Day 1

Woke up at 4am. It took some time to gear up with the riding accessories like the leg and arm guards etc. Had tea and went down to the garage. The bikes were furled and tanked up. As we carried out the pre start check, Goutam’s Avenger 220 start key went into parking mode! The bike would not start. Seems like this is a bug in all avengers. One needs to use the duplicate key to get it back to ignition mode. We did not have the duplicate. Team leader Bala bring an electrical engineer, rolled up his sleeves and shorted the ignition button. 

We had another round of chai while watching. We finally rolled out of the Loft hotel at 7 am.

Bislu (Colonel Vishal Dash) and his son Adi were waiting for us at his Cantonment gate. Bislu of a helicopter pilot and flies for the Indian army in north east region providing various types of support to army movement activities. He gave us a grand tour of all the aviation facilities and regaled us with some incredible stories of heroics. It was good to reconnect with an old family friend after nearly 20 years. Especially one who knows the area like the back of his hand. He gave us a few tips on how to navigate the route. 

We drove for an hour to 12th field artillery regiment camp where Bislu had arranged breakfast for us. The camp colonel Anil greeted us warmly and demonstrated the functioning of the artillery gun. The pride and preparedness of the the unit was quite imminent. Breakfast was delicious. We left the camp around 11 am. 

Roads were good and we drove for an hour passing through the coronation bridge. 

The climb through the mountains were really gruelling. Despite Bala’s instructions, gears slipped and most of us stalled in one or two places during the climb. Medium traffic on the roads.

Reached our destination Today village on top of the hill around 2 pm. Felt relieved to have finally reached out Day one destination. Some pain in hip and knee joints. 

We deposited our bikes and took a keep to our resort located 3 kms down. The report is located near ab rover stream with a few dome shaped cozy tents. Quite a nice place to unwind after a days hectic ride. Chums Men Zhu kha ( medicine water)