Man Machine Madness.
Buying a Harley Street 750, I knew, would trigger a spurt of biking expeditions. I travel and I travel a lot but I have only travelled on my four wheel. A mobike was something new and I realize, it requires a different mind set altogether.
My first expedition has been to the Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India. I started on the 30th September 2014 from Dehradun and was back on the 5th October. It was seven days of unadulterated fun and adventure. And I am the first person in the world to do it on a Harley street750!
The first day I and my daughter left the house around 8 in the morning. We took the Dehradun, Chakrata, Rohru route. It was a wrong choice. After Chakrata there are no roads! It was a motorable track and that’s that. It took us 8 hours to cover a distance of 209 km.
Rorhu is a small dirty and a dusty town. We spent our night in a seedy hotel on the main road. There is a Himachal Tourism hotel in Rohru but it was full. The chief minister with his cronies was on a visit to the town. Thanks to him it was jam-packed. There is a small market where you can find almost everything you need but nothing more.
The next day we started for Rampur a big town compared to Rohru. We started around 9 and were able to reach Rampur around 1 in the afternoon. As usual the roads were missing. It was a tough ride. We were tired but decided to carry on with our journey anyways. We left Rampur around 2:30. The roads were great and we reached Tapri around 5:30. Tapri has a petrol pump which of course, was required for my Harley. After Tapri again there are no metalled roads. Its all uphill and the bike starts panting. We reached Spello village at around 10 in the night and decided to call it a day. It was a tough tough day. It took us 12 hours (with breaks) to cover a distance of 205 km.
The next day we started for kaza. On our way we bought some petrol from Pooh. Mind you there is no petrol pump but you can purchase it from the street on a premium. The roads were surprisingly good. Most of it was metalled and it was a great ride. All along the Spiti river was with us. It was undoubtedly the most beautiful part of the journey. The mountains and the clear green blue waters of the Spiti were a delight to the eyes. The small road side dhabas kept us fed. The meals were simple. Usually dal with a sabzi and loads of rotis and chawal.
The next morning at Kaza the first thing I did was to get petrol. This is the last petrol pump till Manali. The ride started smoothly. The roads were metalled but just before Kunjam pass the roads vanished. It was a misery. The scenery was fantastic which sort made up for the road. We planned to camp at Chandratal which is 12 km off the road to Rohtang Pass. But somehow I was too tired to take the detour. Instead we kept riding. Todays ride was also the most demanding. We had to cross waterfalls, face winds and ride on some of the most treacherous roads. It was at 9 pm in the night that we reached Rohatang pass. It was windy and it was cold. There are no hotels along the Pass so we had to go Manali. We hit Manali at around 10:30 pm. A 12 hrs continuous ride left us exhausted. We covered a distance of around 200km.
From Manali it took us another two days to reach Dehradun via Shimla. It was one hell of a ride worth every sore muscle!
Every journey is a lesson learnt. Other than good and bad memories there is always something of value to take back home.
My take away:
Don’t Overplan:
Thinking of every small detail left the most obvious unattended like food. I had planned for a puncture but forgot food! I was carrying loads of clothes but never thought that the weight can actually slow me down. The same is true of life. We tend to go into too much details, forgetting that it is the unpredictability which makes life adventurous.
Commitment:
The second day of my ride, my bike overturned (mostly because of the weight I was carrying) and I thought to myself “Should I carry on or turn back?”. I and my daughter with nobody else to pitch in made me think that I had put myself in a dangerous situation. That very moment two other bikers came forward to help and we were on the road again. We made new friends and rode with them late night. We are always thrown into situations that we think we will not be able to make it but help is always at hand. So commitment not quitting is the option.
Don’t loose your nerves:
There were times when actually I feared. Especially the last of my ride when I had to cross waterfalls. I thought of my daughter sitting at the back and I knew the only way is forward!
It was a great ride and a great learning experience.
