Today is the first day, a start of an adventurous ride.
The day I have long waited for dawned
1st June 2012,
With everything packed a night before, I woke up around 2 am for the trip of a lifetime. We were suppose to leave at 3 am, but due to some unavoidable urgent matter, delayed the departure.
Fully loaded ride and the rider
We started our journey around 4:40 am from Gurdwara sarabha nagar after taking blessings of Guru Granth sahib. I was riding for the first time with my new riding partner and it was a first ride of over 100 kms for him. Morning was pleasant with cool breeze touching our face. After, a detour from Phagwara by 6:20 am we reached a Gurdwara near Adampur to pay homage for our successful trip ahead.
Spending one hour over there we resumed our journey. We took kuccha road from Adampur to Dasuya, it was a shortcut. We had hardly covered a short distance, when a sound started coming from rear hub of my bike. We found a road side mechanic, who after inspecting the bike said,
“Sir, nothing serious, you can continue your ride”
Are you sure?
“Yes sir, hundred percent, no need to worry you can carry on.”
With this assurance we carried on and rejoined the national highway to Pathankot. With, the sound still persisting we stopped for breakfast at Mcdonalds near Dasuya. There, we inquired about TVSASS to get the second opinion.
Is there any TVSASS nearby?
“Sir, there use to be one at Dasuya but it has shut down”
oh
” You can find one at Mukerian”
How far it is?
” It is just a half an hour ride from here”
Thanking the staff for the information, we went straight to TVSASS Mukerian. Fortunately, after an inspection of one hour, Tvs people at Mukerian were able to find the root cause of the sound. The culprit turned out to be the packing used instead of going for oversize bearing by the mechanic of tvs centre Ludhiana. Luckily the Hub for rear wheel of the victor was available there.
At TVSASS Mukerian
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Spending almost 3hours at service centre we started from Mukerian around 1:30pm, with a prayer that there would be no more break down.
Now, it was out of question to reach our pre-booked night halt at Jktdc Banihal before night fall. We planned to break our journey for the night at anyplace we could reach around 7 pm, but we carried on riding till Patnitop where we reached around 9 pm. After, an unsuccessful search for a good hotel we crossed Patnitop to check in at the hotel Shangrila on a road side. Nothing good to write about that place. After having a dinner of freshly cooked egg bhurji and chappati at a dabha next door to the hotel, we went to sleep setting alarm for 5 am.
Curtain came down on the first long adventurous day.
The magic first view of the stunningly beautiful Kashmir valley. It mesmerized me.
Next day I woke up with the first ring of the alarm to the panorama of a beautiful sunrise. The camera came out and went straight away in to action. Click click of the camera woke up my partner too. Our Target for the day was Drass/Kargil. Because, of inefficient service at the hotel we could not get ready in time so the departure was delayed.
Finally, we started from the hotel and have hardly gone a few kms, when my bike’s rear tyre got punctured. I was carrying puncture repair kit with me, but a local around guided me to a puncture shop 2 kms ahead. As, the shop owner was not present in his absence his under trainee 10 yr old son was the boss of the shop.
Where is the owner of the shop
” I am the owner, how can I help you”
I looked at the young kid with surprise.
I have a puncture in bike’s rear tyre, can you fix it?
” Sure I can fix it, If you can lend a helping hand”
With the combined effort, both of us were able to fix the tyre by noon.
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Now chances of reaching Drass/Kargil or even Sonmarg looked bleak. Srinagar looked like realistic target for the night halt. We started on hilly roads towards our night destination.
After lunch we resumed our journey from Banihal. On the way we were stopped at a check post just before the Jawahar tunnel.
” STOP” came the commanding voice.
We immediately applied the brakes and waited for a few minutes.
Janab what happened? we asked the concerned cop.
No response for a minute.
” Keep standing ” the command from the same voice
Waiting for few minutes, we requested, to allow us to move on, as we had a long distance to cover.
” Where are you going?” bang came the reply.
Leh
” where are you going today?”
We will be staying at Srinagar tonight.
” Where are you coming from?”
Ludhiana, Punjab.
” why so much Luggage?”
We will be riding for two weeks.
” ok, you can go now, ride safely.”
Starting our bikes in hurry, lest the cop changes his mind, we plunged into the mouth of the tunnel.
We emerged out on the other end of the tunnel with a sigh of relief and reached the titanic point.
The first view of the Kashmir valley mesmerized me.
There we relaxed for some time, and enjoyed the beauty before us. Afterwards, we went straight to Srinagar.
We topped up bike’s fuel tank and our search for the hotel began. Most of the hotels were full, it being summer vacations. We got a room in hotel Hill Skirt near Dal Gate. It was bit expensive but far better than Patnitop hotel.
It was a great relief to wash away, dust and tiredness of the long journey.
Revived in body and spirit went to Dal lake and had dinner at Shaymayana restaurant where we relished various dishes of famous Kashmiri cuisine Wazwan .
Night view of Dal lake
To be continued…