30th June, 2010: 0800 AM: We were off, planning breakfast on the way. On NH 21, Prajesh was at the wheel and had a horrowing time with the cement trucks form nearby cement units. This 40 KM stretch, from Suharghat to Bilaspur, can take 3 hours with thousands of trucks plying for the Acc/ Barmana, Ambuja / Dadlghat and JP/BaghaBalag cement factories. The road was usual mountain twisties, overtaking a nerve-wrecking experience with local taxis doing shumi-stunts in between; KP drove with restraint, the right thing to do there, we only had to reach Delhi that day. I wonder if taking the Bilaspur -Shimla - Chandigarh route would have been better, anyone?
We saw a biker with a jacked emobssed "Kanyakumari to Kardungla" on the way, we saw him at Pangong Tso, this is inspiring stuff, the photos are underneath.
Had Breakfast at a dhaba at 0900AM, jus to break the frustration of the traffic, could do only 30 kms in 1 hour!!!! Got a respite form these truks only at the Naina Devi Temple junction, we took a left to Chandigarh. Kiratpur on the 4 track starts on and off with switch backs; after driving bad roads on the hills, this was heaven. 139 kms later at 12 we reach Tribune chowk, Chandigarh, exactly 118 kms later at 2 pm we break at MC Donaland, Karnal for lunch. After lunch we were flying, good roads, sparse traffic and the Wolt purring, in 125 mts we did 120 kms, reached Azadpur flyover and turned left towrds Ashram for the drop off point for Prajesh, by that time our good friend Guruji had also reached there, we had to hand over the Jerry can back to him, it was great meeting him after a long time. He is the real gizmo man, his Scorp a living exhibition of what all you can add in a car, enjoyed the interaciton and we presented the Great Shovel to him as a token of our love and respect to this humane specimen.
Something of interest to Leh road trippers he said when I showed my toe rope. Said they used one mine last year in Leh, the hooks were not strong enough, they just straightened out on toeing!!!!! Instead he showed 2 sturdy looking D hooks he bought in Delhi fit to carry elephants, said EACH hook would cost about 2500/-, looked like a good investment for anyone traveling to Leh. Guruji, can you please uplod the photographs.
Finally at 0615 we bid adeos and head towards Ghaziabad to my brothers house at Vaishali, reach ther aroud 0645 PM. We were suddenly so tired, me and Jiggy crashed out early.
1st July, 2010: Started at 0530, too many traffic blocks all the way to Jaipur, took all of 4 hours and reached there by 10AM, was so frustrating. I was feeling tired, it was 11 AM, just entering Jaipur expressway and wanted to take a power-nap, kept the engine on and we both took a 45 minute power nap, that was the best thing I did, was so useful to concentrate in the next 700 kms or so. Entered expressway at 1146, exited at 1230, 77 kms in 44 minutes, stopped at Hotel Panghat, Kishangarh for lunch. Started again after lunch at 1 PM, Bhilwara and Chittaurgarh flashed by, we did the next 315 kms till Udaipur in 3.5 hours and took a long chai break there.
During the break met 3 bikers on their way back from Leh and got to talking. They were Chandrasekhar Jakka and son Abhijeet Jakka, Ph. 9324535858, 9773535176 from Mumbai. They have already set a record on Limca Boos as the father-son duo with fastest time on on GQ. This time he said they went past the Marsmik La, climbed up to 20493 feets near the Chang Chemo Ranges and were turned back by the Indian troops, he said this would come up on the Limca book of records too!!!! After hearing this, I had an additional cup of coffee, this was incredible and if true, a phemomenal feat for any Indian biker.
Took another long break at Himmatnagar, 0720 PM and reached Ahmedabad around 0930 PM. It was dark, opened up the Hella's hoods, had a range of 300 meters, putting it on was like day-light, most of the traffic up ahead gave way in a hurry, we could do 51 kms till chiloda in flat 40 minutes, I would never have dared to do something like this with my stock headlights.
I think this is Kiratpur Overbridge still under construciton..
This guy was on the wrong side of the road and driving at speed, mad-cap inviting death...
Will try to upload left over pictures, videos and other stuff later.
Well....... that's the end of the story. Thank you very much for spending time reading, coming this far and encourarging us with your posts and suggestions.
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