Jalori N Hatu with New Beast and a Pillion

Riding on these steep and narrow roads of the mountains in the rain with a pillion rider all I am thinking of is to reach the cottage where I will be spending my night as fast as I can so that I can save my Nikon and my handycam from rain. Dark clouds have engulfed us both, the light is diminishing at a very fast pace, the road has become quite slippery and a slight distraction will mean loosing concentration and slipping and going down the valley along with my bike and the pillion. But, isn’t this fun and fright is what makes the adrenaline rush and separates a picnic from a bike ride to the mountains and acts as fuel to the burning desire to again pick up your bike and go to the mountains. Every curve, every pass and every peak is an achievement on it’s own.

Just give a thought as to what will you remember when you are old, your cabin in office, your best presentation, you being appreciated in office and getting a raise or these trips where you came to know about your limitations as a human being, where you learned that nature can never be conquered, where every moment was a new learning experience, where you made such friends whom you had never met and most probably will never meet again, where you faced your true self that changed your life not for the sake of society but for yourself.

Manali - Leh route was covered with 5ft snow and the condition was the same for Srinag-Leh route. I informed Tashfeen (my bro) that it won’t be possible to make it to Leh at this time of the year. Asif and Sushil along with there wives were ready for the trip (on car) to Leh but the road conditions made them change there mind and they too called off the trip.

(Video by bcmtouring)

I was left alone, but with strong determination. Everytime I looked at my new beast, it was like it was telling me to go ahead with the ride ‘coz it like a hungry lion wanted to taste blood. It wanted an ice breaker and wanted this trip to act as starter of our long term relationship that I would cherish, just like I had cherished my moments with my older beast.

(My new beast - P220)

I made up my mind and asked Zeeshan if he was interested and well he was more then eager to come along. Initial plan was to go till Jispa and see what conditions awaited me and then plan ahead from ther, but then leaving behind Asif on a bike trip is not something that I cherish. So after spending almost and hour on the map (Courtesy HPTDC) I changed my plan from Leh to a small town in Himachal called Banjar and after lot of persuasion both the couples were ready to come along.

It’s 6 in the morning and Zeeshan is no where in sight and so we are already late by an hour. Atlast he is there and we leave by 6:15. A lot of construction work and road diversions act as speed breakers and we reach the famous Zilmil dhaba near Karnal at 8:45. The sun starts to shine at its full glory and it becomes too hot to handle. At around 12:15 we touched the mountains and the same joy which every mountain bike rider experiences, overtakes me. Next stop was “Hot Millions” in Dharampur for lunch at around 1:00. We finished our lunch when Asif and Sushil reach at around 2:00, as they got caught in traffic in Parwanoo (bike Rules). We made some calls and came to know that due to some movie shooting and it being a weekend our most cherished night halt “Apple Blossom” of HPTDC at Fagu (23 kms ahead of Shimla) was fully occupied.

It was decided that as bike has an advantage over the four wheeled cage (popularly called Car), I was to go and get hotel booked at Fagu and if nothing was available then come back to Shimla and get something booked for the night. Fortunately just 1 km before Fagu I found rooms available at “Ras Resort”.

(Mrs & Mr. Asif and Sushil)

It was a decent place but quite costly at 1600 for a double bedroom, but looking at the condition of hotel availability it was ok.

(Me @ Fagu)

Zeeshan and I got ourselves cleaned and went to roam about. We clicked some pics and Zeeshan was quite excited as this was his first trip of such a kind. Asif and Sushil reached after almost an hour. We both came back to the hotel and then the whole team had some snacks, watched Television, chatted, had dinner and called it a day.

Sunny bright morning greeted us in the morning and we started for Shoja from Fagu. We rode on National highway till Sainj and limitation of the new beast came to fore. Everytime I tried to tilt it the main stand scrapped the ground and so my tilting fun was restricted and believe me if you are not able to tilt your bike so much that your knee (extreme case) or your foot rest touches the road the fun is killed by half on these curvylicious roads.

(Love the curve)

After Sainj we came to normal mountain roads, though I can complain about the roads but how can I? Riding alongside Sutlej River which flows like a serpent between the huge mountains is an experience to be cherished.

