On the Asphalt, in the Snow.....

Here is to another himalayan journey, to a trip turned an ordeal of life for some moments ;) . This time, once again, from the holy mind of our one only official trip planner PT, an extra adventurous trip plan popped out. Religiously, we followed and got ready for yet another journey. After some yes-no, yes-no from our Heera and Moti, the plan was carved as a 4-day trip to manali-batal-chandrataal. The 7 guys who volunteered for the journey were PT, me, K2, CB, Moin, Heera and Moti.

Day1: 25^th Sept’09: Delhi-Manali (585 kms)

4 guys:me, K2, CB and Moin started from CB’s home at 4:50 am on Friday on 2 bullets (Electra). The mind-boggling resonance of the heavy metal bullets thump on the empty streets was just enough to make us all excited for this outing. The bikes reached Delhi by-pass by 5:50 am. There, PT, Heera and Moti were already waiting-n-cursing us for last 1 hour for being late J .They were on PT’s santro. Finally we started, with me getting a chance to ride K2’s bullet. This was the first time that I was actually going to ride the bullet for a long distance. At first, it was a bit uncomfortable to settle upon it, but thereafter it was cool. By the way, the nice thing to notice is that this bike really gives the rider a massage as it is always vibrating (The Thump!) throughout, and at high speed its really stable, but a bit wobbly at very low speeds. However, I enjoyed riding it from delhi to ambala where we reached around 9:20 am. After that, K2 took over and after crossing chandigarh and Ropad, I settled in the car with Heera driving it, and PT on the bike with K2. We had our lunch @ bilaspur and after that I started to drive the car. Again, it was a cool experience to drive the car for the first time in the mountains. Moreover, the highway is really good and the natural beauty is amazing. We enjoyed the river vyas flowing all the way along the highway, Pandoh dam, The super amazing 2.68 km long tunnel, the twists and the turns, and Moti’s “Bhai Aram se! Koi jaldi nahi hai!” :D. We wasted around half and hour as we missed the Kullu By-pass and entered the city. The traffic was thick due to upcoming dussera celebrations. Another stunt performed on the higway was the ‘turning-the-light-off’ in the dark suggested by Heera, which was pretty much praised by all of us J. By the time we reached manali, it was 8 pm. We roamed a bit on the mall road, had dinner, settled into the hotel, did some usual bakar, and slept.

Day 2: 26^th Sept’09: Manali-Batal (125 km)

Moin, me, K2, Heera, PT and Moti

Day 2 started a bit late than expected, PT had a plan to move out by 6:00am, but actually we left for Batal in the Hired Tata Sumo by 10:00 am J. There was a traffic jam before Rohtang Pass due to some road construction work that took aroung hald n hour to clear. But finally we crossed Rotang by 1.10 pm and had our Daal-Bhaat and egg lunch at Gramphoo at 2:00 pm, which is around 12-13 km from Rohtang.

The road to Batal was really in bad shape and it took us around 3.5 hours to reach Batal from gramphoo(60 kms from gramphoo). The things to enjoy, in the way were the river flowing really deep in the valley, the sight of the snow laden mountains, the occasional streams sometimes crossing the road, and sometimes flowing on the road with the car, the patches of snow on the road.

After reaching Batal there was only one Dhaba that served us with food and tea, we set up two tents (that we had with us) there near the river bank At night, the view was amazing at the river bank.

"On my left is an iron bridge on the river, a bit right to it is a barren mountain, face-to-face is white untouched snow kissing the river, a bit right to that are the snow laden peaks shining like silver and the river flowing through the valley till eternity. To my rightmost is the moon shining at its brightest and on top is the sky crowded with stars!!"

Day 3: 27^th Sept, 09: Batal-Chandrataal (Claimed to be 14 kms, ACTUALLY 16-17 kms), Batal-Manali (125 long kms)

Well, this day, was the toughest! Batal to chandrataal is said to be 14 kms (which actually is NOT! Trust me!). Actually the way is like, so that vehicle can go up to a point from where there is only half n hour hiking to chandrataal. But because the road was all closed for vehicle due to snowfall and landslides at place on it, so the only way was to go there on foot from batal. We started at around 07:30 am. The way was really really beautiful. A human will feel so small of himself in front of the nature there. The valley, the river, snow, all made such a scenic view that I felt like capturing a 3D image of it forever (I wish if I could!). By the way, the sub zero temperature of previous night was evident from the water on the way that had turned into ice. At 09:30, Heera and Moti decide to turn back to Batal as it was turning out to be really difficult to go on foot. Around 10:30 am, we were around 12 kms away (its just an approximation). By that time, my and K2’s body gave up and we decided not to go any further (so that we could remain alive!!). CB, PT and Moin moved further up to chandrataal and reached.

Journey back to Batal was probably the most life threatening and horrific experience of my life! Me and K2 only had just more that half the bottle of water left. The harsh sun was making it so difficult to walk, and any steep elevation just took off all our hope to reach everytime. We had to cross the snow that had gone soft due to sun unlike the morning, were out of water, had the stream water to drink.

“Its like a really wrong step taken, With no living being in a large proximity, so far from civilization - a total cut off!”

However , we finally reached Batal at 04:00pm. As me and K2 saw the finishing point from far far away, we, to rekindle our wretched hope, did a “Cheers!” with half of a 5 Star chocolate that was left. PT, CB and Moin returned to base at around 5 pm. We left for Manali then, with many of us with a severe headache and extremely tired body! Reached Manali at 11:00 pm, fought for hotel, food, everything! Because it was late. Finally settled, and crashed on beds like dead elephants :D.

Day 4: 28^th Sept’09 + early morning of 29^th Sept’09:Manali-Delhi (585 kms)

Day 4, was rather, a pleasant morning, with no hurry to run, no plan to execute. All were chilled out, came late out of our hotels, had nice breakfast, me Heera and PT played video games as others were busy with some chores. Left Manali by 1:00 pm.

Reached Kiratpur (which was the end of the hills) at 07:30 pm. I drove K2’s bike from there to Chandigarh. We had the best food of the trip at Chandigarh (were really done with that daal-bhaat stuff!). Took off from chandigarh at 11:30 and knocked Delhi border at 03:30 am. J. Back home with sun-burnt face and limping tired legs .Such a relief to be back after a long long trip! But someone is still not quite, PT is planning another trip....On the asphalt, in the Snow…. ;)