Flight of the Desert Hawk

Finding some free time and fuel in the bike's tank has its consequences, i.e. RIDING and so it happened today. I had been planning for this trip for quite some time now but time itself was the problem but I got the opportunity today.

The destination was no specific, I only wanted to be in the middle of the desert which is toward South of my city.

I shall post some pics with commentary..This time pics were taken from the digital camera a gift from my uncle. Images have been resized for quick loading.

As the ride began, two things bothered me quite much.
1. I was hearing some cracking kind of sound that really freaked me.
2. Every biker coming from front had his face fully covered (because mostly we don't use helmets) but I was wearing my helmet.

I did some more distance and finally found out that the cracking sound was in fact bugs hitting the helmet and for the same reason other bikers had their faces covered

Time is ripe for the harvesting of gram crop so the desert is covered with a green blanket in this season.

I did a total of 82km on this ride, both ways. This is the second longest ride for me on this bike.
Some pics..

Found a diverging road and stopped for a pic there, it was just me myself and I on this road...Complete wilderness..

The whole place gives an entirely different look in the summer season, but wow here..


Love this shot..


A pic of the Thal Motorway, very nice for speed riding. Needless to say I didn't go fast :-)


It was beginning to get dark as I started on my way back, however I stopped for a few pics..

As it got darker there were more bugs hitting the helmet. On my way up I had spotted this area near the main road, I wanted to be back here while there was still daylight so I could take some good pics but unfortunately I got a bit late. Nevertheless, I took some pics...

Next up it got even darker and my helmet's visor had got little bugs all over it so that made the visibility even poorer. When I got back home I came to know that the bugs were actually mosquitoes, I had killed several today.


A look of the helmet after the ride..


The ride done, the bike now needs a good cleaning... :-)

Ride to the Jahlar Lake

On Sunday March 09, the three of us took this ride to the Jahlar lake in the Soun valley. We were riding my 125 and the friend was on his CD70. The journey began at about 8 o clock in the morning. Our route was Joharabad to Kathwai, Khoora, Nowshera, Surakki and then Jahlar.

Below are some pics with brief info on the journey..

On our way to Kathwai we stopped near the shrine on Dada Golra, thats what you can see in the background.

My friends:


Below is the pic of a historical well built by some king in the past. We couldn't be sure of its exact history:




Some people:-)


Another well we saw by the side of the road, even deeper:


The Mehria Hotel in Nowshera. We took tea here.


Some pics taken on our way from Suraki to Jahlar. I should mention that the trip from Suraki to Jahlar is steep so you have to be careful while doing the corners, while the trip from Jahlar to Suraki can be a tough time for novice riders and weak engines!!




A distant view of the Jahlar lake:




The Jahlar Lake:






A little fun is what such trips are all about..






In the middle of the pic you'll see some small mountains, it was soil mountain actually and gave a brilliant look, the pic does not do justice here:


We found a path to move closer..










We moved down from here and took some pics:






Back to Kathwai, we took lunch from a 'dhaba' here. Below is the pic of Kathwai Sarai, "Kathwai Inn" built in 1866 by the British government:




Parked our bikes under an old tree:


Some pics on our way back:

A ride to a Historical place in Amb Sharif: Tombs of Amb Sharif

So its like I am getting more and more interested in riding, and especially riding to the historical places around my city. This time the destination was a place called Amb Sharif in District Khushab, about 65km away from my city.
These pics are not copyrighted, you are welcome to download them. However, I would appreciate if you posted a comment about any pic you downloaded.

We were two of us on my 125 for the ride and enjoyed every moment of it. The off-road part, the water was salty, very bitter. Salt mines of Warcha are quite near from here:

We started at about 8 in the morning, toward West of Joharabad is the city Quaidabad, from there we had to go toward North for Amb Sharif, part of jounrney from Quaidabad to Am Sharif is off-road, but great fun.

About to reach our destination. A pic from some destroyed building:
And finally the historical place. As the situation is, no one is very sure about the history of this place. It is uncertain whether the remains are from the Buddhist era or those of the Hinduism. Anyways, if anyone has any information, you are more than welcome to share it.
There were only these two buildings remaining there. The rest has been destroyed. This is the bigger one:

And the smaller one that is in its original condition, a beautiful description of the brilliant architecture of that time:


Some more pics we took there:




Notice the detail of the artistic work:






People have dug gold made stuff from here and sold it illegally, here is a proof from many of the pits we saw there:


The bigger temple:


The stairs leading to the temple, typical of the times of antiquity..




The bigger temple is not in 100% original condition. Notice the two big pillars in front. They have been made to protect the already destroyed building. The good thing is that the stone has been used that matches the original stone as used in its construction:




The bigger temple has stairs in that that take you to the first and second floor. Of course we were going up now. It was pretty dark in there:








The stairs leading to the top:


A view from the top:




Amazing craftsmanship:


Thats when I took some nice pics of the Kid






Next we explored a bit more and found some more ruins, a pic from there:




From this place we noticed some more stairs, partly destroyed:

Some of the walls still remain here and a look at them gives the reason why. Every piece of rock is placed with small individual pieces of flat rocks and some cement like material was filled to build it:




A view from this height, see if you can find my bike in this pic..


Going down from here I saw this outer skin of a snake, hardly saved myself from falling as the path was very difficult.


The journey back was equally exciting.


Notice the mountain in the background. This is the doing of the salt, it was like the salt was eating it up:










This is the look of my table after this particular ride. From left to right. The first rock is the one of which is used in the construction of the temple, the second one a small piece of the red rock as in the pics above where the salt has played its magic. The third one is Gipsum. The fourth one is salt.