We had told you about Khiyar Pasha, a biker who had completed the Solo Ride of the Golden Quadrilateral last year.
He, after his successful completion of his Solo Ride decided to make his father’s dream ride to come true by going with him from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, about which we had also told you before they went on this ride (Read it here).
A Father and a Son’s Story of K2K –
K2K! The idea of this ride was got to my father Mr. Mehamood Pasha, 25 years ago during his service with Indian Coast Guard and when he used to ride a Vespa scooter.
Now, when I am all set and settled in Mumbai, one fine day, I got a call from my father saying that he was planning to go on his dream ride. I was very much surprised and happy at the same time to hear and think on it at the same time again. I had recently done the GQ’s Solo Ride and was thinking on going with my father on this ride. Now, things had to be put together. I got all the necessary riding gears for my father from my monthly savings. I got my bike’s bore replaced and also got the bike serviced for this 10K kms ride.
I had to go back to my home which was in Guntur, a city which is 1100 kms away from Mumbai. I packed up my things and on the 3rd September 2015, I started my ride towards Guntur. I stopped at Pune to meet Mr. Dilip Bam (Bike Guru of India) and Mr. Devjeet Saha (Record holder) to take some tips, wishes and blessings. Mr. Dilip Bam flagged off for my ride and then I started towards Sholapur, Hyderabad. At around 11 PM I had reached safely at Hyderabad covering 800 kms and took halt at my aunt’s (Sajida Parveen’s) residence. Next day morning I started towards Guntur (300 kms from Hyderabad) and reached my home at 2 PM.
My bike – Hero Honda Karizma R was already serviced and now all set with the saddle bags, my father’s bike – Royal Enfield Classic 350 was all equipped and with all trial rides done was all set for the ride. We were going on a ride but with a cause and a purpose – awareness on the helmet and safe riding/driving habits.
2 days before the ride, I and my father met a few important people, who wanted to do some arrangements on the day we start our ride. Mr. Hakim Saab, was really encouraging and motivating us for the ride and the cause we are taking. His, team had arranged banners, and press meet for us to spread our word about the ride. Next day, we met the Superintendent of Police of Guntur and explained him about our ride and the cause we are taking along, after a small meeting with him. We had a small press meet with the local media, speaking about K2K. Meanwhile, the Guntur Bar Association was also doing arrangements for our flag off, Mr. G. Santha Kumar (President GBA) and Mr. Syed Ismail put their maximum efforts to arrange the best for tomorrow.
The Ride Begins:
Day 1: Guntur – Chennai (420 Kms)
The day had come, 8th September 2015. We woke up at 7 AM and did some basic exercises and then got ready. We filled petrol in our bikes. We then loaded Saddlebags and other luggage on our bikes. Our relatives had come to give us their wishes, and then we both started towards Guntur District Court complex. We parked our bikes and waited there for Principal District Court Judge to flag off, and in the meanwhile my friends/brothers, Mr. Upesh Chandra Chowdary and Mr. Ambadipudi Sreenivasa of Guntur had come personally to wish me for the ride. Correspondents of Print and media press were also present for the event. Honorable District Court Judge Mr. Rafi had come and he wished us all the best and flagged off at 12:00 Noon. A small rally was arranged by Advocates and there were traffic police pilots for city crossing till we reached the Highway. There was a lot of noise, people were wishing us good luck, showing thumps up, waving hands but, I could not hear them for a few minutes. There was a deep silence in my ears and mind as I could not believe that the ride had actually started, and also the over whelming support and greetings from people whom I never met was truly a moment in my life to remember and cherish. There were school children standing in line with flags, wishing us good luck for the ride throughout the city till Bypass. Wow! Seriously the arrangements were superbly done by Mr. Hakim Saab and his team. There were huge big banners and posters at every 100 Meters in the city till the city’s end. We reached on NH5 highway, Advocates, Supporters and family wished us again and then we left. We started towards Ongole at 1 PM, stopped there and had lunch at a highway dhaba, our next stop would be Nellore, by evening 4:30 we reached Nellore and had teas and pakodas. I was catching few young people and was distributing our pamphlets to spread awareness on helmet and safe driving habits. At 7 PM we reached Chennai, we had planned to stay at dad’s best friends place at Meenambakkam Saheb. It took us 2 hours to cross the city and reach that place. Mr. Saheb and his family members were waiting for us eagerly. We were unloading the luggage and this task was like an army training for us. Well, that was the challenge for us itself. They welcomed us and we all had a wonderful dinner. Me and my father then sat back and started discussing on our next day’s ride which was going to be a big ride as we had to cover 750 Kms in a day, so we decided to start a little more earlier for the ride and we went to sleep immediately after our discussion.
Day 2: Chennai – Kanyakumari (750 Kms)
We woke up at 5 AM in the morning and we both had slight body pains. We freshened up, did some basic exercises, regular bike checkups and then loaded the luggage on bikes, trust me it took 40 minutes in total to prepare the bike. It was already 6:30 AM and we still were not on the highway. We looked at each other and thought that this is not the way to start; we need to wake up little more early and start early to cover such distances. We started in 10 minutes and filled petrol at nearby gas station and moved towards Madurai, We were riding at speeds of 85-90 km/h, so that we can reach Kanyakumari by 8 or 9 PM. At Villupuram we had wonderful breakfast, meanwhile at the parking area of the restaurant, people started to gather and asked us about the purpose of our ride and I started with saying, he is my father and we are doing A Father-Son Duo 10,000 kms ride for road safety and helmet awareness. Half of the crowd did not believe that he is my father, every one said he looks like my elder brother! I know how it feels to me as a son, either I look older or my dad really looks younger, mixed feelings, should I take it as a compliment towards my dad or as an insult that I look old in front of him? LOL. As we both spoke Tamil, it was easier for us to communicate with the local people there. They really felt surprised, amazed and in the end wished us the best for the ride. We started riding towards Madurai. Roads were clean and smooth with very less vehicles on the highway. I was enjoying every mile of the ride and thinking back about home. Karizma and Bullet were performing great, weather was also good. By 11 AM I received a message from Madurai Karizma Bikers Club Admin that they would like to welcome us at the bypass. At around 2 PM we reached Madurai and the bikers of KBC Madurai were waiting for us and they greeted us with the famous Madurai drink JIGAR THANDA. I had heard and read about this drink on food shows and HOMP (Highway on my Plate) but now I had finally got the opportunity to taste it. This is the total advantage of travelling/riding to new places and trying local food and drinks. The team escorted us till the city end and there we had a nice South Indian Meal, (Ah, watta sambar and appalam). We were running late with the time actually, it was already 4 PM and we had to reach Kanyakumari and approx. 240 kms were more to go. We started riding towards Tirunelveli and decided to speed up till it gets dark and we reached Tirunelveli by 6:30 PM and stopped there for a tea break, meanwhile Deccan Chronicle correspondent called us for a telephonic interview and we shared our experience till now and further plans and information about the ride. KBC Admin – Trivandrum, Kerala also contacted me to welcome us at Kanyakumari. They were coming to welcome us all the way from Trivandrum. We finally reached at Kanyakumari at 9 PM. Hotel room was already kept booked for us by KBC Kerala team. It was a great help as we were totally exhausted and tired to search for a place to stay at that moment. The team helped us in unloading the luggage and we sat for a small chat and I distributed pamphlets to the Kerala Team. They left at 10:30 PM back to Trivandrum, we managed to have some Parota and curry at a local hotel and then went at our hotel room and went to sleep.
