Tawang to Bhalukpong

20 April 2011
Today was going to be a marathon riding day. Until now, we had been enjoying a relaxing ride. But today, we were going to attempt something big. What we had covered with a two-stop strategy, we would be now doing with a one-stop strategy. That meant, two days worth of travel to be covered in a single day.
The target was not big. 285 kms. But given the terrain, it was large. First of all, we had to leave very early. This, we did, at 6 AM. The town was just waking up so we avoided all the glares of previous day. This time we did take the short cut. Being early morning, the mud still had not dried and it was a slushy ride again. We kept our breaks to a minimum. Only after 10 kms of riding, we were engulfed in heavy mist. And then from the mist, Army horses appeared. It must be their daily routine, but looked like a mystical land to us. PayengDa couldnt help clicking a few photographs despite our tight schedule. Those photographs really turned out well.
We crossed Jung Falls again, then took a short tea break at Jaswantgarh. Doley had suddenly turned over a new leaf. He was flying. At Jaswantgarh, we were met by another Army officer of Rajasthan Rifles. He wished us all the best. We were ascending Sela pass now. As we reached higher, the windier it got. Fresh snow began to appear. It must have snowed here the night before. Then, at the top of the pass, we were completely surrounded by snow. It was such an attractive sight that Nilu fell from his bike. This is one of the most unusual incidents. Nilu sticks to his saddle. To see our regular fall guy, Gyan helping him up was like seeing a sight in a parallel universe. Looking at his limp, he had suffered a hit. The strong wind at the Sela top forced us to leave that place quickly. We would be checking on the injuries once we were in warmer climate.
The way down was even more treachorous. If a turn happened to be in the path of the blowing wind, the rider and his machine were pushed towards the edge of the cliff. We had to keep our hands strong on the handlebars. As soon as it grew warm, we stopped to soak in the warmth. Nilu had grown numb to the cold by now. So his wound was not hurting.
We stopped again at the Army cafeteria to have some tea. The cold at Sela Pass had really shaken us. We had decided to stop for a meal at the same dhaba, 5 kms before Bomdila. This ride had not been a culinary delight. That dhaba was the only one that provided some lip-smacks. We reached Dirang at 11 AM. So far, we were making good time. Gyan had been racing ahead all this while so that he could stop at Dirang and have a smoke. But then, so had been the others. He had little lead when the others overtook. At this point it seemed that we would be able to cover the most treachorous part, the last 25 kms in daylight. But soon, we were again shown God's sense of humour. We were less than a km away from the dhaba. Most of us had even reached that point. Doley and I were trailing. We were stopped by Mamaji. His R15's rear tyre had punctured. From passerbys, we came to know that a puncture shop would be a km ahead. I took Mamaji's luggage over my carrier. He rode slowly ahead on the wobbly Yamaha. Doley had gone ahead and stopped at the puncture shop. We reached the shop to find 4-5 dudes managing the shop. Inside the shop, they had a guitar. Fancy mechanics. Unfortunately, no power. Fortunately, we had a foot pump. The guys managed to complete the job in 15 minutes. During this time, we had a good time chatting with them and they admired our gear and machines.
We reached the dhaba and settled down for a couple of pegs and a hearty meal. We were almost on empty stomachs. Gyan then narrated his incident as he reached the dhaba. He had almost ran over the owner. Aunty blasted at him, "Ud ke jaaoge kya?". We complimented them saying how their food was the best we had had in the entire state. A bottle of rum was packed along for the night. There was no knowing what time we would reach Bhalukpong.
We were again behind schedule. Gyan pointed out how no matter how hard we pushed, we were making an average of 25 kms an hour. Since, the road conditions were improved from here on, we decided to push for a greater distance this time. We really did. In 2 hours, our average did improve. When we were just 5 kms from Nechiphu, clouds enveloped us. It was time to put on the raincoats. It seemed we would be again in for as rough time as we had when reaching Tawang. Visibility was now down to 5 meters. Pace was very slow. We stopped at Nechiphu to regroup. We passed the time by having beer. Not waiting for long, we started off again.
We stuck in a single file for the rest of the journey. Darkness fell and we were 15 kms short of our target. But these 15 kms was the worst stretch of today. We had experienced it earlier, but in daytime. It was now dark, slightly drizzling. That had really slushed up our way. Again, the first-gear-hands-tight-feet-drag approach. We were exhausted. Each one tried a different approach to cheer themselves up. First was Dutta. He started giving motivational speeches to himself, loudly. We could overhear words like, "C'mon Fuckers, Go". Doley went off in an entirely different direction when he was leading. We all followed him almost to the edge of the mountain. We saved our humour for the destination.
Nilu's arm was aching as the wound started to act. I could not imagine how he was still managing to ride over this rough path. At one instant, PayengDa lost his balance and went to the ground. His foot was stuck under the bike. It took the rest of us some time to park our bikes and reach him. He managed to stick to his position this entire time. A govt. vehicle came from behind us and yelled as to why we were blocking the path and then noticed the fallen rider. That official must have travelled far north to gain that attitude.
PayengDa was not injured. His jacket had protected him. Such incidents make it worthwhile to buy all that stuff. We crawled along. This had turned out to be the most demanding stretch. We were already tired from the long spell of today. Some of the guys cheered on reaching the next civilization only to realize that Bhalukpong was still 5 kms away. When you are continuously under stress for an extended period of time, there comes an instant when you go numb to the things happening around you and just play along. The advantage of such a state is that you can keep going without actually feeling the exhaustion. The disadvantage is that you can hit the breaking point at any time without warning and that point can be lethal. We had reached that instant. We kept on riding on and on.
But we made it to Bhalukpong. It was ecstatic. We sounded our horns in a musical symphony till we reached the destination, Hotel Solu. But not before Nilu again led us astray onto a different path. Doley was so excited on reaching the hotel that he almost rode all the way on the ramp laid out for our motorcycles to take them down the stairs. He did regain his senses and stopped. We had the same rooms booked for us. After the ordeal, came the ecstasy. As we freshened up, dinner was served in the room. Huge handis, full of Rice and Pork. I got treated with a casserole full of chicken. But first came the congratulatory drink on the feat achieved. Although, the high of achievement was still there, some of us were not able to contain the exhaustion. I was one of them and went to sleep midway. All such dozers were woken up later to have dinner. The quantity was simply too much. We ate all that we could and went to a fullfilling sleep.