Taking the high road

Being auto journalist has some perks. Getting to drive and test new vehicles, even if it is beyond your budget a hundred times over, is the most obvious one. But there are other perks that let you relate to wheels better than riding or driving it everyday - like witnessing rallies like Raid De Himalaya, the Royal Enfield Himalayan Odyssey or the Desert Storm that has been covered in the May issue of our mag - http://epaper.wheelsunplugged.com

The first two take the high road (quite literally) from Manali to Leh and then onto Khardungla - the highest motorable road in the world. Picture a 100 Bullets crusing on the oh-so-straight road on the More Plains or the highly modified Gypsys tackling the slush on the road between Debring and Tanglangla.

The participants are not doing anything that others haven't done before or they themselves havent done in the previous year's rally. But that particular road has a personality - one that people who regularly go on it recognise. A landslide will mean that the road sinks by a few feet or that you will be forced to take straight-down short cut. Or a simple overturned truck could mean that you are stuck for two days at 16000ft till the BRO comes and frees the road. The beauty of these rallies are not in the time-distance counters but more in the challenges that the road, the altitude, the terrain offers. And like anyone who has taken part in them will tell you, winning, even completing it is not important. Just taking part in it, the experience of negotiating a steep turn at 18,000ft (where you are breathless just standing around), is enough.

The first of these will be the Bulleteers who will come thundering into Manali in June. Can't wait!