Day 3: At Kanyakumari (Heavy Rains)
We both woke up at 6 AM and I saw heavy rains outside, Oh no! Not today we whispered. We waited for 2 hours and decided to stay back and rest for a day. We had a nice breakfast, by that time rain stopped for a while, so decided to explore the place and spread some awareness amongst locals. We both took few pamphlets in hands and visited the beach area, spoke to locals, youngsters to follow basic driving disciplines, wearing Helmet, seat belt, giving way to ambulances. Now, the funny part was, there were tourists also in the crowd and whenever we tried to speak to them, they used to avoid speaking to us and walked out of the place thinking that we are some local sales person came to negotiate for a product and eat their brains. It was a challenge to actually find locals amongst them. I caught few people riding without helmet stopped them and gave them the pamphlet, seeing this; a traffic cop asked us what we were doing. I explained him about the concept behind it and he immediately took all the pamphlets we had and said that He would distribute them at his station. We came back to the hotel by afternoon and had good lunch. Post lunch, I decided to take a back up of all the pictures and videos into my laptop, Loaded new playlist into iPod for next 4 days and packed our luggage in advance. Since, we could expect rains in coming days, I decided to order one saddle bag cover for dad, I immediately contacted NH4 Motorhead’s Co-Owner Debraj Banarjee, and asked him if they could manage to ship the saddle bag cover within 2 days to Bangalore so that we could reach there on that day and collect it. The response was great and they agreed to ship it on time by the time we reach Bengaluru. In the evening we took our bikes to see the sunset, As usual a salesman having a dozen wrist watches in hand came to us and said premium luxury watches for sale. Just for fun dad asked him what’s the price, He replied, 2,000 Rupees. My dad said, I will give you 250/- only, He got mad, and walked away few steps and returned back asking for 1500, and after a lot of bargaining he sold that watch to us for Rs. 250/-. We came back to the hotel, had our supper and slept.
Day 4: Kanyakumari – Bengaluru, Karnataka (700 Kms)
We woke up early at 4 AM, followed with warm-up exercises and motorcycle checkups. We loaded our saddle bags and other luggage. We had our teas, paid our hotel bills and started riding towards Madurai. We did not want to stop till Madurai as we had to cover a long distance and by 9 AM we reached Madurai and stopped for breakfast. By this time we both observed that our motorcycles are not giving the mileage of what we had initially calculated, It was because of riding it at the speed of above 95 and of course we were covering 700-750 kms in a day. We reduced our speeds to get the proper fuel efficiency and started riding towards Salem and reached there by 1 PM and stopped there to have our lunch at Saravana Bhavan. We both had an amazing meal there, and continued our ride towards Bengaluru, We had crossed 50 kms and at Toppur Ghats area while riding up the hill, suddenly my father’s Bullet’s chain broke and fell on the road. Luckily, dad managed to take the bullet aside the road. The chain was total dry as we had not maintained it during our ride. I called up Oswald – Admin of Bangalore Karizma Bikers Club and requested him to help us with any mechanic’s contact nearby. Oswald immediately managed to send a Bullet’s mechanic in 20 minutes to the spot. That mechanic belonged to a nearby place called Dharmapuri, he checked the condition of the bike and towed the bullet with his leg for the next 30kms till his garage. We reached at his garage and got a new chain fixed and started riding again towards Bengaluru. KBC Bangalore wanted to welcome us at the Border. Finally we entered Bengaluru at 10 PM and were delighted to meet the team KBC Bengaluru and collected our Courier from NH4 Motorheads. To see such a quick response and support during our ride by NH4 motorheads is really appreciable. In the night we stayed at an apartment studio of our close relative Mehaboob Subhani. We had nice biryani for our dinner and decided to ride till Belgaum next day.
Day 5: Bengaluru – Belgaum (510 Kms)
At 5 AM we started loading the saddle bags and luggage, it took 45 minutes to prepare both motorcycles. We started riding towards Hubli, after crossing Chitradurga we serviced our motor bikes and made sure everything was perfect. Roads were smooth as silk, I was enjoying every mile of the journey, no worries about jobs, reporting or any other tension and we were just focused on riding and roads. It was a sunny day so we were getting dehydrated very fast and so had to take halts at every 1 hour. We decided to take a break between 1-2 PM, took rest under a Neem tree and by evening 5 we were at Hubli. We took a tea break at Hubli and moved towards Belgaum. By 7 PM we were at Belgaum city. Searched for a place to stay and took halt for the day. After our dinner, Ravi Verma – Admin of Jaipur Karizma Club and a very dear friend of mine, who was coordinating with every person all over India for us shared contact of Harshvardhan, Karizma Rider from Belgaum. We both met and shared some experiences; He also gave me a list of the hotels at the places I was going to visit so that we didn’t have to keep searching for hotels and waste our time.
Day 6: Belgaum – Mumbai (500 Kms)
Sharp at 5 AM in the morning, we woke up and got ready for our next destination by 6 AM. We had a nice strong tea and started riding towards Kolhapur. Very calm and pleasant morning it was. It was a great feeling to ride our motorcycles in such a pleasant weather. We reached Kolhapur and had nice Vada Pavs, Kanda Bajjis and Ginger teas. We had to reach Pune by 2 PM to meet Mr. Dilip Bam (Bike Guru of India). We calculated our distance and timing, and started riding towards Satara, roads were good till Satara. By 1 PM we were there and then riding through many diversions, we reached Pune around 2 PM and we had arranged a small meeting with Mr. Devjeet Saha (Record Holder/Biker), Viraj David (Co-Founder, Automobilians.com), DJ (Motographer from DJ Clicks) and Mr. Ashish Samanth at Dilip Bams Sir’s house. We all gathered and we spent our 2 hours with them and it was worth it. This was a must and should meet with them because they have supported, wished and blessed me for all my rides. Thanks a ton to them. We then had some refreshments and left towards Mumbai. Riding via Lonavala was nostalgic, as this was always a weekend riding place during my stay at Mumbai. Dad took some tea refreshment and photographs and we left towards Airoli, Navi Mumbai. Team KBC Mumbai – my home club members were waiting for us to welcome us. It was raining, but they still came to see us with flowers and garlands. KBC Mumbai Club has always been a support to me. I owe my thanks to every Rider of KBC Mumbai and specially to Bashab Bhattacharjee (Admin/Founder) KBC Mumbai. By 9 PM they left and we stayed at a friend’s place (Ramesh, Venu & Mahindra). They prepared some nice telugu food – Rice, Rasam and brinjal fry. This appetite is very much enough for a south Indian. We took halt for the day as we were tired a lot.
Day 7: Halt at Mumbai
We woke up at 8 AM. We both decided to get our motorcycles serviced properly. We took Bullet to a mechanic nearby and got it serviced with a nice wash, meanwhile I took my bike to Andheri at Ali’s Shed. It was nice meeting him and he serviced my bike and approved it for further riding. By 5 PM our bikes were ready neat and clean. We spent some time with friends in the evening, had some nice dinner and went off to sleep.
