Roadtrip Day 41: Jibhi to Rampur Bushahr [April 18, 2021]
The day of toughest ascent, passing the first pass, losing way & riding on the most dangerous road of the trip so far
This is post 41 of my solo roadtrip series of posts (first one here). I have halted my trip on April 21 & currently at Bangalore (my hometown). I lost discipline to write regularly once I reached back to Bangalore. Only recently I decided to complete the posts & hence this post got published.
I remember that in my previous post, I wrote about not having a great vibe at Hostalagic & had decided to leave (either the hostel or Jibhi) the next day. When I got up in the morning, it was still raining & that also dampened my spirit as it would be hard to ride during the rain. But the rain quickly subsided. I also checked my sleeping bag & to my surprise, it had dried up. For the context, it got wet as I left the sleeping bag & tent tied on my bike. I untied it late in the evening & spread it in the dorm hoping it would dry out over the night & it did.
Since the rain had stopped & I got the calling that I can start the rid. I decided to head to nearby place for tea. Found this one small sweet shop open & there was a young lady working there. While making tea, we got into conversation & she mentioned how some folks in Hostalagic had been coming to their place regularly for having food. The tea was decent & I decided to have breakfast at the place before leaving Jibhi.
I came back & started to pack my stuff with full gusto. The fervor did not last long though. While trying to pack my sleeping bag (it has always been hard to put it in the cover), I ended up tearing the cover of the sleeping bag. It did upset me but then the cover wasn’t serving much purpose anyway except to keep the bag in the rolled shape. I thought, it isn’t that bad, took a pic & get onto packing my stuff.
It was a good amount of climb/stairs from the road to my place & it took me a good amount of time bringing my stuff down. Once I loaded my stuff & was doing pre-ride-check of my bike, while checking the makeshift charging system attached to my phone holder, it got detached from the holder. I said to myself, well, this is definitely not a good start of the day for me :). Although the small box was hanging, the charging setup was still working & that was definitely some relief for me.
I patched it up using the packing tape I was carrying. I was happy with how it looked & then decided to walk to the same tea place for breakfast.
I do not remember what I ate but I did remember seeing some fresh jalebi being cooked at the shop & I decided to have some of it. It was ok but I remember I had jalebi (or for that matter any Indian sweet item) after a long time. I walked back & started my ride. I decided not to wear the rain gear & kept them handy to be worn later.
From here on, started the steepest ascent of my ride so far. I had to ride in my first gear for most parts of the road. I stopped after like 10 min to take a picture of the valley nearby. Since I was ascending, I realized I would be away from the Tirthan valley soon.
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I had to cross multiple hairpin bents & post crossing one, I came across a view which was pretty mesmerizing with nice view of clouds & snow laden peak at a distance. I had entered small town named Sojha . The previous night when I was at Mudhouse, folks there were talking about places to see near Jibhi & Sojha did come on the list.
On the right of the place, I saw The Hosteller hostel with its signature yellow exteriors. I realized that Hosteller/Sojha is a better place to stay compared to Jibhi. I did not enquire about the hostel price though.
The uphill continued after Sojha & I started to become cold. Soon I saw some snow around the road. I realized I am nearing Jalori Pass .
There were small patches of road where there was snow too but I did not have much problem riding on them. I wanted to take a pic but stopping in middle of snow laden road would create problems for cars as taking sudden turn on snowy road could lead to a perennial slip. I also remember that at one place, while I was crossing a car, I had to go slightly left & my bike started to slip. But thankfully, that was mountain side. I think I was able to gain control fairly quickly & happen to continue my ride without stopping. That incidence did made me super careful & I decided to completely stop my bike next time I am going to cross an incoming car on snowy road.
I stopped at one location which had the best view of the trip so far. Later, a car driver also stopped a little ahead. That guy was carrying some tourists in his car & he brough them at the location I was standing for the view. That is when I realized it was actually a great view. I also realized that I have become fairly good at taking cues from my instincts :).
Jalori Pass was one hairpin bent away from the location where I had stopped. There was a temple on the pass & to my surprise, it had an option to stay. If I would have known about it, I would have definitely taken my chance to stay at the location. But at that moment, I decided to continue my journey to Rampur.
I also happen to meet both Anubhavs there whom I had met in Mudhouse. The adventure sports enthusiast one as well as the one who had driven from Karnataka to Himachal on his KA number plate Thar. At Jalori Pass, there is a lake after a short trek but I decided to give it a pass as the weather has started to deteriorate & it seemed like it is going to rain. After a quick look around, I decided to continue with my ride.
The road downhill was good & I was thankful that it did not start to rain. At some point, I noticed a lot of ‘white camps’ on the mountain side which got me curious. When I reached closer, I figured they are covering over small trees. I asked a local about it & he said the trees are apple trees & these covering protect them from hail storm.
