Bulls on Parade to Rohru

The Rohru Raptors

8-10 May 2015

Raptors (of the flying variety) are supposed to agile, smooth, lightning-fast. This Ride was also expected to be the similar. However, the Rohru Raptors were the complete opposite. We were sluggish. All the credit goes to the roads.

As far as I remember, the idea of the destination first came when we were seeing the Ride history of one of our comrades Rishi Gupta. He has explored the Pabbar Valley and although the place looked inviting, it was too far for us novices at that time. Until now, we had restricted ourselves to 400kms only for a 3-dayer to the hills. But we have stretched ourselves continuously across the years, and so when this place was again brought up by Nishant in a recent discussion, we decided it was the destination for the May Ride. 

Owing to the laziness and lost passion of other BoP members that had led to the cancellation of the April Ride, the invite was this time floated only to the regulars. Dates were set and we started to look at stay options. HPTDC's Hotel Chanshal looked as a good option. But several tries on their website did not conclude the transaction. We would have to look for stay after reaching there only. 

8th May 2015:

(Delhi - Karnal - Yamunanagar - Chakrata - Tiuni - Rohru)

The day of the Ride arrived. The final tally of riders consisted of:

Asok Rana - Royal Enfield Electra CI - Rangeen mizaaj waale

Ankit Gupta - Royal Enfield Classic 350 - Machhi khaane waale

Diptinder Singh Chhabra - Royal Enfield Electra CI - Likhne waale

Asok and I met near Mahipalpur and made our way to the landfill site where Ankit would be joining us. He was again late. We departed at 4:45 AM as the darkness began to subside. Nowadays superbikes have become quite common when taking the NH1. 

Early morning is a good time to cover a good amount of distance with minimal traffic. We didn't stop until we had crossed Karnal and taken the turn towards Yamunanagar via Indri, covering nearly 130 kms in 2 hours. Hot tea and breakfast were served. Aloo-pyaz parathas with dal and makkhan, the quintessential start of a long day. These would have to sustain us for a long while. 

The small towns we crossed were getting active as they started their daily lives. These roads were in great condition too. We took the numerous turns in Yamunanagar to Paonta Sahib. Having covered this route many times earlier, we didn't have to stop to ask directions. We reached the weed-lined road towards Paonta Sahib. After crossing the village of Chachrauli, we came across roadside vendors selling strawberry shakes and stopped to have a try. We had crossed them on our earlier trips, but never tried it. This time we didn't give it a miss. The taste turned out to be great. Its strange how this product is sold here so far from Delhi. India is a land of surprises. 

Good roads provided company as we crossed Kalesar sanctuary, Paonta Sahib and Kalsi. Then they got bad. The hill section had started now. Unfortunately, we didn't come across any theka. So, after a long spell of riding, we took a halt at a Maggi point, 20 kms before Chakrata. Bun omelettes were ordered along with a dash of lemon and ketchup. When Ankit joined, he told us of his crash some distance back. He had grazed his leg. No damages to the Bullet though. He would have to endure the rest of the ride with this wound.

We were about to leave when Asok noticed a puncture in his rear tyre. The shop owner guided us to Sahiya, 2 kms downhill. After a long, long time we had faced a breakdown in our Ride. This one took us about an hour as only one person in the town was willing to lay his hands on the Bullet. Asok meanwhile shared his research on Rohru. He told us that its one of the most educated towns in HP. This fact would be corroborated later on. It also had numerous apple orchards. 

As we neared Chakrata, it started to turn cooler. The wind provided much needed relief from the heat. We had about 120 kms left till our destination. It looked like we will cover it in good time. But all that changed as we took the route to Tiuni. The road condition deteriorated rapidly. Our average speed dropped to 22. We endured it for a while hoping for a better future. But it never came. Meanwhile, fuel levels started dropping as well. My Bullet struck reserve. On enquiring, the next petrol pump would only be available at Rohru. However, I was told of a local shop some distance ahead from where I purchased 5 L of petrol at the rate of 80 Rs per litre. The performance took a hit but it was better than staying still. 

