Bulls on Parade to Nagtibba

The Nagtibba Nailguns

3,4,5 July 2015

It had been nearly two months since the previous Ride, The Rohru Raptors. Time was ripe for another one. We decided to take a deviation with the July Ride and added a trekking activity into it. During the research, Nagtibba came out to be one very close to Delhi. That should minimize travel time leaving a whole day for the trek. The trek distance was uncertain though. Every article showed a different distance. The range turned out to be 4-16 kms. Having some trekking experience, we prayed for the actual distance to be 4 kms, one sided. The reality was of course, different.

There were two points of starting the trek. Also, there were two routes of reaching the two starting points, leading the permutations to four. That left a lot to think about. The two starting points were villages, Pantwari and Deolsari. The trek distance was shorter from Pantwari, i.e. 4 kms, or so we thought. From Deolsari it was 7 kms, or so we thought. There were no stay options listed at Pantwari, or so we thought. There was only one stay option listed at Deolsari, or so we thought. Leaving aside all thoughts, we decided to head on and take things on the fly. There were reports of landslides in the state too just like every year, but since we would be travelling at very low altitudes where risk was low, we decided to go for it. 

3rd July 2015:
(Delhi - Yamunanagar - Kalsi - Nainbagh - Pantwari)

Early morning at 4:30 AM, the following riders gathered near Delhi landfill, the most fragrant site in all of NCR.

Vihans Gupta - Royal Enfield Classic 500 - "idk"

Ankit Gupta - Royal Enfield Classic 350 - "lmao"

Diptinder Singh Chhabra - Royal Enfield Electra 4S "idc"

In the last few rides, we have been setting new standards of stretching. This one was another record breaker. As we set off, we regrouped once at Panipat toll, took the country roads to Yamunanagar from Karnal, crossed Jagadhari and halted for breakfast with only 30 kms left for Paonta Sahib. We had covered a total distance of 190 kms. This stretch proved to be highly advantageous as we avoided traffic and also the summer heat.

Paneer, alu parathas and tea were ordered. Our order arrived with complementary flies, loads of them. Curiously, none of them touched the food, as Vihans pointed out. This proved their loyalty to customers. They were all over us. Curiously though, we didn't spend a long time here. As soon as we were finished, Vihans remarked, 'What are we waiting for?', and off we went. We were on the lookout for vendors selling strawberry shakes but none were to be seen. Only mango fruit vendors were visible. They were not even making shakes.

The Kalesar sanctuary area is one of the greatest riding roads I've been on. It's so much fun on these winding roads with dense forests all around. Having traversed these roads many times earlier, I guided the group till Kalsi, nearly 300kms, without asking for directions even once. That's quite an achievement given my expert 'navigation' skills. Luckily, when we asked directions for Nainbagh at Kalsi, we were right opposite that turn. Having learnt here that Pantwari would have some stay option, we decided to head there instead of Deolsari. 

Temperatures were rising. The dense greenery around us gave protection. It was only now that we were taking an non-traversed road. The discovery of such road sections is getting farther and farther. The road conditions were excellent though. This stretch also leads to Yamunotri and given the recent start of the pilgrimage season, it was freshly paved. We were trailing the Yamuna river to its source. The water was spectacularly clean, quite opposite what one sees in Delhi. Lady Luck favoured us yet again as we encountered little traffic.

The going was swift till we took our second break at Nainbagh noticing a theka. We failed to understand why thekas have become so rare in Uttarakhand. The names of beers at local thekas have always been interesting. Here, we had Superior 50000, Daredevil 10000 and Flying Fox. I can proudly say that I've tasted all these brands that others may not have even heard of. There was a touch of disappointment too as there was nothing new on offer. Two Foxes and one Daredevil were ordered, maybe as per personality. My BoP comrades would easily guess who ordered what.

We just had 20-odd kms to go so we took it easy. A couple of rum-halves were also picked up for the future. And then the inevitable happened. We had covered nearly 6 more kms when I stopped to ask for directions just to be cautious. It turned out that we had left the turn to Pantwari way back at Nainbagh despite having asked for directions there. I had to give chase for a good 4 kms more to catch up with the brothers ahead of me. Initially, catching up with Ankit, I gave him the U-turn sign, which he misinterpreted as "going for a ride" sign. It took another 2 kms dash to catchup with Vihans and we made our way back to Nainbagh. All such incidents are necessary to complete a Ride. 

