Mission Accomplished! Local Duo Travel Kanyakumari to Kashmir on Lamby ’82 and Lambretta ’68
- Mission Accomplished! Local Duo Girish P V and Suraj Henry, both members of Mangalore Classic Scooter Club Travel Kanyakumari to Kashmir on Lamby ’82 and Lambretta ’68
Mangaluru: Members of the Mangalore Classic Scooter Club, try to not only save and showcase their heritage of classic Scooters of all makes, but also keep them going strong in today’s world of technology-loaded and much faster vehicles. They do this by organizing regular meets and rides, including Charity meets with other Clubs. Adding to their activities credit, on 28th June, two of their members, Girish PV and Suraj Henry left on their most adventurous and longest ride ever– Kanyamumari to Kashmir (K2K) on their 1982 Lamby and 1968 Lambretta respectively.
It is learnt that it took months of planning and preparation, in getting the Scooters ready for such a long trip. A trial run was held in April 2018, with many Classic Scooters taking the trail to Madikeri and back. The Scooters were modified to carry luggage, with extra fuel cans and spares. And thus began the long journey of these two dare-devils, who accepted the gauntlet to travel from Kanyakumari to Kashmir on their vintage scooters- and their mission was accomplished by completing their adventure without any major problems.
On the 16th July, after 21 days on the road, these tough Scooterists touched peak at Khardungla at 3.30 in the afternoon. On the way they encountered many fascinated people, family and friends, riders from different clubs who all came together to welcome them with open arms. One of the big highlights of this trip was the handing over of the Star of Kargil Banner, with signatures from all the Motorcycling Club riders, conveying their message of respect and honour to the brave Soldiers who guard our Borders in that tough terrain. The Commandant and Chiefs of the Kargil Army Camp were highly touched and impressed to receive this, after having traveled all the way from Kanyakumari.
Speaking to Team Mangaloren, both Girish and Suraj took turns in narrating their travel experiences : On 28th June, we had started at 05:30 from Kanyakumari and it was a splendid ride, good empty roads, started bit hot after 10 am, but the breeze kept the heat low. Reached Madurai at 14:00 hrs after covering a distance of 240 km. On day two-29th June, like they say “Even scooters can do it”, we started our ride at 05:20 am from the temple city Madurai and passing through Dindigul, Karur, Salem, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri reached Bengaluru-the Electronic City at 7:00 pm. Our friend Harish P S provided us good hospitality at his residence for the night. Total distance rode was 440 km. Big thanks also to Maha Pramod and Bharath Singh for the warm welcome”
“On the third day-1st July was a rest day in Bengaluru and general checkups of the bikes with the help of Maha Pramod and team and get together with Kings group at Harishanna’s house. On day 4, having a few interview with few TV channels, and later meeting with Bangalore Road Thrills Club, Bangalore RD Club, Mahesh Singh and Lokesh from BJYMC, we departed from the Garden City at 2:00 pm. Maha Pramod, Nishanth, Gautam, Prithvi and Nithin rode with us till Tumkur where we were welcomed by Ravi and Ashay. We received a grand welcome in Tumkur and a very nice farewell too. We received great help from Maha Pramod, Nishanth, Gautam and Prithvi, where without these guys we wouldn’t have departed today “
“Then we headed towards Bellary but could manage to reach only up to Hiriyur. Short of around 130 km from Bellary. The reason, enroute we faced heavy rain which delayed our arrival to Bellary. Our travel from Chincholli to Hyderabad was great. After the function on previous day and some works on my scooter, we departed at 13:00 hrs and reached Hyderabad at 18:30 and reached home by 20:30. Nice weather, passing through KA and TS border, nice short distance ride it was. Total distance covered from the start – 1700 odd km’s. On day 9-6 July, it was Adilabad to Nagpur. The heavy rain in the morning delayed our departure till 8:30 am but soon we left Adulabad, rain started again, and continued till Nagpur, a whopping 200 km ride in the rain.”
