To Ride A Dream...

The adrenalin was running high, the skies shone blue and the distant valley held a dried river. The black tarmac seemed never to end and the line of trucks ahead was never ending. Blaring the horn through my tight glove hurt my knuckles and overtaking from the blind lefts seemed pretty foolish. Soon Gautham steered slow and stayed back as I looked at him from the far curve ahead. The momentum refused to cease, the air blew hard and the sweat dared to take a trickle as I squint the eye and leaned to the left and took over a truck over a blind steep turn over a gorge. Trailing a white Innova, I honked and eventually got ahead and curved ahead to the right, the speedo read at 70 or so I guess. Soon got a clearing as I took a steep left and throttled to the steep right U turn ahead, the rubble at the crub was loose.. I braked and engine braked down to a dead 20 as I “hard” steered to the right but the momentum got the better of us over the curb as I skid and bang fell on my knee as I held the ground and bump over my helmet and lay bewildered on the black tarmac. The adrenalin took some time to retreat as my heavy breaths were the only audible notes in the shell. My knee hurt and I was sure of a bleed, but what worried me more was my machine as I instantaneously got up and made vein attempts to get the 180kg monster to its wheels. A few daring pushes and up she stood as I heard a screech behind. The Innova guys came rushing out "Drive slow on these roads sir... these loose pebbles on the side and along the road are very dangerous... you please overtake slowly" said the Tibet-ian driver "You ok Mate... you are bleeding... I see a fuel leak” said a concerned tourist who came running at me "I'm all right... all OK . The vehicle seems just fine... just a bend" I bluffed. My knee hurt and 'was all of a sudden too tired. Soon got over my steed and kicked her to life and rode on at a mellow 40 :).
A ride is for man and machine to be one ... that day I realized it to be true: a dent to machine meant a tear and bang for me :). The ride for over 2500 kilometers over the northern most borders of India is a dream for any adventurer at heart and for me too. Crossing green and beautiful valleys at Kashmir to the rugged landscapes around Ladkak to the "so said" world’s highest motor able road to the high saltwater lake divided between India and China. This was a ride to stay for long in my heart.

For those 15 days I rode my dream...."

na na na, I would not bore you with detailed accounts of the ride, for all I know... I don’t know what I am going to blog of this ride... possibly would end up with trip logs or nothing at all ... it’s just too difficult to get the volume of experiences to compact blogging data. It was my dream and I am happy I could live through it.