Well that was one hell of a ride for you to loose your tour virginity man the stakes were high the standard was more higher and the riders were the best..... wow what a way to loose it

@Mechatron: Beautifully described first hand account of the day, loved quite a few parts of it. And the pictures, well, I see B2L is fast becoming a pro from a newbie, which is really heartening.

And yes, life ALWAYS comes a full circle, no matter what. Now, waiting for the Day-4 triplog and pictures.

Some real mouth watering pictures there!
Loved the way the log is written - simple and sweet

@Imran: If you don't buy buy a DSLR before i come to Delhi in december, i will kill you!!
You can do magic, don't know what's stopping you!!

Wonderful ride!

And I would specially like to congratulate Mechatron for successfully completing the Spiti ride, owing to the the fact that it was his first ride!!

@Aryan, DCS: Nako lake would be frozen in March. Would look much better then isnt it?
BTW, if you want to go to a nearby place to witness a more beautiful frozen lake go to Serloskar

thanks aryan.. praise coming from u.. means a lot .. look what B2L did with point n shoot.. SLR hota to pata nahi kya karta..
and Working on Day 4 triplog..

thanks augusta.. But i would like to think that pictures still speak louder than words

thanks a lot Kurtrules.. even I didnt have an iota of belief in me when i started off.. but then i grew from strength to strength.. the fellow riders also helped..

Thank you soo much bhai,. i have dying to read to this thread and triplouge ever since i heard you guys have left.
P.S: The thread was subscribed from Day1 it was posted!

when is more coming brothers

Day 4...Finally!!!

Here is the Day 4 log.. I had written it way back in November..
__________________________________________________ _____________

DAY 4

KazaKaza

~ 60 KMs in 6 Hours

If you consider the 6 day ride a Work Week, then I would like to call the DAY 4 of our ride a SUNDAY. Yes, this was the most relaxed day. And guess what, our Army man was thankfully not in wake-everyone-up-really-earlyEarly Morning @ Kaza




Ankur had been telling us that guys we are on a holiday and not on a mission. So we must take a chill pill and relax. On second thoughts, it was so cold in Kaza that it was like taking the phrase "take a chill pillEtc Etc




Having had our breakfast, it was time to get back to the hotel to pack our stuff, load the bikes and set the ball rolling for the day. It was already 10:30AM, one after the other we took the bikes out and made our way towards Komik. Just before leaving Kaza we tanked our bikes up at a Petrol pump.

Just Outside Kaza


As soon as we left Kaza there is an arch from where the road bifurcates. We guys had started to go ahead when we heard a bike honk from behind. We turned to see Anshul standing on the road that was climbing at a steep angle, he was signaling that we were not on the right path. Turning our bikes towards Anshul we started climbing on the road which was pretty steep and narrow. The lack of proper tarmac made it even more difficult to ride. Getting to the 3rd gear was a distant thought as we had to stick to 2nd on the stretches and mostly to 1st gear at the sharp turns.







The bright sun illuminating the blue sky while playing hide and seek behind the milky white cotton like clouds and the sound of the wind blowing through the valley is something that we only get to read in fantasy novels or see in films. Riding through this terrain was an awesome experience. There was not a single living being to be seen for hours. But once in a while we would pass by some people toiling hard in that treacherous terrain to repair the roads and yet waving at us with smiles on their faces. Hats off (Helmets.. in our case) to them!!!









Riding through what seemed like plains with snow-clad Mountains watching over all around, we stopped to click a few pictures. Arjun

Arjun - The Lone Ranger!!!


Arjun - The Lone Ranger!!!


Me and Anshul were riding ahead of the pack when we came across a small hillock. I saw a narrow path going up this hillock, while a proper road was winding around it. Tempted I was, to go over that hillock but I was scared that I might get scolded by the group for being too adventurous. So being a good guy, I followed Anshul and we went around that small hill but what Do I see?? Imran had climbed onto that small hill and he was waving at us. Wasting no time I too climbed on to from the other side and Anshul followed suit. Arjun and Ankur also had reached the top. The view from here was absolutely spellbinding. LangzaKya mast frame ban raha haiyahan to har taraf frame hi frame hai

The Hillock






Langza Village - Spellbinding View


Pulsar Ad...???


The Fastest Indian and its Rider




Decepticons!!! Here We Come!!!



