Bulls On Parade to Barsu
The Barsu Bashi-Bazouks
18-21 Feb 2016
A bashi-bazouk
or bashibazouk (Turkish başıbozuk, literally "damaged
head", also named delibaş, literally "crazy head", both meaning
"free headed", "leaderless", "disorderly") was an
irregular soldier of the Ottoman army!
Ankit Gupta - Royal Enfield Classic 350
Diptinder Singh Chhabra - Royal Enfield Electra 4S
Three other riders were to join in but could not due to unavoidable circumstances. No distance is long enough for the two of us. Another agenda that now got added into the ride was to collect material to make the others envious.
18 Feb 2016:
We met early morning at 4:30 AM at Akshardham temple with a slight drizzle in the air. This is always taken as a good omen. We were well packed for the cold although the weather was not that cold. For this ride, Ankit had specially installed a flagstaff on his Bullet. Our large BoP flag was fluttering proudly as we rode along. The timing was excellent until we reached Modinagar. In our recent crossings, we had been quite lucky to cross this dreaded area with ease. Today was not going to be like that. The Modinagar phobia came true. We endured the jam for a good distance of 10 kms creeping and crawling all the way to the Toll road at Meerut. This had cost us more than an hour. After this point, the toll road offers a good sprint of 50 kms.
We were near Muzaffarnagar as daylight came out and we stopped at a roadside dhaba for breakfast. Butter toast accompanying the tea came out in a greater quantity than desired. We could not finish our order of parathas. So we got it packed and carried it along for later consumption.
The cities enroute were now wide awake, so we encountered traffic at Roorkee and Haridwar. But relief came when we reached Rishikesh and took the bye-pass. This was new territory now. It is a good feeling when one has to travel nearly 300 kms to encounter new roads. It gives an approximate measure of our breadth of coverage. Strange though that we had not covered the route to Gangotri for so long when millions of devotees throng through this road every year. Maybe, that's the reason why we have stayed away for so long. From this point on, the roads were excellent. We took a second break after Narendra Nagar for some tea and then only after the sun was shining brightly near Chamba to clear some drowsiness. This break was also taken to admire the view. The water below looked quite exquisite with a very nice shade.
Without wasting much time, we carried on savouring the lovely roads. The next stop was only for lunch at Chinyalisour. It was noticed that one of the small towns we had just crossed was named, "Ratnogaand". Funny name. It had been a long time running now that our culinary experience hadn't been nice on trips, of the carnivorous kind. That spell ended today, as the chicken cooked at this place was excellent. All the discipline of diet kept on weekdays gets wiped out during the Rides. We consume pounds of butter.
We took it a little easy as we only had 70 kms left to run. Since it was only the two of us, there was less bakchodi too. It looked as if we might even reach in daylight, an elusive feat for us, no matter how close the destination is. The road ahead was well paved again. Only a few patches were encountered and these were also being worked on by the PWD. We finally reached the turn towards Barsu at 6 PM. Here we took our final break. It was still daylight and we only had 8 more kms to go. We were expecting the road ahead to be quite rough but again, it surprised us. A good but narrow section led us straight to Barsu and we parked at the gates for GMVN guest house 20 mins later. There was no one around. It has been observed in recent times that we are not even bone-tired on covering such long distances. Everything is now taken in stride.
We opened the gate and explored the property trying to find the caretaker. But no one was seen. We spotted a villager and asked him for the caretaker. He told us that he was in the market and would arrive soon. The caretaker, Bishan Singh Rawat arrived soon. The whole guest house was available for us. There were no other guests. Rooms were available for a budget price of Rs 500. Very large rooms, mind it. We took one on the upper floor, freshened ourselves up and got ready to cheers quickly. The Bar was now open. Ankit had brought along a bluetooth speaker which displayed lights of an equalizer. The scene was set for a colourful evening.
Bishan Singh wasn't prepared to have guests tonight, so he was preparing plain dal-rice as dinner. We enquired about the trek for the following day and he sent his nephew to us. Navin Rawat. We discussed on how to undertake the trek. Navin was very contradicting in his replies and they kept changing with every large peg of rum he took. First the weather at Dayara was reportedly clean, then it turned snowy. He gave us marketing lessons on how he was using social network to build his business. He also told us that he was the first person to see our Bullets climbing the road to the guest house and then he only called up his uncle to welcome us. We like smart people, but Navin was turning out to be a smart-ass. After having enough drinks and sleepy from the long day, we had the simple dinner and retired for the night.