Day 8: Mumbai – Gandhinagar (560 Kms)
Early morning at 6 AM we started off towards Surat and we crossed Maharashtra border by 8 AM, we had breakfast near toll booth. We crossed Valsad and took a tea break. We both had some arguments over the costly hotels I took halts by. After things got sorted out, we both started our bikes towards Surat. Roadhawk Riders from Surat team wanted to meet us at the bypass, so I called them up and we met at a coffee shop. It was nice meeting (Ali Parmar, Ajaz Sheikh and Rajesh Bafna). We left at 12:30 PM from Surat towards Vadodara, The roads in Gujarat were awesome and very well maintained. We stopped for lunch at Bharuch, a nice gujarati thali with Shrikhand. We reached Vadodara at around 4 PM and it was super humid and hot weather that day. Locally manufactured chilled zeera soda really helped us to fight that humidity. We decided to ride some more kms and stop wherever we were by 7 PM. We were riding and watching the vibrant Gujarat and its development, infrastructure etc. At 7:30 PM we were at Ahmedabad, slowly we crossed the city and started searching for a hotel, we always search it on highways to avoid city traffic crossings. Surprisingly we rode till Gandhinagar and took halt at a hotel just on highway, It was around 9 PM. We were totally exhausted and with no strength to unload the luggage. I had an electral liquid and some how managed to get the entire luggage at our room. Huh! By 11 PM we were on bed snoring in deep sleep.
Day 9: Gandhinagar – Bikaner (700 Kms)
At Morning 5:30 AM, we were ready to start. We had a nice tea, discussed the route and started towards Mount Abu. Nice and cool weather it was, I was enjoying the ride and then we spot a sign board (“You are at the Tropic of Cancer”) Wow, always heard and read about this in text books, I was finally there. I took some selfies and pictures. Dad always has some craze towards photos, everytime he spots something good, he will be ready with poses and asks me to click. And, when it would be my turn he would already get ready to go on his bike. He clicked my pictures too, sometimes. We reached Mt. Abu at 11 AM. Extremely hot the weather was and it took me back to Guntur’s weather. We were running little late on time because of frequent halts and taking pictures. We crossed Sirohi and were riding continuously towards Pali. I heard about Bullet Baba mentioned by Dilip Bam Sir. So, I decided to visit that place. At 1 PM we reached there and took kind of darshan of Shri. OM Singh Banna (Bullet Baba) at Pali, it has a nice story- please google it. We both were super hungry, but couldn’t find a proper place to sit and eat a nice meal. Everywhere it was bakery items. We decided to manage with tea for some time and rode till Jodhpur. At 2:30 PM we found a Highway Dhaba and had Roti and Sev ki Sabzi with Buttermilk. We were unsure about the road conditions till Bikaner, asked the dhaba guy and he said the roads are extremely bad after Nagaur. You need to go carefully, he said. We reached Nagaur at 5:30 PM and had worst tea ever of our life. We started again towards Bikaner, and then the off roading starts. Every nut and bolt of our bikes was crying loud and the road was full of dust. After riding for 50 Kms in 1 and a half hours, I realized that everyday it’s not a road of beautiful roses around. Face the extreme that makes a skilled rider. I was literally riding on first 2 gears. It was dark, visibility was not proper and still off roading wasn’t got over. Bullet had a long throw of its headlight and we decided to ride together, side by side, so that both our headlights show us the way, It was like a coordination ride. We were helping each other. I got emotional that how biking is bringing us close, every mile we rode was on understanding just by throttle. Certain things need not be communicated, it just happens and all you need to do is just realize it and feel it. I was just thinking this all the way till we reached Bikaner at 10 PM. We had finally reached safely with no issues to the bikes. We took halt at a hotel for that night and had our dinner.
Day 10: Bikaner – Amritsar (550 Kms)
We woke up that day at 6 AM. I was experiencing full body pains, thought it was because of yesterdays off roading. We had a tea and we started riding towards Ganganagar. By the time we crossed Bikaner city, I saw low air pressure in the rear tyre of the Bullet. We checked and it was a small puncture. Now, the search starts and it was early morning and there was no puncture wala guy open at that time in the city. Finally we found a lorry puncture guy who refused to fix the puncture. We filled tyre with air pressure and started riding fast towards the highway. After riding for 25 kms, we found a guy who had just opened his garage. I was shivering with fever and body pains already. There was a dhaba besides, I removed all my riding gear and just crashed into a cot over there and ordered some breakfast, gulped it up as quickly as I could and had a Dolo 650. I slept for an hour on highway by the time puncture was fixed. Dad had fixed the puncture as that guy wasn’t the exact puncture wala. I also took some tools and changed the Engine oil and by 10:30 AM we were back on highway. Roads were bad again. I was just praying that nothing should happen to our bikes. Where ever we stopped, the first question was, how far the road is like this, and everytime they say it’s till Ganganagar. It was totally a test for both of us with respect to skilled riding. We reached Ganganagar finally at 1 PM, had some nice Punjabi Lunch. After crossing Ganganar, we entered Punjab and rode over some good roads. Punjab was beautiful, full of greenery and colorful people, at times it felt like some movie shooting was going on. We started riding towards Firozpur, interestingly we were riding just few kilometers away from Pakistan Border. Reached Firozpur at 4 PM, had nice cup of teas and we were enjoying our ride towards Amritsar. At 8 PM we finally reached the city of Golden Temple, Amritsar. Took halt over there and booked the hotel room for 2 days.
Day 11: Halt at Amritsar
Our day started at 8 AM and we both decided to wash our riding gears, and other clothes and garments. It took 2 hours to finish the washing and to get freshen up. At 10 AM we went to visit Jalian Walah Bagh. I had learnt about this historic place in textbooks and it was great watching it in real. I took few photographs and had lassi over there. We then visited the Golden Temple. It was already lunch time and how can we forget to visit the world’s best kitchens – The Langar at Darbar Sahib. We had the opportunity to have the langar and trust me, it was delicious. Every one there believes in doing service there as it is said if you will do some service there you will achieve godliness. So, whoever visits Golden Temple goes and does some service voluntarily. We both did our best there and went back to our hotel room. As we had decided to visit the Wagah Border (India – Pakistan Border) Retreat ceremony was performed every evening. We rode till Wagah and reached the spot from where you can see Pakistan just few footsteps away. We watched the retreat ceremony performed by the BSF (Border Security Force) of India. It was also great watching the Pakistan Army too. The ceremony was over and we came back to hotel, took our motorcycles for washing, and there a mechanic suggested us to visit Brothers Restaurant near Golden Temple for proper local tasty food. We went there and had our best dinner yet. We came back, packed our luggage and slept off.
