Chapter 3 - Sun to Fog

Get Up ! Get Up ! Get Up!

The level of excitation for the trip was so high; it made me wake up at 3 o’clock in the morning without any fraction of laziness in my body. There was no difference between me and an Army Colonel at that time (the way I was shouting at Sumit and Vidit to get up) J J. Keeping in mind - the time bungee ropes will take (for tying our bags) we started moving out of our room at 4. The one day experience of tying and untying bungee ropes was just of little help as we again took a lot of time in tying them on our machines (nearly 1 hour). Tying the bungees , putting on our elbow and knee guards, paying the guest house bill (after waking him up) and consuming some cookies + 5 stars took us 90 minutes and we were ready to hit the road by 5 30.

The thump of mine and sumit’s motorcycle was on! but vidit’s machine was answering dead. All 3 of us tried to kick start vidit’s motorcycle but we failed. While vidit was kicking hard to bring his motorcycle to life, i noticed my trip meter was showing 445 kms for the last day and as soon as I delivered this news to my group – vidit’s machine was thumping. This co – incidence enhanced our confidence for the trip to a new level and we rode with smile on our faces + relaxed minds.

The weather was very pleasant at 6 o’clock in the morning and there was zero traffic on the road as compared to a chaos on the same road last evening. The melody generated by the sounds of wind blowing and the thump created by our machines was extremely soothing and completely out of this world. We rode for nearly 75 kms without any break and we had our first pit stop for the day nearly 10 kms from Mandi for breakfast. These 75 kms were the best coz there was no traffic and weather conditions were favourable for riding + the roads were in gr8 condition and we touched nearly 80 kmph on them. We relished the not so tasty Aloo Paranthas at the dhaba as we knew that this was the last paranthas we’ll be having in our whole trip. It was 8 30 in the morning and we were already feeling the heat from the sun. We decided to reach manali as early as possible and we left the dhaba with our sunglasses mode onJ J .

The scenery was getting beautiful with every crossed km. We came across Pandoh Dam which is situated nearly 12 kms from Mandi and is on Beas River. This wonderful human creation is worth capturing but photography is not allowed there and we spend 10 minutes admiring the beautiful scenery. There were no difficulties faced for the next 40 kms until we entered out first tunnel.  As soon as we entered the tunnel, visibility went down from 100 to 0. We couldn’t see anything even with headlights on. After struggling for 2 -3 minutes, we realized that this was happening because of sunglasses. Vidit came back as he thought that there was some trouble coz I stopped my motorcycle in the middle of the tunnel for changing my sunglasses to specs. We started moving together and the collective thump produced by Vidit’s and mine machine was sounding like a rocket in the tunnel. We were welcomed out of the tunnel with chilled litchi juice – courtesy Sumit. The only words which came out of our mouths after the tunnel experience were “Yaar feeeeeel aa gai “ (Awesome , thrilling and confidence boosting experience)

As the clock was ticking, the temperature got high and the traffic increased. Just a few kms before Bhuntar, vidit and sumit started moving off route to Manikaran Sahib. It took me 10 – 15 minutes to make up to them after a long pursuit in heavy traffic which ended with “Saalo ! Sign Board dekh liya karo”. In the next one hour, we crossed Kullu which was disappointing as i had the image of this place being insightful.

River Parvati became our co-traveller on the way from Kullu to Manali. Having a glimpse of the people rafting in the river, the very first thought which sprang in my mind was to accompany those people on the raft. However hard I tried to keep this thought in my mind, I could not help but spill it over the cup of tea with my group. I was not surprised as the same thought crossed their minds too. But the feasibility of bringing this thought to reality was constrained as all three of us could not have rafted simultaneously and also coz it would have killed a lot of time.

We started chasing river parvati again as we decided to stop!! only after reaching Manali. The roads lost their charm as they became narrower and the ride became tougher. After a long ride of 1 hour, we reached Manali and paid Rs 300 (100/- per motorcycle) as entry tax. Manali was to be our pit stop for the night, so we decided to get our bullets serviced here and started searching for a mechanic in the narrow broken roads of Manali. The 30 - minutes search amidst a large crowd  came to an end at “Tara Automobiles”.

