We wake up to a beautiful morning in Ludhiana, surprisingly no body ache and feeling all fresh maybe it was the place or weather or could the excitement for the trip, what was it? Who cares…
We were just eager to hit the road again.
But not before breakfast.
Now this is something about us, we love to experiment with food, we are foodies basically and love to taste the local delicacies of that particular place, so what do you eat in Punjab?
Yes, the national breakfast of Punjab 'Aaloo da Paratha' with lots of butter…… and…..? Then what? Punjab’s national drink, 'Lassi'.
Man, what a delicious breakfast, just loved it!!
Thank You Punjab for giving this world Paratha and Lassi
We check out of room and ensure to say thank you to the courteous staff for providing the life saving sandwiches previous night, and the nutritious breakfast for the morning.
It’s around 11am I do a thorough check on the Bull load the luggage and start the Bull, one kick and it starts. Super. Let’s go.
We did those extra miles the previous night means our journey for the day will be relatively shorter by about 65 odd kms.
Let me share some facts about the Bike journo here, additional 65kms is no big deal in terms of driving a car but if you’re doing the same on the Bike then it is a BIG deal, both for the rider and pillion, and i am sure our biker Buddies will agree to this part.
We are on our way and its sunny but there is a chill in the air which makes the ride a pleasure. Then I check on my pillion and she is happily clicking, so we are nearing towards Jalandhar and about 60 kms from Ludhiana and before entering the Jalandhar city we need to take bypass to head towards Pathankot, but instead we go straight through this pass and enter the city. Why? Lack of direction boards, there is absolutely no clue whatsoever to say that one needs to take that right to bypass Jalandhar city till one find themselves battling the main city traffic.
Sense prevailed for a change in me a little earlier than usual and I quickly realized if we continue then we will never be able to make out of Jalandhar, so I take a U turn at the first signal and return back 5 kms, en route asking every possible soul the way to bypass, somehow managed to get out and just before hitting the highway found a good clean bunk, did a tank full. TB drank close to 12 ltrs, was happy with the mileage too, since this was the first refill after we left Delhi. According to my calculations the mileage was about 42 or so. Got out of the city successfully, we are happily on the highway towards Pathankot, and it’s around 1pm.
Now, we reach a point where Amritsar is just about 45 odd kms from there, Wagah Border another 10kms added to it, so, that means we can go there to see the Wagah border ceremony, I have always been a big fan of this, and too tempted to see it, but due to lack of time we could not deviate from our main journey so with a heavy heart carried on riding towards Jammu.
Straight roads and lots of works happening around for making it a 6 lane highway, but in spite of construction the roads are fairly well maintained. Hoshiarpur and other small towns come and disappear and we are almost nearing Pathankot and its time for lunch, and where do we eat, Mc Donalds.
Surprised?
Well, I too was, this particular highway has left me speechless for couple of reasons one definitely is for the beautiful “Paddy fields and Sarso ke kheth” and second for the number of Mc Donald and Coffee Day outlets, it’s a big boon for travelers especially like us.
We finish a leisurely lunch considering this was our first break since morning and started the ride from Pathankot after freshening up, the time was 4.30pm.
Our destination JAMMU.
We take it slow as the initial approach roads towards Jammu highway is bad in fact nonexistent see the below Pic’s those were taken just before we start the journey towards Jammu highway. Once that’s crossed there is a beautiful tarmac laid ahead, that means the speeds increase and journey time reduces, we pass a number of bridges of small streams and then it started getting chillier. Come out the warm set of clothing for the first time in the journey.
Jacket? Check. Gloves? Check, Muffler? Check. Pillion? Check, Rider? Check, the Ride? Check.
All set to take the final kilometers it was already evening there was good load of traffic along the route, but we passed through those miniature towns on route and bang on target we enter Jammu town @ 8pm.
This town reminds me of our Commercial street and Shivajinagar side area, no kidding, it’s a nice small town with full of shops and bus stands and shops again. But once you enter the town it’s quite a nice place, we quickly check into Hotel Jammu International for Rs. 1700/ night. This was located in the main street with another 100 other hotels. Since this was also in the main street, my better half wanted to check out the shops, so I quickly park our bull in the hotel parking and say good night, Bull had to rest since tomorrow is a BIG day for all of us. Why? You will know soon.
So, after we check in to the hotel we freshen up quickly and walk out towards the market, wife takes some time to check out a few things and for the first time ever in my life I do not crib about it. In fact I was happy she could get to do this bit of shopping. We wind up as shops started closing since it was past 9.30pm, we head back to our hotel eat yummy dinner and retire for the night.
Total distance traveled 300kms (Ludhiana to Jammu)