Day 1
So finally the day has arrived and we are all set to go on the dream journey. We three (Vijay, Amit and Manish) assembled at old bus stand Palampur to start for Kangra, where Krishan will meet us with the vehicle booked for entire trip. I started on my Desert Storm, and Amit and Manish on a hired car. We met Krishan at Kangra, put our luggage in the hired Xylo car and moved towards Pathankot, where Munish had the overnight stay after traveling for entire day yesterday from Delhi on his Royal Enfield Classic 350. We had our breakfast on the way to Pathankot and reached Munish’s hotel at 11 AM. Agenda for today was to reach Patni Top by evening and had the night halt there. Temperature in Pathankot was 40+ C and we didn’t plan any breaks other than lunch and tea on today’s journey.
We had lunch at a Dhaba in Sambha – Udhampur road and reached Patni top at 4 PM. Roamed around the Patni Top for next couple of hours, clicked photos and had some nice snacks (Chaat, Tikki etc) at road side. Patni Top was full of tourists and it was difficult to find a place for stay there so we decided to come back to Kud town which is 7 KMs before the Patni Top and asked one of our office colleague and friend to arrange for accommodation there as he belongs to this place. He talked to his friends over there and got a good guest house booked for decent rates. After traveling for full day under the heat of 40+ C on bikes it was a nice place to stay. We wanted to celebrate the Day 1 with few drinks and some nice food. Guest House guys put the tables in open lawn and served some delicious snacks with drinks and dinner. Chilly winds blowing over the dinner table made the evening refreshing and enjoyable. We had a lot of talk and fun before going to the bed. Overall it was an awesome day.
Distance Traveled on Day 1:
Palampur to Pathankot: 110 KMs
Pathankot to Patni top: 180 KMs
Agenda for tomorrow is start early morning to Srinagar, roam around the Srinagar town and have night halt there. Distance to Srinagar from Patni Top is 200 KMs.