The downhill path was nice & since I did not have to focus on my gears unlike during the climb, I was able to enjoy the scenaries much more.
I remember stopping at a dhaba on roadside for lunch as I could see quite a few local folks who had also stopped there. I also remember one biker on a RJ number plate Himalayan who crossed me at the location. He was coming from the other side. The food was ok. I guess it was some 60 bucks for a plate of Rajma Rice. It also started to rain a bit & I decided to don my rain gear (basically poncho, rain pant & shoe cover). I also covered the phone & charging setup with a polythene. The rain stayed light. I was getting increasingly bullish on my instincts & I decided that I am going to just follow my instincts & road sign and will not check maps. I also switched on some music as I had been missing it a bit & started to ride.
I crossed this town named Anni & at one place, took right turn towards a place called Shivang. I realized I have started to gain height again, which seemed weird but I did not mind it that much. Soon I realized, the road has become dangerously narrow, to the point, that vehicles in opposite directions are having hard time to cross. There was a car ahead of me & many times, it had to come back to give way. In turn, I had to also go back.
At one place, the car driver graciously let me go ahead of him so that his retreats dont cause an inconvenience to me. All this while, I had two thoughts - if roads here are so narrow, how bad would be Spiti; thank god I am on 2 wheeler because I would have definitely not been able to drive a 4 wheeler on this stretch.
After riding for like an hour (I guess ride would probably be like half an hour, rest half an hour was waiting & watching the opposite vehicle pass), I reached a cross road. I asked a shop owner sitting there about Rampur & that is when he told me - I had come the wrong way. He asked me to back track 8 odd kms to Anni village & continue on the main road.
That is when it all started to make sense. The road I was on was not really a major road & hence it was so narrow. I decided to take some pics on the way back but I had to be super careful not to obstruct passing vehicles by stopping midway.
I dont think I was able to capture the narrowness of the road well in the pics. Anyway, I did not have much time to review the pics as I was reasonably scared riding on the road.
I soon reached the main road & started to travel back. I had now been checking my maps fairly regularly :). I realized I was riding next to Satluj river & stopped for a break to see the river. I noticed on the map that it started to flow next to the road from the point I took the (wrong) diversion.
I continued on my ride & the road became pretty wide from the point the road joined the main road coming from Shimla, Narkanda side. It seemed like it would start to rain & I stopped at one location to wear my rain gear again. There was a family getting into the car there & a lady noticed my KA number plate & asked me if I am from Bangalore. She mentioned that she is from Shimla, works in Pune & they were on a weekend break to Chitkul (Chitkul is in Kinnaur, a district before Spiti). They seemed to be in a hurry so I could not a click picture with them.
I wasn’t hungry but stopped at Bushehari tea stall which was next to the road. I had a good conversation with the owner (I did not ask his name) & folks with him. I had tea with fan & it was reasonably/rightly priced. I also clicked a pic with the folks. It was a decent place a bit ahead of Rampur.
I do remember stopping at a HP petrol pump which was a prominent one that comes before Rampur. It started to rain & I thought it was wise to stay put in the pump rather keep riding. In the petrol pump, I asked one of the guys working there about some decent & cheap hotel. He suggested a hotel name (I forgot the name now) & said I would get a room for Rs 500 there. I called there but the person said there is no room available. I kept looking & found Hotel Highway Bros which was 10 kms after Rampur. One of the reviews caught my attention which talked about dormitory setup & it was mentioned that the hotel is pretty clean. I ended up calling the hotel & the person said dorm beds are available for Rs 200. I decided to go to this place but also check hotels in Rampur on the way.
I stopped at the hotel which the petrol pump guy suggested. They had a room but it was for 700 bucks. They also had a dorm but I did not like it that much. On telling the guy that I had low budget, he suggested a place nearby called Bushahri Sadan (or something like that). I did not like that place either as the building looked too old & I was not very sure if it is really clean. Although they did have a room without attached toilet for Rs 350. I thought for a while & decided to proceed towards Hotel Highway Bros only. I thought that if it does not turn out that great, I would turn back & drive 10 kms to reach the city again.
On reaching this place, I figured that it is a restaurant & lodge next to each other. The lodge owner was a friendly old man & the dorm was spacious & clean.
The dorm had only 2 folks who had occupied bed on the other end. I was happy that my instinct guided me to a good decision. I skipped dinner that day as I was tired. I remember that I had a quarter old monk from Manali & I decided to celebrate my good decision with it & music on my phone. I called it a day with resolve to continue my journey the next day. I had option to either go to reach Reckong Peo next day or take a diversion & go to Chitkul. I retired to bed thinking I would make the final decision based on my instinct the next day.