Rohru and Beyond: Exploring Himachal
Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 3:31 am
I was itching to go for long trip for some time finally Salil Bunny and I decided to go to Rohru, even though we have been there on our last trip to Himalayas in December 2004.
29th May 2005: Delhi- Ambala-Kalka-Shimla-Theog-Kharapathar-Giri Ganga-Kharapathar-Rohru
We were leaving on 29th May as I had my last paper on the 28th. After I came home I called up bunny and we decided to meet at his place at 3:45am, then I gave a call to salil who told me that he will be at my place by 3:30am. As always I didn’t get much sleep before the trip (30min to be exact!!). Salil was running a bit late and reached my place by 4:10am. At 4:20am after saying bye to my mom, sis and dad, Salil and I went to bunny’s place. He was waiting outside his apartment complex and he was a little bit angry coz we made him wait for such a long time.
After a quick greeting, we all started heading for the petrol pump to tank up. My bike was just reaching the reserve level so she drank the most petrol 15.26 liter to be exact! Next stop was Ambala where Akshay was waiting for us with his brand new Karizma. After chatting for a while, it was time for us to leave. By 8 o’clock all of us were feeling hungry, so we decided to stop at a Dhaba before Zirakpur crossing and had our fill. After a hefty breakfast it was time to move on.
As soon as we crossed Kalka Salil and Bunny started ripping, I on the other hand was feeling sleepy and suspension and tyre problem prompted me to ride slow. But it was still fun cruising in the hills. Just before Kufri we stopped for Lunch and went into a small Dhaba. We decided to go in the balcony coz of the great view of hills it offered. Then came the food, I had ordered rajma-chawal my favorite, but the taste of them made me sick!!! That was the worst food I ever had!! I was trying to gulp down rajma-chawal with the help of Pepsi and was able to eat one third of it, at that point I simply gave up. Now I was not only feeling sleepy, but I was also feeling like I was about to throw up.
We again started our journey through the twisty hill roads.
After a few more breaks we reached giri-ganga, last time we had tried doing the same stretch of 4x4 jeep road which was covered with snow and we were only able to cover 3-4kms of the 6km route. It took me nearly 30min’s to cover 6km route which had every thing from sand to razor sharp stones.
After spending half an hour at the top, we started our journey to our final destination for that day Rohru. It was starting to get dark, Bunny decided to rip again, while Salil and I were ridding together just like our previous trips. Once in Rohru we again went to the same guest house, where we had stayed on our last trip. Got a room there and decided to head back to the restaurant where we had dinner last time. After a dinner we decided to go for a walk and thereafter decided to call it a night.
30th May 2005: Rohru-Chirgaon-Larot- River bed
As usual we got up late in the morning, Bunny decided to get omelets from a shop nearby, while Salil and I got took our time getting ready. After breakfast we decided to head out to Chansal pass, not knowing how much of it we would be able to cover.
Roads leading up to the pass were all dirt tracks, but the scenery surrounding us more then made up for it.
By the time we reached Larot it was raining hard, I was in no mood to ride on the dirt track in rain; however Salil and Bunny managed to convince me to continue the ride. As soon as the rain eased down a bit we started riding. After 4kms we came across a turn which was covered with slush, Bunny and Salil decided to put a log in the middle of it. Bunny crossed over and went further only to return to tell us that there was a small stream flowing in the middle of the road so we would not be able to make it any further.
At this point we decided to leave our bikes, Salil and Bunny went to trek while I stayed on top of a small mountain. Took some pics there and shot a small video, at which point the memory in my digital camera got filled. Forty minutes later Salil and Bunny returned and we trekked a little bit further up the dirt trek and found a spot perfect for camping.
We decided to head back and once we came back to Larot we were amazed to find a bus there! Larot is connected using a bus service, hats off to the driver of the bus who brought the bus so high on a road, which made every nut and bolt in our bike and every bone in our body loose! Finally came down from the climb and stopped at a tea stall where we all had maggi and tea. At this point a cute doggie came, so I decided to feed her some cream biscuit I was carrying and ended up giving her 8-10 biscuits.
