North India saw a turn of weather and this february has been the coldest one for years...to the extent that the Hill Station of Shimla recorded the highest february snowfall in the last 99 years. For the last two weeks, Shimla (and the higher areas of Himachal) had been buried under one foot of snow. Made a perfect reason to hit the Station.
I'd been wanting to cover up bits of himachal since my Jaisalmer Trip, to complete a triangle rides to Uttaranchal, Rajasthan and Himachal for sometime..Ideally I wanted to cover Kinnaur but due to the heavy snowfall kinnaur has been completely cut-off by road.
Rohon was to accompany me for the ride. Saurabh got stuck at work and couldn't get his bike ready for the ride. Rohon would also spend Friday, 16 Feb night at my place to get an early start the next morning.
Day 1, Saturday Feb 17, 2007: Delhi - Panipat - Ambala - Kalka - Shimla
Our day started at 0345. We woke up after a 2.30 hrs sleep and got ready to hit the raods in 15 minutes time. At 0408 we were on our way. A quick fuel stop at Alipur and we headed into the Foggy night. Piloted by an Indica and Zen we rode for some 60 odd kms before taking a breather close to panipat at 0525. Odo: 65..a dearth of cigarettes encouraged me to get a bundle of bidi which would last me the entire trip.
The Fog got denser a we crept through, This time it would be a 17 tonne truck to escort us for the next 30 kms. and then a perfectly synchronised ride with an Innova and Scorpio. The four of us kept close to each other for the next 60 kms, everyone complementing each other...the scorpio and the innova taking leads in tandem and the two of us stayed 30 m behind them @ constant 70-90 kph. The visibility varied between 25-100m all throughout, but we were safely escorted till our second stop for tea a little before Ambala. The milk man riding the rajdoot was too entertaining...and asked us if we were "firangi"...Arrival Time: 0715, Odo: 180
We started off again after chilling for half hour, realising that our rain protective gear we bought the day before was coming to good use. The Fog and the mist started condensing on our suits. The Carabin Rain Suits also protected us from the severe cold, kept the winds out very well..good buy...worth a 1000 bucks i must say.
Anyways, after brachin off NH1 at Ambala we were slowed down by the city traffic in Chandigarh, Panchkula and the under construction NH 22. Nothing great in this leg. Mostly boring and we took our stop at Kalka just before starting our incline to Shimla for fuel and Tea. Arrival: 0905, Odo: 255.
The beautiful Himalayan Twisties treated us well..except for a few lanslides, the roads were lovely and inviting. Beautiful surface, excellent surroundings and high spirits :-) made the perfect recipe to make it memorable. As we approached Shimla, there was hardly any signs of snow on the roads or surroundings and we were starting lose our spirits. Felt as if all the snow had melted before our arrival. Finally arrived in Shimla at 1135, Odo: 346 kms
Its just so amazing, just as we entered Shimla city the colours changed from green to white. Felt as if it was a "no entry" to snow before Shimla. After a lot of speculation and two agents taking us for a walk in Shimla city in search of a cheap hotel we finally settled for one on the mall fro 450 bucks. What we learned here was that the Shimla Narkanda highway was under a feet of snow and no vehicle could go beyond kufri. and a two wheeler cant even get to Kufri. Our eyes lit up by these remarks and our target was to get as far as physically possible and enjoy the snow before it melts.
After riding for hardly 12 kms towards Kufri, we realised only 4 wheelers could go beyond. Too much black ice, water and snow making it extremely dangerous to ride further. Anyways it was only a matter of a few hundered meters and all 4 wheelers wouldnt go further either.
This is what we got...I would just let the pics do the talking
The climb down from Kufri were the toughest 12 kms of my life...Took us 45 minutes to ride down with all the ice on the roads...slowly but steadily we made our way down to shimla, still overwhelmed by the 2 hours we spent in the snow.
The Evening was to be total chillaxing time at the Mall...bought food, drinks, snacks and walked around the mall and ridge for a good 2 hours
Day 2, Sunday Feb 18, 2007: Shimla - Kalka - Karnal - Panipat - DelhiNothing of too much consequence on this day. except for a couple of videos i shot while riding in the twisties..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RBZIk3-rIM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-bhqt83orgDay Stats.
Total distance : 336 Kms
Total Time on the Road : 7:45 Hours.
TOTAL DISTANCE TRAVELLED IN THE TRIP 710 Kms.
Complete Photoset
http://picasaweb.google.com/DEL430/ShimlaFebruary2007
