Day
1 (27th June, 2016):
Original Plan: Start ride at 10 AM
and reach Keylong at 4 PM. 115 KM via Rohtang Pass.
Actual: Started ride at 4:00 PM
and reached Keylong at 10 PM.
We decided that we will start from
hotel at 9AM get the bike repaired and then move ahead as per plan of 10AM. We
went to our bike, filled some air using a compressor connected to our backup vehicle.
We reached a puncture repair shop, and the process started. The old man took
around 2 hrs. to give us the tire back and Dev (backup vehicle owner) took
around 30 min to fit that tire back into position. We are late by couple of
hours, but we were confident that we will reach Keylong before sunset. Perfect.
We had to start soon now.
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| The Riders starting the journey from Manali. |
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| Me with the safety Gear, SJCAM on my Helmet and the RE Beauty |
We filled petrol from Manali, and
started our journey. Vikas, mentioned to meet at the Checkpoint in Manali. We
reached first on bikes and were waiting for him. To our surprise, we started
seeing smoke from the rear brake of the same TB. And the wait started. We
called in the owner of the garage who gave us the bikes. They did some minor
surgery of the bike and took it to their hospital. Till all this happened we
noticed that it was already 3:30 PM, and we are still in Manali. At around 3:45
PM we lost our patience and went with Vikas to the garage to request if we can
change the Bike. They usually don’t change the bikes as all are pre-booked and
we understood that. But we were also worried if this bike will let us reach Leh
in simple words.
When we reached the garage, they
were preparing a brand new 500cc Standard in place of the TB to give it to us.
So we were relieved. This is our short TB story. J
Now we received the new 500 cc
Standard at 4:00PM after transferring the fuel we filled and other small
requirements. And staying back in Manali, is not an option, otherwise our whole
schedule would get changed for the upcoming 10 days. So, we started for
Keylong, without thinking of any other option.
So finally journey begins. Yay!!
We knew we will have to travel a
lots in dark but our determination for firm and we wanted to be on time from
next day’s plan.
The road was a bit dangerous in
terms of Traffic, as there are many visitors who just visit Rohtang Pass and
come back. That is usually the time they start coming back to Manali in the evenings. But we
managed. Rohtang pass was full of crowd, but in this trip for the first time we
experienced snow and clouds passing by us. It was awesome feeling. We didn’t
stop much on the way thinking of the distance we had to cut to reach Keylong,
Rohtang Pass just about midway. In a way we were confident that as we have
reach Rohtang pass in around 2.5 to 3 hrs. we will reach Keylong pretty comfortably.
But to our surprise, the descent road from Rohtang pass around 20KM was a motocross
like road. Bumps of the road kicked ours and this harmony lasted for around 2
more hours. But just by the time of darkness we were at the bottom of the
mountain. We took one break in between to eat something.
We reached Khoksar, Maggi came to
our rescue and also Rajma Rice. One double egg half fry was icing to the cake. We
rode the beauties again. The awesome drive of the night began. We were
continuously driving the T & T (Twists & Turns) enjoying. We
continuously heard the serene sound of water next to us, knowing that it is the
river that is accompanying us. We knew we had company. Again there was a patch
of bad road that we guessed was under construction. But finally after 40 odd KM
we reached to a place where we could see some light ahead of us apart from our
Bike head lights. But the rear end was still pitch dark. We really don’t
remember where we stopped. We didn’t contact our families since a long time and
there were no coverage. But we saw a Military camp on our left and thought to
try our luck. Our aim was to leave a message at our homes that we are safe and
about to reach our destination. They were still unaware of the whole situation.
Two jawans generously lend us their phones and we had a quick telegraphic chat
with our better halves and parents. The Jawans didn’t take any money from us
for the calls. We saluted them and thank them before departing. Proud! of the
ARMY they come to our rescue even in such minor problems.
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| Me at Tandi at 9:25PM |
Back of the mind I personally
thought, will this fuel be sufficient? Frankly none of us would have faced this
ever in our life. In our routine life, it is like max 3.65 KM and you see a
petrol bunk. We just could pray and be positive. And truly speaking, other
thought was to reach our destination and contact our families. We were sure
they would be worried.
TIP: Only for Rohtang pass
visitors, Tuesday Rohtang pass is closed for visitors. But people those want to
pass through it to the other side, no problem.
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