I begin with an apology, to not provide you the maximum number of pictures that I could provide you with. Why? Because I was on the move most of the times (call it time constraints), many a times plain tired to not take out the camera and at times it was too freaking cold and windy for me to get out of the car, take off my gloves and take a picture. Well I guess apart from driving hard that’s what Raid is all about. Oh No!! I wasn’t driving I was leading the service team for my friend Amanpreet (Aman). Not that tough Aaaii!!! Think twice before you think that. Even though you don’t feel the adrenaline rush the racers feel you go everywhere they go, not at their speed though.

Firstly the Raid:
This year it was the 11th Raid De Himalayas (1999 to 2009). “The world’s highest rally takes on the mighty Himalayas.” Unarguably also one of the toughest simply said that because of the extreme terrain and climate. Imagine passing through the second highest motor able pass in the world, “The Taglangla Pass (17582 ft).” Not to forget the Rohtang, the Baralacha, the Nakeela and the deadly Zozila Passes which if not as high were equally, at times even more grueling, tiresome and tough. Personally I feel Rohtang is the most tiring just because of the ugly roads and Zozila the deadliest because it’s the narrowest. And talking about climate, how about spending nights in cold dessert where temperatures can drop to as low as -40°C average. Drass the second most coldest place in the world after the Siberia, Patseo; where the winds could send the chill down your spine and Batal, where you take your hands off the gloves and watch your hands turn purple and go numb.
Well that’s all the hardship. Talking more about the Raid it was held between 5th and 13th October, 2009. Two days of scrutiny of vehicles according to the FIA standards. The bikes as well as the entire Gypsy’s, a Subaru, a Lancer, few SX4s, few Esteem’s and a few Swifts. Last day was reserved for the Prize Distributions. In between was hardcore rallying, adrenaline rush, extreme tension and loads of cliff hanging moments. This year the rally was flagged of from Shimla. The route was Shimla à Manali à Batal à Patseo à Leh à Rangdum to Thang to Rangdum à Srinagar. Here I mention only the start and end point for every day. Well atleast for the racers, we and the other service teams were always on the move. If I re-collect right it was 4 hrs at Gumma and 5 hrs at Sarchu that I spent on bed sleeping once the rally was flagged off. Rest was small naps on the move in the vehicle.

The Team:

As most of you might know every rally driver has a co-driver or Navigator along with him who tells the driver how far and how much the curve ahead is or how bad or good the road is etc etc… So Amanpreet and his navigator Manoj, Rohit and his navigator Ajay Rao were in two Gypsy’s. Service team was led by me and our mechanics Jakir, Pervez and Aftab all efficient but cribby. Well honestly I understand them being cribby because they were out in X-treme for the first time. But they got me irritated at times, money matters you see!!

What did I do there?

Provided service off-course!! As I said before I was leading the service team for my friend Aman and his friend. So I was providing service back up for two Gypsy’s. We left before the racers to the service point and then came racing the racers to where we were. Our guys then turned the car upside down as fast as they could something like F1 but not even close to how fast they do it!!!
Going in a little bit more in racing pattern detail, everyday was comprised of certain number of stages/legs. For example if we had to travel 300km in a day it dint mean that drivers had to race for all 300km. Different sections comprising of 50 to 70km were racing/competitive sections and rest was transport.
Competitive Section (CS): Drive fast and finish section as fast as possible in minimum possible time.
Transport Section (TS): The rest of distance which has to be finished in particular amount of time. Don’t have to go flat out, but still be fast.
Our job was to be present at end of every competitive section and beginning of transport section to service the car. We being the only car for our two racers could not manage to reach end of all competitive sections, because service vehicle or any other transport cant enter the competitive section while drivers are racing.
All that aside let me take you into the action

Shimla and Scrutiny

The day I came back from rig the same day I left for Shimla. After the scrutiny check of the vehicle, we registered our selves, our mechanics and our service vehicles. Got fancy ID’s etc etc, which would make you stand out in the crowd and people say “arey yeh toh Raid wala hai.” Did last minute shopping for some spares and went mad searching for a car carrier. Yes!! We had luggage of about 10 people plus all spares and tires for 2 gypsy’s in one vehicle. But unfortunately we couldn’t find any for our vehicle. So thoda adjustment npada… but sab chalta hai… That evening after finalizing the service plan for tommorow we left for Gumma. The actual plan wasto reach Gumma take some rest and prepare ourselves for a grueiling tommorow... 12:30am was time and we manage to find ourselves a nice big hall, a mattress, a dirty pillow and one razai in some hotel. We had to leave by 4.00am in mornin..