We do enjoy offroading a lot. But its only enjoyable in portions. 20 or 30, even 40 kms is ok. But on a continuous spell of nearly 80 kms in a hilly terrain, it becomes painful. It was only in the last 5 kms to Tiuni that we saw proper asphalt. It was such a welcoming sight. 

What is seen above should be a basic need. However, given the complications between PWD, state politicians and contractors, it has become more of a piece of rare art. What we encountered most of the time in the hills was a dirt track, or a rocky path, or gravel. Sometimes, all of the three together.

Here's an example that would get someone else to the same feel as we had. Take a 100m stretch of land. Make a proper road on it. Now fill it with speedbreakers, without any gap in between. Break the alternate breakers now and plant sharp shards of rock. Garnish the top with pounds of dust. Have someone to blow the dust in your face when one is on it. Add a 15 degrees incline and now ride over this 100m stretch 100 times back and forth. The first 50 times would be fun. Then slowly, pain starts to build up from the constant jarring in the shoulders and the spine. Your buttocks are constantly whacked by the seat of your own motorcycle. At round 75, one starts getting weary but gains some courage sensing that only 25 rounds more to go. When you are on the 99th round, you are given the information that you have to repeat this 100 round cycle 8 more times. That's when all the reserves of strength are drained. That's what we faced on this stretch. However, the worst was yet to come. 

It is only the group effort that pushes you on at that time. We endured all the shocks and jolts because we knew that after some distance we would all gather and laugh about it. Another tragedy was the non-availability of theka. Mountain people aren't meant to last that long without alcohol. 

Coming back to the superb asphalt, our joy increased as we were the only ones using it. There was no traffic. We reached Tiuni at 5 pm and looked for a place to have a late lunch. This was going to be the trend on this ride. We chose one near the bus stand and ordered fish-rice. It turned out to be whole fish with gills intact, boiled and served in a thin gravy. 

40 kms separated us from our destination. The sun had already set. We were riding in twilight now. The asphalt surface disappeared again. This time the surface had more of gravel. It's in the process of widening, which meant that the mound of the original broken road constantly appeared now and then providing a big jolt. To accompany this, hordes of buses and trucks drove by showering us with dust. Our endurance was tested for nearly two more hours, when we reached the first petrol pump at Hatkoti. But they didn't have petrol. True to Asok's research, the locals guided us towards Rohru, 6 kms away, in English. 

At Rohru, petrol was available in only one of the two pumps. There was a long queue of cars waiting to get fuel. We decided to skip the filling now and looked for Hotel Chanshal instead. It took some time to find the property in the dark. The place was huge.

We settled for a room on the ground floor, freshened up and immediately headed to the bar. One swig of the cold Kingfisher beer and as the liquid travelled down the throat, we could feed the relaxing effect flowing through the capillaries throughout the body. We had thirsted for this effect for the entire day. This was quenching time. 

The snacks however were disappointing. The chicken was half cooked. Even fries were not properly done. Ankit had an upset stomach since the night before, but still helped himself with everything. The "throttle response" was instantaneous. The dinner was also nothing special. We asked the waiter on nearby places to see. Only temples were mentioned. Exhausted from the journey and subdued from the beer, we retired for the night.

9th May 2015:
(Rohru - Chanshal Pass - Rohru)

We woke up after a fulfilling sleep. The time was only 8 am. Such is the freshness of mountain air. Bed tea with butter toast was served. We packed all our baggage and checked out. It looked like Chanshal was the only place to visit. Moreover, it had the promise of snow. We were warned that the path was open only till halfway. So, it meant that we would be able to cover 28 kms and find snow. But first, we fueled up.

The road towards the pass was also broken, but still better than what we had the day before. After covering the 15 kms to Chirgaon with the Pabbar river providing delightful company, the road began to climb. We could see snow-covered mountains in the distance. The ascent was continuous now. It took us a long time to cover the route owing to road conditions. The 28-mile marker spot was long gone. It was only in the last 10 kms that we encountered snow. And then its magnitude increased tremendously.

