Roadtrip Day 35: Dalhousie to Rakkar (Dharamshala)
The day when I decided to change route on the go
I had decided to leave early & reach Mandi. I was up early & it took me some time to get ready as I had to fold my tent.
It was 8:30 & I was waiting for Arun, manager at Nomadic Dalhousie, to turn up but it seems had gone to his home. I then called him up to discuss the final payment & Arun said that I can pay whatever I would like to. Food cost was Rs 100 (3 tea & 1 bread omlet). I paid Rs 500 for 2 day of my own tent stay. While leaving, I had long conversation with Rohit Tandon who manages the kitchen there. I could connect well with him. He mentioned that a lot of bikers take Sach Pass route to Manali in summers. I also felt that Nomadic Dalhousie could be great place for workation. There were few people, they had good staff, they dont have water problem (when I went to Zostel previous day, folks were struggling with water supply), great internet (40 Mbps speed) & great evening vibe to party. You can reach Arun at 8894090718. Dorm bed costs Rs 350 per night. They have their own tents & you can carry your own as well. The place is a bit far from bus stand so if you are coming by bus, be ready to hire a taxi or cordinate the same with Arun.
I left the place at around 9 AM with destination Mandi in mind. There is a direct road that goes downhill from Panjpula & I did not need to take the road back to Dalhousie from which I came earlier. The road was scenic & I took some pics on the way.
I think one of the best views of the tour I had, was at Sikhnu. But in the hindsight, it could just be the weather, time of the day & my mindset at the moment :). I drove fairly leisurely stopping every 5 min or so.
I spotted someone fiddling with his bike & stopped by. He was a local guy whose bike chain had broken. He needed a spanner of size 8 & unfortunately I did not have it either. He said he has called a mechanic & he was on his way. He thanked me for my gesture & I sneaked in a picture just for memory purpose :).
I was hungry as it was 10 AM & I did not have breakfast when I left Nomadic as I felt the folks there were not ready as I was the only guest & they thought I would leave early. I also did not think of disturbing them & left after having tea there. I reached a place where I saw a small shop & I stopped there. There was a lady there who happily cooked Bread Omlet for me. There was a guy there as well & we talked about treks in/around Dalhousie. He narrated the legend behind Mani Mahesh to me. I had great time chatting with them & I think I ended up spending an hour. By 11:00, I started from the place.
I thought the route would probably become flat but I was wrong. It continued to stay scenic. I had scene so much of good view that I dont think I was in a position to take a call if it is better or worse than before :).
I also spotted a large pit of polythene trashed on the hillside & I decided to take a pic. Primarily to raise awareness here on my blog. Polythene disposal is not as efficient in small places / hills as it is in tier 1 cities. So next time, you think of ordering maggie (the wrapper need to be disposed), chips/biscuit or a water bottle, think about this picture. & silently change your order to paratha, bread omlet (I know bread has a polythene wrapper but per capita wrapper is less :-D), momo or some other thing. Carry water with yourself & drink local water on mountain. It is good. I have been drinking RO/local water for past 35 days & I am all fit & fine.
I kept riding & clicking pics. I reached a crossroad from where it showed ‘Jot’ on the left. I had earlier decided to skip Khajiar & Jot route from Dalhousie. There was Dainkund on the way too & I felt sad to skip that as the Bangalore group of girls whom I had met at Nomadic Dalhousie told me about great view from Dainkund peak. I thought that I probably dont have to rush to Mandi & can stay in Dharamshala. So I have a good amount of time in the day. I decided to head to Jot which was around 25 kms from that crossroad. For Dharamshala/Mandi, I had to take right turn there.
In the Google reviews of Jot, someone had mentioned that it was pretty scary roads. I thought that since I skipped Sach Pass route (which is touted as most dangerous road in India as per TripAdvisor), I thought it should better compensate for it by visiting Jot. So I turned left. The road to Jot was narrow but all nicely paved. But it was a bit scary & I made sure that I was looking at roads more & less on scenary around. I stopped at a chai shop as I felt a little drowsy. It was 1:30 PM then & I had been riding for an hour. I think I had covered like 15 kms in that time & had reached village called Kut. Jot was another 10 kms from there. After clicking pic, napping for 10 min while the shop owner made tea & then having the tea, I started to Jot.
It took me another hour to reach Jot. I happen to see some snowy peaks & I clicked a pic on the way thinking I might not see them again (as happened to me on the Pathankot Dalhousie route). I also happen to spot ‘Gadar Point’ . It seems some scene of movei
I reached Jot peak & saw some cars parked & restaurants nearby. But there was no official board. So I proceeded but quickly realised my mistake as the decent was sharp, that I am going down. So I turned around & parked my bike next to a restaurant. I thought about safety of my luggage but by now, I had become pretty carefree. I did not give any heads up to anyone & walked towards the Jot top.