(Route taken: Delhi - Meerut - Rishikesh - Chamba - Uttarkashi - Bhatwari - Barsu)
19 Feb 2016:
Tonight we aimed to reach Dayara Bugyal, but with caution. We did not want to take any unnecessary risks. We don't have great trekking legs and we know it. We listened to the guide and opted to stay at the established shepherd huts at the place instead of carrying our own tent. This also meant that we could carry more food now. Before that came the matter of breakfast. We were accompanied by a big Bhutia dog who came right to our doorstep. We have seen large Himalayan dogs before, but this one was huge. He blocked our entire doorway. He was quite friendly though.
The weather was cloudy. But it wasn't rainy. We admired the surrounding peaks.
After breakfast of eggs, we took the younger brother of Navin Rawat, Vipin Rawat along with us to Bhatwari to pick up supplies for the trek. We purchased mutton, spices, tea, maggi and soup, all to be consumed in the next 12 hours. Utensils were picked up from the guest house. Ensuring that we were prepared, we started our trek, led by the guide, Anuj. Ankit had brought along the bluetooth speaker as well.
The first km was the toughest. It was over a very steep gradient straight up from the Barsu village. Moreover, it started to drizzle. We were panting and wheezing in no time. Once we were past the tough slope, it gradually decreased, but never levelled. The rocky path didn't help. We had to break frequently to catch our breath, but soldiered on. The weeks of gym-ing helped otherwise we would have been down on our knees. Dayara is supposed to be a popular trek, but at this time we were the only ones on this trail. It hadn't snowed much in the past month so that cancelled the routine trekkers' visit. Newbies do not travel to higher altitudes in Feb, so we had the place all to ourselves, just the way we liked it. Anuj wasn't the talkative kind. We hoped that he was a better cook than a talker. We were not in a talking mood as well. We were quite busy inhaling lungfuls of air.
Seeing Anuj climb did motivate us to move forward. He was carrying all the utensils and food and was climbing with ease. He also didn't have a gulp of water along the way. We downed a bottle each. The path was well covered with trees. When we scaled Nagtibba, we had to bear the brunt of the bright sun also. That was a relief in this trek although the sky was cloudy throughout. The last km mercifully levelled out. This was the first piece of land since the trek began that was at level. Our legs were too thankful for this tract. Finally, we made it the halfway point, Barnala. A few shepherd huts were in place and we selected one for the night marking our territory with the BoP flag.
Anuj immediately got busy in gathering firewood and kept them inside the hut, in case it rained. This proved to be a blessing later on. He started the fireplace and began making tea. We mounted our club flag at the gate of the hut, marking our territory. Before leaving Barsu, Vipin had told us he would be meeting us later on at Barnala as a group of 8 trekkers were on their way from Dehradun. Seeing that it would get dark soon, it looked as if they had got late reaching Barsu. So again, we had the whole place to ourselves. Anuj told us that the path to Dayara, 4 kms away was densely covered in snow, but we could attempt the trek in the morning. We decided to catch the nearby lake for now. The lake was half a km ahead up a slope from the huts. Anuj had forgotten to bring spoons. So we ate the maggi with our hands, a first for us. After having tea and leaving Anuj to prepare the mutton, the two of us headed to the lake.
The snow started getting deeper now. Our boots dug deep into it. The half km distance took a good time to cover in that snow. But the sight ahead was breathtaking. A pristine lake in the middle of snowy mountains, the serenity of such places has no parallel. We soaked in the atmosphere of the place. There was not a soul around. It was so tranquil. We had forgotten our tiredness.
As it started to grow a little dark, we made our way back to the hut. Mutton was brewing over the wooden fire. It would take a long time to prepare. So, out came the trusted Old Monk to wile away the time. The bluetooth speaker was switched on in the dark interiors of the hut and the atmosphere inside was fantastic. We played a variety of songs, even "sutta na mila".
