Plan for today is to touch Pathankot after crossing Srinagar.It should be more than 450kms.
Also plan to visit Hazratbal in Srinagar,before bypassing it for further journey. Tomorrow Atul
and Haider will leave towards Amritsar and I will move on 1A towards Chandigarh.
I should be in Chandigarh tomorrow,Thursday 26thJune evening. These days Baba Amarnath
route is open,so there is huge crowd on Sonamarg. This side the route it seems is the
smallest by walking. Just after Sonamarg,there are huge camps catering to yatris who have
come for Darshan.
The yatra goes by Panchtarni,if people want they can also go to Shashnag. The walk from
Sonamarg-Batal side is the shortest to cover both, Panchtarni and Amarnath cave.
The route from Pahalgam side is long and also goes through Shashnag. Last, there was
some protest in Srinagar and so downtown is very tense. A driver of Tempo traveller who lives
in Srinagar downtown told us here.
The police/army fired against protestors and so there had been a couple of deaths.
And so the ambiance is tense.
10:30 PM : So ,it was a bloody eventful day for us. Eventful I can say now,as it is over now
and by GOD almighty, nothing serious has happened to anyone badly.
We started early, around 8 from Sonamarg and thought of having tea and breakfast at
some dhaba. We stopped at the first dhaba below the tourist rest house where we were
staying for the night and had chai-paranthas.The guys serving the paranthas etc were
contiously saying, the road is closed ahead. Then after talking to guys it was clear that all the
vehicles that were going towards Baltal were stopped.
We enquired, and it looked like, the army had started the convoy of private vehicles all along
around 8 am. We thought we will reach where they would be and started on our. Moving ahead,
there were slow truck traffic in between and cars were also who kept criss crossing in between.
And even though we tried a lot, these guys are faster and so I got separated.
Crossed Kangan among all protesters. There were huge protests going on and in Kangan, I was
just saved, I kept riding just behind this state roadways bus and touch touch to the bus. Bus went
through the burning crowd. Some stones were being pelted, but the bus slowly went through
and they gave way, and behind that I also sneaked through.
Now I know, being on the bike is so risky in these situations. Then met these guys.
They were waiting just outside a petrol pump. Proceeded towards Gandherbal. As soon as we
were near the town, the police and CRPF were thin and the protesting crowd just in front of us
and had started beating and kicking the vehicles. We were badly few feet away. Unbelievably,a
lot of them were still kids, I think between 12-14yrs of age, but they had became a mob by then.
There were so many vehicles all over. But we had bikes,so we had taken a U turn immediately
and started over. Haider was first then Atul was in the fornt and I was behind him. By then cars,
taxis etc had also started taking U turn.
And what we were trying to go through was a narrow mud lane. On the left side of it was
a 7-8 feet deep rain water nullah. I was following Atul in between the returning cars, Suddenly
he stopped speaking to some car wala, trying to explain him the situation. I also had to stop
immediately behind him, was riding almost with touching mudguards. But the mud lane where I
was driving, had no space on the left side for my foot, and as soon as I braked, and tried to
put my left leg down, I went down and down.
And I see myself toppled over in that nullah, upside down. Similar to the last time, I had left
the bike this time also and jumped over. I also got fell over in that nullah and my head banged
against a huge boulder. I heard a huge bang and couldn't understand for a few seconds what it was.
Luckily, was wearing the helmet properly, didn't get hurt. The bike was upside down in the nullah,
the protesting crowd was just behind us. I was bellow there in the nullah. The water stream
wasn't huge,still I think around 2 ft or so of water wasd gushing down the slope.
These guys started trying trying to pull my bike over.I was trying to push it from behind. Two
more locals joined to help in pulling the bike over. By GOD's grace, we were able to pull the bike
and then i got myself upright on the road. Both of them had rushed to their respective bikes and
a local guy was struggling to keep the bike upright. He was lean and the bike is very heavy, almost
180+ kg the water in the whole luggage.
I came up and hold the bike, all were running away from the protesters. By GOD's grace,
I push the button and the bike started in the first click and i also started running away.
All this happened so quickly but that felt like a long time then.
Haider was trying to abuse Scorpio wallas who were almost trying to run us over while we
were pulling and pushing the bike out of that nullah.
We kept riding for a few kms, then CRPF guys held us and many yatris. We waited there
for almost 2hrs or so. Then they let us go, we started and reached Srinagar. There CRPF guys
were not letting people go towards the Hazratbal but Haider was firm, he had to go. So both of
us waited outside near Dal Lake near a shop while he left his bike and appearing like local, he
went on foot to the Dargah.
Almost took 45 min there and came back. There had been some shooting outside the
dargah. Phew, so much for the day.
We started again and reached Avantipura, stopped for lunch, called up home, Mom, am
happy to be alive. Then started again. The route was peaceful further. Crossed Jawahar tunel in
the evening and were at Kud at dusk. After that we rode for 2 and1/2hour in the hills in
the night and reached Batote.
We were just 12kms short of our revised target of Patnitop. Stayed over night at hotel Hill View.
Total for the day : 265 kms, maximum till now for the day in hills.
Night halt : Hotel Hill View
Fuel : Rs 200.
No comments:
Post a Comment