Day 2 - Towards Manali

7th July 2008

Today we had to cover Manali - 350km from Ambala and the gateway to the Leh ride. It was around 350km from Ambala and from the posts and internet we got to know it could be covered in around 10-12 hours.

We packed all our bags and people started packing the bags on the bikes and tying them with ropes. As I had a cage for luggage another person would tie his back on my back seat and my bag would be in the cage. In short I was a luggage carrier and to carry 2 heavy bags on the bike + pitoo sack on my back.

Finally everyone was done with the luggage packing and tying onto the bikes and got into riding gear + helmets and made last minute checks to their bikes and we started to get fuel for our steeds. Initially the load on the bike felt little unbalanced because it was the first time for me but as I went on the road it felt ok just that we had to be careful as we could not zip and cut lanes because of the cage fitted so had to ride the bike like a car :). We finally reached the HP petrol pump where everyone tanked up full and again everybody went to the tyre wala to get the tyre pressures checked in the tyres. There was a discussion about the route which was to be taken and a friendly local told us how to go about it.

With a short prayer we started off via the Rajpura road and the highway the NH-1 towards our destination for the day. The highway wasnt crowded today and we made good pace. To my horror I found that my odo cable was broken...shit !! I couldnt count the km's now. I decided to get it repaired at the first mechanic shop.

After a short 14-15km stint on the highway just before the Toll post we had to turn right towards Banur , the road there was ok but was a small two lane and we rode on. We came to a signal which was the Chandigarh - Ropar highway and asked a traffic cop for the route to Manali and he pointed to the direction and off we went ahead. We reached Banur in some 45 minutes and the rains had started there ... phew a relief from the heat in Haryana , now we were in Punjab :). But then again we couldnt speed due to the rain for the fear of slipping. We crossed the outskirts of Mohali in a short time and everybody was feeling hungry so we decided to stop for breakfast , it was now 11am and hence we decided to take a heavy breakfast and then skip lunch as we had to reach Manali today which was still 280km away now.

We had a great breakfast of alu parantha and chai and then contended started again. Here Nikhil found a lot of oil under his bike and fearing the worst he went to a mechanic to see what had happened. Some oil had leaked due to a loose nut in the oil chamber but not much. We started again this time everyone in rain-gear as it started raining.

We made good time over Punjab roads in the rain and someone spotted a bajaj showroom so we stopped to get some things repaired. My odo cable needed to be changed, Shailesh's indicator was not working and Abhijeet's horn was not working. We drove into the showroom garage and told the guys our problems and they told us to make job cards...the procedure done they repaired our bikes and we paid the amount. All this took over 45 minutes .. thanks to the garage procedure of having a job card for any work and the slowness of the staff. Finally we started again and reached Ropar from where we had to take a right to get to Manali via Kiratpur - Swarghat - Sundernagar - BIlaspur - Mandi.

The road surface was bad near Ropar but ahead we made good time as we entered HP (himachal pradesh) now. We finally left NH-1 and joined NH-21 to Manali and then the ghats started before Swarghat after leaving Kiratpur.

Now it was around 200km to Manali and full ghat and twisties. This slowed us down but we drove on amidst clouds and had a great view of the nature all around and took photos. At one point I stopped to get everyone who was behind and everyone came and we started again after 5 mins stop. The ghats were dangerous but the roads were good so we made good time.

We finally reached Bilaspur in the afternoon at 3pm and continued ahead. Manali was now around 120km ahead and seeing the average speed we decided we would stop at Kullu today (40km before Manali) and continue ahead tommorrow early. We crossed Sundernagar and Mandi too and stopped for filling our stomachs at a hotel just outside Mandi. Now Kullu was around 60km ahead.

After having snacks we started for Kullu via Pandoh - Aut - Bhuntar. The road was amazing and full of twisties , the waters of the Pandoh dam were amazing and by now the evening chill had crept in making everyone feel cold and we continued on. There was a tunnel before Aut which is around 5km long and an amazing tunnel ... we reached Kullu around 8.30pm in the night and hunted around for a hotel for staying in the night.

Finally we found a HP tourism hotel Sharvari and got 2 family suites booked for us 9 people and got everyone there. Everybody went to have dinner and I stayed back to have a great bath as i was not feeling hungry now. Finally after an hour at 10.45pm everyone came in and we hit the bed feeling very tired. We had to get up early tommorrow at 6am and start for our journey to Keylong (160km ahead) via Manali - Rohtang Pass and ahead.

An adventurous day ended with around 310km riding from Ambala to Kullu via the coolest landscapes and roads. Tomorrow it will be more fun with bad roads and amazing mountains and twisties and passes :) --- !!