We all ripped hard till Rohru. Once reaching there we decided to look for a cyber café to transfer the photos to cds and were unable to find one. But we did find an ice-cream wala and we all had Custard-milk with ice cream 10bucks each glass!
Now it was getting dark so we decided to head to river bank and have dinner one the beach itself. As usual our Munshiji (Bunny) went back to Rohru and brought back aloo paranthas, dal and Pepsi. We all ate there and also shot some pics.
After having dinner we went back to the hotel and planning which route to take tomorrow, at about 11:00am bunny saw a face peeping from the window who said “soye nahin kya?” bunny got the scare of his life and he literally jumped three feets in the air!!! It was none other than the care taker of the guest house who saw lights were still on and got a bit curious
.
He came in to our room and we asked him which road we should take tomorrow. He in turned warned us not to take the road to chakrata as the route is filled with robbers and roads are not in good condition either! He gave us another route of Rohru-Batshal Pur-Baggi-Narkanda-Shimla-Delhi. We decided to heed to his advice and agreed to take this route tomorrow.
31st May 2005: Rohru-Batshal Pur-Baggi-Narkanda-Shimla
At 8o’clock in the morning we finally woke up, Bunny at this point wanted to reach home early so we decided to split up and he left an hour before Salil and me. We took the route recommended by the caretaker and found it to be in good condition and quite scenic.
After a while of riding I heard some noise coming from the bike, it seemed to me that it was either the chain or the gearbox! I got a bit worried coz didn’t wanted get stuck coz of a bike problem. So I decided to slow down, but it seemed like god had some thing else in stored for us. We didn’t have time to take shower and it looked like god wanted to us to take a shower so everywhere we went we were followed by rain! At one point there was hailstorm as well! We had to take shelter under a small shop in a village. At this point a local told us, that at this time of year they don’t get much rain here! We could see the dry roads being covered by the rains that were accompanying us! This remained the case for almost the whole day, until we entered Shimla. However it was 6pm already and we were in a fix whether or not to continue to Delhi. Salil wanted to spend another night in hills, but I wanted to continue on despite bike problem. As always Salil convinced me to stay there so we decided to spend a night at Shoghi.
After crossing Shmila, Salil told me to look at a pulsar with luggage carrier, it was nicely done and we thought about talking to that guy about it. Before we could even say anything that guy took a u turn and came to us. He introduced himself as Amit Reddy and he was on all India tour on his pulsar 180!
Salil and I chatted with Amit for a while and he informed us that there was a Bajaj service center down the road We exchanged no’s Salil and I went to the service center to get the bike, after taking a test ride on the bike the service center mach said timming chain was loose. However he was convinced there was no need to adjust it! I decided there was no point arguing with that idiot and we went to Shoghi and checked into a small hotel. After checking in we called up Amit and asked him if he would like to have dinner with us, he said yes so we went to scandal point and met him there.
While eating dinner he told about his philosophies and why he is doing this ride and what all problems he is facing on the trip. It was an amazing experience sharing ideas and experiences with some one who is doing a trip that I would love to do some day. By 11:30 we were back in our hotel room and we decided to call it a night.
1st June 2005: Shoghi-Kalka-Ambala-Delhi
Next morning we got up at 10:30am and by 11:05am we were ripping on the nh22. Didn’t take much rest just went fast, since salil had a shift at 8:00pm. Stopped for breakfast come lunch before Zirkpur. Then we started ripping again.
The weather was getting bad by every minute and strong cross winds were making our bike wiggle from one side to the other. The progress was tough but we continued at 95+kmph. Hot weather made sure that we were taking water and butt rest every half an hour. After Sonipat we were continuously doing 100+ I was able to touch 120kmph without crouching and with luggage on my back. Salil did 127kmph on the same stretch. We finally reached Delhi border by 5oclcok, we bid farewell to each other.
