Ride to Hatu Peak - July'07

Dear All,
After a long hiatus from the riding scene due to my suffering from jaundice two years in a row, I am finally back on the highway.. The last few months have been tough sitting at home, especially with so many rides being undertaken by Bike Nomads and the BCMtouring team. I would like to thank Sumeet, cause it was the chat that I had with him regarding a ride to Hatu Peak which was the last temptation I needed to finally start riding again.. ;)

Ride Milestones:-
Total distance covered: 931Kms. (Earlier personal milestone- 379Kms)
Route: Delhi-Karnal-Ambala-Shimla-Narkanda-Hatu-Narkanda-Shimla-Ambala-Karnal-Delhi
Maximum distance without a break: 150Kms (Earlier personal milestone- 111Kms)
Distance covered day one: 455Kms Approx.
Distance covered day two: 476Kms Approx. (Earlier personal milestone- 325Kms)
Fellow Rider:- Sparsh Arun (Fellow member of Bike Nomads and bcmtouring.com)
Best time:- 80Kms approx covered in an hour.

Preparation:-
Bought a new helmet (Vemar-an Italian Company)
Got two side storage boxes fitted. (Studds)
Thanks to my cousin Shams for lending me his full body raincoat.
Clicked all the photos from my Nokia N70 mobile phone.

Day One:-
Slept for only two hours before leaving home at 4:10am on Saturday, July 21st,2007. The first setback came when I was just 5Kms from my place when I realized I had forgotten my riding gloves at home in the hurry.. :( Reached our meeting point twelve minutes later near ITO flyover, around 13Kms from my place. Sparsh reached a few minutes later.

Our first stop was 150Kms from Delhi in Karnal at the Haveli resort and we covered the distance in 2 hrs 50 minutes. The toll road in Punjab was one of the best I have seen till date. With a wide divider lined with bushes, I believe it would be easier for night driving as well as the notorious high beam from the oncoming traffic will be blocked. Also, the U turns at regular intervals were a blessing as the usual sight of tractor trolleys coming in the wrong direction like we see often on the highway to Agra, was missing.

After reaching Kalka I noticed the bulb in the headlamp had broken off, due to some shock from a pothole perhaps. A little ahead we came across a Bajaj service station and they simply refused to touch my bike saying we only work on Pulsars. After I requested them a few times they agreed to check it out but after a while gave up saying the fitting is different in CBZ and asked me to checkout the Hero Honda showroom a little higher.
I finally found a mechanic who was definitely busy as he took about 30 minutes to get a new bulb fitted. (Point taken, will carry a spare bulb in future.. ;) ) But yes, I did buy a pair of gloves in the mean time.. ;)

Reached Shimla @13:46. The ride was amazing with breathtaking roads having awesome curves and bends. The Michelins on my bike finally got a good work out.. ;) After having a Pizza and Maggi noodles with Sparsh @ Buddy’s, we left Shimla around 15:30pm. The road to Narkanda was bad in patches and under construction at a few places. But the traffic was less and we reached Narkanda @ 17.09pm. After checking out a few places, we zeroed in on the dormitory in the PWD guesthouse. With two double beds we planned to sleep like kings. And sleep we did, after dozing off at 6pm planning to rest for an hour, I was rudely woken up from a call from home. The time was 21:13pm! It had started raining slightly by then. After a quick walk in the neighborhood, I realized d town sleeps early. It was quite chilly by then, had a few biscuits and chocolate for dinner and we slept again.

Day Two:-
Woke up around 5am with the help of an Alarm.. The place was freezing by then and it had rained the whole night and was still pouring. After a small discussion, we decided to take our chance and ride to Hatu peak. Luckily the rain stopped as we were leaving, as if it was just testing our resolve.. ;)

The ride to Hatu peak was simply amazing, and justified the near a thousand kilometer ride for this 8Km ascent. The road was superb, with zero traffic at that time. Though the place was very foggy and we could not view the sights offered by the peak, it was awesome nonetheless. After a Kurkure break at the top and a photo session, we began our descent around 7:15am.

After a warm breakfast @ a dhaba near the guesthouse, we left Narkanda @9:13am. The over night rains had made the roads messy, and we somehow slithered and slided our way from the stretch under construction and our shoes and bike represented some drilling equipment after the effort..;)

We did not stop in Shimla after reaching there around 11:15am and decided to have lunch in Kalka. Though we did take a few small breaks to click pics. The weather was sunny now so we decided to take off the raincoat jacket. This turned out to be a big mistake as a few kms ahead it started raining heavily. My shoes were completely drenched, not a very good thought considering we had 300+ Kms remaining of our journey. We had got separated before the rain, after stopping a while and waiting for the rain to stop, I decided to continue till I met Sparsh. He was waiting at the next petrol pump and I got my fuel tank filled there for the grueling ride ahead.. We waited for some time and then decided to find a dhabha and have lunch here only rather than having lunch in Kalka. We came across Café Shivalik where we had nice and hot Dal makhani and black currant juice..:) We left that place around 15:10pm when the rains had stopped.

75mins and 60kms later it started to rain again. But we were prepared this time, with the first drop; we stopped and put on our raincoats. And boy, it rained for a good hour and a half in which we covered around 60kms. The rain was heavy, but the rain coat did its work, sadly my shoes were filled with water again. The rain did stop for a few minutes and the roads were dry for sometime where I stopped and drained my shoes, much to the surprise of the nearby Thela walah who was wondering where all the water came from.. :D

Half a kilometer ahead the rains started again. I kept pushing ahead in the impression that Sparsh was ahead of me while he had stopped. I continued till the Haveli resort in Karnal, reaching there at 17:43pm, the place where we had our first stopover on this trip. There I saw Sparsh’s sms asking me to wait. He reached a good 20mins later. In the mean time I tried to dry my shoes and all, and people couldn’t help stare me with all the water dripping in the sunny weather..;)

Left Haveli resort at 18:27pm and covered a record 80kms in the next 61 minutes.. :D We took another hour from the place to reach Delhi and we reached ITO, our meeting point in the next 20minutes approximately. At 21:23, I was back home after a memorable ride. It was a satisfactory feeling to say the least; I had come a long way from my previous milestones. The journey was over, but I rode the bike again throughout the night in my dream.. ;);)

And yes, hopefully it will be Leh next time.. :)