Time passed away quickly as we downed one peg after another, Anuj being the fastest of us. We do not even remember when we had dinner and went to sleep. It is a mystery to this day.
The initial spell of sleep was ok. Then it started to rain. The zipper of my sleeping bag got stuck and I couldn't close it all the way. Moreover, the space besides the fire was not enough for us to stretch our legs fully. We kept on shifting and turning the whole night. Sleep was uncomfortable. To add to the misery, we had to get up in the middle of the night to relieve ourselves. That meant getting out of the half open bags, putting on more layers of clothing and stepping out in the rain, which we did or rather we had to, there was no choice.
20 Feb 2016:
We got up the next morning in aches. The disturbed sleep had not taken away the tiredness of the trek but only added to it. That threw the Dayara trek out of scope. The open air dump, however in that scenery was refreshing. It was still raining. After a maggi breakfast, we decided to head down in the rain. There's only so much time one can spend away from civilization, however I do plan to stretch these spans in the future. During the descent we appreciated how steep the ascent was. Our guide Anuj was rolling swiftly down the slope while we tried to catch up with him. Needless to say, he reached Barsu, while we got lost on the way and then had to make our way back to the correct path.
We had made the 4 kms ascent in 2.5 hours and the descent in 1.5 hours, pretty decent for rare trekkers, I would say. We found the next group at the guest house. They had reached late yesterday and would be climbing to Dayara today. Now came the matter of payment. This resulted in a big argument between us and the guide as they demanded two days full payment while we blamed them for unclear communication on the first day. Finally, a compromise was reached. But the argument had left a bad taste. It would prevent us from a revisit.
We warned the other group on this outcome and also gave them the weather situation at Barnala. The path to Dayara looked treacherous. But since their group had frequent trekkers amongst them, I'm sure they wouldn't face as much problem as us. We settled the guest house bill and left.
Sitting on our motorcycles provided great relief. All the tiredness was now draining away. We were riding at leisure and enjoying the scenery. We were in no rush as the aim was just to shorten the return distance for the next day. If we could do that coupled with a new place to explore, that would be fantastic. Strangely though, we could not remember the roadside scenery while coming this way. We must have been too concentrated on reaching Barsu. Just a short distance ahead, we came across a lake at Maneri. The colour of the Bhagirathi river was a glowing green. Since it was close to lunch time we looked around for a place to eat with the lake for a view and spotted a GMVN guest house. We rode up to the place and asked for food.
This was a newly opened place. The manager told us in a very welcoming voice that food would have to be prepared afresh. This attitude was in great contrast to what we had faced by the staff at Barsu. We were in no rush and readily agreed. We could while away the time admiring the lake from a high vantage point. The manager arranged to cook traditional dishes for us, some very green vegetable dish and a traditional dal. I must admit the taste wasn't that good, not bad either. But the different taste was welcomed. This would be a good place to stay later on. The lake would have water sports starting in a month.
The staff wished us a safe journey and we carried on. Google Maps again showed their mischief. It has happened to us earlier when the distance of 750 kms from Gurgaon to Jaisalmer in the maps actually turned out to be 850 kms. There had been other instances too. This time the maps were showing a road before Uttarkashi leading to Barkot. From there, we could take the route to Paonta Sahib and onwards to NH1. It has been a long time since we rode there. This had been our initial plan as the maps showed that this route would be only 30 kms longer than the Rishikesh route. In reality however we reached Uttarkashi, crossed it, travelled another 25 kms and then the turn came towards Barkot at Dharasu. Barkot was 60 kms from here. This lengthened the route by more than 80 kms which would be too long to traverse the next day. We decided to stick to our original route for the return. It dawned on us later that this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Jat Reservation Agitation was in progress leading to mass looting and ransacking on NH1. It is enraging to see Indians still fighting over caste. Why can't we just be Indians?
Clouds started to gather overhead. Then a few droplets came. I dare not stop now and just continued on riding with Ankit tailing right behind. We rode on in the light rain for more than an hour. As it started to grow dark, we stopped at a tea stall. Some hot tea was necessary in that lovely weather in the hills. As we were close to Chamba now, we thought of taking it a little easy and enjoy the rain. However, as soon as we started off again, the rain turned heavy. The water started to seep in through all the open spaces it could find. Although we do enjoy the rains quite a lot, but it was twilight now. Darkness, rains and mountains get somewhat risky. We kept on the lookout for a place to stay, but there was none to be found in the entire 27 kms to Chamba. Ankit was having more trouble because of his spectacles. We crept along slowly until finally we could see lights of an open guest house and immediately stopped for shelter.
