Day 2
The stretch between Manali and Marhi offered some of the most beautiful sceneries in the whole trip. We stopped frequently to click photos. The traffic in this stretch were mostly indicas and other diesel vehicles, like Sumos, Qualises etc.
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| Rohtang Pass - November 7 to 10, 2004 Day 2 |
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| Got up quite late in the morning, at 9:00! The view from the hotel room was amazing. We had river Beas flowing right under our windows. Had tea, got ready and checked with the hotel to find out that Rohtang was open. Set out for Rohtang after topping up our Engine oil and tying the oil can (we had about 500 ml left) to my bike's saree guard. Stopped at Cafe Kothi for breakfast + lunch about 20 Kms from Manali on the way to Rohtang. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The roads, not exactly smooth, were good enough, though broken at places. Shortly before Marhi, we were doing burnouts (unintentional ofcourse) on black ice. There was this point where there was water flowing down to the road and had no direct sunlight - best conditions for black ice. What we did once the bike got stuck was, to do the burnout untill the ice wore away. Then we could proceed. Had some scary moments in the blackice - it was my first. The stretch between Manali and Marhi offered some of the most beautiful sceneries in the whole trip. We stopped frequently to click photos. The traffic in this stretch were mostly indicas and other diesel vehicles, like Sumos, Qualises etc. |
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| Just before Marhi the bridge was broken, and we had to cross the river without the bridge. I went in first, tried my best to cross the river without touching my feet down, but lost balance and had to touch down. Brrrr - the water was freezing. Yogesh did the mistake of not waiting for me to cross and instead, followed closely. And he had to stop when I stopped and got both his feet down. We reached Marhi (35 Kms from Manali) with our feet wet. He had water in his shoes. We had a stop over, tried drying our shoes and had cofee. I was lucky; I had to touch down only one foot, Yogesh's were soaking wet. About 30 minutes later, we continued - our destination was close and we, excited. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| On the way we saw the Indian Paragliding assoc. giving away rides on paragliding chutes for 600 to 1400 bucks per ride. Thankfully, there were no more incidences of black ice. There were blocks of snow on both sides of the road and the roads were wet, but the sun ensured that there was no black ice. Just before the actual Rohtang point, there were all kinds of snow activities going on - there were skiing, tyre gliding - all fun things. Stopped there to shoot some pics, and proceeded for Rohtang. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Target achieved! We reached our destination. Rohtang Pass, 13050 ft above sea level! The weather was gorgeous, It was a beautiful day - the best thing for such trips - not a cloud to be seen anywhere. We clicked pics, shot videos. Tried riding my bike in the snow - it's next to impossible. Either or both the tyres will get stuck. Did burnouts in the snow and had Yogesh lift my bike out from the pit it created; and soon I was struggling to get my bike out of the snow back to the roadside. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Well, we left it there and climbed the near by hill. Climbing a few steps felt like doing heavy labour. We were both breathing heavily. We didn't have snow boots, but the Woodland shoes we had on were more than enough for the day. I saw and stepped on snow for the first time in my life! Played in it like small children in sand. Dug a pit - had Yogesh crush the snow for me, made a small moutain of it, sat down in the pit, clicked pics, all in all, this is one day I'll never ever forget. Meanwhile, Yogesh, thanks to his bulk was having a hard time walking in the snow. His feet would go in every other step and could be seen struggling to get his feet out of the snow frequently. 'Man I gotta get into shape' was his favourite quote all along. So I took pity on him and didn't throw snow balls at him. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Well, how time went - it literally flew! Suddenly, the sun hid behind a mountain and we realised how cold it was! We came down the hill, our picnic, at 13050 feet was over. Saw a thin film of ice on our seats. Rubbed it really hard with some clothes and it was gone. Struggled to get our bikes to start - they finally did and we let it warm up for about 5 mins. Started on our long journey back to Manali. It was dark by the time we reached Marhi. And we thought of spending the night there (I secretly hoped that this way we'll have more fun the next morning). But Marhi is a small place with just a few tea shops and dhabas and no hotels. So, we continued on our way back. The thought of hitting black ice in the dark send shivers down my spine (ok - it was already minus something degrees). I was leading most of the time, and anticipated black ice everytime we hit a wet patch. Thankfully, it was just water. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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