It was only in the last 5-6 kms that the road condition turned rough. But having ridden through much rougher stretches, these were not that bad. We reached Pantwari around 2 pm. This must have been a record time for our Rides given the distance involved. Usually, we have the habit of reaching our destination in darkness. On enquiring at a dhaba, we made our way up to the only guest house of the village. It was a small place run by a an extremely welcoming person, Pr. Suman Singh Hanumanti (08449238730) and his boy, Raja who must be hardly a teenager. 

We noticed a board in the market pointing to a resort called as "Goat Village" around an hour's hike away. But further enquiries informed us that the resort is still under construction. Packed lunch was brought from the dhaba down at the village to our rooms. We stuffed ourselves on basic dal-subzi and took a power nap. 

Waking up an hour later, we thought of the next course of action. The trek would be done the next day. Since the guest house had a common bath, we asked Suman Singh to suggest an open place in the mountains where we could have a natural bath. We followed him through the village which still had some houses in traditional, wooden style.

Through terrace farms to a stream running down the mountain slope. On one side was a small hut where the force of the water was being used to run a grindstone. It was a very secluded spot, all to ourselves and we made the most of it. The natural bath freshened us up. 

Now we were hungry. A cup of tea with sugar cream laced buns provided short-term relief. For dinner, we returned to the dhaba where we had asked about the guest house, ordered chicken to be delivered to the room later at night, then made our way back to the terrace of the guest house. Alcohol was brought out and the Nailguns BBB was ON. We talked on a huge variety of stuff but the main subjects were Rajaji, Ranaji and Kelas, our comrades from most of our Rides. No time was wasted on non-participants and ditchers. 

The astonishing part was that we could not consume a healthy amount of drinks. Not even half a bottle of whiskey was finished. All the strength went into the devouring of chicken cooked in the local style. Even then we could not finish it and just crashed to sleep. It would be a long day tomorrow.

4th July 2015:
(Nagtibba)

We woke up to find no running water. Suman helped out by bringing in buckets of water from his home nearby. This was only part of his superhuman strength that we would witness on this day. Suman had suggested us to start the trek at 6 am in the morning if we needed to make it to the peak. We got up at 8 am and went for breakfast at 9 am. The cook at the dhaba was complimented on his culinary skills and asked to display them again as we got food packed for the trek. 

It was learnt that the trek could be either started straight from our guest house, or from a point 8 kms away till where we could ride our Bullets. It is always preferred to Ride as far as we can. We took Suman along through the 8 kms off-road track and then started the trek. 

The weather was not helpful as the sun beat down on us. We could see clouds moving into the densely covered mountains way ahead of us signaling a cooler climate. But for about 2 hours, we were on a very rocky path, panting and heaving through with the sun rays burning us up. The Gupta brothers had to make frequent stops in the beginning. Suman cut two branches to be used as support canes. He also volunteered to carry our packed bag. It was heavy indeed. We wasted no time and handed the bag over to him.

After reaching the shade in the woods, the going got a little easier. The weather cooled down and we enjoyed the hike in the nature. We had enough difficulty carrying ourselves only up the slope. It took another hour and half to reach the base camp. It seems we weren't so laggard lot after all. With only half an hour remaining to the base camp, Vihans discovered that his shades were missing. He must have forgot them at a rest point some distance back. Going back wasn't an option. We only moved forward  hoping to find them on the way down. There weren't any other tourists also and the locals were extremely nice people. Our confidence of finding them was high.

We made it to the base camp in good time. More than 8 kms were covered. Suman suggested against going to the peak point as the 2 kms stretch is very steep and would take too much time, not enough for us to make it back to the village before dark. We trusted his judgement. In reality it wasn't the time, but our stamina that made us agree with him, but no one said so. We paid our respects to the Nag temple. Clouds enveloped us as we sat down to have our packed lunch with a dash of rum. Vihans wrapped them up into kathi rolls with pickles.

We cleaned up our remains. Since the bag was much lighter now, I volunteered to take it down. Little did I know that I would be carrying it all the way. No one else volunteered.

The descent made us realise the angle of ascent also. It also added some pride in us. Suman stopped midway to cut off a branch from a specific tree. The branch could have been a tree in itself. Suman was carrying it on his shoulders. We were getting tired from carrying one bottle of water and this guy was carrying a tree. Our respect for mountain folk grew by bounds.

