Into The Wild

Day 4 : Trip 717 km

Manali to Chhatru ; 09.09.08

None of us woke up early the next day. We all had a leisurely breakfast, no rush, and were up and ready by 1100 hrs. We beelined to the filling station to top up our tanks and to fill up our Jerry cans; The next petrol pump was at Kazaa, quite some distance away and we had no idea of the terrain. While the guys were filling up, I scooted some distance ahead towards Prini.......some old memories beckoned me. Took some snaps of a particular hotel......french by the name - DiVivendi. Then I scooted back to the filling station to find the guys still on the job of filling up their Jerry cans. After the fill-up, we all started off towards Rohtang La, one after the other - in a bee line, careful not to leave anyone behind.

We had intially planned that since the distance from Manali to Chandertaal was around 115 km, we'd be able to do it in one day. Were we wrong!!!! The ride to Rohtang was relatively hassle free. Anshu had his first of many falls on the way to Rohtang pass. Not his fault, it was one tricky and steep hairpin. Even Kenny and Vikram had issues negotiating that turn, and I remembered that turn very well. It was on that turn that we had met Sanajy and Amol the previous years and great buddies till date. Many stops later and some tricky negotiations by Anshu, we finally made it to Rohtang after a gruelling 3 and a half hours. Lunch at Rohtang pass was maggi and omelette's on top, topped up by some swigs at the Old Monk from our hip flasks, which by now had started leaking from the caps. All the more reason to swig at the hip flasks!!

Deciding not to linger on much at Rohtang La, we hopped onto our steel horses and spurred them on. Just after Rohtang, we encountered a hailstorm. Out came the rain suits, and after a brief halt for putting them on, we carried on. The steep inclines and the pitting hailstones made the ride a tad uncomfortable. But we knew the stormy weather meant the sky was gonna get dark soon. So we tried to make the best time possible, squeezing out the best speed we were comfortable with. Soon enough we reached Gramphoo, the point where the road forks out -one goes towards Keylong and Leh, and the other one towards the Spiti Valley. Its very easy to miss except for a signboard that shows the way to the Spiti Valley. There's nothing but a milestone saying "Gramphoo 0 km" to distinguish the place from any other fork on the road. We veered to the right and entered Spiti territory, immediately greeted with some fantastic views in spite of the hails. There were eager shouts and waving of hands from Gyan, Kenny and me. From Jill's look on his face, I could make out that he wasn't too comfortable with the ride - perhaps he was too worried about his bike or perhaps he was a bit sick with the altitude. Whatever, he had no option but to keep pushing with the rest or fall behind.

The road was horrible though, and we made slow progress. We had grossly under estimated the roads. Our average speeds came down to just 10 km/hr. It was growing darker by the moment and we decided we had to camp fast. Some 2 km before Chhatru ( we didn't at that point of time that the faint lights ahead were of Chhatru) we came across a nice place to camp...a somewhat high place, with a small stream rushing by, and a large river down below. We hurriedly set up tent - a race against time. Jill and Anshu giving instructions on setting up tent, while Kenny and Gyan went about working on it. I went in search of some driftwood for setting up a fire, but all I could come across were small twigs and branches. Still, I crammed as much as I could find into my bike's saddle bags and raced back towards the campsite. The fellows had still to set up one more tent, and it was dark by that time. It was precisely 1800 hrs. I had to light up my headlights and turn them towards the tent to help the guys with some light.

Finally we were done with the tents!!! We all piled our stuff inside and I and Kenny made an attempt to light up the stove. No luck. After a few tries, we tried looking for help. A forest rangers' camp was nearby and we tried to ask them for assistance. The good samaritan came into our tent and lit up the stove for us. At last we could make something to eat!!!! We put on some water for boiling , while the rest of the guys savoured in the surrounding beauty. Jill was down with AMS and popped in a diamox and rested inside a tent. The water had boiled and we took out our cup noodles. Kenny and Gyan took out some sleeping mats and laid them down just near a cliff sort of thing. I put all the twigs I had gathered in the centre of the sleeping mats and also put a lit candle. Talk about dinner by the candle light!!! A little kerosene on the twigs and they lit up with crackling noises. We tried to enjoy it while the fire lasted, the guys settling into a warm laze on the sleeping mats. Anshu and Jill missed it cause they were busy rolling up a joint inside a tent. It was cup noodles time and we poured in the hot water into the noodles and they were tasty in a jiffy!!!

We opened up a can of tuna fish and I poured the contents onto a saucepan. Soon we had tuna fish as a supplement! Then we tried a can of pork the same way, which was taken well with the old monk in our hip flasks. I took a stroll, high-fived Kenny for finding us such a beautiful place for a campsite - river rushing below , stream flowing near, the moonlit starry sky and a valley to boot. I drifted onto some memories of promises made , put on some blues on my walkman, hoped one day I could keep those promises.

We all huddled into one tent after a while, sat by the candle light and exchanged stories. The stove was still lit to provide us some warmth inside the tent. The hip flasks were passed around, cashews and almonds being roasted over the flame and us munching on them, till we decided to pop into our sleeping bags. I still wanted to soak in some more. Lit up a smoke (I don't smoke btw), sat down on a stone by the cliff side and got lost on some thoughts and memories. It was sheer heaven that evening, that starry night, those moonlit mountains, the river, and the gurgling stream.........

After some moments with myself, I thought I'd pack up and snuggle inside our tent -shared by Gyan and Kamikaze, the other tent shared by the rest. I did have an attack of AMS some hours into the night. Woke up Gyan for a pill of diamox and went out again for some fresh air. It was only after that I could sleep again.