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Written day by day, on my laptop, while I was on the ride.
Bike Used : HeroHonda Karizma
Dates: 18/19/20/21st Dec 2006
Why does one need to ride out again when all he has been doing for the past 70 days or so is touring around? I still cant figure it out and my heart still owes an explanation to my mind.
Sitting in this little room at 9000 feet above sea level, with snowy peaks on the left side of the hotel, I am sipping my 2nd cup of hot tea and having steamy hot Egg Pakoras. Narkanda, around 420kms from Delhi on the Nh-22 is my current location.
Starting from Delhi at 7:45am in the morning, it was nice riding solo on the NH-1 to Ambala, keeping around 90-95 on the speedo and enjoying the songs on the Ipod. Breakfast was at Karnal, Makki di roti and sarson da saag - Yummy.
The ride became fast after Karnal, the roads getting better and better till I hit the diversion to Chandigarh. 4 laning is being done along with couple of flyovers and hence the problem. The boring ride to Kalka, from where the actual climb starts was done asap. This being my first ever solo ride to the Himalayas, it was quite an experience riding alone and being just myself!
The roads from Kalka to Shimla are a treat to ride on
I stopped for tea around 10kms before Solan and within 2 kms of that place, I got the first glimpse of snow!
The rest is history - Reached Narkanda at around 5:30pm. Negotiated around 10-12kms of Black Ice from Kufri till here. At Narkanda, took the lil snow roads going to the ski slopes and this is what i got to see:
Rode on snow, saw a spectacular view of the snowy peaks being illuminated by the setting sun. Very happy with the days ride, hope you enjoy the pictures
Day 2 : 19th December
Last night was one of the coldest ones in my life, with the mercury going well below zero degrees, which was reflected in layers of black ice on the road in the morning. I still wasnt sure as to which route to take but surely wanted to ride to Hattu Peak, around 10kms from the hotel. As soon I left the hotel and took the Rohru road, black ice showed its presence and so did snow on the slopes. The diversion for Hattu peak was just two kms from the hotel and as soon i took that road, snow came my way on the road. Slowly slowly making my way up the narrow road, I wondered what lay ahead. I was around 4kms into the climb when suddenly the road ahead had around half a feet of snow. Acceleration my way into the soft white layer of snow, the Michelins struggled to get grip. Finally pushing my way, I could go till the 2km milestone to Hattu.
See the snow? It was tough, but a fun-filled experience riding on soft snow
Relaxed and took some pictures of the beauty around and gave a hug to my 40000km old Karizma, which still is going strong. But suddenly I realised that going back would be very difficult as turning the Bike on the inclined road would be dangerous. It took a lot of patience and strength to rotate the Bike on the side stand and ride it back to proper tarmac!
I had enough of snow riding (today and yesterday) and decided to head to Chindi, a small town located on Shimla-Tattapani-Mandi highway and took the longer route via Kingel-Sunni so as to avoid riding on Black Ice again. As soon as I left Narkanda, I was again greeted by lots of snow and black ice and this continued for around 5-6kms! I left Nh-22 at kingel and took the route that runs parallel to the Sutlej river and it was devoid of any traffic. The road was narrow, broken in some places and had interesting bits like the mountain hanging on top of the road, making it seem like as if I was riding through a tunnel with one side open. There was also a lot of small caves next to the road and I wondered who lived in them centuries ago!
It seemed as if I was riding in a one side open tunnel!
There were a lot of lil caves besides the road
The road joined the Shimla-Tattapani-Mandi highway at Sunni and I took a right for Chindi, my destination for the night.
I was aware of HPTDC's hotel there and the ongoing winter discount and headed straight for it. Todays ride was around 155kms, and I was at the hotel by 2:30pm. Tired I was and headed straight to bed
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