We crossed Drass in no time and were heading towards mighty Zojila. We were still in our jackets ,skull caps and gloves. We were getting ready for the worst thing ahead. We wanted to start as early as possible when the snow is still fresh and passing vehicles has not created slush.
For our surprise we did find any vehicle waiting to cross Zojila . Surprisingly we even didn’t find any vehicle coming in other direction. We weren’t sure if Zojila is closed again. Its close to 10 day now before we crossed this exciting pass. Sun has started coming in, it was much warmer now. We were ascending the slope now, we still spotted some snow. We quickly overtook couple of trucks to make sure they are not hindering when the slush comes.
After driving through considerable amount of distance we couldn’t believe that , if this was the same road which gave us much trouble. We weren’t fully convinced that we might not have trouble, we were still expecting the worst ahead. When we passed half the route we realized we wanted more challenge. No we weren’t planning to drive in the remaining snow, but yes we felt the earlier Zojila was better. Almost at the end of the pass we got some trouble in driving mud slush, but by now we were much experienced in these conditions, Infact we were now Changla Trained professionals.
In no time we were in Sonamarag, our favorite place where we were stranded for couple of days. Still the small town was crowded, we spotted many bikers as it was getting warmer. We had our parathas in the same restaurant which we enjoyed many day before.
We wanted to step on the gas pedal as we had a long way to go, Our first target was to stop at Jammu. We had a slight feeling that we might not stop for next 4 days till we reached our home. We aren’t kidding actually we didn’t stop from Drass to Hyderabad some where around 3000 plus Kms.
We reached Srinagar in no time. This time we are in middle of day and almost summer has began. The feeling wasn’t the same what we had few days before. Now the same Srinagar was much warmer or rather it wasn’t like anything we saw. We were quickly getting into our favorite driving costume. We were already in our jeans and tees.
The streets were now very crowded and gave a similar looks of Hyderabad. People used to Hyderabad traffic can definitely imagine this. We didn’t want to spend even a little time there, we headed fast towards Jammu. As the sun started to show intensity we were happily driving in our boxers.
We crossed Shangrila , the place where we rested before and driving through many tunnels and turns we reached Jammu. Now it was a time to decide if we really needed a stop. The decision was unanimous we continued our journey even though we have already driving 400 plus kms in Ghat road.
The road from Jammu towards Chandigarh was good a one and we had already driven that. After reaching Jammu outskirts we decided to take a break for dinner. We had Rotis and ma chole ki Dhal . No wonder we have some many Dhabas in Punjab and I guess each one of them are good. After almost full stomach we decided to start our Buttermilk drinking habit . We ordered for Namkeen lassi, after few minutes we see a four 2 liters container with buttermilk. We were just stuck by the quantity of butter milk being served. We managed to complete them with huge struggle.
We were again on road driving through the deserted road as clock was moving close to midnight. We crossed pathankot and wanted to head towards Hosiarpur . We were stuck amidst howling dogs trying to find the highway. Under construction roads were bearing Take diversion board and no wonder we were totally lost in direction. After struggling for good 30 odd min we decided to try our luck one last time, If not we decided to park the vehicle in side of the road and take a nap till day comes.
We were lucky , we stopped couple of guys who managed to show us road. We were again cruising in the highway towards Hosiarpur . We managed to cross Hosiarpur and we headed towards Chandigarh without much problem. After driving many hours we had a problem. Head light of our car went off, We parked our car under one of the street lights. We managed to check if there was any contact issue from the electric relay. We managed to make our hands dirty trying to fix the issue, This time we weren’t lucky we couldn’t fix the issue.
After trying for good one hour we parked the vehicle in Truck lye bye. The clock showed 4 AM. We took a quick nap till we had day light. We again started heading towards Chandigarh when the clock was showing 5.40 in the morning. The Pleasant morning made us to drive with our windows down. After driving couple of hours we reached Chandigarh.
After getting fresh we headed straight to Hyundai service center in Mohali. We requested them to fix the issue quickly as we had to drive a long way. Service manager was impressed with us as we came from leh and were heading towards Chennai. He fixed the issue in couple of hours. Thanks to Hyundai for its service.
We got caught again by Chandigarh police. There is definitely something wrong we were caught twice for some weird reason. This time we couldn’t argue with the police guy as he was making his stand right. We couldn’t answer his question , rather how could we. He aksed us “why Chandigrah’s special traffic rules are not published in Chennai local paper.’ We paid the fine and headed towards delhi.
We again crossed our familiar route of Ambala, Kurushetra,Panipet and reached delhi around evening 4 o clock. We headed towards Gurgoan to meet Ramji on the way. Ramji’s was already making arrangement for a big party, No wonder he is our group Leader(Engal Anna)
We crossed the amazing toll gate to reach Gurgoan, where hundreds of cars crossed at the same moment. We didn’t have much trouble in locating Ramji’s house, one being it was in prime location and other being he was spotted us right from the 13th floor balcony. We managed to see him from a good amount of distance.
We were so used to Ramji’s party that we wouldn’t say no to him, We have spent weeks just sitting in his couch enjoying food and beverages. That’s was in US now what’s awaiting us in Gurgoan. We were quickly joined by few more guys. It was good relaxed couple of hours after many days of driving. We enjoyed Songs, Shere, Jokes and of course the wide range of beverages. The party was so relaxing that we felt that we just had to drive form Gurgoan to Chennai.
We started right after the party just after midnight as we had a non drinker driver. It didn’t really matters if other guys were slouched apart from driver
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