Chapter 4 - First Glimpse of Snow

Scary Night – Sound Sleep – Awesome day

Last Night was my first experience of sleeping in a tent and the bizarre sound from outside made it even more worth. At first, I thought it’ll be difficult to sleep in a tent but to my surprise the moment I went in the tent after my second check on the source of that sound – the moment I closed my eyes – I reached in a world of deep sleep. We sometimes say to our dear ones “Good Night, Sleep tight” – that came true to us that night as we slept in sleeping bags and once you are in sleeping bags, it is impossible to move any of your limb.

Morning view 

I woke up the next morning at 5 30 (Sumit & Vidit were still sleeping) and went out of the tent to see how the hills look like at this time. The scenery was out of this world but I could not enjoy the mesmerizing nature for even 2 minutes as it was extremely cold outside and I was in a t-shirt. I came back running towards our tent and removed the jackets from the bags & woke up sumit & vidit (which itself was a difficult task on daily basis). The next big thing was to go to answer the call of the nature – finding a suitable place is so difficult. :p :p By 6 30 we all were ready and we ordered paranthas & tea in breakfast to the same tentwala who cooked us dinner. Believe me, tea is a gift from god in the hills. While having our breakfast - we met a gujju family and all of the family members praised us (for the ride) which was a real confidence booster and we started our ride for the day at 7 30.

Our initial speed was nearly 20 – 30 kmph due to the cold weather and chilly winds but we continued with the same speed to spend more time watching the beautiful sceneries with every turn.  Our expressions/ words at every turn were     – “ bhai jannat”, “feel aagai oye” , “yeh kahan aagaye hum” ….. :p :p . With every turn (the snake turns) nature gifted us new landscapes & sceneries which made our ride exciting till we got trapped in our first traffic jam of the day. All the vehicles were dead (it was like a scene of a zombie movie) and people were tensed as the jam was from past 4 hours and it was due to a heavy landslide happened on the way last night. We managed to sneak through the small gaps on either side of the vehicles and reached in front of the traffic jam. There was an Innova car stuck in thick layers of mud and was not able to cross the portion where landslide happened. Sumit managed to pass the mud portion quickly without being noticed by the police men but they caught me and asked me to move back (police men were posted to stop the traffic and let the “back – hoe loader” clear the ways). I tried to move back but the tyres were totally in the mud and I was unable to move my machine back. To my surprise I wasn’t even able to move my feet as they were also trapped in mud. It was my second scary moment of the trip as I was fully stuck in mud and the back hoe loader was coming to clean the road from the other side. I don’t remember what came in my mind at that moment and I just started moving towards the loader. My bullet was taking an extra load at that time (resistance from the mud) and the sound coming from the silencer was like of an avalanche happening nearby. People on the other side of the landslide portion applauded as I crossed the heavy mud area and it felt like I was playing “Tom Cruise” in some Hollywood movie.

one of the scenery that brought us the jannat feel inside

bad traffic jam due to landslides

trapped in the mud

Within 10 minutes, Vidit also crossed the jam area and we 3 started moving towards Rohtang Pass Top. God gifted us unforgettable landscapes on every turn on the hills and “this one is the best” was my words on each of ‘em. After 30 minutes of a very slow ride we finally reached Rohtang top which was totally empty that day (refer Chapter – 3) and there were only 2- 3 shops there. We stopped there for Maggi (expensive Maggi) and started from there with our jackets and gloves on as winds there were damn chilly.

We started moving ahead and I was waiting for more landscapes – but to my surprise, something beautiful happened after the first turn we took from Rohtang top. It was SNOW. It was my first time – this was my first time to experience snow in reality. It brought that smile on my face and my excitation level went so high as I was on Mount Everest top.

First Glimpse of snow

Rohtang descend was our first and I never thought that the descend part will be tough. The traffic went to minimal and there were no honkings now. The ride was smooth but dangerous. The quality of landscapes improves and those of road deteriorate on the other side of Rohtang top. Roads are very narrow and maximum part of the roads is under construction. The scenery which God brought in front of our eyes that time is unexplainable – but it was impossible to concentrate on both (riding and mesmerizing the nature) at same time. After a tough descending hour in which sumit lost his gloves we reached Khoksar. As we were about to reach the summit of the hill, we came across out first waterfall (naala). A group of 4-5 bikers were leading us and suddenly one of them slipped while crossing the naala which we thought will be easy job. It was a shock for all of us but also an eye opener clearly stating “beware of me – size doesn’t matter”. We set ourselves loose at the summit and captivated the scenic beauty for 15 minutes.

Our next pit stop was to be Tandi as it had the last and only petrol station till Leh. We reached the petrol station in time but the operator gave us a shock informing that there is no petrol and we have to wait ( 2 hours – 4 hours – even 6 -8 hours, he wasn’t sure of the time) for the Indian oil Truck to get it. We successfully bribed the operator and got petrol on Rs. 100/- ltr in black (10 litres only). The next pit stop was Keylong as it had the last bullet mechanic till leh. The mechanic took just Rs 60/- for our 3 bullets for checking and repairing which was quite surprising and we were like !#!(*&%#(*&!%#!@ to our delhi mechanics. The strange fact about Keylong  - no working STD’s and ATM’s.

@ Rohtang' s summit - Khoksar

Then came our first hurdle of the journey. We met a dangerous naala just after crossing Keylong. I stopped my bike just at the edge of the naala and went inside the chilled running water to check the depth (had no idea about the speed), I nearly lost my control for a sec. The speed and depth of the water was up to the level that it entered my gum boots and I flew back to my bullet to get rid of them. Meanwhile, Sumit and vidit reached the spot and stopped their machines as they saw me rubbing my feet. Coincidently, 2 riders were coming after us and they helped us to cross the naala – and after a little chat we came to know that our saviour is having riding records in Limca book of records.

myself, sumit, vidit & Vishnu Mehta (Limca Book record holder) @ our first big naala

Our next pit stop was Darcha where we had our lunch and we were able to communicate with our respective families. We decided to stay in Sarchu for the night and started from Darcha at 4 30 pm. For the next 2 hours there was nothing except our 3 bullets, curvy rough roads, setting sun, never seen before sceneries,  complete desert on either side of the road with no sign of civilization, melody generated by our thumps and our 99 % happy minds( 1% was thinking “ki bhai agar bullet kharab hogeya to kya hoga”).

here i am @ 99% happy mind place

At around 7 we reached Bharatpur (altitude 13500 fts) – a town of 8 tents (8 people capacity each), 4 tents on each side of the road – 25 kms before Sarchu and it was completely dark outside. We went inside a tent for a cup of tea. There were 6 beds on left side of the tent and a store of eatables and kitchen area on the other. The aura of the tent was similar to hangover, due to kerosene stove use in the kitchen area, which made me sleep in just 5 minutes of entering the tent. Sumit woke me up after nealy half an hour and offered me some chocolates and a cup of tea. I had a bad head ache and was out of my senses for some time and as soon as I had one chocolate bar, I vomited and realised that I was under Altitude Sickness attack. I dozed off the next moment like a drunkard nearly at 2000 hours.

our Le Meridian @ Bharatpur