It comes as no surprise that we've spent a fair portion of the waking hours in the wake of slumber. I can only describe the experience as death - causeless, listless, senseless, endless. My body aches with experience as my mind begins to fathom my surroundings. Aman is well on his way to getting geared up. Spiderweb will transition into the wake state next and consume the remnants of our ration of hot water for the noble act of bathing. Motorbreath and I, left with the option of freezing ourselves to the bone, decide to give it a pass.
I recognize dew drops on the window sill. I classify them wrong for I'm told its rain. A quick peek outside confirms this claim. We drag ourselves out the room, down the staircase one flight down and towards our steeds. A helmet lies idle on the seat of its steed; left outside in error; drenched to its bone. My memory fails me for I do not recall the culprit, recalling only the crime.
Breakfast, it is decided, will have to swing alongside bike servicing chores to save time. Not far from our kick-off point, we find a mechanic.
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| Aman with the mechanic. Yonder, our breakfast spot. |
Facebook update: Today's plan Madhopur > Samba > Srinagar. Bike oil change, chain clean n chain lube in progress!
03 June at 12:00 via Text message
Gopinath Venugopal likes this.
Rachit K Ride safe.! Dont push too much.. take a halt wherever u feel.. its enough..
03 June at 12:03
Tushar Jadhav good going guyz.....
03 June at 12:03
Rachit K the mountains will start now..!! Welcome to J&K :)
03 June at 12:03
Tushar Jadhav i think all the plains is over now, ride safe
03 June at 12:05
Veeral Joshi all the best..
03 June at 12:05
Winsey Varghese TC while lubing the chain
03 June at 12:06
Rachit K haha.. oh yeah..! Seriously
03 June at 12:07 via Email reply
Nitin Manore duh---y didn't u go for synthetic??
03 June at 12:30
We devour more omelette sandwiches than we care to admit whilst we wait for our steeds to be groomed. The restaurant overlooks a water reservoir; the skies boast of eagles; we try desperately to capture their essence with our modest resolutions, but the lens betray our marginal and amateur efforts. None is worthy for the mighty task. We blame our tools, as always.
As we walk into the sun and position ourselves over our steeds, Motorbreath rides up to me and points into the distance; my eyes follow his finger and find a singular snow-caped mountain peak. "That's where we need to go", he says. At the ripe age of 33, this would be my first view of snow. My heart flutters a tad, my face betrays a smile, my body emanates a forgotten youth...
There is a bounce in our throttle as we take our stride. Our commentators were right; we now begin to see hints of an incline. It would appear that we have begun our ascent as we approach the cold, yet reassuring embrace of the mighty Himalayas. How I yearn to be in its presence.
We hit Samba within two revolutions of the minute hand. The terrain, unassuming at best. But as we begin to approach Udhampur, the tarmac begins to change its geometry while the environment toys with its saturation. The lanes get leaner and the greens get greener.
At roughly half past four, my text does its deed...
Facebook update: Udhampur!
03 June at 16:28 via Text message
Rachit K awesome..! good going..
03 June at 16:30
Dhwaj Shah Full onnnn......!
03 June at 17:10
We break as Spiderweb indulges, once again, in the divinity of kulfi. Only this time, the sinful act will be amplified with faluda. We refuse to be left behind. Our banter turns to my helmet, its inefficacy as a protective tool given its age and the possibility of redemption with a surrogate even as Aman walks across to a hard hat store to sample their stock. He returns amused to the core for he is reliably informed that Vega is unheard of in these parts and the reigning brands include, and I kid you not, Action, Dabur and Jockey. I hear my mind muttering, "Jockey on top, Jockey down below" but I refuse to entertain its PJs.
Our amusement is amplified by a local teen; his name - wait-for-it - Chakrya. Remember that name, for reasons I will now expound on. In the opinion of King Chakrya, every woman in Udhampur is a whore (his words, not mine). Furthermore, his highness claims his name is the symbol that can unlock every door in the magical land. He can provide us with wine, women and wonders our feeble minds cannot comprehend. He invites us for a tour of Udhampur. We decline politely reminding him, and ourselves, that we better be moving along. He nods and makes us promise that we will look him up on return. We humour him and accept. Motorbreath, in his most convincing avatar asks, "But how do we find you?" to which our majesty responds, "Kisiko bhi pooch lo Chakrya kahaan milega; woh tumko bataa denge." (Ask anyone where you can find Chakriya; they will guid you). As he revs off, we put his proposition to the test. We inquire with the kulfi walla, "Aap Chakriya ko jaante ho?" (Do you know who Chakriya is?). "Nahin" (No), comes a curt reply. With his highness dethroned, we peddle on.
A word with the locals and we are redirected to a newly constructed path which, we are told, is in better shape than the old road. The terrain gets greener still; the path narrower still; a chill in the air, a thin veil of fog as nature seduces us and succeeds. As our journey begins to twist and curve, we discern that linear pathways and triple digit speeds are increasingly becoming endangered species.
We haven't been riding long when we glide onto a milestone...
Facebook update: Sipping chai in a tapri overlooking the valley at Patnitop :)
03 June at 17:41 via Text message
Piyush Agarwal, Sagar Raikar, Shilpa Patwardhan Sharma, Divya Misra, Choudhari Rohit and Shannon Dias like this.
Saurabh Bhatia patnitop is an awsome place man
03 June at 17:48
Rachit K superb scenic place..!
03 June at 17:52
Rachit K so how are the curves.. :)
03 June at 17:52
Dinesh Samtani wow man.... dont forget to take pics
03 June at 17:58
Alankar Misra Awesome m scary at the same time :)
03 June at 17:58
Rachit K yeah.. Straight roads are over..!! atleast this roads are good.. Just need to be careful from the oncoming vehicles.. at times u get fed up of the curves..!!
Dont push urself too much.. as its still almost 290 kms for srinagar..!
03 June at 18:03
Tushar Jadhav its just the beginning.... u lucky chaps
03 June at 18:03
Rachit K or around 200kms..!
03 June at 18:05
Honey Misra wow wow wow take gud care
03 June at 19:19
Gopinath Venugopal Jalaoo.... Jalaoo hum sab ko
03 June at 19:20
Anirudh Khusape damn envy you... I so wanna be there :P have fun :)
03 June at 20:20
Divya Misra awesome....:)
03 June at 20:29
Abraham Koshy how come you landed up there!!!!!Enjoy the Hols......Be safe..........crossed it far too often for my own good.........but really never stopped to enjoy the place........work or hols either direction i had to get there fast!!!!!
05 June at 17:12
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| Aman |
A brief discussion on the merits of calling it a day at Patnitop as opposed to braving a possibly overnight ride to Srinagar yields two results:
- Nobody wants to do another overnight ride
- Nobody has a friggin' choice
Facebook update: Two-bikes-as-one run on the twisties with Aman! Loved the synch between the two R15s :)
03 June at 20:42 via Text message
Sagar Raikar and Tushar Jadhav like this.
Sagar Raikar so where r u guys now........
04 June at 02:47
As Aman and I approach a bridge, we halt in a bid to add to our capture count and allow the trailing duo to catch up.
My heart is pounding as my mind only begins to fathom the joy of being compellingly close to fulfilling a life-long dream...
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