Chapter -2 -The Flag Off

4 alarms set – 4 alarms failed.

Sumit came running in our room saying “utho saalo, time dekho zara” (just see the time !!! wake up guys!!). I saw the numbers 345 in my phone and jumped out of my bed. Me 

and vidit were astonished as 2 strange things happened:

1.      Both of us set 2 alarms each on our mobiles and still the alarms failed to wake us up. (hate you nokia).

2.     How on earth sumit woke up so early ??? !!!

I think we never woke up at this time ever in our lives and it was evident because we were acting like sloths at that time (lazy & lethargic). We thanked GOD coz we packed everything last night. After a tough fight with our laziness, we finally started moving out of the apartment at 0430. We never thought that tying our baggage with bungee ropes will be so difficult and time taking. We had 3 motorcycles and except for the saddle bag we were confused that which bag should be tied on which bullet. After applying different combinations and a lot of hard work in tying the bungee ropes, our bullets were ready to roll. The number of jugaads (combinations) we applied to tie our baggage were way more than I applied to make a girlfriend ;). Last night we decided that we will leave before sunrise but we finished this early morning exercise nearly at 6:00. At last at 6 o’ clock we started our journey to get Leh’d.

                                  Our bullets before we left

The early morning walkers were amazed to see us and the cumulative thump of our bullets disturbed nearly 100 people in lajpat nagar. This brought a sinister smile on our faces and we wished good luck to ourselves. We got out tanks filled at Defence Colony 

petrol pump for a total of Rs. 2300/-.

The early morning traffic made our exit smoothly out of Delhi and in a very short span. We stopped at karnal bypass for a minute and decided to have breakfast at murthal.  After nearly 25 kms from karnal bypass, we met a group of 8 riders from different corners of India and walks of life.

Riding the best machine, listening to the best music (bullet’s thump) and enjoying the scenery of countryside was the ultimate pleasure of riding. The only thing I was thinking at that time was “the ride out here is so gr8 , how will it be up on the hills!!!”. We rode for nearly 75 minutes and reached Pahelwan Dhaba (Murthal) where we had Aloo Parantha and Tea in breakfast.

After a 30 minute breakfast + rest we started from Pahelwan Dhaba and we decided to stop after 100 kms. We were moving at an average speed of 70 Km/hr as the roads were very smooth. The sun started attacking us with its heat and we had to stop after 50 kms to hydrate ourselves and to buy more water. The best thing on NH1 for a rider is “you don’t have to pay any toll” JJ. We stopped at a dhaba after riding another 50 kms because the sun was sweltering.

We again hit the road after a 30 minutes power nap + tea and decided to stop at the last petrol pump of Haryana as petrol is cheaper in Haryana as compared to other states. Our skin was burning & our eyes were hurting but the thrill of the ride kept us moving in the baking sun. We stopped at a petrol pump nearly 5 kms after Ambala and refuelled our machine.  We made our minds to go to Rajpura (my home town) for our next pit stop. The 1.5 hour of rest + snacks + air conditioning made us lazy but we were out on the road at exactly 1 o’ clock.

The motivation of riding in the scorching heat came when we saw some guys clicking our pics with their heads out of their car windowsJ J . It felt amazing to see people cheering us up on road and screaming us Good Luck for the journey. We rode for 1.75 hours continuously and stopped at a dhaba after crossing Ropar.  Just before moving after our lunch break (30 minutes at the dhaba), we saw that there was a petrol leak from Sumit’s bullet. We moved slow and found a mechanic after 10 kms.

The mechanic cleaned the petrol filter of sumit’s bullet as petrol was leaking because of excess dust collected in the filter. Upon checking, we discovered that the engine oil level of vidit’s bullet was very low and we got it refilled and hit the road.

We reached Anandpur Sahib Gurudwara at 5 :00 and took the blessings for the trip. The visit to the Gurudwara was the best thing happened to us that day. We came back to Kiratpur Sahib and started our journey towards the hills. The roads at the foothills of Himalayas are not in a very good condition which put our riding skills to the test for the 1^st time.

This was the first experience of riding on hills for all 3 of us + there was a hell lot of traffic+ a single road --- start of an intimidating ride. We found our first traffic jam just after our 15 kms hill ride. The jam was due to construction work going on. Luckily we were able to sneak through the traffic jam from small gaps and the police men standing at the front gave us a pass. In a span of minutes we were far far away from the jam but the momentary happiness was crushed by another traffic jam (this time big one). We tried to sneak through again but this time we had to stop coz of less space available.

We heard that the jam was nearly 6 kms long and the reason was “head on collision between 2 goods carriers” which really disappointed us. On the very 1^st day of our ride, we broke our 1^st rule  “kill your machines at 6 pm”. It was 07:30 pm, we were still in the traffic jam and we had no idea where to stay for the night. After inquiring, we got to know that the next town is Bilaspur which was nearly 20kms away. We decided to stay at Bilaspur and started moving. Luckily, we came across a guest house (Tiger Hills) 7 kms before bilaspur.

The rooms in the guest house were in a good condition for a stay so we checked in. We never thought that untying the bungee ropes is as tough as tying them. It took us more than 40 minutes to untie our baggage and to take all the baggage to the room. This 40 minutes ordeal was more tormenting than the whole day ride. Atlast at 930 we were in our room with all our baggage and we ordered our dinner.

It was 10:30 and every muscle of our body was damn tired but we kept on discussing “the day’s ride” and imagining the fun we are going to have in coming days. Finally, we hit the sack after a really tiring + exhilarating day at 0000.