I reached home by 5:40pm, having gone for three nights and four days, covering 1119kms of rough and hard terrain and still my bike gave me an average of 38.6kmpl not bad for pulsar 180 classic, which is more then three years old and has gone through so much abuse.
more photos
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/salilxbhp/Rohru/
29th May 2005: Delhi- Ambala-Kalka-Shimla-Theog-Kharapathar-Giri Ganga-Kharapathar-Rohru
We were leaving on 29th May as I had my last paper on the 28th. After I came home I called up bunny and we decided to meet at his place at 3:45am, then I gave a call to salil who told me that he will be at my place by 3:30am. As always I didn’t get much sleep before the trip (30min to be exact!!). Salil was running a bit late and reached my place by 4:10am. At 4:20am after saying bye to my mom, sis and dad, Salil and I went to bunny’s place. He was waiting outside his apartment complex and he was a little bit angry coz we made him wait for such a long time.
After a quick greeting, we all started heading for the petrol pump to tank up. My bike was just reaching the reserve level so she drank the most petrol 15.26 liter to be exact! Next stop was Ambala where Akshay was waiting for us with his brand new Karizma. After chatting for a while, it was time for us to leave. By 8 o’clock all of us were feeling hungry, so we decided to stop at a Dhaba before Zirakpur crossing and had our fill. After a hefty breakfast it was time to move on.
As soon as we crossed Kalka Salil and Bunny started ripping, I on the other hand was feeling sleepy and suspension and tyre problem prompted me to ride slow. But it was still fun cruising in the hills. Just before Kufri we stopped for Lunch and went into a small Dhaba. We decided to go in the balcony coz of the great view of hills it offered. Then came the food, I had ordered rajma-chawal my favorite, but the taste of them made me sick!!! That was the worst food I ever had!! I was trying to gulp down rajma-chawal with the help of Pepsi and was able to eat one third of it, at that point I simply gave up. Now I was not only feeling sleepy, but I was also feeling like I was about to throw up.
We again started our journey through the twisty hill roads.
After a few more breaks we reached giri-ganga, last time we had tried doing the same stretch of 4x4 jeep road which was covered with snow and we were only able to cover 3-4kms of the 6km route. It took me nearly 30min’s to cover 6km route which had every thing from sand to razor sharp stones.
After spending half an hour at the top, we started our journey to our final destination for that day Rohru. It was starting to get dark, Bunny decided to rip again, while Salil and I were ridding together just like our previous trips. Once in Rohru we again went to the same guest house, where we had stayed on our last trip. Got a room there and decided to head back to the restaurant where we had dinner last time. After a dinner we decided to go for a walk and thereafter decided to call it a night.
30th May 2005: Rohru-Chirgaon-Larot- River bed
As usual we got up late in the morning, Bunny decided to get omelets from a shop nearby, while Salil and I got took our time getting ready. After breakfast we decided to head out to Chansal pass, not knowing how much of it we would be able to cover.
Roads leading up to the pass were all dirt tracks, but the scenery surrounding us more then made up for it.
By the time we reached Larot it was raining hard, I was in no mood to ride on the dirt track in rain; however Salil and Bunny managed to convince me to continue the ride. As soon as the rain eased down a bit we started riding. After 4kms we came across a turn which was covered with slush, Bunny and Salil decided to put a log in the middle of it. Bunny crossed over and went further only to return to tell us that there was a small stream flowing in the middle of the road so we would not be able to make it any further.
At this point we decided to leave our bikes, Salil and Bunny went to trek while I stayed on top of a small mountain. Took some pics there and shot a small video, at which point the memory in my digital camera got filled. Forty minutes later Salil and Bunny returned and we trekked a little bit further up the dirt trek and found a spot perfect for camping.
We decided to head back and once we came back to Larot we were amazed to find a bus there! Larot is connected using a bus service, hats off to the driver of the bus who brought the bus so high on a road, which made every nut and bolt in our bike and every bone in our body loose! Finally came down from the climb and stopped at a tea stall where we all had maggi and tea. At this point a cute doggie came, so I decided to feed her some cream biscuit I was carrying and ended up giving her 8-10 biscuits.
