Day 2 Ambala – Udhampur 400 kms

June 2 2013

Route Map http://goo.gl/maps/HMNVp 


We had an early start to beat the heat and were munching miles at a good pace. First stop was usual was for a chai at 60 kms away from Ambala, by now we have entered Punjab. 

First stop for chai after entering Punjab



Me updating our whereabouts to people back home






Vignesh

After riding for a couple of hours, we stopped at a good dhaba for the breakfast. Hot paranthas and lassi gave us energy and we rode on. 

Our breakfast stop

Soon we pass through the cities of Ludhiana and Jalandhar and stopped for lunch after crossing Pathankot. The heat was taking a toll on us as we lose energy at a faster pace. We decided to take rest at the dhaba till the heat subsides. This was a huge junction and was crowded with truck traffic. J&K border was just a few kms from here. While taking rest noticed a TN registered truck standing in the queue of trucks. Immediately went nearby and engaged in a chat with the driver. He was very happy to see us Tamil speaking guys there. He said he is a regular to Srinagar and they bring matchsticks from a town near Madurai in TN and deliver it at Srinagar and take apples on the return. He said he does Madurai to Srinagar in 10 days on the truck!!! The cleaner was going to cook lunch for us too but we told them that we just had our lunch. 




After this conversation we moved on, soon entered the state of J&K. After the border crossing, the roads turned out to be very empty and the heat was getting more. 

We couldn’t just continue to ride in that heat. We pulled over and stopped for rest under a tree. Both of us slept for 20 minutes on the boulders kept there. 

The power nap and a couple of snicker bars helped us. We were back on roads by the time the heat was also lesser. Throughout the trip daylight was there until around 8PM in the Northern States, so we had the advantage of riding under daylight for a longer duration every day. 


We took a diversion at Samba get off the NH A1 to skip Jammu and reach Udhampur. At this diversion we sipped two glasses of sugarcane juice to keep us hydrated, advice was from the truck driver we met earlier. Samba – Udhampur section was a hill climb. So from now we will be riding on the hills for the rest of the trip. 

I was excited as the hill sections started. But we had to be careful as the roads aren’t good throughout and we were riding at high altitude cliffs. So with caution we carried on and reached Udhampur by dusk.