Day 12: Amritsar – Qazigund (398 Kms)
6 AM in the morning, we were ready to ride and explore the new and unknown destination. We had a refreshing tea and started riding towards Kathua. Roads were good, people were going on bicycles to their farm lands. I could hear the sound of engine only, so peaceful it was. We crossed Gurdaspur and reached Kathua around 9 AM. We there had delicious Aalo Paratha in breakfast and after riding few miles, we see a sign board (“Welcome to Jammu & Kashmir”) Yes, we had just entered Jammu area, the total landscape; scenery had changed all of a sudden with mountain valleys, long trees, flowing rivers. We stopped our bikes and took a long breathe to make ourselves believe. After taking few snaps we started riding towards Udhampur. Just at Samba area we stopped for a tea break and I noticed that Our pre-paid mobile sim cards had stopped working. I immediately changed to my other postpaid sim card, and it received a signal. Local guys said, even though you have signal, but it will only work till Srinagar at the maximum. BSNL postpaid sim works all over. We were okay with it, informed at home regarding this issue and we started riding towards Udhampur. Enjoying every scenery, and off roads we started climbing small hills. But it was not at all painful to ride, because of the calmness, and beauty of Himalayas, I was forgetting everything. We reached Udhampur at 10:30 AM, we realized that now we cannot ride faster and also cannot cover more distance like on plain roads. Temperature was also falling down slowly, it was cool and nice. Hotels could offer only Maggi/Noodles, omlets, bread and tea. We were riding towards Anantnag, climbing up and down; that’s how the routes were. We were also watching other bikers passing by. I always waved my hand and showed them thumbs up. We could hardly cover 40 kms in an hour, but we were also enjoying every bit of the valleys and taking pictures all the way. Now, the roads were narrow, Himalayan ranges were beautiful, calm, strong and at the same time dangerous too. One vehicle has to stop, if another has to pass. Two wheelers can pass, but at some spots motorcycles also needs a way to pass. My focus was on the roads, just for a second if I tried to watch those tall mountains, very next moment I would fall down the hill. At one side, people are working to make the roads better, trucks loading rocks falling from mountains, and at my left hand side, beautiful valley and river water was flowing down. At 6:30 PM we crossed the Jawahar Tunnel, roads were good after that. It was dark already and temperature was low. We both were both tired, so we stopped for a while and discussed whether to continue or not. Srinagar was 66 kms away and had no idea about the road conditions and also about the temperature ahead. So, decided to take halt at Qazigund. We had some local dinner, and bought some Apricot, Zaffran (Kesar).
Day 13: Qazigund to Srinagar (70 Kms)
At 6 AM we were ready with the luggage loaded, checked our bikes conditions and other necessary startup checkups. We started riding towards Srinagar. Roads were in good condition, small villages in between and it was very calm and silent place. Children were going to school, wearing sweaters and looked cute with red cheeks on face. We reached Srinagar at 9:30 AM. It was a big city. There were lodges and hotels everywhere. I checked with few, but they were very costly. I got fed up and suddenly a man (Ghulam) shows up and asks if we were interested staying at a boat house. My first question was how much? He replied 1,200 per day. I said, we will come if you give us at Rupees 400, was using my dad’s technique of bargaining. It was not a season though and he dragged it down till Rupees 800, BINGO! If he can reduce 400 in one shot, He can definitely give us for 500 At least, I said the same and we finally made a deal of Rs. 600 per day. He took us near Dal Lake, and the boat house was superb. It had a drawing room, 2 bedrooms, attached bathrooms with bath tubs and geezer. I congratulated dad for the successful completion of Kanyakumari to Kashmir ride. We both finished it and were ready for K2K Phase 2. At first we had some breakfast prepared by Ghulam’s wife (Family, they stay right beside the boat house), we decided to go for shikara (Boat ride on dal lake), enjoyed the shikara for 2 hours and then came back to visit the Mughal Garden, then we requested Ghulam’s family to prepare some Kashmiri Pulav, they didn’t use much ground spices, but still they brought that mouth watering flavour with minimum ingredients which they had. I and dad came back from a walk, and we saw Ghulam’s children sitting worried, I asked them what the reason was and they replied that the drinking water motor wasn’t working and they have to travel few miles to get it fixed and arrange drinking water stock for next few days. Dad knew electrical work so I immediately brought our motorcycle tool kit and dad started working on the motor. After a lot of struggle, dad had finally fixed the motor. Neighbors had gathered to see if the motor worked or not. Every person including me was waiting to switch on and see if it pumps water. It worked and Ghulam’s wife had tears almost. They dint knew how to thank us, children and neighbors were happy. Ghulam requested us not to pay for the stay and the food they served, but we insisted and gave them the bill. Took rest for the day.
Day 14: Srinagar – Kargil (215 Kms)
It was a chilly cold morning, I woke up at 6 AM but, Dad had already woken up, Defense rules! He did not allow me to sleep for little more during these cold mornings. It had become more like some NCC camp. We packed our luggage and started riding towards Kargil. After reaching Sonmarg I saw the first signboard of Altitude measurement. We stopped there and had our breakfast. I was sipping local tea (Kawa), and in front of me, I could see a glacier mountain, such a beauty, never saw it live before. I was trying to take its pictures, but it was so big that it didn’t fit into my phone’s camera. Dad was busy shouting at me as I was wasting time. We had to cross Zozi La (La means Pass) before 2 PM, so we started riding up towards higher altitudes. It was completely an off road again and your riding skills will be put up on tests on such terrains. I was balancing my 250 kgs motorcycle, the clutch play, throttle play, break application and that too at freezing temperatures. We were riding through a no civilization area and with no vehicle all the way, just surrounded by tall Himalayas. Small stones and rocks were falling down on the roads from the top of the mountains. We had to be very careful while riding. After riding for 2 hours we reached the Zozi la altitude (11,649 Ft) memorial and took few photos. Salute to the soldiers who gave their lives for us. Then we started riding towards Kargil and we could not cover more distances, as we were riding up at higher altitudes and the fuel economy of our bikes had also started falling down. Less mileage and we did not ride the bikes in higher gears. After riding for 2 hours, we reached a place called Drass (Second coldest inhabitant place in the world). We pulled over there and had lunch. Spoke with locals, they told us about the past stories of the Kargil War, how these people survived, moved to other places and they heard many bomb blast sounds etc. We then started our ride towards Kargil which was 60 kms away. We reached Kargil Memorial, went inside and stepped into the spot from where our Army was launching towards Tiger point at Pakistan Army, I could easily see the Tiger point from my naked eyes. My dad was very emotional and was in tears. This moment only a defense person can understand very well. My dad has also served our nation for 20 years by protecting Sea. And there were somethings written over there, very touching “When you go back home, tell them that we gave our today for your tomorrow”, so Inspiring!
I salute all the soldiers who lost their lives at the Kargil War. We moved on and entered Kargil area, saw a fuel station and got our tanks filled because from now on fuel stations would be rarely found and can only be found after 200-300 kms. We also had 20 ltrs extra cans, got them filled with fuel. We reached at 5 PM and couldn’t find a place to stay, we were moving further and saw an open place, pulled over and decided to do camping. Yes, we both put our T2 Quechua tent and parked our bikes besides, and it was freezing cold outside and cherry on the cake, it started raining. We were locked inside our tent with no food. We waited till 8 PM and understood that the rains were not going to stop, so we had the dry fruits and glucose water which we had and went to sleep. I woke up again in the mid-night as I was hungry and it was still pouring and freezing cold. I had no any other option than to go and sleep back.