We all ripped hard till Rohru. Once reaching there we decided to look for a cyber café to transfer the photos to cds and were unable to find one. But we did find an ice-cream wala and we all had Custard-milk with ice cream 10bucks each glass!
Now it was getting dark so we decided to head to river bank and have dinner one the beach itself. As usual our Munshiji (Bunny) went back to Rohru and brought back aloo paranthas, dal and Pepsi. We all ate there and also shot some pics.
After having dinner we went back to the hotel and planning which route to take tomorrow, at about 11:00am bunny saw a face peeping from the window who said “soye nahin kya?” bunny got the scare of his life and he literally jumped three feets in the air!!! It was none other than the care taker of the guest house who saw lights were still on and got a bit curious
. He came in to our room and we asked him which road we should take tomorrow. He in turned warned us not to take the road to chakrata as the route is filled with robbers and roads are not in good condition either! He gave us another route of Rohru-Batshal Pur-Baggi-Narkanda-Shimla-Delhi. We decided to heed to his advice and agreed to take this route tomorrow.
31st May 2005: Rohru-Batshal Pur-Baggi-Narkanda-Shimla
At 8o’clock in the morning we finally woke up, Bunny at this point wanted to reach home early so we decided to split up and he left an hour before Salil and me. We took the route recommended by the caretaker and found it to be in good condition and quite scenic.
After a while of riding I heard some noise coming from the bike, it seemed to me that it was either the chain or the gearbox! I got a bit worried coz didn’t wanted get stuck coz of a bike problem. So I decided to slow down, but it seemed like god had some thing else in stored for us. We didn’t have time to take shower and it looked like god wanted to us to take a shower so everywhere we went we were followed by rain! At one point there was hailstorm as well! We had to take shelter under a small shop in a village. At this point a local told us, that at this time of year they don’t get much rain here! We could see the dry roads being covered by the rains that were accompanying us! This remained the case for almost the whole day, until we entered Shimla. However it was 6pm already and we were in a fix whether or not to continue to Delhi. Salil wanted to spend another night in hills, but I wanted to continue on despite bike problem. As always Salil convinced me to stay there so we decided to spend a night at Shoghi.
After crossing Shmila, Salil told me to look at a pulsar with luggage carrier, it was nicely done and we thought about talking to that guy about it. Before we could even say anything that guy took a u turn and came to us. He introduced himself as Amit Reddy and he was on all India tour on his pulsar 180!
Salil and I chatted with Amit for a while and he informed us that there was a Bajaj service center down the road We exchanged no’s Salil and I went to the service center to get the bike, after taking a test ride on the bike the service center mach said timming chain was loose. However he was convinced there was no need to adjust it! I decided there was no point arguing with that idiot and we went to Shoghi and checked into a small hotel. After checking in we called up Amit and asked him if he would like to have dinner with us, he said yes so we went to scandal point and met him there.
While eating dinner he told about his philosophies and why he is doing this ride and what all problems he is facing on the trip. It was an amazing experience sharing ideas and experiences with some one who is doing a trip that I would love to do some day. By 11:30 we were back in our hotel room and we decided to call it a night.
1st June 2005: Shoghi-Kalka-Ambala-Delhi
Next morning we got up at 10:30am and by 11:05am we were ripping on the nh22. Didn’t take much rest just went fast, since salil had a shift at 8:00pm. Stopped for breakfast come lunch before Zirkpur. Then we started ripping again.
The weather was getting bad by every minute and strong cross winds were making our bike wiggle from one side to the other. The progress was tough but we continued at 95+kmph. Hot weather made sure that we were taking water and butt rest every half an hour. After Sonipat we were continuously doing 100+ I was able to touch 120kmph without crouching and with luggage on my back. Salil did 127kmph on the same stretch. We finally reached Delhi border by 5oclcok, we bid farewell to each other.
I reached home by 5:40pm, having gone for three nights and four days, covering 1119kms of rough and hard terrain and still my bike gave me an average of 38.6kmpl not bad for pulsar 180 classic, which is more then three years old and has gone through so much abuse.
more photos
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/salilxbhp/Rohru/