By Dr. Suresh Bada Math

This diary is day-to-day experiences of bike ride undertaken by Dr. Suresh Bada Math from 27 June 2015 to 9 July 2015, with the “I am Adventure” group. This was an exquisite, life time adventure, breathe taking, exposing to blizzard and spine chilling experience of bike ride through the Himalayas clocking 2038kms over a period of 11days.

Bike ride kick started at 4.15 AM sharp with thunder loud noise of 21 bikes roaring through the roads of Paharganj of New Delhi. An early morning start is imperative, if you intend to reach Manali in time so that you have a good night rest for the onward journey. We started to follow each other forming a bike chain stretched over a period of half a mile. With in no time bikes started to cruise towards the NH1 towards Chandigarh. The drive is through the plains of northern India, firstly through Haryana and then through Punjab before entering in Himachal. We were riding on the NH 1 from Delhi to Kharar. In Kharar, we changed to NH 21 to reach Manali.

Again third day started at 4.00Am in the morning to cover the awesome ride, which was through the NH 21, the road through the Manali and over the Rohtang Pass, Gramphu, Kokhsar, Keylong, Jispa, Darcha, Zingzingbar, Baralacha La and Bharatpur to reach Sarchu. On the way to Rohtang Pass one gets to see the spectacular and panoramic of Himalayas, glaciers, beautiful valley, waterfalls, rugged mountain and nature at its best. Located 51km from Manali, at an altitude of 3,978 m (13,050 ft. The road is narrow and the ascent is slow and treacherous. The scenic views of beautiful snow capped peaks and glaciers are mesmerizing. The great Rohtang Pass is named after pile of corpses, due to people dying in bad weather trying to cross the pass. This pass connects Himachal pradesh with Kashmir. Traffic jams are common as military vehicles, trucks, and goods carriers try to navigate the tight roads and rough terrain, compounded by snow and ice at certain points and the large number of tourists vehicles. We had a coffee break at Rohtang Pass. It was very cold but managed to reach within 3hours of start from Naggar. Ride through this road was very anxious because this pass is well known for undisputed reputation for being dangerous because of unpredictable snowstorms and blizzards.

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