Zeeshan was proving to be an excellent pillion as he was negotiating the curves alongwith me exactly they way I wanted.

At one point we stopped to have rest and Zeeshan kept his helmet right on the edge of the road and well as fate will have it, the helmet slipped, tumbled down around 50 foot and was sitting right next to the river and looked at us if daring us to come to where it was. The way down was very steep and it was very risky to go down as one wrong step and you would become one with the river. But the helmet had to be brought and so I found a place where there some bush had grown. With my full riding gear on (to save myself from the thorns) I very carefully went down and at last reached Mr. Helmet and took it back to where it belonged (Zeeshan’s Head). The good thing about these moments are that you really enjoy the memories of the risks that you take, not because you want to but because you have to.

The height was slowly decreasing and we came almost at the level of Sutlej. The water running so close by made our inner child to persuade us to take a dip in Sutlej. We stopped at a place where it was almost at road level and the chilly water acted as a great refresher and energised us for the journey ahead.

(Zeeshan in Sutlej)

While crossing one of the villages (which had not more than 15-20 houses) we saw a marriage ceremony going on. We stopped and Zeeshan captured the moment on handycam, while I, shared a small talk with the local kids and gave them some candies which made them very happy.

The best part of the trip was still to come when we were greeted by apple laden trees on both side of the road. It was the first time in my life seeing such a site and was quite excited. We stopped at a farm and were clicking pics when the lady who owned the farm came and enquired as to what we were doing and after she was convinced that we were interested in pics more than apples that she went away.

(Apple laden trees)

(Tempted to pluck one)

Zeeshan wanted to taste the apple but I was in no mood to get caught stealing apple from a farm, so we moved ahead and then by the road side ahead of us I caught a glimpse two apple tress which were standing without any boundary or anything and looked like they have grown just by themselves and were not owned by anyone. I stopped the bike and said to Zeeshan that he can go ahead and pluck one apple, which he did and enjoyed the apple sitting behind me, sometimes praising the taste and sometimes complaining about it (typical of his behaviour).

The trip from Ani to Jalori was a steep rise but the road was quite nice and with trees providing shade was an added advantage. The temperature kept dipping but it was something that we were enjoying after riding in the blazing heat the day before. We stopped some 5 kms before Jalori for lunch though it was almost 3:00.

(Zeeshan having tea just before Jalori)

We also witnesses a very rare pic of loading the sheeps on a bus and I was lucky to shoot the same but not so lucky for the poor sheeps.

We reached Jalori clicked some pics and went ahead to Shoja. The road from Jalori to Shoja was broken beyond repair with and rocks kept making sound on hitting my bike’s silencer and stand.

It was a steep fall and with the road in such condition I preferred to ride slowly and for some distance I even switched off the engine and just put the bike in first gear and rest was done by the steepness of the road.

(Me @ Jalori Pass)

All the rooms in Banjara retreat were booked and so we went to enquire about the next hotel which was also there and rooms were available there but we preferred to wait for Asif and Sushil. They came after some time but with the plan of going back to Jalori and staying in tent. I was in no mood to go back as the next day we had to go to Jalori and then trek to the lake.

(All of us @ Shoja, only bikers stayed)

Zeeshan and myself stayed at Shoja while Asif and Sushil went back to Jalori. We took a room run (350/- per day) dumped our luggage there and went for some sightseeing.

(View at Shoja)

We roamed the beautiful and silent village of Shoja, clicked some pics and came back to our room. We had some snacks, chatted, had our dinner and went to sleep.

Next morning we were greeted by dark clouds which started poring rain after sometime. Having ridden in worse conditions it was not much of a worry also we had one extra day at our disposal.

(Dark clouds at Shoja)

Main concern were the cameras but then I had PONCHU (Oversized rain coat which can give cover to a single person and the bike at the same time) with me and in the worse case scenario I planned that Zeeshan will put on the Ponchu and will keep the camera bag inside it. But God is more merciful then we can imagine and so the rain went away and after having breakfast we started for Jalori.

The road till Jalori was as bad as last day and not gone to worse because of rain, so it was a nice bumpy ride. From Jalori the tent where Asif and Sushil were staying was around 1km.