Click below for todays pictures

Shimla-Gumma-Barlacha La-Manali

4:00am we woke up, got fresh and headed straight to Tikker. Aman and Rohit made this section in good time got their jeeps serviced and headed to next competitive section (CS). Our next service point was at Khadrala, but that seemed impossible to make in time so we headed straight to Khanag, the end point of last CS for today.
4km from Khanag I got a call from Ajay that his car had broken down few km in last CS. We decided to head back and help them out. Apparently they had some problem with alternator. Almost at the beginning of the last CS I get another call from Ajay. He says “yaar jugaad ho gaya…gadi start ho gayi aur hum log Khanag mein milenge.” We wasted few hours and headed again back to Khanag. On reaching there we found out Ajay and Rohit had proceeded further. Finally we met them at a workshop in Kullu. Our boys hardly took 10 mins to solve the problem. Something wrong with the fuse!!
But that couldn’t help them qualifying for tomorrow. They couldn’t make the last TS in time. We reached hotel and boys started working on Aman’s car and turned it upside down. In the mean time me, Ajay and Manoj headed straight to Chopstiks. Yeah I am always there where there is good food. When we returned the timing sheet was up. Aman was on 1st position, making the leg in fastest time and beating the 5 time champion in his own playground. Apparently no one did that in last 5 years. Finally 2:30am that day came to end.

Click below for today’s pictures

Manali-Batal-Gramphoo-Patseo

2:30am we headed to Batal, crossing the back breaking and the ugly Rohtang Pass. I call it ugly because of the bad roads. It took us about 5 hrs to reach Batal. It was about -5°C in morning, and none of us had the guts to take off our gloves. We lit up a small bonfire and there was soon a small group gathered around us. Soon the gypsy’s started coming.
We were expecting Aman to arrive first since Aman had topped yesterday. But that dint happen. The car which arrived first said they saw Amans Gypsy hanging half way out on the cliff. That scared the shit out of me, but then they said both Aman and Manoj were safe so that bought relief to me but with lot of pain since it was almost curtains for us. No one actually expected Aman to complete that stage. But to surprise all of us he arrived, wasted 30mins but completed the section in 50mins, i.e. in total of 80mins. Guess what the fastest gypsy in that section made it in 54mins. So if you minus 30mins that they lost we were going great guns.
How did the accident happen?
Aman and Manoj were cruising in the section “ekdum maska.” All of a sudden the Raid Stewards vehicle heading towards Batal blocked their way for few mins. That costed them some time so they pressed on the gas as soon as they got the way. Next came the curve with a boulder in between the road, their car bounced on that boulder, they lost balance and the next moment they were hanging on the cliff. The officials helped them to pull their car out and they finished that CS.
Aman was not sure whether to continue or not because they had lost lot of time.
But then he made up his mind and decided “ Ab toh phaad ke chalayenge..Jo hoga dekha jaayega..” But we will give it a best shot.
They left for the next CS to Patseo and we followed. Re-fueled at Tandi we headed straight to Patseo. Reached there in evening and boys started to work on the car. It was windy and real chilly. Aman finished on 18th place that day. We had our dinner and decided to move towards our next service point Nakeela. There was news outside that it was snowing. We encountered a heavy snowfall at Barlacha La and negotiated it safely. We reached Sarchu and decided to take some rest there and then head to Nakeela. We found a tent which offered a bed and razai at 50rs per head. That would be end of today.

Click below for today’s pictures.

Patseo-Nakeela-Tanglang La-Leh

5.00am in the morning. A nice cup of chai and omlete we headed straight to Nakeela. On the way saw the famous Ladakhi Goat. Nakeela was 15,547ft AMSL. The weather wasn’t cold here but the wind chill recorded -6°C. I was standing with the Officials since they were getting timely updates. News came that car no 11 was cruising and had overtaken few Gypsy’s on the way. Guess who it was…yes Aman!! Then comes Mr Handa, one of the organizers of Raid, reports car no1 for taking shortcut and they would be handed a penalty at the end of the raid. Who it was, our 5 times champion. Apparently drivers claim that he’s been doing that for all these years just that this is the first time he got caught.
Aman and Manoj arrived got serviced and headed straight to Leh, and so did we. Crossing the Morie Plains one of the service guy started showing the symptoms of AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness). Crossing Tanglang La pass (17,582ft AMSL) the guys really started to get the stick. None were used to high altitudes. As soon as we reached Leh, I took Jakir to the hospital. He was given 2hrs of Oxygen treatment and doc said he had minor cold and slight temperature.
At the Maruti service station in Leh the guys were really rude and knowledge less, basically incompetent. Firstly they were selling the spares at 3 times the actual cost and when some part failed to work they said we were lying. That irritated us and Aman actually had a huge fight with these guys! Frustrated finally we left for the hotel, had dinner, planned the service plan and headed straight towards Wakha.
Oh buy the way Aman finished today at 7th position. He gained 11 positions in just one day. Everyone was real impressed with his driving skills and there were talks of him even wining this Raid. We headed straight to Wakha. 1:30am the driver wasn’t willing to drive. All of us were tired. We parked the vehicle on the side and all of us went off to sleep. And that was end of a fascinating day.

