Spiti – Where Gods Reside: Day-1

Day – 1: Delhi – Panipat – Sonepat – Karnal – Ambala – Panchkula – Kalka – Shimla – Narkanda – Kufri – Fagu – Theog – Rampur- Jeori – Bhaba Nagar.

Total Distance Covered: 600+

Time taken:A little more than 13 hours of continuous riding.

Highlights of the Day:

1. The strong wind pushing DCS’s bike off-track, into the ‘pits’. As a result, the Karizma loses the right side RVM (Rear View Mirror).

2. Staying in the middle of no-where, at a place called Bhaba Nagar, in between Rampur and Sangla.

3. Falling asleep to the sound of the Baspa river (the tributary of Sutlej).

It all started on the eve of 19th May, 2009. All the riders of this ride were supposed to meet at Noida by 11pm, where B2L resides. We were supposed to ride all-night and cover as many kilometers as we possibly could. I was there on time, by 11pm. That night was really stormy with dust storms and strong winds blowing in from all directions. I was, at first a little skeptical. I thought perhaps we would need to post pone this ride yet again. But, then as luck would have it, the wind and the rain, both, died down by the time we were supposed to start the ride.

But, and there is always a big BUT(T) when there is something like this coming up. Born2Lead could not join us for this ride, because of some last minute problems. So, eventually, it turned out that me and DCS would be the two riders who would be riding towards Spiti. Although, the ride to Spiti was on my mind for quite some-time but I never really had planned anything. Looking at the amount of preparation DCS had for this ride was simply amazing, assuring and frankly speaking, a little strange. I was a little nervous, even. All I had was a small bag in which I had kept a couple of small towels, an undy, and a pen and paper. That’s it! Rest of it was filled by the camera equipment that I was carrying, while he was packed to the brim with the two Cramster saddle bags, and a tank bag to top it all off. He was really well prepared. He had anything and everything with him, from a stock tool kit to a can of engine oil! I felt reassured.

I am a punctual person and I like it if everything goes according to plans, and more importantly, on time. Thankfully, this time we started on time, by 11pm, although filling fuel and meeting Desideep on the way did mean getting out of Delhi took some time. It was 1am when we hit the roads towards our destination. Riding in the plains and that too during the night is nothing out of the ordinary. Any monkey can easily do it if he rides decently well. 

Daylight had started to break by the time we reached Panchkula, from where we were supposed to fill petrol just to find out the kind of efficiency our machines have been giving us. Not so much to my amazement, as much to DCS’s, we both found out that my blue Pulsar 200 was drinking one litre of xTra Premium petrol for every 50-55 odd kilometers while his Karizma was gulping down the same amount for about 40-45 odd kilometers. Amazed we both were, but we moved on. Eventually, we hit the hills, but we were not going crazy bending and trying to get the knee or the foot-pegs down. We were riding sanely, and well within our capabilities. We did not really wanted to push it. We crossed Shimla without even batting an eyelid. Shimla has lost whatever charm the place had. Now, all it has are loads of tourists, and commercialization, not to mention bad roads. Overall, a really bad place to spend absolutely ANY time. We stopped at Narkdanda eventually for a nice, little butt break before moving on towards Rampur. 

As soon as you enter Kinnaur valley, the environment seems to change. The roads are cut quite literally inside the mountains with the rocks overhead acting as ‘roof’ overhead, precariously hanging on. I was not too comfortable riding beneath those huge rocks, but they do look amazing. This, I’ll have to say. We were merrily covering distance, taking turn after turn, when suddenly at one such turn a strong, VERY strong gush of wind came and literally pushed us off-track, towards the pit on the right side of the road, and thankfully not towards the deep hundred plus feet gorge! We braked hard, and even then we were pushed farther away from the road by the strong wind. It was really scary. DCS had to gently drop his bike as the wind force was getting way too much than he could handle. I tried to get off my bike to help him, but to my utter disbelief, I just could not; the wind won’t let me! Eventually, I did get off my bike and tried to put it on side-stand but the wind again would not let me do so.

All this might have went for barely 60 odd seconds, but believe you me, it seemed like an eternity had passed. However, slowly but surely we did recover DCS’s bike from the pits, albeit a broken right side rear view mirror, which would remain this way for the rest of the 1500 odd kms. ride.

Our initial plan was to ride to Sangla for the night halt, but as soon as we reached a place called Bhaba Nagar, it started to rain, and heavily at that. With no options in hand, and feeling a little cold, we decided to call it a day. But, unfortunately for us, there were no hotels or guest-houses there where we could possibly stay. Finally, we did manage to get a room at the Himachal Pradesh Electricity Board Guest House, for Rs.400/-. The rent was steep but we did not have much option really.

After riding continuously for about 14 hours, we were obviously very tired. We called it a day after we had some ‘dinner’ in the form of samosas and some sweets. What we did not know was that the samosas and sweets we had for ‘dinner’ was to become our staple food for the days to come…

 

Day-1 Pictures

 

Tea break near Shimla

 

 

Narkanda

 

 

Narkanda

 

 

These kind of tents are for hire in Narkanda, for 700 rupees a night.

 

 

Macro at Narkanda!

 

 

The mutation...

 

 

The Lady In Brown...

 

 

Kinnaur Valley - the roads have been, quite literally cut through rocks to make way for traffic.

 

Kinnaur Valley.