We rode towards Langza village. Me and Ankur were riding in the front and we reached a point where the road was splitting into two. Here we were not able to decide which route to take. So I told AnkurRIGHT right . So Ankur and meParikramaKomik4200M above MSL, there was less oxygen available but the warm sun was trying to keep us comfortable throughout the ride. Plus the awesome vistas all around was the perfect icing on the cake. We passed patches of snow every now and then. This was our first taste of snow on this ride.

Riders of the Less Explored Lands!!


Enroute Komik









Me, Ankur and ArjunMe and Arjun sat down at the edge of the road while Ankur clicked some pictures. After whiling our time away for what seemed like 15-20 mins, we heard both the engines close by and we were up on our feet by the time they came into sight.



Me and Arjun


Old World Charm..


Riding further I witnessed one of funniest scenes I had seen in this whole ride. There was a beautiful black horse blocking our way. I was wondering how this animal came to be at this place. While a lot of questions were hovering in my mind, I heard ArjunArjunArjun had a special expertise in chasing animals on his bike.

Spirit the Stallion of SpitiKomik, which is a small village having 13 houses in all. There is a small monastery where a monk presides. This monastery is apparently more than 900 years old and is the 2nd highest in AsiaRice and Dal. I have never had so much dal-chawal in my life. We were so hungry that we attacked the rice plate. And then there were fresh, juicy Apples for dessert. I was so full after the dal-chawal binge that I could muster energy enough to eat half an apple. The part that touched me was the people who looked after us at Komik, refused to accept any money for food. So we donated some money for the school which they happily accepted.

Approaching Komik








Lama - At Komik Monastery






Stuffed Snow Leopard




Komik Village - Houses Just 12 Families




Lama Hostel


The Dal-Chawal Binge


Time had come to embark on the journey back to Kaza. Though the distance was just 30-35 KMs, the lack of roads made it a difficult and time consuming ride. We took the same route which we came on but since climbing down takes much more time, we wanted to be back close to Kaza by night fall as we also had plans to visit Ki monastery and maybe spend the night at Ki Village.

Arjun was riding ahead of the pack and I was behind him. At every turn he used to gain some distance on me and as a result of which I used to speed up a bit to keep up with him. Both me and Arjun were quite a distance ahead of the rest. Suddenly I spotted Arjun taking a particular route one level below the road I was on. I thought maybe the road wound around the hill and eventually even I will have to take the road that Arjun took. As I went ahead, to my shock I could see two roads and I immediately recognised the road by which we had climbed up and it struck me that Arjun had taken a wrong turn. I stopped there and waited for the rest of the guys. They came 10 mins later and were shocked to hear what I had to tell them. Imran asked us to wait and he went on the road that Arjun took. In the meanwhile me and Ankur had had a short little nap. Imran returned with Arjun in tow after what seemed like 30-40 minutes. Imran said that he almost had abandoned the search but then he suddenly spotted Wide tread marks on the road which were unmistakably . Arjun later said that he had asked a Cab driver for directions to Kaza and he had shown him a different direction.

Where is Arjun???










I was feeling so sleepy after having so much of rice and Dal, that I felt like lying down there and not going back to Kaza, yours truly threw up at 14000 Ft, which gives a whole new meaning to throwing up .

On the way back to Kaza




Evening Light Illuminating the SnowKi

wow....you have a cool ride there...

Mechatron read the Day 4 with pics amazing man great pics

Finally, after a decade, this thread gets updated! Thank you for the photographs, especially. They are beautiful, to say the least.

Wonderful Champ, Day 5 bhi daal de ab pls...

Excellent pics there. Oh how I love that part of the world !

if by any chance, any of the mods avoid reading my posts then I would take the liberty of saying all that is in my heart and it will be full of abuses of all sorts unedr the sun and under the moon.

But, being a decent xBhpian as I am, I would keep those "ARMAANS" to myself and simply say, Mates, you just Rock!

I a speechless, for the fact that I have a watered mouth seeing these wonderful scenes and reading this excellently written log.

If only I knew that Karthik writes as well as he rides, I would have asked him to sign me an autograph. But a small comment, few of the pictures have been sharpened to the max, I would have loved to see the raw, uncensored clicks though, but this again is my personal point of view.

anywhichways, am waiting to hear and see more of it, keep if flowing.

dcs