Day 2: August 9, 2010, Monday

Day 2: Dharampur to Narkanda

 The day began early-ish but not as early as we would have liked though. After taking some group photos in front of Hotel Namaskar, we head out and the sweeping smooth twisty roads were too good to resist. The fresh morning mountain air even more so. We all pulled at our throttles and made the most of it.

Hotel Namaskar

The famous Lady Diana pose

We stopped for breakfast at a bend- poori-bhaji- yummm!! Still fighting hard to get used to no internet, most of used Dev's iphone to check email! And after filling our bellies, we head out again to feast on the lovely roads. I stayed way ahead of the pack thinking that I would get a picture of them passing me by but that never happened! ;) We did stop a few times to take pictures of the beautiful landscape all around us.

Breakfast of poori-bhaji! :)

The scenery along our way

The photo-op

Toy train!

As we were on the border of Shimla, we see a Bajaj service centre and the Bajaj boys decide to get their bikes prepped up further. Beni gets a new speedometer, gets slime filled and chain adjusted. Suku gets his digital gauge, chain and brakes fixed. I got new footpegs and slime in the rear tyre. The RE gang went to the nearby RE service station to get their bikes checked as well. Alok, Dev and Kaustubh managed to get into Shimla town while we took more time to get all the bikes done.

 

 

Suku showing off his talent of taking naps anywhere!

We took the bypass around Shimla but still managed to hit some heavy town traffic. We all stopped at Hotel Bye-Pass to grab a late lunch. Bijoor san got his bright yellow tarp and the blue ones for me and Suku. At the same hotel Beni ran into the person who has some record for taking an Rx100 to Khardung La- who also said that it would take only an hour and half to get to Narkanda- our next destination. We wrapped the tarp on our luggage and decided to take the by-pass to get to Narkanda. After nearly and hour or more we realized that we had taken a by-pass back to Shimla! Taking the same roads that we had taken earlier in the day, we finally caught the right road and went our way. 

The fog started to grow- viewed from Hotel Bye Pass

View enroute the wrong by-pass

Beni has had enough of pee stops from Suku!

Bijoor san was flying ahead of me while Beni was right behind me catching up. We hit mid 80s even trying to catch as much as day light as we could. It was already about 7 when we had caught the right road and hence the rush. Darkness crept up soon and I found myself ahead of the pack again somehow and on rocky mountain roads. The mist started to engulf the road and I couldn't see anyone either in front of me or behind so I waited till I could see Beni san's and Bijoor san's headlights. Thereafter, we three stuck together as visibility was probably only 10-20 metres at max. The roads were broken in most places and slushy in places too. At one point a slight drizzle almost gave a scare of rain! Fighting our aching shoulders and red eyes, we were more than 100% focused on the road ahead of us. And finally, somehow-almost seemed like a miracle- we reached Narkanda. 

At The Hatu at 8:45 pm- the guy got his hand to photobomb this pic!

What seemed like 4 hours was actually an hour and half according to the time in my pictures!!! Too tired to look for other options, we just went to the HP tourism Hotel Hatu which had rooms at Rs.1800 on which we got some 20% discount. It went against our new mantra but we promised that it would be the last time.

The Pegus shared a room again and we spread out everything to dry out- including some clothes that I decided to wash to remove the stench- bad idea! We all celebrated with some rich food and some even had drinks. Our plan for the next day was see the nearby Hatu peak and then head on to Sarahan.

Total distance covered= 127 kms approx.

Total cost= Rs. 1125

[Breakfast= 50 + Lunch=  80 + Bajaj= 55 + Stay & Dinner= 940]