There was a trail & I kept following it, to enter a park which had Rs 10 entry fees. I thought the path to Jot top goes by the park but I was wrong when I looked into the map. It was left behind. The park was skippable except for some selfie points saying ‘I Love Jot’ & some animal caricature etc. There was a statue of one forest officer & a story behind how he lost his life protecting forest fire.
There were some peaks that were visible & I tried walking to them but then quickly realized that it probably is going to be a endless quest. So I just settled at one of the intermediate pics & took some pics. The snowy peaks were visible & I checked google to find that they are the Dhauladhar range (most probably).
I just sat at the intermediate peak & watched the views around (pics above). I think I ended up spending like an hour as I had mostly lost the count of time. I checked messages on whatsapp & thought of video calling my wife too but guess that did not happen.
I got a sudden jolt when I heard a thundering sound. I looked left & it sent chills down my spine. It looked like the rain clouds are approaching. So far, I had ridden in extreme heat & decent cold. But I was yet to experience rain & I was not sure if I was prepared. I thought its best to leave soon.
I saw a lot of these mud houses at Jot & I was not sure what these meant for. Most of them were locked.
I quickly decide to go to the Jot peak as shown on the Google map. I could see that there is a view point like shade built nearby & the area looked higher than surrounding. I went there thinking I might have a better view but I was wrong. I also noticed a trail that goes on the right & it looked like a ridge walk kind of thing. It probably would have been worthwhile to do this trek if I had the entire day in my hand.
I started riding back & after some amount of riding looked at the snow peaks which were now covered by rain clouds.
While on the way up, I decided to take pics on the way down. But now I was not too excited by the scenes as I have seen them before. I still decide to take this pic as a reminiscent of semi-dangerous roads to Jot.
I was back at the point where I took left for Jot at around 4:30 PM. I continued towards Dharamshala. On the way, I saw this interesting thing. It seemed like really high snake houses.
My bike entered into reserve & I checked odometer to realize I had only done 220 odd kms from the last refill. This was like 22 km/ltr mileage & drastic decrease from 40 km/ltr which I noticed during last refill. Anyway, the bigger problem was, the nearest Reliance Petrol Pump was around 60+ kms away & I knew that with 2 ltr of petrol in reserve, it would not be possible to reach there.
I saw a bike shop on the way & quickly thought of greasing my bike’s chain. I did it last in Byawar Rajasthan & had driven more than 1k kms now without greasing again. I thought, maybe, because of that I got a lower mileage. Greasing has always been tough call for me. Some mechanic suggest putting oil as they say that greast attracts lot of dirt but I feel that grease stays on chain for much longer & provide better lubrication. Anyway, this time, I settled with oil. I asked the mechanic about nearest petrol pump & after some deliberation & discussion with another person, he said that there is one around 30-40 kms away. I thought it should be doable, thanked him, paid him 10 bucks & started riding again.
After some distance, I thought of looking up for the petrol pumps on google maps. I saw one around 5 kms distance away but I was unable to determine which petrol pump is that. Later I figured it is an Indian oil one & it seemed like a newly built one. I decided to fill petrol for Rs 100 here & do the rest of filling in the Reliance petrol pump in Gaggal.
The route stayed scenic till sundown. From the map, I realized that it is going to be like this till Shahpur. By the time I reached Shahpur, it was dark. I think I took longer because I stopped on the way to talk to my brother who had tried reaching me for suggestions around a CRM tool for his company. He usually does not call so I decided to stop on the way & had the conversation which lasted good half an hour. I dont think I mind doing that.
From Shahpur to Reliance Petrol pump, it was a ride in the dark & I decided to take out the glasses that I bought in Jamnagar. They were dusted so I had to clean them up. The night ride wasn’t really a problem & I rode leisurely to reach the petrol pump at around 8:30 or so.
It was clear that I will not make it to Mandi. I was not too excited to go to Dharamshala as I had been there before & it would also mean a good amount of detour. I had, in afternoon, spoken to someone at The Trippy Tribe in Bir & I found their dorm bed rates on the higher side. But staying in Bir was an option till afternoon, but now, it also looked far.
At this moment, I messaged Praveen who runs a homestay in Rakkar village close to Dharamshala. In the past, we had stayed at his place. I got connected to Praveen when I wanted to stay in Ghoomakkad ( a coworking space in Rakkar) but could not get place there. I messaged him asking if he has space & he asked me to come over. I saw on Google map that his place is around 17 kms away & seemed doable. I went at Praveen’s homestay. We decided to have a few drinks & Praveen himself cooked food for both of us. I called it a day at around 1:00 in the night.