Road trip to Leh Ladakh - July 2007: The prelude
where: Manali, Leh, Khardungla, Pangong Tso, Kargil, Sonamarg, Srinagar
who:
when: July 13th - July 29th
route tips:
how many days:
Kms covered: 2500
passes conquered: 8
Thursday evening, the time is 4:30 pm and we are speeding as we need to catch the train to Delhi from Jammu at 8:30 pm. We are still at udhampur. Meanwhile Harisha is not to be seen since 1'o clock and his phone is not reachable. Naresha in anger shouting where this "Adda Daari" has gone. We are all tensed thinking what would have gone wrong with this chap.
We enter the udhampur railway station. Meanwhile we are trying to enquire about parcelling our bikes to Delhi, as we are doubtful of making it to Jammu railway station in time. The rail master refused to parcel it saying they are closed for the day. Suddenly Hari's phone ring and harisha on the other side of the line. I first yelled at him and then asked him where he is. To our surprise, he has already reached Jammu. 2 hours ahead of us. Then I ask him to talk to parcel guys, have everything ready and get the train ticket printout ready by the time we reach Jammu.
We start to Jammu with a tough deadline which even the time bound corporates can't meet. Hari as always cool. Naresha is tensed more than required. The time is running, but still a long way to go. (one of my engineering classmate used to look at the watch every 5 mins, and say "from past 2 hours only 5 minutes have passed", we are in a similar situation). We reach Jammu by 6:00 and we are trying to find a way to railway station. The tension is building up, bcos it takes more than 2 hours to get the bikes packed and complete the parcel process.
Suddenly the CBZee halts just before reaching the railway station with an empty tank. borrowed petrol from bhanu's bike and finally make it to the station. Harisha had done all the enquiry and talking and was getting his bike packed. We enter and leave our bike for packing. Naresha and myself running behind the officer trying to complete the formalities. Suddenly the earth is rotating at double its speed. Its 8:20 pm and our train to Delhi is arrived. We have still not loaded the bikes. Then final official signature, we are running with the bikes behind the railway clerk towards the last coach. We have surpassed the last coach and the clerk is asking us to keep following. We end up putting our vehicles in a different train. Our train has started moving and we just leave our vehicles and started running back. We didn't even had time to fight with that clerk who cheated us saying he will send the bikes with us in our train.
Senthil was alone and he had more than 40+ Kgs to carry. Everyone has made it to the train. The tension doesn't end here. Senthil is missing, and he isn't picking up his phone. We decided to pull the chain if he don't pick the call again. Luckily the train halted by itself and Senthil called back. He managed to get into the train crawling with the 2 saddle bags.
We settle down and are trying to come out of the tension and a straining ride of 400Kms Srinagar-Jammu.
So where did this running happen? why did we parcel our bikes? where were we heading to?
for all the answers lets get back to the flashback. ellaru ondu saari jeda kattiro moole nodi
It was April 2007, we were to go to Tadiyendamol. When I went to collect tent from my friend, I spoke to him about my dream to ride on the world's highest motorable road before I complete 25 years on this beautiful planet. It was a documentary film that ignited this thought - riding solo to the top of the world.
The planning and meetings started 4 months before the event. The expectations were high, planning was exhaustive but only on papers, and we were off to the world's highest motorable road (WHMR) with little preparations - that too after persistent pressing.
A week before we were to leave, Hari dropped, Senthil, Raju said doubtful - all because of leave approvals and Naresha was also not sure. Bhanu was not ready to step back at any cost, and said he is gonnna kick my ass and take me with him even if everyone drops off. Thats what makes me do frequent trips/treks on and on.
The plan was to ride from Delhi to Leh. We flew to Delhi from Bangalore on Friday the 13th. Our bumpy ride began even before getting on to the roads. There was turbulence in the air due to bad weather, but was quite normal. But at one instance, the flight came down by more than 10ft and as if we were being pulled by the gravitational force. Naresha was totally tensed and is never going to forget this. He keeps talking about this even now.
