The Bike Riders: Chipi Chipi: Jammu to Kargil

Hello, friends! We're very sorry for not having been able to update the blog in the last 2 days. But, rest assured, we're hale, hearty and kicking happy! :)

So, on the second day of our trip, 6th September, we reached Jammu by 4 pm. We immediately released our bikes from the parcel office and thankfully, they were completely undamaged. We loaded the luggage, filled the fuel cans, freshened ourselves up and by 5:30 pm, we were on the road. We had decided in the train itself that it'd be better to start the journey and get a bit ahead of schedule as we'd need more time up in the steep mountains and ghats further ahead.

As fate would have it, we faced heavy rainfalls almost immediately as soon as we hit the road. But, we are made of sterner stuff than be detained by a little bit of rain. So, on and on we continued, determined to enjoy the weather, until we reached a dhaba just after Udhampur, where we had our dinner. Finally, completely dog-tired, we arrived at Kud (Patnitop) by 11:30 pm and crashed out at JKTDC tourist bungalow. (Jammu-Patnitop: 110 kms)

The next day, (7th September), we started from Kud at 7:15am and started delightfully cruising through beautiful mountain ranges with tall trees and mildly warm morning sunshine. Everything around us was so totally breathtaking! On the way, we had to cross the famous Jawahar tunnel, which is 2.5km long and connects the Jammu region of the state with the Valley region of Kashmir. Enroute we had our breakfast & lunch at Vaishnav dhabas. These dhabas are a blessing for all the vegetarian travellers.

If married, divorce speed. :P

So much luggage!

Playing terrorist-terrorist :P

Breathtaking view of the Kashmir Valley

Last view of the Kashmir Valley! *sigh*

Hello, brother!

We faced some minor bike-related problems on the way, like a puncture, but they were immediately and easily sorted out by the local mechanic. We, then reached Srinagar around 5pm (approximately 190kms from Kud.) However, we decided to just drive along side the bank of the Dal lake and not halt there for long time. We moved towards Sonamarg (85kms from Srinagar.) We reached there at 9pm and stayed at Narinder Punjab Lodge on the main road. It was quite a decent place to stay the night. However, unfortunately, due the unavailability of internet, we couldn't update the blog yesterday.

The Riders preparing for their take-off from Sonmarg

And thus, here we are! Fourth day (8th September.) Today, we started from Sonmarg at 6:30am after re-energizing ourselves with the morning tea. Through this route via Zojila Pass, we entered the Ladakh region of the state. High mountains and steep and damaged road made our journey a bit difficult. Our bikes couldn't take all the luggage we had piled on the poor things. It was especially difficult for the bikes which had two people riding it along with the luggage of two people. Finally, we had to hire a vehicle to transport our luggage for about 25kms. It was mostly the Zojila pass region that was the difficult patch.

We have radium stripes embedded in our jackets to help us find each other in the dark.

Spending some time with our Military brethern

Loading the luggage in a hired utility vehicle after facing problems

Must visit places: STD/ PCO?

Then we reached Drass. The region between Drass and Kargil has become popular after the Kargil War. We visited the War Memorial at Drass. The famous Tiger hill (from Kargil war) is in this region. The roads were quite badly damaged at some places. But, we trudged along slowly and we reached Kargil around at 4pm. We decided to stay here for the day and rest for the rest of the day. We are now staying in Hotel Greenland. The plan for tomorrow is to head towards Leh.