Day 15: Kargil – Leh (220 Kms)
I woke up at 8 AM and it was still raining. We were feeling weak and tired. We desperately needed something to eat. Suddenly a person called us from outside, I opened the zip and saw a tall guy with a cap on his head and he asked us in Hindi “Did you have anything last night?” I replied, no. He immediately told us to come out and have something as he had enough food with him. I was thinking who is this guy, and why does he has food for us. I went out and saw few people, cars and some good looking boys and girls. Another guy asked us if we had come there all the way from Andhra? I replied with a Yes. The guy said, we were camping last night just few steps away and we saw your bikes and board-(K2K 10,000kms) and they were shooting a Malayalam reality show there and they gave us breakfast to eat. I thanked god for providing us the breakfast to eat. I thought that maybe we both must have done something good to some person and this is its fruit to us. After having our breakfast, rains hadn’t stopped. We decided to keep riding, may be after few miles there would be no rains. We started riding towards Leh at 9:30 AM. It was freezing cold. Slowly our riding gears were getting wet, though we had rain liners and other protective wears, but our fingers were getting jammed and insensitive. After riding for 2 hours, I and dad were unable to even pull the clutch. We stopped at Mulbek area seeing a cafeteria and removed our riding jackets and gloves and we saw dark black, reddish spots on our hands. They were frost bites and we immediately took our hands near the engine thinking that it will be hot. But, the engine was cool so we asked the Café guy to get us some hot water and we soaked our hands in them for some time. Sipping tea, and thinking how we would cover this distance. If rains continued we wouldn’t be able reach Leh by evening under such conditions. We did not stop back and continued riding. After riding for few miles we saw a climb and understood that we had to pass a climb. After a stressful ride we reached the NAMIK LA Point Altitude (12,198 Ft.) and stopped there to take some pictures and tried to warm up our hands and immediately started our ride again. Our motorcycles were performing well, we had no issues of cold start or any other issues while riding them on such harsh terrains. Our motorcycles were proving their best on all the terrains. I was proud of my sports tourer bike. I was happy riding my machine all the way from home and so was my father. We were doing regular checkups and maintenance, that’s why these bikes were performing their best. We continued riding in the same condition, all wet. Now, we had got all the judgments and we were able to cross every hurdle with perfect control and stability. After riding for an hour, we saw another Mountain climbing. It was Fotu LA Altitude (13,479 Ft.). I just saw up and it was completely covered with dark clouds and zero visibility. But we went riding up. Hands were getting freeze and it started snowing. Every curve had to be taken properly. Higher chances were there for the bikes to skid. We rode very carefully and finally reached the Fotu La point Altitude (13,479 Ft.). We took a snap and jumped on our motorcycles and started riding down, as the snowfall had increased at that altitude. The water had started to become ice at that height. Riding down was also as tuff as climbing up. The bikes had to be in total control. We slowly came down, I was shouting loud with pain inside the helmet. I was unable to bare the pain anymore. We reached Lamayuru and stopped at a small restaurant. My hands had swollen and I was unable to remove the riding gloves. I kept my hands like that only and after 15 minutes I could successfully remove my riding gloves and I saw my small cuts and reddish colour on my hands. It was paining and it was due to riding in wet and cold condition. We took 40 minutes halt over there and covered our legs with Polythene covers and started towards Nimmu. We had enough of fuel, so we had no worries about it. After riding for few kms, we saw a whole new world, the color of mountains changed to dark grey and few were in black. The total landscape was so barren and isolated and scary. I remember the restaurant guy saying about moonland. Yes, he had referred to this place, the only place on earth to have a landscape like moon. We pulled over and took a few pictures and I also captured a short video which I have uploaded on YouTube. We Khaltse and reached Saspol, rains did not stop at all. We were still riding and totally like mad people, aiming to reach Leh. There were chances we could reach Leh, but it would be too late in the night. At Saspol, we asked a truck driver about the road conditions ahead. After riding few miles we saw plains and we both just pulled the throttle and started riding like a road runner cartoon. It was Basgo Plains. After a very long time we had seen some plain roads. We reached Nimmu by evening at 6 PM and saw more people and civilization. We were totally wet and had no phone connections too. We had a nice tea at a Cafeteria. I stuck our K2K a Father & a Son Duo logo there. We decided to ride further and take a halt at Leh only. It was dark, hardly any vehicle on these terrains was seen but we were at an aim and never looked back and so we kept moving on and by 8:30 PM we finally reached Leh. A city with full lights, houses and there was civilization. Took a turn to old fort road and negotiated a hotel room for 2 days. We could barely eat anything because of tiredness, frozen hands and legs, Pains etc. Just to fill our stomachs we had dinner and went to sleep.
Day 16: Leh – Khardung LA (World’s Highest Motor-able Road, Our First Attempt, Altitude 18,380 Ft)
Woke up at 7 AM in the morning, I heard a dog barking outside. I opened the door and saw the owner’s dog roaming around. At that time the rains had also stopped, but sky was still covered with dark clouds. I asked the hotel owner if we could ride till Khardung LA today. He replied, No sir, weather doesn’t look like to go up with motorcycles. I was disappointed, but still we had a hope that after the clouds would get clear, we would go or at least wait for the Sun to rise. We freshened up and took our motorcycles for servicing at the main city. We also purchased gum boots, extra socks and hand gloves to get some relief from the low temperatures while riding. We checked with locals, and they also suggested not to go up to Khardung LA as there was snowfall early in the morning and the route is closed. We waited till 11 AM and decided to make an attempt and geared up with all the winter protection and started riding up towards Khardulg LA which was 35 kms away from Leh. Motorcycles were performing well. We did not put much load or saddle bags on our bikes and started riding slowly. After 40 minutes, we reached South Pulu and there was a check post. The Police asked us to return back as there was snow on the roads and vehicles without chain on tyres would not be allowed to go further. We both decided to wait for some time, and then requested the officer to please let us go further and if it is not favorable to ride, we will return back. After continuous requests, the officer allowed us to go further. There was snow all the way, there was an increase in altitude and temperature was falling down and with less oxygen to breathe and low air, we and our bikes were finding it difficult to ride up.
After riding for few kilometers the road was filled with more snow and hard ice at some places. We slowed down, bikes started skidding and it had become difficult to control, mostly at curves and turns. We were riding just on 1st and 2nd gear. Brakes couldn’t be applied and the technique was to just control the bike on gear ratios. Slowly we were riding up and the Khardung LA point was another 10 kms away and there came a hairpin bend and I somehow managed to tak a turn but my father had lost his control and had fallen down on the road. Dad got up and we both tried to pick up the Bullet and after our several tries, we could finally pick it up as there was a lot of snow and the road was slippery. We both had no energies as it was snowing and we were at higher altitude. We sat there and decided to go further or no and at the next moment we decided to ride further. We started again and I was proud to see my father ride with all his abilities and skills which I had never seen before. We came to point where found a traffic jam which was caused because of heavy snowfall and zero visibility ahead. We were tired and had almost lost our energies. Dad took a decision of returning back as we couldn’t go further because of the traffic and there was no point in waiting there as it was snowing and temperature was falling down. We started to return back. We were riding more carefully as we were going down. We returned to our hotel safely after four hours. I was nervous as I couldn’t make it till the Khardung LA point even when we were very close to it. Dad was feeling low so we had our dinner early and decided to give another try tomorrow if the climate was favorable and good. We then went off to sleep early.
