The Bhutanchal Buccaneers

Day 11 : April 20^th

Tawang-Sela Pass-Dirang- Bomdila-Bhalukpong

This was a day we’d remember most of our lives. We all knew that time was of the essence and this fact wasn’t lost on anyone. We all got up fine and dandy just around sunrise and by 0530 hours we were all set to go. Infact the hotel staff wasn’t awake yet when we left. The road looked all too familiar to us and we didn’t linger around but made it straight to the road that would lead us down below…all the way to Sela Pass. We all tanked up at the sole petrol pump outside of Tawang and kept riding. It was only in the morning light that we found out the road we had taken two nights ago. It was sheer madness. There was still slush around and we counted our lucky stars that none of us had any mishaps on that night.

The road kept leading us down and wesoon reached Jung and crossed without making a stopover. The guys were on a mission. The only stop we made was at the café at Jaswantgarh where we had some tea and samosas for breakfast. We didn’t want to stuff ourselves too much because we were all looking forward to having lunch that the same un-named dhaba near Bomdila – a place that served us the most memorable food in this entire trip. We sped on and were making a brisk pace and soon enough we came to Sela Pass. There we found out that it had snowed heavily the night before and there was ice everywhere. We had to be careful and with that in mind all of us slowed down. Gyan, Doley and I were in the leading flank. I was doing hardly 25 kmph when suddenly I just turned turtle and the bike was on me. I fell hard on the ground. I had no idea how I fell off. The guys following me also had no clue how I just happened to fall. Some suggested it was the ice, some suggested the brakes locked up – but I never braked in the first place, some suggested I was taken aback with the breathtaking view. But I suspect it was the evil eye John had put on me! I was hexed! There is no other plausible reason!! One doesn't fall off a bike just like that!! It was my fault, I had been pulling too much of John’s legs.

My arm, my knee and my ankle were hurting like hell and I was still pinned down under my bike. The engine was still running, and I could just reach out and turn the ignition off. I was just praying that I didn’t break any bones or something like that because that would be real trouble at this place. Gyan and Doley, who were behind me, rushed to my rescue and lifted the bike and me up. I could hardly stand and my arms were like frozen solid. The extremely chilly wind that was blowing the crap out of us wasn’t helping either. I was numb with the cold and before things got worse with me Kenny advised I should ride down to warmer temperatures. I couldn't agree more and somehow made limped to my bike and started it. Fortunately, the bike hadn't suffered any major damage, only the front fairing had taken a slight beating. I took off, not waiting for any time at Sela Pass. I wanted to get away from the freezing environs as soon as possible. I did whatever speed I was comfortable with without putting too much strain on my elbow which hurt continuously.

Inspite of the mishap we weren’t too far from schedule and we crossed Dirang around the same time we wanted to. Not wasting much time we kept the breaks to a minimum and kept riding hard. Doley was on a roll and so was Gyan on this day. I was just happy to be going decent with my arm. Gyan was riding so hard that he made it to our beloved dhaba with a grand entrance. He made a screeching halt at the dhaba and spooked the lady! She cried out “will you go out flying to your destination?”! Gyan replied that he couldn’t wait long to taste her food and that’s why had come riding like a madman. They had already taken out a beer by the time I and Dutta reached there. But just before that place, Uncle’s R 15 suffered a puncture, but fortunately there was a repair shop nearby that mended the tube. Kenny and Doley helped Uncle with that. Yeah, Uncle’s R15 was running on tubes. His alloys had taken some nasty beating earlier and tubeless tyres wouldn’t hold air for too long. It was during this stretch that Payeng Da also escaped a collision with a Santro.

I finally opened up my jeans and saw the damage done. There was a deep red patch on my left knee and I sanitized it using savlon. I didn’t dare open up my shirt; I was too scared to see the extent of damage done to my elbow! I wanted to ride on and clean up only in Bhalukpong.

