Day One
It was the 2nd of August and dawn had just broken over the horizon when I landed with my rucksack at Inter State Bus Terminal, Kashmiri Gate, Delhi, which was the pick-up point Ashok had set. For the next one hour I flagged down every Ford Endeavour that came into view hoping that it would be Ashok’s, but only ended up making a fool of myself. And just as I had given up hope, stranded, sweaty and frustrated, a shining black Endeavour glided into view and came to a screeching halt beside me. Ashok had finally shown-up and our adventure was about to begin, finally.
The 233km distance from Delhi to Chandigarh was covered in five and half hours, with pedal being put to metal. Frequent glances at the speedometer showed that we were driving at speeds in excess of 130kmph. The 4 Wheel Drive 2.5 liter Ford Endeavour XLT is a superb performer on highways and compliments the decent power at its disposal with impeccable acceleration, handling and stability.
After lunch at Chandigarh we got lost in the maze of roundabouts that this incredibly planned city has until a very amiable Sardarji in a not so amiable sounding scooter was kind enough to show us the way out of town. The country side in Punjab is immensely endearing with green vistas of paddy and sugarcane fields and canals carrying unbelievable emerald green water. We stopped at a typical Punjabi Dhaba for tea that was a tad too sweet for my taste buds but Ashok loved it and went on to devour another two cups (he on an average consumes 12 cups of tea in a day).
After Ropar and upon entering Himachal Pradesh, the smooth highway roads give way to snaking and curvy mountainous roads which bring to light the body roll in the Endeavour. Driving through the 2.8km Pandoh Dam tunnel was quite an experience and one can’t help feeling a sense of awe at the workmanship of the men who made the tunnel. It was in the evening that we reached our hotel in Manali. Hotel Rohtang Manalsu is a Himachal Tourism establishment located at Hadimba temple road which has seen better days. It is a decent hotel though with decent rooms and friendly staff and quite reasonable as well. It is here that we met Dharmesh Sharma, who was to be our driver cum guide for the remainder of the trip (we had booked a driver in advance to join us at Manali). After a hearty meal we called it a night but neither of us could sleep. The thought of what was to come the next day kept us awake till early in the morning.
Day Two
Day two brought hopes of great excitement for us. This was the beginning of the real adventure. By 6 we had tanked up the Endeavour and were on the road headed for Keylong which is a small and picturesque town nestled at a height of 11,000 feet in the Himalayas. The 115 km drive from Manali to Keylong is simply breathtaking with gargantuan snow covered peaks that intimidate one and all that ply on the road. The roads are your typical mountainous roads, broken and messy, and the car simply loved it.
The Endeavour made mincemeat of the terrain but there was quite a bit of jolting in the rear seats, and I could see our driver Sharmaji’s head constantly hitting the roof, his expression told me that he was not very amused. We stopped at Raninala glacier point which is a mass of thick snow gathered besides the road. Having sent me to stand on the glacier and pose Ashok got cracking with his camera. Raninala glacier was brimming with noisy honeymooners who were acting as if they had just conquered Mount Everest. The sooner we got out of there the better we thought.
The road gets really bad on the climb to Rohtang pass which is a high mountain pass that connects Kullu valley with Lahual and Spiti valleys of Himachal Pradesh. At a height of 13,051 feet, it is at Rohtang pass that we have our first tryst with bouts of breathlessness and giddiness. But that did not stop me from climbing atop a yak that quite frankly didn’t seem to be very delighted at having to bear my weight, all of 70kgs.
The next stop after Rohtang pass was at Sissu glacier waterfalls. This was a sight to behold. It looked almost as if god himself was pouring milk out of his hands. After taking in the beauty of Sissu waterfalls we were suddenly hungry and halted at Koksar village for a nice lunch which comprised of rice, mutton curry and a local dish named Siru which I had no idea what it was, but it tasted great nevertheless. It was at the Dhaba at Koksar that Ashok forgot to pick up his SLR camera along with a plethora of lenses and it was only after driving a good 10 kilometers did we realise that it was missing.
We took a u turn and headed back for the Dhaba. Ashok drove like a maniac. The upside to this crazy driving was that we covered the 10kms to the Dhaba in no time, and you should have seen the expression in Ashok’s face when the dhabawalla returned him the camera. If Ashok was the President of India he would have awarded the ‘Bharat Ratna’ to that dhabawalla right there and then. On a serious note, we will forever be indebted to that nameless dhabawalla, for he saved our journey of a lifetime from becoming a total disaster as that would have been the end of this photo-feature by the Full Throttle Adventure Drive team.