Day 17: Khardung LA (Altitude 18,380 Ft., Attempt 2)
At 7AM we woke up but dad was having cold and also had fever. I asked dad if he would be able to try for a second attempt, dad without taking a minute said of course let’s do it. It was a sunny day. We got ready and waited for our breakfast to arrive and until it arrived we plucked a few apple from an apple tree out in the garden and they tasted very rich. They were far very tastier than what we have I our city. We had our breakfast and checked with locals, they said start when you see sunlight up in the sky. We waited till 10 AM and we had the perfect sunlight to start. We immediately started our motorcycles towards Khardung LA and we reached South Pulu and this time the police asked us to fill a form to get an entry. I filled the form and we moved on. I was happy that the officials had allowed us to go ahead without any hesitation and the snow from the roads was also cleared. Sun was bright and the ice on the roads was melting all over. We were above Altitude 14,000+ ft. and we saw snow there, like yesterday. We were riding slowly, and taking turns very carefully as this time we were aware of the roads. Again the same spot had come, where dad had a fall yesterday and this time we both cleared it with perfection. I could see many parts lying on the snow which were of motorcycles. Maybe the riders had some crash or fall. Now we are at Altitude 16,000 ft. and I could see a clear dark blue sky. The mountains were covered with snow which shined brightly in the sunlight. We were now only 3 kms away from the pass and we again had found a traffic jam ahead. We rode on the tyre marks of the cars and we then started rifing on th edge as there was traffic. We were riding carefully as there was a valley down. We rode like that till we reached the Khardung LA (18,380 Ft) point. And yes, we had finally reached the point, I saw the yellow sign board of “HIGHEST MOTORABLE ROAD IN THE WORLD ALTITUDE 18,380 FT” and that was the moment of achievement for both of us. We did not have place to park our bikes there, so parked them a little far away and came to the spot and took few pictures and jumped into the Army Café, which is also the highest café in the world. We had some biscuits and coffee there. Everybody over there was very happy and they were rejoicing over their achievement. For us it was like a dream come true after such a difficult and long ride. A Hindi advertisement saying “Darr ke aage Jeet hai” flashed on the TV. It was said true and went along with everybody who had made it till the Khardung LA. I stuck our logo sticker at the display board of the café so that it stays there forever (hope so). Snow fall started and it was fast, so we decided to move down as fast as we could. We had to ride in the same way we came up as the traffic did not move an inch at that moment I felt that to move ahead was really difficult. I had to apply brakes at few points and was skidding badly, but was also able to control. I was more worried about dad, but he was completely able to control his Bullet. We somehow crossed the traffic and came down till South Pulu in 2 hours. We stopped for a while and there we could breathe properly. We had bought 2 Ladakh prayer flags, we tied them will full pride on our motorcycles and came back to our hotels. It was an achievement and dream come true for us. We were happy as we had successfully completed K2K phase 2 of riding till the Highest Motorable road in the world of Altitude 18,380 ft. Dad was still having cold and fever, so he took rest after having his lunch. We woke up at 7 PM in the evening, and went out for some local shopping, brought some more Ladakh flags for our friends and family members. We had our dinner at a Punjabi restaurant and took rest for the night at a hotel. My special thanks here goes to Team LADAKH RETURN GROUP and Mr. DK PUNDIT sir for helping us with live updates daily regarding the weather conditions of Ladakh.
Day 18: Leh – Sarchu (255 Kms)
We woke up at 5 in the morning. Dad was still suffering from cold and cough. He refused to stay back and took his medicines and tied his entire luggage back on his Bullet. We refueled our bikes and the spare cans and started riding again. After riding for an hour, we reached Karu. We stopped there to have our breakfast. There we met a biker girl Stuti Rastogi, a solo rider from Delhi on CBR 250. We had a small talk and she was going to Pangong Tso. Dad had his medicines again and then we continued riding towards Sarchu. We actually had a plan to ride Pangong but due to dad’s illness, he insisted to move further because of road blocks at Chang LA due to snow. We started riding but dad looked dull, yet he was riding. After crossing Rumtse I saw another pass coming near and the temperature was falling down again. It was cold. It took quite some time for us to ride up and reach the Tanglang LA Altitude of 17,582 Ft. which is the world’s second highest motorable pass. We took few photographs and started riding down and we came down little faster and started riding towards Moreh Plains. We had a map with us, so we thought of covering maximum distance at Moreh Plains and save some time. The decision of covering more distance was because we didn’t want to stay at Sarchu in the night because of lack of oxygen during nights at that place and extreme cold weather. We were riding like fast on the plains and we crossed Moreh plains. We were getting down a hill towards Pang and suddenly a huge rock was falling down from the slope, dad was riding in front and I saw it from behind. I struggled a lot to stop my dad and luckily he looked in his mirror and saw asking to stop him. He stopped there and at the same moment that rock fell in front of him at some distance along with some small stones too. I thanked god for saving us. We then rode down slowly and took a lunch break at Pang. There were tents and few people serving food and also shelter bed for travelers. We gulped our lunch and dad had some milk and tablets again. He wasn’t able to recover because of the cold weather and altitude levels. He said, he will be okay once he comes down to low altitude and in a little warm weather, till then we had to keep moving. We started riding up towards Lachung LA point at altitude of 16,616 ft. We got down easily, as we had become quite a master for the curves and roads and the roads were also in good condition. BRO – Border Roads Organization maintains such good roads over there. After coming down from Lachung LA, we immediately had to ride up to Nakee LA at Altitude of 15,547 ft. With this we had crossed 3 passes today and we did not feel that hard, but it was a challenging ride. After Nakee LA Altitude 15,547 ft. the roads were not in that good condition. After riding for 10 kms body pains started for both of us. It was 4 PM and Sarchu was another 30 kms away. We were also worried that if the road conditions till Sarchu would be like this, then we will have to stop at Sarchu in the night. After riding for 2 hours at 6:30 PM we were at Sarchu and stopped there for tea. I could see only 5 tents and hardly any civilization. We asked lorry drivers who had just come from Manali and they said the roads are full of snow and suggested us not to ride in the dark. With no option left with us and dad’s fever gone high, we had to take a halt at Sarchu. There was a bed facility inside a tent for Rs. 150/- per head. We took halt there, unloaded our luggage and the owner of the tent and his wife were old; they made their living by this only. They were very good, served us hot water whenever required in the late nights, 24/7 noodles, bread, milk and omelets. In our tent I had the opportunity to make some new biker friends – Shailesh (Mumbai), Sujoy (Bangalore) and Rohit (Delhi). Sujoy was actually our hotel mate from Leh, but he had reached here late and he also had to take a halt at Sarchu. Shailesh had reached Sarchu riding his Pulsar 150CC all the way from Mumbai, just for fun. We had some awesome conversations together. Dad had already slept after having some food and medicine. At 9 PM I also slept. I woke up at 2 AM in the night and saw up and I could see a clear sky. The sky was very clear with twinkling stars and a slight layer of our milky way, I guess it was. I am very much interested into cosmos. This was a gift for me, I sat down there for 20 minutes just watching the sky and felt as if I was in space. After some time, I felt some lack of air, issues with breathing and too cold outside. I immediately realized that what my friends had told me about this place was right, this place has less oxygen and there was not even a small plant in the whole area for kilometers. It was just a barren land with rocks. Dad also couldn’t have a proper sleep because of less oxygen to breathe and he was already not doing well.