Surprisingly, the weather wasnt that chilly. The huge snow walls besides us reminds one of BaralachLa, only this time, the location was much closer to Delhi.

Finally, we reached a point from where there was no going forward. The way ahead was blocked by a PWD bulldozer. Only the last km remained till the Pass. The rest of the workers told us that we could walk to the pass. But we are a stubborn lot and dont like to conquer passes on foot. It has to be on the Bullet. We cheered our latest venture with two caps full of Old Monk.

We noticed a group of people besides us, high up on the steep slope. One by one, they slid down the long slope without any gear whatsoever. It just goes on to show how these alpine gear manufacturers loot us when the natives can do easily without them. The sight was extremely entertaining. We could've joined in the fun, but there was no safety net at the bottom. One could get seriously injured if unable to control the speed.

We wanted to stay longer but dark clouds appeared overhead and started thundering. Slush and icy roads are dangerous on their own but even more when comined with rain. We started our way back quickly. The descent down the steep slope was as quick as the ascent and we reached the dhaba 16 kms from the pass at 5 pm. It was going to be another late lunch day. Lunch was in the form of rajma-rice and very delicious at that. This simple meal tasted far better than what we had had the night before.

As we continued our descent, there was still a slight drizzle, but nothing to worry about. There was too much of lightning and thunder though. When only 9 kms remained to Rohru, it turned into a downpour. We stopped at a rain shelter as the rain grew heavier. It slowed down after about half an hour. We still had to plan on where to stay next. Hotel Chanshal wasnt such a good option now. We decided to take a place near the main market. A native suggested Hotel River View. The place looked new, adequately furnished and within budget. The deal was finalized. We had made it before dark.

After cleaning up, we set out to explore the market. After 8 pm, most of the shops were closed. The important thing was that bars were open. We went down the stairs to one which had curtained cabins. The curtains did please us as someone had told us earlier how things happen behind closed curtains in bars. Although the waiter claimed to have every dish, only fried chicken was avaiable. We seem to meet a lot of such people recently in our Rides. The food disappointment of yesterday was being made up today. Zingaro beer provided refreshment.

We finished quickly, grabbed a couple of bottles and went to our room to finish the rest. One noticeable thing to mention here is that on the way, a guy was walking along with a Rottweiler without leash. He must be a very disciplined dog. Even the sight of a Rottweiler is intimidating although they are quite a misjudged breed. The guy later turned out to be the owner of Hotel River View. Snacks and dinner were ordered as room service. These also tasted well. With satisfied stomachs, we retired for the night.

10th May 2015:
(Rohru - Tikkar - Kharapatthar - Solan - Delhi)

There was absolutely no intention to cover the above route. I had seen the Hatkoti - Theog route in a previous ride, the Jubbal Jackhammers in 2011. It is pathetic, even worse than the Chakrata - Tiuni section. I had warned my comrades on this and so we chose to go via Narkanda. After having bed tea and toast again, we set off from Rohru.

The road we took bypassed Hatkoti as well. We were on track and passed through Pujarli that has a temple with a great architecture. It reminded me of guard towers in Age of Empires. We made good progress till Tikkar. Again the road here was superb with no traffic. At Tikkar, we noticed a signboard towards Shimla and took the turn. This was the fatal mistake.

We reached a small town called Melthi where a man stopped and greeted us. He was also talking in English. He was also drunk. He showed us the vast expanse of his estate down the hillside and invited us to his place for lunch. We thanked him for his offer and said goodbye. We stopped some distance ahead for some breakfast, again consisting of bun-omelettes. As the food was being prepared we asked the locals of the best way to touch NH-22. This stirred up quite a commotion as Asok pointed out. Everyone was very quiet prior to this question. A very long discussion later, they recommended to take the Kharapatthar route only. It was straightforward. We could get lost if we took the alternate route to NH-22.

