An experience called the Royal Enfield Himalayan Odyssey 2013

DAY 5- THE TOUGHEST WAS YET TO COME

I didn’t realize how beautiful the place was till I woke up in the morning. Surrounded by the mighty mountain range with the Chandra and Bhaga river confluence in the backdrop- the visual treat didn’t seem to end even with variation in landscape. During breakfast we were told that what lied ahead would be the toughest part of the Odyssey. But having met and passed over obstacles with not so great difficulty, the gang was ready and so was I for a level up. Right from the start, it seemed that the day was blessed with hurdles.

Rolling out of Keylong, we have the first landslide, and it took nearly 2 hours off our day. Later the heavens opened up drizzling down making the Keylong-Kaza road an ice-skating ring. But all excited and eager to make it to Kaza no matter what, just like this gentleman exploring the north with his kids.

The time lost meant more melting of snow and the water crossings would be deeper and even more treacherous to pass and it was evident with a few people losing balance and tipping over. There was no road, it was just mud and rocks to hop over, and the Thunderbird- specially the front suspension was eating up those obstacles with ease. The only thing needed was to watch my balance. Moving forward we have another landslide and another hour wasted.

This wasn’t a place to lose your cool- you need patience and loads of it that would keep you going. One miss in haste and you’ll go rolling down into the valley. The roads didn’t seem to improve, but I was praying for a clean ride ahead. We would have covered approximately 30 kilometres in 4 hours or even more. The rocky patches and water crossings continued to test us and the gang kept on marching ahead till we see a broken down truck blocking the road right across. With not even an inch to pass, the whole convoy was brought to a complete stop. Being disappointed at first seeing another barrier to cross over consuming more time, everyone’s hearts were shattered seeing the truck up close.

Half the road between the wheels had slid off. It was easy to conclude that this was the end of the Odyssey adventure. Still with a glimmer of hope, everyone waited for something to happen. But after a few hours with no action, a painful decision was taken to head back…to Manali. The longing wish to ride through the Kunzum pass and visiting Kaza was smashed to pieces- and we had to ride through the nightmare back again. But worse was that Sachin, Adarsh and a few others had overtaken the truck and were on the other side when the incident took place. The only two options they had was to wait till the road was cleared or take a detour riding through Kaza, Kalpa and meet with the gang at Manali- and they wisely chose the latter.

We started making our way back hopping and jumping over the souvenirs the road had to offer with the water crossings even deeper this time. Off the Keylong-Kaza stretch, the roads became kind offering us occasional stretches of tarmac to ride on, but back to its worst when we hit Rohtang pass, which scary to its name means a pile of corpses- eeeek!

Generously blessed with slush, there was no scope of halting either- thanks to the traffic. Carefully negotiating the non-barricaded twisties I was down the pass in near-starving mode. Luckily found a small roadside eatery and gobbled up two sandwiches and a paratha….relief!

From there on the roads were a breeze and we finally reached Manali before dusk. With Kaza and Kalpa struck off the itinerary, it meant that we had to spend three nights in Manali. A location where shops and vehicles outnumbered the people on the road, the stay wasn’t to my liking and I would any day opt for a bumpy ride amidst scenic views than being put up at a heavily commercialized tourist destination. A hot shower and dinner concluded the disappointing day.

NEXT PAGE FOR DAY 6 AND 7