Day 19: Sarchu – Keylong (110 Kms)
We woke up at 5 AM and the lady owner was preparing something spicy and hot tea was ready for us. Dad was not feeling well. We asked the lady to prepare noodles and milk for us. We had the breakfast and decided to start towards Manali. Sujoy also joined us as his Bullet was giving some trouble so that we will be a support to him if something happens. We started our ride at 8 AM, had a small water crossing and after riding for 1 hour, We had a view of Baralacha LA Altitude 16,043 ft. and last night the lorry drivers said it was covered with full snow and we hardly saw any sunlight today which would melt the ice. But we decided to continue riding up and we saw huge ices all over the roads. We were riding slowly and also enjoying the beauty of Himalayas. Few clouds were coming towards us, it was a sign that it’s going to either rain or there would be a snow fall again. We reached Baralacha LA (16,043 ft.) point and we did not want to stop there for photographs as the weather had turned dark and heavy winds were blowing. It could rain or snow at any moment. We came down and after few minutes we reached Zing Zing Bar a yellow tent with beds inside with food facility. Dad laid down on the bed as he was feeling weak and tired. Offered him milk and asked him to take some rest. I and Sujoy were talking about the journey, in some time few Lamas gathered and wished us. They asked us about our journey and they were impressed by us. Again some more Lamas gathered in their traditional wear. They were doing some arrangements as His Holiness the Dalai Lama was coming. We waited for him to arrive but he was late due to heavy snowfall and we had to leave without meeting him. We had to move to lower altitude to make dad feel better and to our surprise, we had actually crossed the Kashmir border sometime back near Sarchu and we were riding in Himachal Pradesh. We started riding towards Keylong, a place suggested by Shailesh. We were riding through waterfalls and river crossings. Now we were getting closer to lower altitude. Dad said he is feeling little better. We reached Keylong at 5 PM. Today we could hardly ride 170 kms due to bad weather and dad’s fever. We checked into a hotel which had Wifi facility. We did not have any communication for 4-5 days at home and people were worried. I updated my new statuses every now and thent on Facebook so that my friends get to know about us. I called up at home and informed that we were safe. Dad was feeling much better and we still were above 10,000+ ft. altitude. Keylong is a beautiful place. I had a good stay at the hotel over there.
Day 20: Keylong – Kullu (160 Kms)
We woke up at 6 AM, Dad was completely doing fine. His riding for 3 days in fever at those high altitudes and cold was totally appreciable. We wanted to service our motorcycles and Sujoy also had to get it checked with a mechanic. After servicing them, at 9 AM we started towards Manali. Roads were not that great but we had not got used to such roads. We just had to cross Rohtang Pass (13,050 ft) which is considered to be one of the dangerous passes. At 1 PM we had lunch at a place, I hardly remember and we started towards the Pass. Riding up and again to a higher altitude was fun as well as challenging due to the road conditions. The snow had melted and made the road wet and muddy. After 2 hours of riding we finally crossed the Rohtang LA (13,050 ft.) point and we were very eager to come down as soon as we could as it had already started snowing. We also saw people and riders on the way. I found a rider on Hero Impulse who stopped me to ask about the road conditions ahead. I told him about the road conditions and he seemed to be worried as his bike wasn’t performing well and couldn’t go beyond 20 km/h speed. I advised him to ride in first and second gear and asked him to take his bike to the mechanic wherever he would find any and then we all left from there. After coming down through the Rohtang Pass, it was a relief and we finally had cleared all the mountain passes we had on our route map. It was a moment, and we had a nice tea to rejoice. It was 4 PM and we started towards Manali. The roads were little wide and smooth so we were riding fast. The view of Himalayas covered with trees was truly awesome. I could see more mechanic shops on the way. It was a great feeling to see so many mechanics all around. We reached Manali at 6 PM. Sujoy stayed back at Manal and we both father and son continued to ride till 7-8 PM. Our aim was to reach Kullu District. We were riding through some forest areas, nice roads and then at 8 PM we reached Kullu city searching for place to stay. Surprisingly it was weekend and did not find a single lodge vacant. After 1 hour of search we found one which was costly and we had no any other choice so, we took halt for the night there and had some different food and slept.
Day 21: Kullu – Delhi (510 Kms)
We woke up at 5AM and were ready with the luggage. We started at 6 AM from there towards Chandigarh. We were passing through ghats and I was totally enjoying the valleys, the trucks of apples moving in front and passing through some tunnels. At 10 we had some breakfast at a local restaurant and now gradually we were coming to lower altitude towards the main land from mountains. Riding through ghats was like playing a video game for us. We had been riding since 3 weeks now and had experienced all types of terrains. At 1 PM we came down and entered Punjab Border. I had already started to miss the Himalayas. After riding for 5 kms, 4 lane highways started. What a great feeling it was, after a long time I had seen a proper highway. It’s always a great feeling to ride on smooth roads. We were cruising above 90 km/h speeds. We reached Chandigarh at 2:30 PM, an awesome city it is. We had a nice lunch, lassi and started riding again towards Delhi and crossed Ambala. Riding on NH1 was of a great feeling and we crossed a place called Kurukshetra, about which I had read in books. This ride had helped me to see the places from eyes which were just a part of my reading books. We reached Karnal at 5 PM. We stopped there for a tea break and immediately without wasting time we started riding towards Delhi. We were planning either to take a halt at the entrance of the city or to cross the city to avoid its night’s busy traffic. We Crossed Panipat and Sonipat by 7 PM so we decided to take halt at the entrance of the Delhi. We entered Delhi at 8 PM and from very there heavy traffics started. We entered the city and took halt for the night at a hotel and went to sleep immediately after our dinner.
Day 22: Delhi – Agra (210 Kms)
We woke up at 6 AM, we just had to ride till Agra, as we had planned to explore The Taj Mahal for the day. We started riding towards Noida and we went via the Yamuna expressway. We crossed the Noida Area and entered Yamuna expressway. We reached near Buddh International Circuit. Took few photographs and started riding again. We reached Agra city at 11 AM and booked a hotel room near west gate of The Taj Mahal. We got freshened up, took our motorcycles for basic servicing and washing. Meanwhile we had some delicious lunch our motorcycles were ready neat and clean. We went to see The Taj and as we had a heavy lunch we were feeling lazy to walk around. We managed to see the Taj Mahal as much as we wanted. We came back to hotel at 4 PM and bought some Agra Pethas from a nearby shop and started eating them all. We took rest for the day at the hotel room.