We met a couple of guys moving towards the base camp as we descended. They were from Delhi too and would be shooting a documentary at Nagtibba. They were carrying all the necessary camping gear. Other than those two hardly any tourists were encountered. BoP must do a camping trip too. It had been quite a long time since we did one.

True to theory, Vihans found his shades at the same point he had left them. As we emerged from the woods, clouds had taken mercy and hid the sun. But now we were facing the wrath of the rocky path. Every step sent shockwaves up the legs. Meanwhile Suman was easily flinging the branch down the mountain slope, taking all shortcuts. We made the descent in a little over 2.5 hours.

A huge wave of relief passed as we reached our motorcycles. Before going back to Pantwari, we tried to reach another natural spring that Suman had told us about around 2 kms away from the village. After covering a distance of 4 kms and no spring in sight, we made our way back. Sipping hot tea with sweet buns after a long hard day provided much-needed relaxation. Dinner was again ordered at the same dhaba but suggested to provide a twist in the taste.

This time though we needed to make up for our lack of alcohol appetite of yesterday. It would be shameful for the three of us not to finish even one bottle of whiskey in two nights. Vihans made some jolly conversation with a store owner, originally from Meerut. Suman's son Raja was also with him along with whole gang of friends. The locals were quite interactive. The store owner commended on the time we had taken to complete the trek. This would surely encourage us to take on further, harder treks. As soon as Vihans was back, we started on tonight's BBB on the guest house terrace.

We had full appetites today and only got up once the whole bottle got finished. The chicken curry got delivered and the devouring started. Excellent preparation again.

We had made it from Delhi to Pantwari in good time. There was no hurry to return so we had time to have a good sleep.

5th July:
(Pantwari - Delhi)

We woke up around 8 am to get ready. No running water again. Suman proved helpful yet again bringing in bucketfuls. Meanwhile a family arrived to stay at the guest house. Some other tourists were visible after all.

We went for breakfast at the same place. Our stay had been remarkably economical. We were ready to depart at around 10:30 am. As soon as we started, Ankit stopped. His Bullt had struck reserve. He was the only one who hadn't filled up on our way here. The lookout for a petrol pump started. There was none till Nainbagh and even that was closed. The rest of us enjoyed the smooth roads. We were around 20 kms from Kalsi when Ankit ran dry. Vihans also had struck reserve. I had plenty. So I took out a litre for Ankit. We came across a beautiful waterfall. This place would have been ideal for a natural bath but Vihans remarked, "It's too public". We hadn't stopped here on our onwards journey too.

Moving on we were now on a different stretch of road that we hadn't taken while incoming. This stretch turned out to be more picturesque. The absolute absence of all traffic added to the charm. On our way into Nainbagh, we had bypassed Kalsi. The road that we were taking now took us to a point before Kalsi. It was brilliant indeed, 14 joyful kms.

We fuelled up at Kalsi and now were looking forward to make our way into Kalesar. We were hopeful of getting mango shake this time. The going was swift. We crossed Paonta Sahib and Kalesar quickly. Just 15 kms short of Jagadhari, it started to rain. We stopped at the closest restaurant. We had been expecting rain all throughout this Ride, but it was only now that it was encountered. In fact, we were preferring to ride in the rain without our rainsuits as soon as we finished our lunch.

The weather had now grown suitable to take out the second half of rum we had purchased at Nainbagh. Snacks were ordered. Being a Vaishno dhaba, no chicken was found. The place had a lush green lawn at the back for family functions. Post-lunch we even moistened ourselves in the rain. It had begun to subside. When we started riding again, it had stopped. This was the beginning of the heat wave ahead.

The mercury certainly turned up by a few degrees as we crossed Jagadhari and Yamunanagar. It was at Indri that Vihans stopped. On examination, it was revealed that the chain set was missing a few teeth. We refreshed ourselves in the heat by having some sugarcane juice.

After reaching NH-1, the amount of traffic increased violently. This is why we prefer state highways. There was a huge jam at the Gharaunda toll plaza. Not even motorcycles could get through. This tired us further and we had to stop for another water break after the Panipat flyover.

The final halt was taken near the starting point at Delhi landfill. A total distance of 725 kms was covered. These were much easier than the 16 kms we covered on foot. Our endurance had certainly picked up though. We can ride for longer distances and now also trek some. This would create even more interesting Rides going forwards.

JAI BoP !!!