Into The Wild

Day 2 : Trip 623 km
Panipat to Manali ; 07.09.08

The day saw us start off from Gyan's place at an "early" 0500 Hrs and into the GT road, only to be greeted by light showers just half an hour into the ride. What was a cool ride turned into a ride in the raging rains for the better half of the day. The sun brought some respite from the rain just a few kms before Kiratpur, where Gyan has the first fall of the trip. Some mishap with a fellow crossing the road. Anshu was behind him, and he promptly helped Gyan and his bruised bike back on, only to be rammed hard into by another biker's fall exactly on the same patch. Poor Anshu had to be administered first aid too!!! We had all waited for the bruised duo at the junction where the road turns towards Manali. Cameras clicked away at the damages of the first fall much to the chagrin of Gyan, who had just spent 350 bucks on his indicator, and which was now dangling limply -broken and tattered!!

A cup of tea later from a roadside dhaba, we were onto the hills!! Fortunately and very much surprisingly , we encountered a lot less trucks than we did the last time. We figured it being a Sunday, the loading operations at the ACC factory at Bilaspur might be off for the day. Whatever be the reason, we were making good time in spite of the extremely bad patches patches of road that leaped out of nowhere in the middle of the ripping road. The roads had definitely taken a turn for the worse, with wild patches of sticky coal tar at one stretch too. Yuck! my poor 120/80 !! I could just about save it from the tar.

We made a stopover at Bilaspur at around 1400 hrs for our lunch at the same Neelam Restaurant where we halted for breakfast last year. A good meal and a couple of beers later, we decided we ought to be hitting the road soon to reach Manali as soon as we could make it.Some way into the ride , Anshu started having problems with his bike. Someone suggested putting the tank on reserve and starting,which worked! Later we found out it was actually the tank running dry. And it was at one of those stops that Anshu had a very very very narrow escape from being hit by a Himachal Road Transport bus. We had stopped at a petrol pump to see what was causing Anshu's bike to stall, and when the bike started thumping normally , I got back on the road and waited for Anshu and Vikram to get behind me. I saw a HP bus zip by me and after seconds I heard was a booming "screech" of brakes and that's all...it was only after Kamikaze told me that the bus had braked so hard for Anshu, that I realized what a harrowing experience it must have been. Damn Anshu! You are one lucky dude!!

Then again, nature had other plans. After Sundernagar, the weather started turning inclement, and started a steady downpour that lasted all the way till Kullu. Frustrating though it was , we decided to brave the rain and move on, eating away miles at a slow pace. Anshu particularly had problems with his "snow goggles", a fact observed by Gyan and we offered to escort Anshu , hoping the tail lights ahead of him would provide some relief. We crawled on and on, the rain drops biting at our faces. It was very very tiring and the glaring headlights of the oncoming vehicles made it so much more difficult. Some distance before Kullu, I was the last in the line , and in front of me was Gyan. As I was negotiating a particularly sharp turn, I saw Gyan's bike's tail lamps, but the horizontal orientation of the tail lamps puzzled me at first. A split second later I realized Gyan had skidded and taken a fall. Sure enough, as my low beams hit the road, I saw Gyan sprawled on the road, rains lashing no end. I helped him onto the bike and after making sure everything was ok with his bike, we trundled on. A few kilometres ahead of us , it was Anshu who had his bike parked at the road side. His bike had run out of petrol. I went scouting up and down for some petrol, only to find either the pumps had closed, or they had run out of petrol. Frustrated , we took a litre of petrol out of Gyan's bike and hoped Anshu's bike would be able to make it to the next pump station and luckily it did! Anshu filled up , so did Gyan and we moved towards Kullu where the rest of us waited for our safe ride.

We found the rest of the guys waiting for us at Kullu, and by that time the rain had subsided somewhat. We decided to stick as close as possible from thereon to be able to help one another if another need arises. It was a hard and long ride from Kullu till Manali - the roads had deteriorated and we had trouble navigating the potholes and pebbles in the dark. After a ride that never seemed to end, we finally reached the "green" check post at Manali, paid bloody 600 bucks for the six bikes and after picking up some coke , we proceeded towards the IOC holiday home near Hadimba Temple. To our relief we found the holiday home guys waiting for us to help us out with the baggage. It was 2245 Hrs when we put our bikes on the stands, and it was 2310 Hrs when we had our pegs of Old Monk in our hands to toast us for making it to Manali in one piece - both bike and body!

We all crashed into the inviting warm sofas in the lounge section, while everyone piled their stuff inside their rooms. We had the whole cottage to ourselves and we made the most of it. Dinner was ready and we went on with our partying till we were famished and hogged away at the sumptuous food. People were still bent on making merry, pulling each other's legs, while I decided to hit the sack. I was droopy eyed and needed some sleep pronto, and after a while, the others too piled onto their beds........a sound sleep awaiting each of us.