Day 23: Agra – Seoni (711 Kms)
Day 23, yeah riding continuously. We started at 6 AM from Agra towards Nagpur. Smooth highways and this is the actual North South corridor highway. We Reached Gwalior and had breakfast there. I could see grasslands and plains from the dhaba. But my heart and soul was still lost in those calm and magnificent Himalayan Ranges. I was missing them badly, more than my girlfriend. We started riding towards Jhansi. I was recollecting all the days back from day 1 till now while riding. There were some moments where we could have totally given up, but we conquered those moments and now they were our achievements. This is life of a Biker. In the afternoon we reached Jhansi, and we took a bypass route to avoid city traffic towards Lalitpur, Sagar via NH26. We reached Sagar post lunch hours. Super summer heat and we stopped at a dhaba for Lunch. Very first thing we asked was for Buttermilk or Lassi, he replied sorry we don’t have that. We were shocked and replied, its hot outside and you don’t have lassi at your dhaba. He said, here no one drinks Lassi or buttermilk, they ask only for Tonic (Alcohol) and if you want it, I can serve you that, he said. We were laughing, and asked him to get for us some rotis and dal. We then moved towards Narsinghpur. At 4 PM we were sipping tea in Narsinghpur. By looking at the map, it was difficult to reach Nagpur by 7 or 8 PM. We decided to ride till 7 PM and stop wherever we were. We thought the roads are good we could cover till Nagpur, but soon after riding for 1 hour, the road conditions were not good at all. We were also riding through some forest areas and could not see properly anything as it was dark. At 8 PM we were at Seoni and decided to take a halt there and continue the ride by starting early in the morning the next day. We took a hotel room to stay and called up family members that we will be home in 2 days. We had some dinner and went off to sleep.
Day 24: Seoni – Hyderabad (715 Kms)
We woke up early at 5 AM and were ready with our saddle bags loaded on motorcycles. We were riding since 23 days and these Machines – Hero Karizma R 223CC and Royal Enfield Classic Bullet 350 CC had performed superbly. We were both proud of our machines and we started towards Nagpur by crossing Pench Tiger Reserve (Pench National Park). We crossed the forest and entered Maharashtra Border, found a small market center and had some Maharashtrian breakfast. We crossed Nagpur by 9 AM and we continued riding towards Adilabad and in some hours were going to enter Telangana Border. Our journey was coming to an end in a day. We crossed Wadki, and then after riding for an hour, we entered Telangana border, stopped for a tea halt in the afternoon. We decided to have our lunch after crossing Adilabad. At Dichpally we stopped at a local dhaba, and surprisingly we found Punjabi dhabas and now we were looking for some telugu dishes there. After searching for some time we finally found a telugu restaurant on the highway. I received a message from Mr. Lalit Jain sir from Wanderers, Hyderabad that he would like to meet us at the Hyderabad entrance. I was happy and really looking forward to meet him as I had heard a lot of great things about him. We were speeding. The adrenaline boost was high as we would be reaching home by evening. The roads were awesome and at around 6 PM we entered Hyderabad city’s entrance and we were at Kompally. Lalit Jain Sir asked us to wait as he had a special person coming to meet us with him. Lalit Jain Sir reached first and congratulated us for our successful completion of our ride on behalf of the Wanderers Team. He told that the other special person who was coming to meet us was Mr. Bharadwaj Dayala Sir and I just jumped off the ground and was happy to know that as he has been my inspiration for all such rides I have been doing. He was inspiration for my major rides and the confidence for Hero Karizma R during Golden Quadrilateral and K2K. I actually had an opportunity to meet him during GQ but missed it due to lack of time on that day. In some time Mr. Bharadwaj Dayala Sir arrived with Jaspreet Singh Monty from Wanderers Bidar. We spent an hour discussing about the journey and it’s a memory. Thanks a ton Lalit Jain Sir for the meeting and greeting. It was great meeting you all. We started riding towards Miyapur, where my dad’s sister (Sajida Parveen) was waiting to welcome us with family. We reached there at 8 PM and we were happy to see our family members, they helped us in unloading the luggage and had some homemade food prepared for us. We informed all our near and dear ones that we had reached Hyderabad safely. We also had to inform Media journalists and Bar Association of Guntur prior, because they wanted to do some arrangements to welcome us at Guntur. After discussions with them, they asked us to arrive at Guntur after 2 days as they wanted to make the arrangements for our welcoming. So we stayed back, washed our Riding gears and took the backup of all the pictures and videos in those 2 days.
Days 25 and 26 were spent to relax by us at Hyderabad.
Day 27: Hyderabad – Guntur (300 kms via Vijayawada)
We started at 7 AM from Hyderabad; finally the day had come to end the journey by riding another 300 Kms towards Guntur. Hyderabad Karizma Bikers Club – Admin Panel member (Uday) had come to pilot us till the city end. He escorted us till Chotuppal and we had breakfast together. The media and Bar Association had asked to reach the city by 11:30 AM, we were 30 minutes late from the scheduled time to arrive and we pulled the throttle and did not take any break for 3 hours of riding. We reached Vijaywada at 10:50 AM. We informed the concerned people that we are 30 Kms away from Guntur. We started riding towards Guntur. Inside the helmet, I was totally emotional and was on tears. I had helped my dad to successfully achieve and complete his dream ride which was his dream since 25 years. His achievement is my achievement; He truly respected all aspects of riding. He has never been a part of any riding clubs till date, always a solo wanderer but respected lane discipline while riding with groups. This is experience and it counts. I respect him as a senior rider, and he proved it all the times. We reached Guntur Bypass and Mr. Syed Ismail – Executive JAWA or Guntur Bar had come with team of Advocates to welcome us. My uncle Ahmed Pasha had also come to congratulate us for our successful completion of K2K 10,000 kms ride. They rallied us till the District court complex. We reached there at sharp 12:00 noon at the same spot from where the flag off was done. Sweets were provided by our Senior Mr. Ahmed Shareef Sir. Hon’ble District judge came and welcomed us with tender water. We gave a short Media Interview and took more than 100 photographs. Trust me riding was easier than posing for the photographs. We came back to home and the distance between my home and District court is of only 3 kms. Finally we had reached home, took blessings from mother and family members and relaxed for all day. Next day evening The Bar Association had arranged a felicitation program for us. We were felicitated by Hon’ble District Judge with momento for the achievement. I gave a long speech about the journey and about the cause we took. Dad had explained the total route map covered and the challenges we had faced.
We finished #K2K2015 10,000 Kms, a Father and Son Duo Successfully in 27 Days.
As I always don’t forget to bid my special thanks to these people:
Guntur Brothers (Hometown Boys), Mr. Dilip Bam, Devjeet Saha, Viraj David (Biker, Co-Founder of Automobilians.com), Ravi Verma, Bashab Bhattacharjee, Ali bhai Mechanic (Mumbai), Karizma Bikers Club Team Mumbai, KBC Jaipur, KBC Kerala, KBC Madurai, KBC Bangalore, KBC Hyderabad, KBC Chennai, RoadHawk Riders Surat, NH4 Motorheads Team & Debraj Banerjee, Juie Merchant, Sagar Patel, Hakim Sir, My ex job for the salary and savings. Mr. Bharadwaj Dayala for being an inspiration to me for all of my rides and Mr. Kaleem M.A. Sir for encouraging the riders like me.
Hero Karizma R 223CC, the best sports tourer motorcycle manufactured by Hero. Thanks for making such an amazing machine. I have personally tested this machine by riding it on all terrains all over India. I also thank Royal Enfield for manufacturing the tough and bold Classic Bullet 350.
Khiyar Pasha wishes to do a Cross Country Ride next time and we are looking forward to it.
Automobilians.com congratulates Khiyar Pasha and his father Mehamood Pasha for their successful completion of Kanyakumari to Kashmir Ride and also wishes them a good luck for their future rides.