Reaching “Tara Automobiles” was the moment when we got to know that Tony Bhai (Refer Chapter -1) was not only famous in Delhi but in Manali too when mechanic asked us “yeh bike Tony Bhai se laye ho ???”” (Did you hire these bullets from Tony??). We answered “yes” with a lot of confidence thinking that we made a gr8 decision by renting these bullets from Tony. While checking our bullets, the mechanic asked us about our tour plan and while discussing the plan he informed us that Rohtang Pass will be closed tomorrow as it is closed every Tuesday for weekly road maintenance. He gave us the shock of the day and upon asking he elaborated his statement saying “one has to take a permit to go to Rohtang Pass from DC office – Manali and DC office doesn’t give permits for Tuesday”.

The next moment was a rush hour moment for vidit and sumit as both of them ran to DC office for the permits. I stayed back to get all the 3 bullets serviced and to get more info about the trip ahead.  “Bas tension ni leni and confidence rakhna ” were the words of reply from the mouth of mechanic upon asking about the trip. The excitement of the trip made me use the waiting time in making calls to my friends/ family which was a total confidence booster. It was 3 30 pm - Vidit and Sumit returned exactly after 90 minutes and sumit came running and said “ Bhai ! jaldi kar abhi nikalna hai Rohtang k liye “. I was little shocked but the already got confidence and enthusiasm brought a sinister smile on my face and we left for Manali’s main market for lunch and to buy the listed items.

We already had a list of items to be bought in Manali – Jerry Cans , Gum Boots, Torches , Chocolates, Gloves were some of them and for them - me & sumit entered the overcrowded market of Manali while vidit was ordering lunch at a dhaba in Manali’s Bus stand. We bought 2 LED torches , 3 pairs of gum boots, 1 pair of gloves as sumit and vidit already had one , two 10 litre jerry cans and 10 five stars + the firangi crowd in the market was awesome J J.

After a quick session of tying bungee ropes, we left the manali bus stand exactly at 5 pm. We got our tanks refilled and even after I wasn’t agreeing Sumit got the jerry cans filled with 20 L of petrol. It took 20 minutes to untie the bungee ropes – adjust the jerry cans – tie the bungee ropes on sumit’s bike. The tanks were tied on either side of the bike for proper balance and the rest of sumit’s luggage was distributed among the 2 of us and then we hit the road.

The sunlight got dim, winds got chilly and the temperature dropped with every thump of our bullets. Roads got narrow and the traffic increased (people were coming back to Manali from Rohtang Pass) which made the ride tougher for us. After nearly 10 kms from Manali , we went off route to Solang Valley where we saw games like paragliding, off road biking etc. being organised and we couldn’t go for any of the game coz of lack of time. We were back on our original track after we were send back from security guards at a check post in Solang Valley.

I must say that real hills start from there (10 kms from Manali) as inclination of the road increased from 5° to 20° in few seconds and we no-more were riding like humans rather we were moving like snakes (zig zag ). Manali is at nearly 6500 feet altitude above the sea level and our altitude was increasing at a very fast rate. Looking down at the depths that I had covered, a chill went through my spine. After a 90 minutes petrifying ride (atleast for me), we reached a point of zero % visibility (due to excessive fog). We got down there and we found out that It was a small town called Marhi and we immediately decided to stay here for the night. After a blissful cup of tea, we started searching a place to set up our tent. We managed to find a tentwala who agreed to cook for us and would help us in set up of our tent.

It took us a complete hour in setting our tent and moving our luggage inside it from our motorcycles.

                                         Our Tent @ Marhi  

We had a gr8 meal of yellow dal, sabzi and chapattis + the tentwala was so gr8 in hospitality. At around 9 o’clock we returned to our tent and decided to hit the sack so that we can start early the next day. At around 9 30 pm, when we all three were half asleep – there were some noises from outside our tent. The noises were like someone or something was moving around the tent and was searching a way to enter it. I went out of the tent but all I can see was full darkness so I came back. The same noises came again and this time I went out with a torch – but again there was nothing except full darkness. It was getting a little scary but there were no noises the next time and we slept at 2200.