Getting Leh'd : Fuel issues

Saddles up and ready to go!!
Photo Courtesy : Anil

It was a comparatively relaxed start from the military camp at Udhampur. Everyone saddled up and assembled for a briefing. The lead announced that the two runners would switch positions. Gogo would become the lead runner & Vikram the sweep runner. Also discussed was the stops and the route. The itenary was to cross patnitop, reach peerah for brunch, then cross the famous jawahar tunnel and aim to hit Srinagar by 5.30pm.

The bikes went one behind each other, exit the camp and soon we were heading towards patnitop. As we made the climb up the winding ghats, the temperature was slowly decreasing, a welcome relief. Around 10km from Patnitop, the lead had stopped the group at a tea stall, asking them if they served the famous Rajma rice. As they didn't, he decided to move on. This is when Bala approached Subbu, the lead, to offer him a suggestion, that we atleast have tea. But, before he could even say the first few words, he was cut short with a series of "no". Ofcourse, this reaction frustrated Bala, but he had soon moved past it, choosing to rather enjoy the place than stay frustrated.
Within half an hour, we were at Patnitop, where after some confusion on the right road, we stopped at one of the view points. The place was covered in trees, and the weather was absolutely pleasant. A small piece of advice to anyone planning to do this stretch, it is better to stay the night at Patnitop, instead of Udhampur given the cooler temperature. The first session of posing and group photography ensued for the next 30 minutes. After so much of posing, our tummies reminded us how hungry we were.

The group minus me at Patnitop

We rushed through the beautiful ghats. For the first time in my life I was exposed to such high roads and deep valleys. It felt Heavenly!!!

World Famous Rajma Rice
Photo Courtesy : Vishnu

Distracted by the tremendous beauty of this place, Bala narrowly escaped a head on collision. He later told me, it was my hand signal that saved him. Somehow, we survived the mystical lure of the mountaiins and took a break at peerah to fill our stomachs. Peerah truly offers the world's tastiest Rajma rice, filled with generous servings of ghee. One plate is just not enough to satisfy the taste buds, and once you get your fill, you don't feel the need to eat the whole day. I would give anything to be able to have that same rajma rice here in Bangalore. Yummmmy!!!
After the delicious brunch, we continued along the mountain. Clean good roads soon turned into pot holes with bits of tarmac in between. We were riding up the mountain side closing in on the tunnel. Soon enough, we reached and crossed the famous Jawahar tunnel. The tunnel itself is a long dark single laned path. The army keeps a check on vehicles crossing and taking a break/stop is restricted. Just after I crossed the tunnel I was greeted with a sight of green forest filled mountains as compared to the stony mountains I had seen till here. It was a welcoming sight, and my heart was jumping in joy.

The winding roads up the mountain

The green mountains after the Jawahar Tunnel

After a quick stop at the titanic view point, we proceeded on towards Srinagar. The roads were nice and a welcome change. A few riders stopped to fill fuel at Qazigund, 60kms from Srinagar. This is where the problems started. After filling up his bike, para tried to start it, but it refused to come alive. All our attempts at kick starting failed. Next we tried push starting, it too failed. Thinking it could be an airlock we opened the fuel cap, when that failed, we drained out some fuel and shook the bike violently. We checked the spark plugs, and changed them, but still didn't work. Then identifying that it could be the fuel pump, we checked the fuses and battery leads. Suddenly the bike came back to life. An overjoyed Para was happy to get his bike back.

The Green Tunnel

During the time we were trying to fix his bike, there were a few who sat, relaxed, not at all bothered at the problem at hand. But once we were done, they had left even before we could pack up and get on our bikes. Now, it is obvious if this happens, we would automatically arrive late at the next destination. Ignoring this, we moved on. At the bypass to Anantnag, my front wheel hit a big pebble and the bike slipped. Due to this fall, we made an unscheduled stop of about 20 mins. So that I could assess the damage to my bike and myself. Having been not well during the previous day, I did not feel good about the fall. Along with this, bad network connectivity prevented us telling anyone else about our stop. The foot pedal was bent, and my tank bag had gone flying off the bike. I opened the bag to check on the camera inside. Convinced that everything was intact, we moved on. We went through this section of road named as the green tunnel. Covered on both sides by large trees it was faintly reminiscent of the old bangalore mysore road, beautiful no doubt. After a few kms, we saw three others waiting for us, Gogo, Rashith and Chinna. The others had left them behind and moved ahead simply because they were frustrated waiting for us. This was very shocking, as we had never made anyone wait more than 5 minutes uptil that point (5-10 mins is a very normal delay between the lead and sweep in any ride).
Without any runners on the road, waiting to show us the route, we somehow found the route to the Coffee day at Srinagar where the others were. While we munched on some snacks, Anil & Vishnu did the group a great favour. Keeping aside their fatigue, they went hunting for a hotel to stay for the night. On their return, we decided to fuel up and then head to the hotel. As luck would have it, as soon as para re-fuelled, his bike stopped working again. Bala, Gogo, Chinna, Para and myself desperately attempted to identify and fix the problem while the rest went to the hotel. We sat from 7 till 9.30pm, before we gave up and loaded the bike onto a tempo till the hotel. We reached the hotel, unsaddled, freshened up and took a stroll along the banks of dal lake, before heading off to sleep. Para's bike would have to be fixed the next day. The next day's ride plan depended on when Para's bike would get readied.

Don't get fooled by his smile.
Only he knows how bad he felt

The beautiful Dal lake at night