“Awesome roads in Telengana, lots of rain and we enjoyed riding there, but as soon we entered Maharashtra we suffered a bit, same rain continued but roads were not good as Telengana. Took lunch in a dhaba while we were waiting (1.5hrs) the rain to stop. Anyways, after taking few extra breaks for rain, finally we reached Nagpur at 18:00 hrs. We were greeted and welcomed by Ravi Rao Wing Commander IAF along with his wife. Then we headed towards Zero Point and received by Central India Vintage Club President Sharukh Cassady and members along with Avril Khambatta Thakur of Himalayan explorers. There we met our good old friend Dr Anjan Chatterjee. After photo session, we dispersed to our final destination. Total distance covered is – 2102 km”
“Day 12 – 9th July 2018. We started late, since we wanted to visit Taj Mahal. It was so hot that we almost soaked in sweat before reaching the Taj. Actually this day was the break day, but looking at the heat, we decided not to take break. There was no point in just sitting in the room. We both were physically and mentally ready to ride on. So we continued towards Meerut at 12 noon, and riding on the Yamuna Expressway was a great experience, one of the best road we rode till now. Beautifully maintained road, police patrolling now and then, ambulance stand by everywhere. Wow-what a ride it was!! On reaching Greater Noida, we took deviation to enter the Eastern Peripheral express way to Meerut to avoid traffic in Delhi. We know how Delhi is during the peak hours. Continuing on the highway, we reached Modinagar (UP), we encountered locals driving like mad Dog’s and with continuous honking, so bad it was, utterly rash driving, we haven’t seen like this anywhere-so for our safety we called off our day at Modinagar and took a motel for the night.”
“The day was so hot and humid, about 40+ degrees and hot wind too, that we consumed at least 6-7 ltrs of water each. Took 5 breaks and 1.5 hr lunch break too.
Today we felt little bit of tiredness due to the heat, but decided not to stop, rather alter our timings of the ride adjusting to the prevailing circumstances we continued further in our ride. Distance covered on this day – 276 km and Total from the beginning – 3218 km. Day – 13, 10th July 2018, it was travel from Modinagar (UP) to Phillaur ( Punjab). We left Modinagar at 5:45 am and headed towards Jalandhar. Took Eastern Peripheral Highway via Ghaziabad. Passing through Sonepat, Panipat, Kurukshetra and Ambala. Riding in the state of Punjab is a beautiful experience. People used to recognize the model and appreciate us very often. No honk and rash driving unlike in UP.”
“Hot weather continued, but the landscape was full of greenery and lots of trees by the roadside, we did not feel the harshness of the heat like yesterday. Beautiful roads, nice traffic, beautiful people made our tide fruitful. Only bad thing happened is the security stopped us in middle of nowhere on the Eastern Peripheral Highway saying that two-wheelers are not allowed, but after long discussion, naming my connection with Airforce and politics, they allowed us to continue. Seeing our outstation scooters, they wanted to create some hassles, looking for some bribe. But “Unko pata nahin hum kaun hain?” By 4:00 pm we reached Dohra in Punjab where we were welcomed by Sharanjeet, Vikram Khalsi and Simran, the three bikers of Jawa Yezdi club of Punjab and we were given a good refreshing break at Cafe Coffee day. We were honored by them by gifting us the T-shirt and badge of their club.”
“Deep Sharma, founder of the above said club had arranged a fantastic resort stay at Phillaur, just 40 km before Jalandhar. Our sincere thanks to Deep Sharma, Sharanjeet, Vikram and Simran for their kind gesture-we are totally overwhelmed by their hospitality. Long live Biking brotherhood! Distance covered for the day – 369 km. Total distance covered from the beginning – 3587 km. Day – 14, 11th July 2018-Phillaur ( Punjab ) to Katra ( J&K ). After relaxing night at Prithvi Resort, we started our onward journey at 6:00 am. Passing through beautiful landscapes of Paghwara and Jalandhar, we reached Hoshiarpur where we were greeted by Deep Sharma and his friend. We went to the oldest part of Hoshiarpur to have a yummy breakfast. Saying bye-bye to Deep Sharma, we carried on towards Pathankot, there also we being received by Inder Preet of Road Thriller Riders group and presented a badge, sticker and Leh prayer flag.”
