Ladakh Bike Trip - Jammu to Chandigarh, Last day of epic ride in rain (Day 11)

Day 11, The legendary ride was riding towards its end. The day started with expression, "Its raining outside yaar." Last day of our ride reminded of Day 1 when we left Chandigarh in similar kind of rain. We prepared ourselves for all kind of adversities and left hotel despite the fact that it was raining heavily in Jammu.

We got an advantage of rain in the form of less traffic on city roads. Once we crossed the city, the heavy rain had got converted into drizzling. It was the best time to soak in some air and try to dry up the cloths.

Water logging till knee spread wide in small town on highway felt like crossing a lake on boat.

The roads were very good and we were riding at a great speed unlike other days. After covering more around 100 kilometer we stopped for breakfast at roadside dhaba. Typical monsoon style, by the time we finished off with breakfast, it started raining again.

The entire ride till Pathankot was hide and seek between we boys and rain. There were times when it rained very very heavy and visibility became zero.

Pathankot also did not brought much traffic jams for us and we crossed the city easily. It was complete contrast in weather with Sun on top of us. We rode in hot weather and there was no sign of rain.

Akshay and me realized after 15 kilometer when stopped by Mohit that Sudhir's bike had another breakdown. Now it felt really disturbing and we rode back 15 kilometer in hot day. Fortunately mechanic was nearby. We spent an hour at Mechanic's garage for repair and then rode again towards Chandigarh.

We hardly rode for 15 kilometers and rain came down. In few minutes, drizzling got converted into heavy rain. The rain was so heavy that a thick layer of water on helmet's visor made visibility zero. But the best part was that we did not reduce our speed. This was hardly for 10 minutes and in those 10 minutes we were wet as if we just came out of swimming pool spreading water all over. It felt really hard after drying ourselves in last 2 hour in hot sunny day.

The next main town on the way was Hoshiarpur. That heavy rain had converted this town into a lake. Believe me it was literally like a lake. Depth of water upto 2 feet was all over wherever I could see. Over and above that we forgot the way. It took us half an hour to cross the town in middle of trucks, buses and jeeps throwing water from all sides. The worst part was buses which were moving or overtaking us from both side. The water flow at that time was pushing us to other side and maintaining balance on bike became very challenging. However above all, my only aim was to not to let water go in exhaust of my bike and I succeeded in that.

Once we crossed Hoshiarpur, we stopped at Dhaba for Lunch. We took off everything except T shirt and Jeans. It was all wet with dirty water of road.

Post lunch I diverted towards my new place to dump the luggage which I was carrying for last 11 days and joined boys later on the way to Chandigarh.

Ride till Chandigarh was comfortable with lot of things going in mind. The feeling of accomplishment, moment of proud, experience of life time epic ride, great company of people and breadth taking himalayas, with all these things I finished my ride at Chandigarh.

Later I learnt that Sudhir's bike had another breakdown and they reached late again.

All boys spent an evening together to celebrate the accomplishment of successful journey, epic ride, heavenly paradise and lot more.

All of us lived our life in these 11 days and enjoyed every moment of it. We struggled, we screamed, we laughed, we pulled, we respected, we fought , above all we rode hard and finished the ride with some of most memorable experience, some funny  some serious and some just normal. That is all about our badly planned well executed ride to Ladakh.