The route from Manali to Dharamshala via Sach pass - Roughly 470 odd kms of cycling over rough terrain and 2 passes to reach Dharamshala
4 years and post Covid - here we were - a bunch of people eager to get on the saddle and cycle through parts of Himalayas once again. This time though in search of Truth - aka the Saach / Sach pass.
Om, by himself had attempted this journey a few years back but had to abandon it midway due to unfavourable weather conditions. This time he made sure he had enough people with him to overcome whatever may come in the way.
So after some practice rides (interrupted by Covid) we were set to start our Journey on 21st August 2021. HS and AC had gone ahead to assemble the bikes and kept on sending pictures of the beautiful bikes and weather - making us jealous and eager.
So on Saturday morning - all of us arrived at Delhi via multiple flights, caught up at the airport and ended up in one of the restaurants in CP to kill time, till it was time to board our bus for Manali. The time spent in that restaurant was an indication of things to come - never ending food and drinks on the table ( Some of them overly spiced thanks to tips to the chef from some of our very own)
The bus journey turned out to be arduous and it took us a huge amount of time to just get out of Delhi, not to mention the pathetic roads and traffic both made worse by rains. After dinner at midnight, accompanied by a live orchestra ( yes Covid never seemed to have existed in this part of the world) we settled back for the journey towards Manali.
The delay at the start and lots of road work in between meant that it was impossible to recover the time we had lost. We ended up landing at Manali well past lunch time. But once you are in the mountains - the fatigue, the delay is all whisked away by the crispy fresh air and the majestic peaks visible in the distance.
Within minutes we were warmly welcomed at our hotel, Fog Hills, by Khemraj sir and our crew. However, when you are with a bunch of crazy cyclists you end up checking out your cycles before you end up dropping luggage in your room. We ogled at our brand new shiny bikes, itching to take them out for a quick spin.
After a quick lunch, it finally was time to check out the bikes, fine tune them and get them ready for the ride next day. What followed was - endless adjustments, putting on different bike bags, setting up go-pro mounts, mobile mounts and taking the bike out for short spins to see if everything feels fine.
At 18:00 we had a detailed briefing session about the entire route, the campsite, road conditions and the do’s and don’ts for the entire trip. The most memorable part of it - “mountain side se chalana hai, raaste pe dhyaan dena hai.. nahi to seedha Chenab ke raste Pakistan pahuch jaoge. (Stick to the mountain side while riding, and keep your eyes on the road, else you will miss a turn, fall in Chenab and reach Pakistan). There was other information offered about gradients, the location of campsites and how easy / difficult the road was in patches. I am sure each one of us had butterflies in our stomachs listening to that. We were also introduced to the team that would be taking care of us through the next 7 -8 days.
A beautiful view of Manali from the balconies of Fog Hills resort.
The earlier plan was to start cycling from Dalang (our first campsite) - and hitch a ride in the cars till there, but no one was keen to pack the cycles in the car - and hence we decided to start from Manali itself - via the Atal Tunnel to Dalang - on the next day - 23rd August.
After an early dinner and a nice walk in the starlight, we retired to bed - ready to start our journey the next day!!