning & bending without taking much risk. I was hovering at a comfortable speed of 45 kmph occassinally going till 60 kmph, clocked a max of 74 kmph. Saurabh & Mohit were astride on Glady..... so they were behind by good margin.
Made it to Shimla in 3 hrs.... but passed it by taking a good 45 min halt at outskirts. Straightaway headed towards Theog via Kufri. It was on this way we first encountered bad patch of road. Stretch till Theog is very b'ful & I had to stop frequently to admire at the scenic.
The road diverts after Theog. Here we encountered the unexpected..... I was aware that roads are not good but they would be so bad & full of dust was never expected. Its a steep dusty decline for first few kms & then we encountered some real bad stretch. It seemed as if we are competing in a desert rally. My black Pulsar looked like a silver when I stopped to wait for saurabh.... Gladiator was having a bad time for sure with 2 on it.
Rohru is just 80 kms from Theog but the way is not good. We found everything..... dust, bad uneven stretch, narrow tarmac, construction work & b'ful views. But then that's beauty of mountains with maximum riding satisfaction. We were going slow & easy with loads of time in our hand..... taking snap at every possible point. I noticed scarcity of private vehicles on this stretch..... Mahindra taxi & some buses plying. Bikers are aliens. We made it to Rohru by
5 pm.... I'd not suggest riding pillion on this road. It's manageable but takes a toll on bike and riding single is more of a nice experience. Delhi to Rohru can be done in one day w'out any hassles.
It wa a pretty tiring ride from Shimla to Rohru but the views that are seen upon entering Rohru are awesome & worth every effort. Its a small valley by the side of River Pabbar (correct me if I'm wrong). The hills covered with snow invite tourer like us.... the view of riverbed is also enchanting. Overall it was refreshing & heartening. I had this idea of a Govt guest house in Rohru... thanks to blogs from people who have gone to Rohru earlier.... you need not go any place other than this. In 200 bucks you get everything..... big rooms, a small garden & safe parking (most imp).... what more could one ask for ??
We befriended attendant Maniram at guest house & he was like a radio which doesn't stop. We had a nice long chat with him getting an idea of nearby places, weather, etc.
Day 3 - Around Rohru & to Dehradun
We manged to get up earlier then expected in morning, thnx to Maniram. He prepared tea w'out order and banged or door at 7 am. WOW !!
I was informed by him that Chanshal valley is closed due to snowfall some days ago.... but atleast some distance can be done. Its motorable road till Chidgaon & 5 kms trekking thereon for Chanshal. This stretch was ok & I could speed up a bit feeling the breeze on my face. Morning in hills is so b'ful.... no traffic chaos, cool weather aah!! Absolute Nirvana
We were again told by a local about closure of way further. So we dropped the idea of checking it & took our bikes down to riverbed instead. The feeling was of a great war won upon reaching river, the whole thing was making us jump out of excitement. Snaps were inevitable......
We spent a good hour & half at this site. It was time to head forward logically but we didn't want to..... anyhow got back to our room. Packed our bags & headed towards Bajaj service centre. Its the only authorised service centre centre of any make in Rohru.... though its of Bajaj but I could see bike of every brand getting their job done. To name some there was one ZMA, Fiero, Splendor, TVS Star & the usual Bajaj.
So following the trend we also got the oil changed in Glady & no work on Pulsar.
Our next destination was Dehradun via Tiuni, Minas & Vikasnagar.
We thought that roads from Theog to Rohru are perhaps the worst that we gonna face.... we were proved wrong on this stretch. Its fine for first 20 kms but after Tiuni its not road anymore, atleast for me. They are carved ways full of stones of various kind.... mud & water in patches..... steep incline & decline..... and some good patches as well. I'd say that this was most challenging of the route for us. We didn't find any bike throughout, some cars & buses were sighted but in intervals. Forget high speed I couldn't go beyond 35 anytime till Haripur being solo.... no words for the pain Glady was facing.
Nothing to write about this route except that it required absolute concentration, offering b'ful views..... riding satisfaction maximum. A perfect practice before doing Leh... lol !! One interesting thing -- we kept fiddling b/w HP & Uttaranchal. One hill falls under HP & another under Uttaranchal. So we crossed border atleast 4 times.
We reached Dehradun by 6:30 pm. This day was a nice & tough ride.... enriching my experience by gr8 margins. Got a good steal at a relatively cheap Guest house again. Over for the day... lghts off & snoring by 10 pm.
Day 4
I was keen on doing hills above Rishikesh the next day, i.e. 12th April. But somehow the plan couldn't materialise. So we decided to head back to Delhi via Haridwar. Haridwar on sunday is full of vehicles from Delhi.... that caused a traffic jam but bikes are seldom stuck in jams. We managed to carve out easily. Straight plains to Delhi via Muzaffarnagar & Meerut.
Made it ot Delhi by 5 pm.
All in all very good trip quenching my thirst for sometime now. I've promised myself to do it again but with more days in hand in order to leave nothing unexplored.... Chanshal valley to be done for sure.
THANKS.
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