“Continuing our ride towards Jammu we crossed the border of J&K at about 3:30 pm. Near Thandi Khui, Anil Sharma and Ajay sharma, who are locals stopped us and offered us Tea. Received lots of appreciations by passersby and wherever we stopped, all were happy to see our scooters. We carried on our journey to Jammu and further on. Near Samba, there is a road towards Udhampur, which is a shortcut, but we were stopped taking that route by the police saying it’s not good for the two wheelers. We wondered why. Anyway, we passed Jammu and headed towards Katra, we stopped at local Dhaba where the Dhaba guy offered us accommodation. As we too wanted a dhaba stay and this was our chance. Here we met a furry friend-it was a tiny puppy named Pinky, we gave her some biscuits and she became a very good friend. She looked after our scooters for the night. She started barking at 1:00 am as there was some military guy walking on the road near by. That’s how alert she was. Truly, a Man’s Best Friend!”
“Distance covered for the day – 324 km. Total distance from the beginning – 3903 km. Day – 16, July 13 -Kangan (J&K) to Kargil. We moved on from Kangan at about 6:30 am and headed towards Sonmarg. Climbing the curves of the Sonmarg roads, Girish’s scooter started dropping the power, tuning was done but still there was no improvement, then we ended up in changing the carburetor. Even though the scooter was okay but still it had lack of power. We rode on to Zojila pass and as we expected the roads were bad which was bit harsh for our scooters. Low ground clearance was the biggest problem and if we did not tend that, our silencers would get damaged. Manuring between the trucks and other traffic made our ride tough. We had to push the scooter for couple of times to get the initial run. Muddy roads, water flows and slippery surface made our journey fruitful. Finally we crossed Zojila pass. We both felt very happy.
“En route we again encountered number of riders who kept on stopping us to take photos. We moved slowly towards Kargil War Memorial place in Drass sector. We had brought a banner from Mangalore Jawa Yezdi Club, which was prepared in last years event in the memory of the war heroes. There we met Col. Rajesh Mehra and Lt Col Iqbal Singh and handed over the banner to them. We stopped for the day in Kargil town. Distance covered for the day – 189 km. Total distance from the beginning – 4359 km. Day – 19, 16th July 2018- Leh – Khardung La. After reaching Leh, did some work on our scooters and had a good rest for the next day ride to Khardung La. After obtaining inner line permit at 10:45 am, we started our journey at 11:15 am and headed to fill the tank, huge lines of bikes were already in the gas station, we had to wait 30 mins to fill petrol.”
“Here we met a few Bangalore riders and after having chat and pics, we headed towards Khardung La at 12:30 pm. Nice hill climb it was and with slow and steady we reached South Pullu, 24 kms where we had to show the permit to continue our journey. The black top road ends after 2 kms from South Pullu and the real fun of off-roading started. Our scooters negotiated through the stones and holes of the road, slow and steadily. Enjoying the beautiful view of the mountains we reached our destination at 3:30 pm. What an epic ride it was…., Our scooters never let us down in the mountains-beautiful 1st and 2nd gear ride, we finally made it, our slogan “ Even Scooters can do it “ just proved true.”
“We spent around 2 hrs, as there were many bikers and tourists who interacted with us with tons of questions. All were surprised to see the scooters though there were many top end bikes like Triumph tiger, Ninja 650, CBR 650, Boniville and African twin. People didn’t bothered with those bikes but were very keen about our scooters. We started ascending down about 5:45 pm and riding down was bit scary because of the small size wheel of our scooters. Again enjoying the beauty of the nature, we rode very slowly with lots of picture stops. We reached our motel at 8:00 pm Total distance covered for the day – 84 kms. Total distance from the beginning – 4672 kms. Finally our adventure trip comes to an end with lots of satisfaction and joy. With all your wishes, prayers and blessings this wouldn’t have been possible. Once again Thanks to all, we are just overwhelmed with the support we got through out our entire journey: said both the Riders, Girish and Suraj.
They both reached Mangaluru International Airport yesterday 19 July afternoon, where they were welcomed by their parents, relatives and friends, and also a few members of the Local Scooters and Bikers Clubs. Team Mangalorean congratulates, both Girish and Suraj for their great accomplishment, and wish them success in their future adventures.