Day 1
17th Oct, 2020(12:30 AM): A Ride Through Forest in the Dark
After visiting Shikari Devi Wildlife Sanctuary on my Birthday in October 2016, I knew I would come back to this place again. So, I planned to celebrate my 35th Birthday in this beautiful and mysterious place. But this time, I was not keen on taking the usual route (Delhi-Bilaspur-SundarNagar-Janjehli-Shikari Devi), so I ran a search in Google Maps and it gave me this new route (Delhi-Shimla-Narkanda-Kotgarh-Janjehli-Shikari Devi). Since, I was familiar with most of this route, having done several rides in the past up to and beyond Narkanda, I decided to go with it.
Lockdown was lifted recently, all the paperwork(Covid -ve report and permit from Himachal Government) you needed to visit Himachal just a couple of weeks ago was not required anymore. Although, we were not seeing a downward trend in Covid cases, they were spiraling high but the deteriorating condition of businesses due to Covid, how badly it impacted tourism and hospitality(the backbone of the state) and almost every sector, the government had a tough call to make and they choose economy over health.
NH1 was back to life, breathing high with the heavy vehicular movement on it, everything was back just like it was before Covid, except the public transport buses. I was near Samalkha when I started feeling cold in my hands, so I paused for a minute to take out the woolen gloves from my rucksack. I placed my night glasses on the motorcycle's seat and while I was looking for the gloves, a high speeding truck zoomed past just a few feet away from me, that caused the glasses to fall on the ground. And, before I could go and pick them up, a car coming right behind that truck ran over them. I was in shock and disbelief as it happened so fast and now for the next 200kms or so, I had to ride with no eye protection. Anyone who has done some highway rides knows the importance of glasses, they protect your eyes from all sorts of elements including dust, dirt, flies, wind and the most dangerous of them all, small rocks and pebbles, which often get stuck in tyre treads of heavy vehicles. I call them 'Tiny Little Missiles', they launch at their will and if you're not wearing the glasses and they hit you in the eye, then they can cause some serious damage to the eye.
Soon after crossing the Himalayan e-way, I took a pause at this roadside dhaba "Modern Dhaba" for breakfast. I was relishing the sun's warmth and the delicious food, they were both necessary and I could feel my body recovering from the beating it took last night from cold. After spending around 40 mins at the dhaba, me and my motorcycle were both fully energized and ready to endure what the day had in store for us. I bought a warm muffler and riding glasses from the Barog market, they were pretty cheap considering I paid less than 300 rupees for both. After thoroughly washing my eyes, I wore the glasses and felt immediate relief in my eyes. I can ride more comfortably and confidently now.
Although I was in no mood, physically and mentally to ride for another 6-7 hours, and moreover I hate riding in the mountains in the dark for 3 reasons - you can't enjoy the views, it gets cold and its not safe. But going back was not an option for me, so I decided to continue. The plan was to ride as much as I can and reach as near as possible to Janjehli. Two hours later, I got to know of a dirt road from 'Sanarli Chowk' that goes through the forest to Shikari Devi Temple and also to Janjehli. After talking to a couple more people, it got confirmed that there's indeed a dirt road and its the shortest way to reach my destination. But, its completely off-roading and because of little to none tourists/pilgrims activity this year due to Covid, the road was in a pathetic condition. So, I had to choose between 18/22 kms of off-roading through forest or 125 kms of good roads. I decided to go with the former as that was the only way to reach my destination today.
I was very nervous taking this route because the sunlight was long gone and I had maybe another half an hour of daylight left. That would mean riding couple of hours through forest in the dark. It's not that I don't have the experience of riding in the dark in the mountains and as much as I hate it, there have been many instances where I had to do it for some or the other reason, those include riding on good, bad and worst roads but never in the forest. Moreover, my motorcycle's headlamp illumination was less than optimal so visibility was also a big concern. And the biggest fear was of the possibility of a breakdown and in such a situation, I would have been in all sorts of trouble and no one would have come for my aid. But God has always been very kind to me and going by some past experiences, I had this stern belief that if I happen to find myself in trouble, he would get me out of it. I finally reached Sanarli Chowk around 6 PM and soon I was riding on the forest dirt road. Half an hour later, the daylight was gone, the civilization was left far behind and it was pitch dark. I was riding for over 17 hours by now, the fatigue started kicking in, my eyes started shutting down and the extremely bad roads were throwing blows after blows to my already sore bum and lower back. It reached to a point where I just couldn't bear the pain anymore and I decided to take a short break to give my body some rest and allow the pain to settle down a little bit.
Later the road got divided into two and there was a signboard which had the distance and directions mentioned for Shikari Devi Temple and Janjehli. The road to left for the temple with a distance of 4 kms and the right for Janjehli, 8 kms away. My original plan was to reach Janjehli and then start the trek next day to Shikari Devi Temple, I spent the entire last month preparing my body and mind for this trek. But the funny thing about your mind is that sometimes you rely on it too much and when you have to make an important decision, it just deceives you and makes you go astray from your plans. So, instead of going to Janjehli I took the road to the temple, not sure why I did that, whether it was because of the exhaustion from the long ride or some other weird reason but it was definitely not a well thought decision and I badly regretted it later.
Surprisingly, when I was just a couple of kms away from the temple, I met a biker, the first human I encountered in last two hours. He seemed like a local and was probably returning home. I had a little conversation with him, he told me that there were more people coming behind him on their vehicles. Soon I saw lots of people in cars and motorcycles descending down. It was unusual to see this much human activity in a place like this, especially at this time of the day when it's all dark and spooky. But later I realized its probably because its the holy month of Navaratri and they were all pilgrims who came to take blessings of the deity. Finally the road ended and I parked my motorcycle near the temple stairs. I was relieved to know that I wouldn't be the only person to spend the night there, two dhaba owners were also staying there in their tents. I pitched my tent near the stairs, cooked and ate dinner and then crashed into a deep sleep.
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