Day 4 - Mcleod Ganj to Dalhousie

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Ravish and JP got up at 5:30am went out to kiss some misses and returned at 6:30am.

Then all of us went for a walk to the Jogi para Market place.

Then we went to Tsuglagkhang compex and visited Tsuglagkhang temple, Namgyal gompa and Kalachakra temple and saw the official residence of Dalai Lama. At the complex we met two tibetians who recognized us to be Kannadigas and started talking to us in Kannada and were very happy to see us. Their names were Goha and Normpu who we were told that lived in Kushalnagar, Mysore and Bangalore earlier.

After visiting the temple at the entrance of the temple there were a couple of tibetian women who were making fresh momos. We ate fresh alu and Chinese cabbage momos which were served piping hot with a spicy chutney. Just Rs. 10 for 4 momos. Just 2 plates of momos almost filled our stomachs. Imagine just filling our stomachs for Rs. 20/-.

We the foodies wanted to eat something else so we went to “One Two Café’ just opposite the complex and had Maple and chocolate pancakes and Farmers Breakfast plate.
After Breakfast went and saw the Museum and did some small shopping and checked out of Ekant lodge at 11am.

Then went to a bike rental cum repair shop and got the air filter hose fixed on my bike which was causing missing of engine at high speeds are uphills. After this my bike responded well to the throttle and the pickup was good.

Then Left dharmshala at 11:30am and reached Dalhousie by 5:30pm.
The ride was a real endurance test for both man and machine. The road between Shahpur and Dhramman La was virtually non existant. The road was battered by rains and landslides real bad. Added to this there was lot of blasting going on for widening of road and JCB front loaders which were digging away the roads. Added to all this every few kms there were “Falling stones zone” and “watch for falling rocks” signs all over. We took almost 1.5 hrs to do this stretch of 30 odd kms. Luckily it did not rain else god only help us.

Just as we crossed these sections and went past Dhramman la it started raining heavily and we were prepared for this as we had seen from the mountain top that it was raining in the valley so we all dressed fully in our rain gear and ready for the onslaught.

Just about 50 kms before Dalhousie at an intersection after Dhramman it started heavily just in front of a dhabha. I thank the Rain god it made Ravish stop who other wise was zooming off. The heavy rain made him stop just in front of a road side dhabha. It was already 2:30pm and we were all hungry to the core and the guy there served us with hot roties with rajma and bhindi and we hogged them like hungry hyenas, I should say.

After lunch rode in the rain and passed through some lovely passes and valleys.
The view were breathtaking and we passed through a valley with huge lake and valleys with pine trees and clay clad mountains. It was quite difficult to resist taking eyes of the road but forced myself to keep the eye on the road at all times. This huge lake which ran into kms we found out later that it was the reservoir of Ranjit Sagar Dam.

But we all couldn’t resist stopping our bikes every few kms to enjoy the views but also to capture the view as best as we could with our cameras.

Todays ride did give us the experience of riding through roads which were not roads at all but were just a mud patch, roads with gravel, rocks, land slides, slush and river crossings.

This 130 kms gave us a good experience of what we can expect once we leave Srinagar on our way to Leh.

After reaching Dalhousie check into ARK hotel went for a stroll to the market at Gandhi chowk and had dinner and came back to our room by 10:30pm.

Our odos have clocked a total of 575 kms till now.

Slept at 11pm.

Photos of Day 4

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=pottumarthi&target=ALBUM&id=5624326500335744385&authkey=Gv1sRgCPft1Ivl3s-6_AE&feat=email

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