Day 3: Yana - The Lazy Charms of an Old Love

Day dawned at 10 Am even though I had fully intended it to start at 8.30 but I guess that was not to be so. Even though I wasn’t to know it then, this day was to be a day of simplicity, a day when each of us felt the disappointment of Histu’s continued absence, a day when expertise and instinct of fellow riders where on display from stopping before danger zone without knowing what was ahead to repairing a flat in no time, to making a tappet cover from an MTR food packet, to scaring a grown adult Kanjilal and seeing him beg for help in a dark jungle. and having my pillion scream in excitement as we crossed stream… anyways here goes day 3

Left a snoring Biju and Sanju back in the tent and joined the rest of the gang to chat near breakfast point…expecting a warm good morning I strode towards them only to be shouted at being part of the choir which was making orchestra last night…it reminded me of Kutch when I had joined the dirty gang in Gandhidham after taking a bath..”...kya orchestra aa raha tha tumhari tent se” ...hmmm...I really need to go to an ENT and do something about my snoring! They hadn’t woken us up since Histasp and his wife Naz who were supposed to join us had not arrived so everybody took it easy and completed their breakfast. Gaurav and Nikhil went in search of mobile network to find out missing couple’s whereabouts and the others had decided to laze around.

The Bangalore trio decided to explore the dirt track. Riding in the daylight in the jungle track was completely opposite to riding it the night before. After few photographs we reached the spot where we had spent the anniversary night staring at stars listening to riding solo. The track further down was treacherous with steep inclines and loose sand.. I appreciated Gaurav’s instinct to not continue further last night. We reached back to find the Histu and Naaz had bike problems and would be joining us at Yana only. Dipsy needed a tappet cover fix which Histu was supposed to bring along...now we had to find an alternative which came in the form of MTR food pack cover. Don bhai created a tappet cover out of the MTR food packet and super quick fix was the fastener ..Did I say what a good job it was!

It was lunchtime and shortly thereafter it was time to roll to our destination Yana, towards which we had started two days back. Everybody loaded their bikes Sanju brought out the “I was there” poster . In direct contrast with where it had been last year, this year we were amongst greens. After the quick customary line up photo, we hit the roads.

By then it was almost one PM, soon we reached the national highway after riding few stretches of state highways. We stopped at Karwar for a petrol refill and Dipsy buying his tappet cover, we started the race against time...it was like a mad max rush where everybody was clipping above 80 so that we could reach Yana well before dark and pitch our tents. It was battle with darkness creeping up and the sun setting behind us. Everybody following a steady pace and overtaking traffic.

After few stops to ask directions, we reached the point we take a deviations inside the forest. There was no STD booths and mobile network so we could not locate Histu and Naaz so we just continued inside the forest on a properly laid mud road followed by a small stream crossing. Heather was quite thrilled to cross the stream on the bike. Both of us were shouting and screaming in excitement while Brad was trying to capture us in his camera... As I was saying before I had crossed overflowing shit cold streams to overcome a broken bridge while on my way to Ladakh earlier in the year …but this excitement was unique in itself.

Darkness had started winning this battle with us and Yana was still 10 Kms from that spot. We rode for another 800 meters and mirchi seth took a deviation into the trees and declared that we halt for the night and this was to be the camp site. Hail Hitler we screamed and all of us stopped. Another night stop till we reached Yana! As we pitched our tents a dog was barking nearby. I was reassured coz it means there were humans and a home nearby where we could go to if there was an emergency of a snake bite in this dense forest. By the time we pitched the tent, darkness had fully set in and the big daddies as usual wanted some night time adventure and they (Gaurav, Nikhil, Amol and Praveen) went to search mobile network to get in touch with Histu and Naaz and also bring some booze mixes leaving us boys to collect firewood for bonfire and prepare the community kitchen. We even made a dining table at the temporary home and waited for the daddies to arrive which they did...with a crate of soft drinks and a disheartened Gaurav who said that Histu and Naaz would not join us at Yana, they had stopped at Sirsi and they would meet us at Karwar tomorrow. He seemed really upset and I felt protective. Bottles had opened up by then and dinner started and I was enjoying the darkness and calmness along with some leg pulling of Kanjilal.

After some time we went for a short walk in the dark and at one point we switched off all the lights and we could not spot each other standing a few feet away from each other. Kanjilal had the scare of his life when everybody decided to walk silently in the dark without telling him where we were going.. all lights were switched off mind you...Kanjilal had no torch and soon he started begging ..aisa maat karo yaar ...then we put on the lights and everybody laughed in good spirits including Kanjilal. After few of Gaurav North East experiences, we returned back to our camp site. some more lazing , leg pulling by Nikhil followed around the camp fire, we closed our eyes to day 3

The day ended,
the anniversary had ended…
we had still not reached Yana ...
But in our minds we never really wanted to reach there ...

Like Kutch, Yana was already reached in our minds, in the board.. all we were waiting for was the ultimatum conclusion to the 3 day quest for it. The most important thing was that we were together for our yearly get together and every place, every stop was a celebration of the 60kph spirit

Next...
Further up the stairs were magnificent rock formations which Yana was famous for... capturing them in our cams was a big adventure in itself.

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