Normally, I take out my camera few minutes into the trip, just before the mountains start.
However, this time, I was craning my ears, trying to figure out where is the rusted door. Is it the tailgate. But then there is no monkey swinging on it.
What was faint had become deafening.
Every turn of the steering, every bump on the road... and that creaking sound. So loud that even truckers stopped and stared. Audible over everything else. I did not need to honk. Just a little bump or a twist of steering, and they ran helter skelter.
As we tanked up, I tried looking. But no luck. I even thought of a solution. Splash through a swimming pool full of WD40. But there was no swimming pool there. Not even of WD40
AS we started climbing, the unthinkable happened. The noise became even louder. And then there was the road. The bumps and craters are supposed to be up there, at Rohtang, but this time, they were right there, on the PB border-Bilaspur stretch.
Craters so deep that even truckers avoided them. As for us, it was creak creak, with a steering, which was tightening by the second.
The nearest TASS was was still far away, at Mandi.
I made a few calls here and there, and thus they were waiting for us. We would be there by noon.
As we stopped for a quick breakfast stop, I held the roof rails and shook the vehicle. The din was so deafening that a few monkeys fell off the trees.
Something was really really wrong.
But there was no option, we had to trudge along, and its almost lunchtime when we reach the workshop.
Its full. All the lifts are full. So they decide to use a jack to lift the RHS front wheel, and then figure out whats wrong.
Culprit? Busted lower right ball joint. Eventually this would have led to rhs suspension and steering failure.
Caught in the nick of time.
We spend around one and a half hours, and after a modest bill of around 1200. We were ready. And I had a worry. What other gremlins I had missed in the past three months? What else will give away?
And thus with such happy thoughts, we continued our journey towards manali.
We had to cross the Rohtang today, as we had permits for today. A friend had graciously gotten them for us and he was waiting. Finally around 6 ish, we reached his place, had a much needed hot tea, and took the high road up.
The road was in the good shape, but I cannot say the same about downhill traffic. The wisdom of giving right of way to uphill traffic is lost on those taxi wallahs. They come literally to hit you, so you have to save yourself.
Eventually, in darkness we crossed an unmanned kothi barrier. I guess those guys do not stay for long in the winters. On the plus side, the road was awesome. Last time I went there, all hell used to break loose after Gulaba, this time, even after Marhi the tarmac stayed with us.
The dreaded Rani Nallah stretch was fixed by a mere flick of the 4L switch, as we left behind trucks spinning their wheels and groaning and grunting.
And in the dead of the night, we crossed the Rohtang. I have crossed Rohtang at night many times, sometimes safetly, sometimes not so safely, but thankfully, this time there was no adventure. Only moonlight, and a long exposure. Took some more, but somehow, was too tired to make a worthwhile composition.
Finally, but 10pm, we had our beds at the Khoksar PWD.
Tomorrow, we go to Chandertaal, the lake of the moon, and witness her beauty on a full moon night!