Day 16 - Manali

Previous	Home	next

The first thing that I did in the morning is I called MG to let us know the places were we can find snow snow and only snow. Its very frustrating its our 3rd in Himachal and ppl say manali is the swiz of India that this but we are yet to ride on snow. He told us 'just head to Rohtang.. and U will find a lot of snow..' come back by lunch and go to kullu for the night. In Kullu too U ve jalori pass U will find snow there too' All set we head to Rohtang every early in the morning Around 8 itslef :D

we crossed a wooden bridge from Manlai to go to the other side. This is our first wooden and noisy/loosy bridge. jus a few 100m we saw a thin and tall falls completely broken. As we proceeded up we saw black ice almost at all U turns. but hey didnt skid. It was very hard. After a few kms we reached a camping ground. Jus infront of the camping ground the road was completely covered with hard and white ice. We proceeded with caution and was able to cross it with out a fall. There after the roads deteriorated a lot. Huge path holes filled with water and snow on either side. We crossed a couple of patches like this and in then there was very thick patch almost for a quarter km of road covered with hard white snow. There shyam got stuck. It was like this front wheel was in loose snow and back wheel was on hardened snow. So if we accelerated the back wheel started to spin. he accelerated a bit more and the front wheel pulled out and moved fwd. but shyam lost control and had a fall. He was not ready to move further up and ya I too felt the same as coming down will be more difficult. The sun was raising the top layer of the snow on road started to melt and it became more and more slippery.


Our first successful cross on snow. we took the patch to the left much carefully. A single slip even our bones cant be found.


2nd


3rd We struggled a lot there



and fell here :D


you could see the fellow always behind us. This is another guy on his CHetak coming behind us. He had a pillion. He used to get his pillion off on snow patched But he rode very comfortably. Later we came to know that he lends the skiing equipments. He told us to come a bit up where there will lot of snow on the road and he will let us ski :) But he parked the bikes there itself and walked up :) there we found some jeeps parked. we made frnds few fellows there. They were very funny to be with. We struck a deal of 50 Rs for skii. and we tried our best. Shyam had some exp and he took off. BUt I fell down hehe :D then learnt about the leg angle body weight balance etc from him and I too skiied for 10 meters :D





We then climbed up the snow for more massti :)





I loved this skiee.. All snow went into my pants :D



EEEE.... full smile..


Could see how much I ve bloated up jus in 10 days



The rode down was terrifying for Shyam. On his first fall I was too close to him so had to jam the breaks. The tyres lost traction and I stopped very close too him. So decided that I wil go in the front and he can know where there is dark ice. The water on ice was increasing. Plus there was huge traffic jams. In one turn ppl were pointing at me and told something there was some kind of shock/anxiety. I turned and saw Shyam on ground. He got up fast and rode again. This time I let him in the front so that I will at least know if he falls. The 3ed fall shocked me. I saw a big chuck of snow thrown off. I hurried to him. There was small blisters on this knee. The knee guard protected him. The bikes crash guard was bent and petrol was leaking. I lifted the bike and kicked the start lever. After a couple of kicks the bike started. We both were relieved. Took some rest and carried on. Luckily there was no other fall/dark ice.
This is the fall that was completely frozen in the morning.



The curves




We came down and wanted to go to another place forgot the name. Shyam didnt want to come. So I went up. But there was too much traffic jam so I too returned but ya he made a good decision. There was more of black ice.

there was a small ground full of snow. we did a lot of massti there. The main thing was the rode on the a small wooden plank. The kids were renting it for 5 per 2 rides. we used to sit on the small block and they will push us down shouting "lift ur leg. dont put it down" and suddenly "break break.." this means out leg down.. that was too good... :p

Poser Pic


THen we came back to the guest house by 6. Had some snacks and then to market. I bough 2 pairs of yark wool shocks. IT turned out to be very useful later. :)