Day 11 Sarchu to Manali
Day 11 (July 18, 2012) This will be last set of pics that I will upload because after this day we shipped the bike to our home and we travelled on a taxi.
So today's destination was to reach Manali and no we were not on our bike for this leg. Unfortunately the puncture gave away yet another time and the morning I woke up and saw the tyre was deflated again. Moreen suggested that it would be dangerous to take the bike ahead with such a puncture. And if it does give away in the middle there would be not much of help.
And I also agreed. We spoke to a truck driver who was coming from Leh and going towards Manali. He agreed to take us and anyways the truck was going empty.
We had to load the bike on to the truck. We started our journey with we two sitting in the drivers cabin and the bike loaded in the truck's loading area. Since there nothing to pack around the bike we used all our luggage that we had so that the bike rests on it and doesn't get hurt
This was a totally different experience for both of us, to cross the narrow roads on a truck. Hats to these truckers who drive on some of most dangerous roads.
We were worried about the bike, we were praying nothing should break in the bike. The driver also was taking care while going on the rough roads. He kept telling us that it wasn't for the bike he would have reached Manali in half a day.
Every 20 kms or so we used to stop the truck and go to back to check the bike. The bike would have moved from its place and we would put it back again.
Eventually we took around 14 - 15 hours to reach Manali crossing the beautiful Baralacha La and the slushy but yet scenic Rohtang Pass.
Unfortunately I don't have any pics to show you how our bike was parked inside the truck. I was so worried about everything that I didn't take any pic at all.
When we reached Manali and we thanked our stars and almighty that we met such nice trucker who helped us our reach Manali. We paid him what we had decided when we started from Sarchu.
We unloaded the bike from the truck and I was not sure if the bike will even be in a condition to start. I just cranked the bike with so much of nervousness and voila! it started in half the crank itself. I was so happy and relieved. The only thing that broke was the right rider footpeg. The tip of the footpeg had chipped off but it wasn't that I could use it. And also we broke the left view mirror.
The next morning I again got the puncture fixed got the bike washed and we had decided that next day we would reach a place called Mandi which was around 120kms from Manali. This is where we would get a courier service, "Gati Services" so that we can ship the bike to Bangalore.
We started late morning since we just wanted to cover 120kms and by late afternoon we reached Mandi. It was late for the bike to booked and shipped for our destination and we had to come back the next day. We took the bike next day and we booked the bike for Bangalore. We packed our bike ourselves to some extent and the rest those shipping guys did it.
We left the bike with them and then booked a taxi for us to reach Chandigarh and from there on to Delhi.
All this while it was so cold and pleasant climate. When we reached Chandigarh it was hot and dry and took time to adjust
We eventually reached Delhi and spent some good time with our friend Nitin and we took a flight to Bangalore and eagerly waited for our bike to be delivered to us.
The bike was delivered a little late to us but the good thing was it wasn't damaged much except for some paint had come off from the front mudguard and also it broke the right view mirror. I was much worried about much bigger damages on the bike which thankfully didn't happen.
At the end it was an awesome experience. Travelling on world's highest roads on the Ducati, Staying with strangers who did make us feel strangers at all in Durbuk and also travelling on a truck travelling on some of most dangerous roads.
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