Tuesday, September 14, 2010

My ride to Pokhara-Palpa-Butwal and back to Kathmandu


The jaunt sparked with triggering of alarm at 3AM, washed and got prepared for the ride. I reached brother's place. We went thru our check list for 1 last time, fueled up the bike. Check list is up to the mark

4.30AM, We have Ignition On!!!
We were on our way to explore the day filled with surprise and lots more.

5.30AM - Nagdhunga
We sneaked out while the entire city was wrapped up in their warm cosy sleep. Well the dawn of the day itself was much more pleasant to ride off.

6.30 AM - Naubise 
Covered KMs - 20
The road was quite disturbing and quite slippery, with loads of twist and turns to go thru but then finally we made it there. A cup of tea and few clicks. We met 2 guys on their way of Manakamana. They praised our ride, in return we offered few riding tips and formal handshake and both bikes on the road once again.

@ Gas station
7.00AM  - Kurintar
Stop to re-fueled up again (heard there was some kinda strike or so... better to go smooth). Basanti took 5 ltrs in her tank though she brought us here for 2.1 ltrs (ie 1.7 for 25KMs). We had made her go slow as we could not offer to spoil our day.

8.00AM - Hydro Power Station (on the way to Pokhara from Mugling)
Took some good snaps, checked out the view and winding river below. Somewhere in middle i was reminded that it was indeed a right option for a ride on a such a beautiful day. The road smooth as always and little bit of pace in it. We are quite pleased with our Basanti

Milestone showing - Pokhara 0Kms
10.45AM - Pokhara
Covered Kms - 210 (from Home)
Pokhara welcomed us with its snow capped mountains at the background and as its was Teej (a festive day celebrated by Hindu woman in Nepal), the city was quite covered up with reds and green. We took a rest, quenched our thirst, looked around and packed off again.

You see nature, I see you
We reached various places on the way at times as we went thru rigid mountains. We took few pic and shot some videos of the variant landscape. We enjoyed every piece of this ride till we  saw our first accident occur right in front of our eyes. Local Amateur boys on their Yamaha R15 slide right in front despite regular warnings that we gave them but they did not follow as a result the pillion rider suffered most.


Gazing at mother nature

This is should be one hell of a piece in middle of nowhere

Finally we arrived Butwal at around 4.00PM covering almost 410Kms through up and downs, off road and pitched road. The street was flooded with locals celebrating Teej and the view was amazing but sadly we witnessed one more accident where we could see the front tire of truck right on top of a Pulsar Bike. We had no option then to move on as there were chances of highway being shut down (Thats what the locals do when they encounter a tragedy)

We moved on till we found a good gas station, fuelled up again, took a shot of RedBull, omlette and packed off again. As we were making our way thru Narayanghat, Chitwan we had to reduce our cruise speed due to rain. We changed our gears, as i was planing of complete dry tour i was turned unfortunate. We gushed ourselves thru and finally made to Narayanght at 8.18PM. Another shot of RedBull to keep us energized, now we raved the 36 Kms of road to Mugling in high speed. As a result we did that part of the track (off track in few places) in 40 Mins.

9.00PM - Mugling
We took our dinner, made few strategies and then back on highway once again. We have this one particular spot in Mugling where they serve amazing Thakali food.

FYI: Mugling is 110KMs away from Kathmandu and it can be executed in about 3-4 hours, depends upon the speed.
We started out quite a good until we reached Kurintar (10KMs ahead Mugling). We were again welcomed by rain, but we kept of fighting and headed straight.

11.00PM - Malekhu
Finally we reached Malekhu, the town had almost gone to sleep as everything around was closed. Rest for awhile, eased our legs and backs and went back to highway once again

11.30 PM - Galchi
As soon as we reached Galchi, the drizzle was quite loud. We could rarely see the road, followed on the translucent shadows of whatever vehicle in front  and follow their tire path (A trick to use when you get struck in heavy rain)

Now the rain was like anything spanking right in front of our face, our clothes all soaked in water. At time we almost hit a bench lying in middle of highway (ie villagers). 

1.30AM - Naubise
Finally we reached Naubise, we were little relaxed as we now have 20KMs more and then we are thru Kathmandu. But very little did we know what this 20Kms had in for us.

As soon as we hit the road crossed few turning, there were huge fogs right in front of us.
FYI: This part of the road is the most destructed with lots of turns uphill.

Again we took the help of our fellow truck drivers, some of them even helped us showing the way with the help of their fog lamps installed. There was a point were we could hardly even see a metre ahead. 

2.15AM - Nagdhuga/Thankot
With all those fogs and heavy rains still on us we made thru, We avoided the ditch as much as we could and Basanti (Royal Enfield 350 Yellow) did not let us down.

3.00AM - HOME
Finally i reached home at 3 in the morning, completely soaked in rain for 5 hours. Changed and slipped thru my warm cosy bed after that 640KMs ride.

2 comments:

  1. U had a great trip brother...well 1 day I m gonna say it "to hell with all the daily shit" and head out..into the open....wish the day was close by...The road beckons...

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  2. Hey ur ride was really adventurous & interesting. Nicely written n beautiful pics. Wondering if i cud see more pictures, is it possible???

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