Lunch was again amazingly, awesomely good and post lunch Payeng Da decided to take a power nap which he badly needed. It was 1430 hours and we decided to move on if we were to make it to Bhalukpong before nightfall. I clamped up, not even opening my rain suit, not wanting to expose any of my skin to the cold air. We hit the road again and soon crossed Bomdila. After Bomdila the weather played tricks on us. There was a heavy veil of mist in the hills that made riding a tough proposition. Add to it a very wet road and you have a near perfect recipe for an accident. We played extremely safe and kept to a single file, our headlights and blinkers turned on, horns blaring at every possible corner and turn. The mist would keep coming and going but seemed never ending. We rode for atleast an hour in that mist,but hardly made anything more than 25 kmph. I was even more wary because the slightest upset would make my rear tyre take a spin for itself and take me with it. I didn’t want any more falls for the day and one more would have crippled me. It came to the point that the visibility was down to just about 5- 10 meter when the guys decided to take a break. And what a break. A beer break it was. That too in the chilling cold!

I wasn’t in the mood for beer, I just wanted to get to the hotel fast and nurse my wounds!! But the mist wouldn’t let go of us till we reached the very bottom of the hills. And then the slush started. We had crossed this stretch on our way to Dirang, but

it was dry at that time and now it was fresh mud after a spell of heavy rains. It was just unspeakably slippery and all of the guys were just about making it 10kmph. I was even more careful, because my tyre was slipping like crazy and my rear end was fishtailing left and right. I was trying to ride on whatever dry patch I could find even if that meant me going off the road for a while. My arm had started to act up and was aching like mad. I was just hoping against hope this stretch didn’t seem as long as it actually was. In this melee I could hear John shouting verses of self motivation! His voice could be heard above the sound of my engine, through the helmet and above the sound of the river raging below! “Oh Yeah, Yes F***ers, Oh yeah, C’mon now” was all I could make out when I stopped to see if John was crying for help!

Some distance into the slush, Payeng Da slipped and his bike just leaned on him slowly. We got the bike up from him and helped him to is feet, but there was a government vehicle that was honking impatiently shouting as to why we had stopped abruptly. When he came abreast of us we told him one of the guys had fallen down. “Acchha” was all he said, bloody bugger. And the irony of it all – it was a medical jeep!

We somehow kept going, Doley at one point getting absolutely frustrated, my tank hitting reserve and giving me a scare when the engine went off. Nevertheless we kept inching forward until we saw some lights up the distance. It wasn’t Bhalukpomg, but a small place 5 km from Bhalukpong. But the very fact that we were within 5 km of Bhalukpong made us race towards it. Soon enough we saw the hotel signboard!!! The incline I was dreading didn’t turn out to be too bad. Somehow the rain hadn’t affected it much. I was rushing towards the hotel but a wrong turn made me go some other way instead, much to the amusement of the guys who woke up the entire town with their guffaws!

We finally got to the hotel where the hotel staff had been patiently waiting for us. They had already kept the ramp ready for us to lower our bikes onto the lawn. It was almost 9 pm and the last 10 km had taken a toll on everyone. We just wanted to have a hot bath and a light meal before hitting off to a much needed sleep. They amazingly good staff at the hotel had actually kept a whole lot of pork for us since we had requested them to do so when we had left for Dirang from their hotel! The guys piled into our room for some drinks to soothe their aching muscles while I tried to take a short nap after popping in a paracetamol.

Doley woke me up when it was time for dinner and I had a shock when I saw the amount of food that had been served for us. We ate whatever we could and kept the leftovers nicely stored in the containers. I thought it would be a shame to waste such good food and we decided we’d have the same stuff for breakfast the next day.

We also decided we’d start at around 1100 hours the next day and reach Guwahati by evening time. I was having problems with my leg and arm and decided to sleep early. I rubbed some muscle relaxant but that wasn’t helping much. I wasn’t the only one hitting the bed early. All of us took to our beds as soon as we had finished off dinner.