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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
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
thx there anyways
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