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Kunjakharak : May 2005 |
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Awesome ride ! Been tied upto the bone at work, ever since I came back from the ride, hence havn't been able to write in. The pics have been uploaded , minus the captions at http://zeus.dclnetworks.net/metal/kunjakharak . A detailed writeup should be expected any time this year by Shri Shri Sobby Singh. Meanwhile, he is also to be nominated for the Elephant ride for brave kids on the 26th Jan parade. :) His claim to fame - rescuing an upside down me, hanging off a 15 feet drop , with only my left foot and two fingers acting as involuntary anchor, sandwiched between the fallen Bullet and the edge of the road. What happened is still not completely clear , but it went something like this - about 6-7 kms short of Kunjakharak , the time was already about 8 pm. I was riding behind Sobby , with my helmet and gloves tied up along with the luggage. Ironically, I asked Saurabh to stop , so that I could put on my helmet and gloves. We both stopped side by side, with him on the inside and me on the outside. I put the side stand and after a few words which we exchanged, I leaned the bike over to get off. Now either the stand hadn't been put on correct or the bike rolled off , since there was a slight slope, the bike suddenly gave way and fell to the left , with me plunging straight off the edge of the road. Almost by a miracle , my foot got pinned under the bike and I was hanging off the edge, with just that for a couple of seconds before I managed to get a finger-tip hold with my left hand onto the jagged edge. My head was spinning for a split second and the only thought in it was , if the bike slips just 1 inch more , my foot's gonna come loose and worse the bike's gonna come crashing down over me taking both of us into the ditch below. The thought refused to go away, when Sobby came running dropping his bike and uttered the most relieving line I heard in a while - "Praveen - bike won't budge, so don't worry" . Not sure , how he concluded that in that darkness, with a slight drizzle going for added fun. But either ways, that in itself brought in a huge amount of relief and peace to my upside down mind :) He then tore his bungee cord off and came to the edge of the bike and held it for me to get some support. The bungee soon gave way with the slightest pull, but not before Sobby could lend me a hand to grab onto. Those couple of inches of elevation made all the difference and I somehow managed to get my bearing on level ground and pulled the rest of my shaken self up. A huge thanks :) Rest in his write up. Meanwhile, on a future visit , the following treks which originate from from Kunjakharak should be attempted : - To Kosi River (betal ghat ) 10kms - To Bagni Village - 10kms - To Ram Nagar - 30 kms - To Kota Bagh - 16 kms. Route Taken : Delhi - Hapur Bypass - Moradabad - Haldwani - Nainitial - Kilbury - Pangot - Binayak - Kunjakharak - Binayak - Pangot - Kilbury - Nainital - Kaladungi - Moradabad - Hapur Bypass - Delhi . Distance Covered : 711 kms.
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