"The Trail" : Day 3

Manali to Darcha 11.09.07

The third day saw us starting off from Manali at a healthy 07.45 hrs, considering that it was raining on and off and triggering mild fears about snowfall up ahead. But the ride remained largely uneventful till Rohtang La barring a couple of mud slushes. It was one of these mud patches where we first met our 2 swell future teammates -Amol and Sanjay. These guys had made it on their heavily laden Bullet Machismo all the way from Pune! Amidst informal hellos, we passed them on one of the slushes and made it to Rohtang La at 10.30 hrs. I had missed zero point completely and had gone about 500 meters ahead! I remembered seeing Rohtang all snow-clad and tent-infested couple of months back and that made me pass the top completely! It was only after I failed to see the rest of the guys on my rear view mirror that I stopped my bike; and then after waiting for quite a while for them to catch up with me and them failing to turn up, I turned around and rode back the way I had come from. I saw the guys at Rohtang Pass and waving at me frantically. Only then did i realise that we had made it through level 1(as Kenny would term it!)- Rohtang La , at an altidude of 13050 ft above MSL.

Amol and Sanjay caught up with us at Rohtang Pass and there was this jovial "chai wallah" who was too happy to help us take snaps. We had some wonderful tea and coffee from the same chap. Perhaps it was the cold, perhaps it was the ride, perhaps it was really the tea and coffee, but those cups of tea and coffee felt the best tea and coffee in the world. We thanked the chap for such a delighful beverage, to which he non chalantly replied that he was doing no great job-but that he was charging for his tea and coffee. But for someone to come from the relative comfort of Manali down below to the freezing environs of Rohtang La and serve people like us is a very noble gesture indeed. God bless that chap!

Immediately after Rohtang La, we encountered what was to be the worst mud slush in our entire trip. There were places where the slush was more than a foot deep and we had to struggle with our laden bikes for maintaining balance. We could only shift to the 2nd gear, when it would be more slush ahead and we would have to downshift again. We realised that the rains and snow on the previous days had made an otherwise dusty and unmetalled road into what we were dealing with right now.The stretch took us quite some time to cover , but the roads ahead became clearer, but still snow-wet and hence, dangerously slippery.

However, we made it to the next inhabited place, Koksar,at around 11.30 hrs without any incident. There we stopped for something to bite into. We stopped at a nice dhaba and ordered some wai-wai and tea. The wai wai tasted totally out of this world! Without wasting much time, we got onto our bikes again and started off. We neither knew the road ahead nor did we have much idea where our next pit stop would be.So we decided, the lesser time on chairs and the more on our bikes meant we got to our pit stop in time!

The road ahead was intermittently extremely well built and dirt roads at times. But nevertheless, we were able to make pretty good time and at a "heady" pace, that is until we came upon a dumper truck deep in the river below! That sight was very very effective in slowing us a bit on the narrow montain road!!Continuing up the road, we reached Tandi, the last filling station on the route to Leh. And i felt somewhat proud of the fact that it was an Indian Oil outlet! Tank fills later, we proceeded towards Keylong, the next major town en-route. It was just 6 km from Tandi and we found a good-looking Himachal Tourism resort "Hotel Chandra Bhaga" , where we stopped for lunch. The time was 15.15 hrs then and the hotel staff informed us that it was well past lunchtime and it would be hard for them to conjure up a good lunch. We werent going to miffed by that, and we asked them to salvage whatever they could from their kitchen! It was at this hotel that Amol and Sanjay also caught up with us and we got formally introduced. We had lunch together on what we termed as "leftover rice and paneer"! From the hotel receptionist we found find out that at best we could hope to make it to Jispa or Darcha which were some 3 hours away. After some post-lunch relaxing, we decided we ought to hit the road in order to make it to Darcha well within daylight.

Without further ado, we got onto our bikes again, albeit it was four bikes this time. Amol and Sanjay had decided to stick to us from then onwards. Thank god for that! Those guys were really good company and they always say the more, the merrier. How true!

Some treacherous mountain terrain, some landslides, some more streamlets later, we reached Jispa. We came across some "firangi" adventurers on an expedition called "global enduro". They were all on some 30 bullets, but they had all logistics with them, incuding spares and mechanics. We all looked into each other and said "Naaaaahh!Thats not what you call an adventure!" There was this foreigner sitting on the green lawns of the hotel and sipping on a Kingfisher premium lager in the setling dusk. Never had I felt the need of a beer more in my entire life!!The very fact that we have been riding from 07.45 hrs onwards through torturious terrain was more than enough to call for a chill can or pint or bottle or whatever of soothing comfort of a beer!!

The hotel rooms were exhorbitantly priced for whatever comforts they provided. We suspected the foreign "intrusion" as a cause for the wild inflation. A few enquiries later from a bright and beautiful Himachali gal ( by me!!) , we decided to move on to Darcha, which was just half an hour's drive from Jispa. Waving off to the gal, we resumed our ride towards Darcha.

It was just nearing twilight when we hit Darcha - a hub of dhabas, a police assistance tent , a small village and surprises of surprises-one "theka"!! We made camp at one Lama Dhaba, the proprietor of which was a jovial fellow indeed. My tripmeter read 759 km.

The dhaba was quite homely indeed, with beds laid inside and 3-4 quilts neatly stacked on each bed. 50 bucks per head for beds looked extremely inviting and in little time we unloaded our stuff from the bikes and plonked them inside the dhaba! We had one "Old Monk" giving us company all this while from Manali and we thought it'd be a good time for us to introduce him to our new friends Amol and Sanjay as well! Our overnight stay at Darcha was a good time for all and Lama correctly termed it as a "small picnic"! We had a chilling river behind the dhaba providing a constant gurgle and which also served as an "anywhere" toilet!!! Aptly termed by Lama as "Jangal mein mangal"!!!!

We packed off for the night at around 23.00 hrs, cell phones being put on a recurring alarm at 06.00 hrs!!