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Today was supposed to be more organised because the Kiwis had taken control. We had a briefing at the start, saying no one passes the leader and that S* (a Kiwi originally from India who runs 5 restaurants in NZ with his brother D, also on the tour) would lead the ride in tandem with Manoj, the deposed tour leader. Hilariously, Manoj managed to hit the deck twice with S on the back! They were riding in mud so it's somewhat forgivable plus Manoj has short legs. It was also stated we'd actually stop for lunch and every hour. We resolved to ride with lights on and to slow down if we lost from view the person behind. These orders were sensible and we rolled out with a sense of confidence, only to come across a locked gate blocking the road, causing a 5km backtrack. More evidence that this route was not well planned, perhaps not even ridden before, by 'The Colonel', as the Kiwis unaffectionately now referred to him.
Anyway, we did in fact stop relatively regularly but more due to the reliable unreliability of the Royal Enfields. Nostalgia aside, these are crap bikes. One of the group of 3 Indians seemed to have brought one from the army as that's what it says on the number plate. It had ignition issues all day because of a dud battery and we eventually left the three behind with the mechanic. Thankfully it's fixed now. One good thing about this route is we're able to use these first 3 days in lower altitudes as a mechanical and ergonomic shake down... smart thinking given the bike.
I've also realised I brought the wrong boots. Whilst, being moto x ones, they look the business, not having a flexible ankle means I can't operate the heel and toe gear lever or the foot brake well. I have to change gears in a very deliberate, planned fashion by reaching back with my toe to the heel half of the lever and pushing down for up shifts or hooking under and pulling up for down shifts. The latter manouvre is somewhat chiropractic and particularly prone to missed gears. I'm happy to still be able to keep up with the front despite this handicap but wonder if a slow down shift at a crucial moment will rob me of the deceleration needed to avoid an accident. Another possibility is my getting distracted from traffic conditions by wrangles with the gearbox and having an accident. So the following day I bought some rather swaggering Valentino black leather pull on boots from a nice little Lal Chowk shoe shop. This soarsto beone ofthe nicershipping areasin Srinegar. One advantage of the moonboots though is protection. They're inflexible for a reason, avoiding snapped ankles. They also have shin protection. It will be a pity if I come off not wearing them and get a preventable injury. Maybe I'll wear them at least on days where we expect river crossings, as they're waterproof too.
Anyway, back to the ride. It's hard to stick together in traffic. Even following the rules it just seemed sensible sometimes to stay with the pack ahead rather than slow down for the one behind. I should also say it's tempting. Maybe it just needs more practice. It's a style of riding for the team rather than looking after oneself and giving into racing tendencies. Needless to say we became quite strung out, I ended up focusing on keeping up rather than letting others keep up with me and it got so bad the bunch I was with went through the 2.5km Jawahar Tunnel separating Jammu and Kashmir without stopping to register our passports! This is because we'd forgotten to stay behind, or didn't realise we were in front of, the leader! Both options mean we're crap at group riding. If we'd done the right thing the leader would have stopped us at the passport office. Another reason to be grateful we're not yet in the high country where we'll have another set of more severe challenges than those from our inability to heed instructions.
So I can say I'm a veteran now of the famous Jawahar Tunnel, having done the North one twice and the South once! Thankfully the military police were understanding and didn't take offence at our illegal immigration.
Another memorable event during the ride was at the last regrouping stop in Ghalandar, 20km out of Srinegar. We were waiting a while and as usual a group of locals gathered, including some boys with a cricket bat. Soon a lively ...front yard match was under way, tree trunk as the stumps, slogging the little fluoro yellow hard plastic ball at passing traffic, kids running into the road after it without looking, the whole deal. Perhaps having learnt from prior experience, the keeper of the shop we were playing in front of rolled down the shutters! He didn't seem to be having any business anyway and we were done in 20 min.
Finally after another stressful, tiring 8 hour ride mostly in truck traffic including a number of army convoys, we finished the 270 odd km leg. This would take a little under 2 hours in the Indian Ride 'n' Race group I used to hang with in Kuwait... until one of their members crashed his GSXR1000 at 200+km/h into the back of a car whilst merging onto Hwy 30. He obviously took the 'race' part of the name seriously. I took his and the group's stupidity seriously and quit. Last time I saw him was helping load him into the ambulance. He was alive then, hope he still is and remembers every day what happens when you race on the street - the modern Highway of Death that is the 30 no less.
We arrived at the beautiful Nagin Lake in Srinegar, where we stayed in the idyllic Khilona Houseboat hotel. Nagin Lake is connected to the larger Dal Lake to the east by a series of thin strips of water between floating fields of lillypads. It really was a magical experience the next day to sit in a little boat paddled along at a slow pace, silently slipping past locals casually dangling a line hoping for fish, others testing the depth with long poles, another sieving some type of green plant into a pile on the deck of his boat... none except what looked like a water policeman had an engine. As we went along I tried to learn some Kashmiri from the oarsman but didn't get very far, he did point out lots of floating vege patches though and when we rounded the bend into Dal Lake I was reminded of the busy floating village on Boeung Sap in Cambodia. This is connected to the Tonle Sap which famously reverses flow each year in response to water levels in the lake.
There were no floating houses, temples, petrol stations etc on Dal Lake but there was a very busy trade in photo boats where you could dress up in traditional clothing for a photo, plus there was the expected flotilla of merchant shikaras (boats) trying to sell snacks and souvenirs to a crowd of about 300 tourist shikaras. It was a lovely scene and I'd've loved to've spent the whole day just messing about there. Instead we went to a bunch of ok tourist sites like Pari Mahal which had a lovely view across the lake. One could also see 2 potential sources of nutrient runoff possibly contributing to the lake's algae problem, a golf course and farmland near shore. To combat this problem they have a number of 'algae dredges' which are basically big sieves at the front of a shikara. Interestingly these have paddle steamer-like wheels either side churning up the water. This maybe gets some oxygen back into the lake, something which a number of fountains near shore seemed to be designed for as well. The taxi driver said this wasn't nearly enough to combat the problem though.
We also went to a public park called Nishar Garden which had some nice water features. Next on the list was a clutch of shops where we could buy very sturdy bike bells and other convenience store items. I got a much needed dust mask. Then we went back to the house boat and I saw the mechanics had almost finished rebuilding the seized engine of one of the bikes. The bearing at the top of the conrod had seized. I was quite impressed at their speed, later on in the evening the test ride was successful so none will have to share bikes tomorrow. This will be good as we're heading into the Himalayas proper now. There will be snow by the roadside, diamox coursing through our starved veins and, hopefully, grins between our ears. I'll be with the armed forces lads. We're going to run it like a mission and will leave 20 minutes ahead of the pack. Hope it stays that way all day ;-)
*names anonymised.
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