(Zeeshan @ camp Site)

Asif and Sushil got ready and we started for the lake. Zeeshan while shooting slipped once on the trek route which was quite narrow and I for a second thought he was going to fall in the valley below. But by grace of God nothing serious happened.

(Mrs & Mr. Asif and Sushil enroute lake)

(That was a steep one and narrow)

(Zeeshan busy preparing hs walking stick for the trek)

After around 2 hrs of trekking we reached the lake. The lake was nice but man-made boundaries and structures destroyed the natural beauty of the lake.

(Mrs & Mr Asif and Sushil @The lake)

(A view of the Lake)

There was a man (maybe the caretaker of the temple built recently) who was keeping guard and shouted every time we put foot in water or tried to wash our hands and face. In short he was acting as if it was his personal property. So much for the trekking effort.

We came back after spending sometime at the lake and had lunch which was the spiciest magi that I had ever had. After some rest Zeeshan, Sushil and I went to Jalori to bring Cold-drink and some snacks. On our return we were glad to see that one more family had come to stay at the tent that evening. The person was from Chandigarh and was there alongwith his LOVELY daughter.

The sky was overcast and we had a bonfire, drank tea alongwith some snacks and spent time chatting and then had dinner. I went to sleep while rest of the group stayed near the fire for some more chit chat session.

I was the first one to rise in the morning and when all got up we decided to leave without having breakfast. We also decided to stay either at Narkanda or Fagu or Chail, preference given in the same order based on availability.

I stopped my bike at a location which looked quite nice with Sutlej flowing at road level. We spent few moments there and refreshed ourselves.

(Making its own way - Sutlej)

It was exam time at most of the schools and while on our way, I came to a school (population of village was 120) where almost all the children were standing on the road, maybe waiting for the exam to get started. As soon as I stopped my bike, Zeeshan and I were surrounded by the gang, I clicked some pictures of them with Zeeshan and with my bike.

(Zeeshan with the kids - that's Zeeshan's cap)

(220 being mobbed-looks happy)

We had breakfast at Sainj and moved ahead. It started to rain just as we crossed Sainj and so comes out my dear PONCHU and Zeeshan was sitting wearing it looking like JATAYU (this is what he said).

(Zeeshan - The Jatayu Getup)

It was drizzling and the road was very nice and riding in such a condition was something that I really enjoyed, though all wet but I was ecstatic. It was the best ride of the trip.

We reached Narkanda and on enquiring we got the rooms or better say cottages (Resort, just on the outskirt of Narkanda). Zeeshan and I decided to go to the city; we had tea and then sat on a lonely road and chatted for almost an hour. Zeeshan insisted on going to Hatu peak and so we were on our way to Hatu peak. The road was quite narrow but not broken at any place.

The shooting of the movie “Tere Mere Phere” was on full swing. The cast was Riya Sen and Vinay Pathak (Bheja fry, Khosla ka Ghosla). We clicked some pics but and the sky was suddenly covered by dark clouds and with our cameras and no poncho, we decided to go back.

It started raining and I was riding on the steep and narrow roads of the mountains in the rain with a pillion rider and all I was thinking of was to reach the cottage where I will be spending my night as fast as I can so that I can save my Nikon and my handycam from rain. Dark clouds engulfed us both, the light diminished at a very fast pace, the road had become quite slippery and a slight distraction would have meant loosing concentration and slipping and going down the valley along with my bike and the pillion. We reached safely but all drenched. I was quite happy that though the bag was wet but no damage was done to the camera because Zeeshan had covered it with his helmet and hand.

(Cottage where we stayed at Narkanda)

(View from our cottage after the rain)

(Tried hand on macro shooting)

Rest of the day was quite normal with us clicking pics. For dinner we went to Hatu hotel and had a nice dinner.

Next morning we woke up early and skipped breakfast to start early. I rode continuously for 3 hours (my personal highest) around 140 kms and stopped for breakfast ahead of Kandaghat. Rest of the ride back was normal with us stopping at Haveli restaurant for lunch.

(View of Haveli)

We reached back to Delhi at around 8:00 PM. It was one of those trips where i missed by bike partner and hope to see him on his bike for the next trip and hopefully i will have a new Pillion rider, and the ride will act as hors d'oeuvre for her.