Click below for today’s pictures

Leh-Wakha-Kargil

4:30am we woke up. Driver felt fresh and we headed for Wakha. Now we were actually heading to lower altitude so we were expecting more pleasant temperatures. We reached Wakha and it was a small village. For the first time today I got rid of my jackets and sweat-shirt. All set we were waiting for or gypsy to come. The bikers arrived first and then came the gypsy’s. Everyone arrived but there was no sign of or guys. Officials informed me that they had a mechanical breakdown and had handed over their time sheets. We were out of the Raid.
Once all the gypsy’s had passed we went back to them. They were in the Army Camp waiting for us. “Engine Seize,” Aman said. Plan was to load the vehicle upto Jammu in truck and from there the Maruti trucks would carry it back to Delhi. We were invited for lunch by the kids of the Commanding officer of the particular army base. After the royal treat and a lunch with senior officials of our Army we were provided with a Guest room with all possible facilities they could provide us. It was an experience of life time.
When in our guest room we all were sad and disappointed, Why? Because we were doing really well and 3 of the top 5 drivers were also out of the race. An assured place in top 3 was up for grabs and it wouldn’t have been surprising if we would have finished 1st. I decided to head back to Delhi the same moment, because our cricket team was playing in finals next day. I thought at-least let me make it there.
Devang and Devraj, two fun guys who were officiating the Raid gave me lift up to Kargil. Two interesting guys lit up the evening that day. At Kargil I thanked them and booked a taxi which would take me Srinagar and from there I was to take a flight back to Delhi. End of today!

Click below for today’s pictures

Kargil-Drass-Zozila-Srinagar

That evening after taking our dinner we left for Srinagar. Fazil my driver warned me that they could stop us on the check posts and won’t let us pass just a safety concern. But we still headed taking a chance. When arrived at Drass they dint let us go through. Spent about 5 hrs in -22°C and finally at 4;00am they let us through.
Light came up unusually early and we were then crossing the Zozila pass. I would call this the deadliest pass because it’s very narrow and the roads are in terrible condition. Watched two trucks crossing each other and one of them almost went down the valley we reached Sonmarg. Had our breakfast there, the Kashmiri naan and the omelet was the perfect beginning to the day. Next stop was Srinagar airport. I booked my ticket and headed straight back to Delhi.

We lost the match by 16 runs. Guess the luck wasn’t favoring us, neither me nor Aman. Both of us went out closely. Later on we got news that the Rangdhum to Padum section was terrible and full of boulders. A.S Brar won the x-treme section and our 5times champ couldn’t finish the Raid. I guess the pressure got to him finally. He had someone who could challenge him and beat him. Aman and Manoj had decided to wait for the Prize Distribution since they were suppose to get trophies for the fastest time in competitive sections. But apparently Raid wasn’t giving out trophies this year so they headed back to Delhi.

Click below for today’s pictures

Guess what all of us met after coming back from Raid. Me, Aman, Manoj, Rohit and Ajay and were already planning for next year. We would enter as a team of 4 gypsy’s. New guys would join in, Ajay would join me in service team etc etc…all of us already in Mayapuri hunting for Gypsy’s. I found a new group of friends and something to look forward in 2010, the 12th Raid De Himalayas.

The Manali to Leh route was something I always wanted to do on a bike or even a jeep. It was like a dream to me which came true, even though not the way I wanted but it happened. Not only did I do the Manali to Leh but completed the circuit by going ahead to Srinagar. I would certainly go for the Raid again next year, well if all goes alright. And 100% sure I would do this route all by myself some day. As of now signing off with some wonderful memories of the Raid, the phenomenal landscapes, the grueling and torturing passes, the sleepless night and the adrenaline rush.

Thanks for being patient and being a part of my journey.

11th Raid De Himalayas
ver. Tanzeem Patankar