There was no escaping the dreaded Kharapatthar - Kothkai - Theog route now. When even the locals advise to avoid the route, it should be taken seriously. We have been guided towards rough roads claiming they were ok. I guess, the above section must have been the benchmark of a bad road. The other option was to go back a rough 20 kms to Tikkar and take the 32 kms diversion to Narkanda from there. Thinking that things might have improved in the last 4 years at least, we marched on towards Kharapatthar.

The initial 15 kms went well. Then the pain started. Sadly, things hadn't changed in the last 4 years. The road condition was still the same and there was no sign of any construction to improve it. The traffic also increased. The only improvement from my previous crossing here was that it was dry now. Last time there was rain too and all the dirt on the road had turned to slush. Our average speed on Chakrata-Tiuni stretch was 20. Here it was 10. We were scaling boulders and eating lots of dust. Such was the harshness of the jolts that the commute had to be done standing up on foot pegs. Even that provided little help as the shoulders bore the brunt. The 30 kms to Chailla took us nearly 3 hours. It was well past noon now and we were still in the hills. There was no saying when we would reach Delhi. My comrades however were flying ahead. They were enjoying themselves. Ankit was getting a good throttle response and just rammed through the terrain despite his scraped leg. Asok was unstoppable.

After Chailla, we noticed that there were some 25m or 50m short stretches of well-paved road, followed again by gravel. But even the gravel road was smooth. We could speed up to 40 kph on them. The actual story of these well-paved sections was revealed when a gentleman struck up a conversation with us in a bar near Sainj. He told us that these stretches were developed as an experiment by a Chinese company under various conditions. Even after all these years, they had preserved their quality while the ones laid down by PWD are rebuilt twice every year. Such is the mess of corruption. He also told us how ministers from neighbouring constituencies don't let the road be rebuilt squabbling over their internal jurisdictions rather than providing relief to the people. The delightful news was that the road ahead of us was in great condition.

We finished our beer over a discussion of various qualities of apples. This gentleman had his orchard on the other side of Chanshal Pass. He also laughed at how we complained about road conditions when this stretch was part of his daily commute. The respect for such people increases automatically. We are spoilt city folks not knowing of what hardship means. When we predicted our time of reaching Delhi to be 1 am, he corrected it to be 4 am.

The diversion of SH-6 towards Solan was a blessing. This highway was new to us and in excellent condition. The 71 kms to Solan passed rapidly. We carried on towards Dharampur via the same highway and finally stopped at Shan-e-Himachal dhaba opposite Giani's. This is our regular stop whenever we pass this road. It was 8 pm now. It was too late to even blurt out our legendary quote - "Ab to late ho hi gaye hain". Time was ripe for a final beer and very very late lunch. We had survived on the bun-omelettes of Melthi till here. It was chicken time now. Tandoori was fresh and juicy. The dahiwala was also superb in taste.

We set off after finishing up to cover the remaining 300 kms in the dark. There was still quite some traffic moving both ways as we descended the hills. The hot air of the plains hit us as soon as the altitude decreased. The mountains were behind us now. We zoomed through the Himalayan Expressway, missing the flyover at Zirakpur yet again and took another break as soon as we reached NH1 at Ambala for some ice cream. It was 10 pm now and we had 200 kms more to go. But now we were in no rush. This is a familiar highway.

Another break was taken near Karnal and then it started to rain. We stopped at a petrol pump to wear our rain suits. The rain was also welcomed as it brought relief from the heat. But as soon as we were dressed up and had covered 10 kms, it turned dry. Now, we were in our rain suits and riding in the heat. Finally, at Murthal, we stopped to take it all off again.

The remaining 50 kms were covered quickly as we said goodbyes at the point of gathering. Total distance covered 1037 kms. True to the gentleman's word at the bar near Sainj, it was nearly 4 am. Looking back, although the offroad stretches were painful, they were enjoyable. Our trio can take on anything and we like to explore as much as possible within the duration of a Ride. I would still avoid the Kharapatthar-Theog route as much as possible. No pleasure there. The May Ride happened after 2 long months. No telling when the next Ride will happen. Until then,

JAI BoP !!!