After reaching Delhi, we stayed at Karnataka Sangha. The next day we were to leave to chandigarh.
who:
when: July 13th - July 29th
route tips:
how many days:
Kms covered: 2500
passes conquered: 8
Thursday evening, the time is 4:30 pm and we are speeding as we need to catch the train to Delhi from Jammu at 8:30 pm. We are still at udhampur. Meanwhile Harisha is not to be seen since 1'o clock and his phone is not reachable. Naresha in anger shouting where this "Adda Daari" has gone. We are all tensed thinking what would have gone wrong with this chap.
We enter the udhampur railway station. Meanwhile we are trying to enquire about parcelling our bikes to Delhi, as we are doubtful of making it to Jammu railway station in time. The rail master refused to parcel it saying they are closed for the day. Suddenly Hari's phone ring and harisha on the other side of the line. I first yelled at him and then asked him where he is. To our surprise, he has already reached Jammu. 2 hours ahead of us. Then I ask him to talk to parcel guys, have everything ready and get the train ticket printout ready by the time we reach Jammu.
We start to Jammu with a tough deadline which even the time bound corporates can't meet. Hari as always cool. Naresha is tensed more than required. The time is running, but still a long way to go. (one of my engineering classmate used to look at the watch every 5 mins, and say "from past 2 hours only 5 minutes have passed", we are in a similar situation). We reach Jammu by 6:00 and we are trying to find a way to railway station. The tension is building up, bcos it takes more than 2 hours to get the bikes packed and complete the parcel process.
Suddenly the CBZee halts just before reaching the railway station with an empty tank. borrowed petrol from bhanu's bike and finally make it to the station. Harisha had done all the enquiry and talking and was getting his bike packed. We enter and leave our bike for packing. Naresha and myself running behind the officer trying to complete the formalities. Suddenly the earth is rotating at double its speed. Its 8:20 pm and our train to Delhi is arrived. We have still not loaded the bikes. Then final official signature, we are running with the bikes behind the railway clerk towards the last coach. We have surpassed the last coach and the clerk is asking us to keep following. We end up putting our vehicles in a different train. Our train has started moving and we just leave our vehicles and started running back. We didn't even had time to fight with that clerk who cheated us saying he will send the bikes with us in our train.
Senthil was alone and he had more than 40+ Kgs to carry. Everyone has made it to the train. The tension doesn't end here. Senthil is missing, and he isn't picking up his phone. We decided to pull the chain if he don't pick the call again. Luckily the train halted by itself and Senthil called back. He managed to get into the train crawling with the 2 saddle bags.
We settle down and are trying to come out of the tension and a straining ride of 400Kms Srinagar-Jammu.
So where did this running happen? why did we parcel our bikes? where were we heading to?
for all the answers lets get back to the flashback. ellaru ondu saari jeda kattiro moole nodi
It was April 2007, we were to go to Tadiyendamol. When I went to collect tent from my friend, I spoke to him about my dream to ride on the world's highest motorable road before I complete 25 years on this beautiful planet. It was a documentary film that ignited this thought - riding solo to the top of the world.
The planning and meetings started 4 months before the event. The expectations were high, planning was exhaustive but only on papers, and we were off to the world's highest motorable road (WHMR) with little preparations - that too after persistent pressing.
A week before we were to leave, Hari dropped, Senthil, Raju said doubtful - all because of leave approvals and Naresha was also not sure. Bhanu was not ready to step back at any cost, and said he is gonnna kick my ass and take me with him even if everyone drops off. Thats what makes me do frequent trips/treks on and on.
The plan was to ride from Delhi to Leh. We flew to Delhi from Bangalore on Friday the 13th. Our bumpy ride began even before getting on to the roads. There was turbulence in the air due to bad weather, but was quite normal. But at one instance, the flight came down by more than 10ft and as if we were being pulled by the gravitational force. Naresha was totally tensed and is never going to forget this. He keeps talking about this even now.
After reaching Delhi, we stayed at Karnataka Sangha. The next day we were to leave to chandigarh.
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