The room was decent and clean. There was no option of riding ahead in that weather. We took the room and stripped out of the wet gear. While the rest of the day had been easy, these last few kms had taken a high toll. We were exhausted. Dinner comprising of egg curry was ordered as room service. We appreciated the television set and the soft mattress after our rough day of camping. Mad Max was playing. The situation was kind of ironical. We had spent the last day in rough countryside and were now watching a movie set in rough countryside. But the movie did give us an idea. We had been thinking about another place to explore before heading back to Delhi. Seeing the water pumps in the movie, we thought of Tehri dam and the idea stuck. Another place would be explored, if the weather allows it the next day.
It did.
21 Feb 2016:
Morning came with clear skies and bright sunshine. But before leaving, we had to dry out our wet clothes. The last day of the Ride is always the laziest. We had less than 350 kms to cover today. This relaxed us even more. After the cold suffering of past two nights, the warm day was quite welcomed. As our gear dried out we reluctantly got ready and started on our way.
The road towards the dam was filled with police personnel. On enquiring, we learnt that the Nepalese PM was visiting the site today. That also meant that we could not explore the area as much from as close view as we would have liked. Security was beefed up. One of the security personnel guided us towards the path that would lead to the backside of the dam. It was a busy road and very steep one. On reaching the other side, we saw what was keeping the water in the reservoir. The dam was big, but not huge. The reservoir looked quite large in that respect.
Sensing that it was now past noon and we still had not started to make our return, we did so now. Rishikesh was 75 kms away. We had planned to have lunch at Rishikesh, but since we took the byepass, there wasn't any nice eating place on this road. So we carried on. And on until, we stopped at a dhaba after crossing Haridwar. The stretch from here to Delhi would be chaotic. So this was the only time when we could have some rest.
We left at around 4:30 PM with 300 kms left to go. The numerous diversions now started and along came rash drivers. This road has been in construction for so long. I can't make out why the Uttarakhand government doesn't finish this busy stretch. What sort of profits are made without construction of roads? Sure, it makes the case of good business for mechanics and hospitals, but it also reduces the business of dhabas. Moreover, better roads can yield highly profitable tolls and even more tourist influx. Less travel time would place more profits in the hands of traders.
Our goal was to stop at Jain's shikanji at Modinagar. The stretch from Muzaffarnagar to Meerut has become one of the smoothest. 60 kms are done and dusted in no time. We regrouped at our fixed point at 7:30 PM. The timing was going swell, but we knew there was more mess to be faced ahead. My parents and manager had been calling me for the past two hours and when I called them back they wanted to know whether I was also stuck at NH-1 caught in the midst of Jat reservation agitation. Luckily, we had opted to avoid that route during the return. There was no saying what could have happened. We felt sorry for all the innocents caught in the agitation.
Two guys came forward to meet us. They were also riders although travelling by a car this time. They asked us about our associations with different rider bodies. We confessed our ignorance, proudly. We don't associate with authorities, we just Ride. The place was shutting down, but Ankit being the resourceful person as he always is, managed to get a last plate of pakodas.
Now we were somewhat prepared to tackle the mess ahead. In the past couple of times when we had traversed this stretch we had been lucky and escaped the area with ease. Today was not going to be that day. The creeping and crawling traffic continued all the way through Modinagar, Muradnagar and upto Ghaziabad. We hardly spent any time on the roads. Most of the times, the motorcycles had to be taken off it to sneak ahead.
Braving enough of the brunt, we finally made it to Delhi before 10 PM. Goodbyes were exchanged at the launch point of Akshardham.
Addition of a trek in a Ride can be an exhaustive task but it also kicks up the adrenaline quotient. We could not complete the trek this time. That doesn't mean that treks would not be added in future rides. If not a complete trek, camping would surely be included. The 2016 Riding season has kicked off and some great places would be explored.
JAI BoP !!!
Bishan Singh wasn't prepared to have guests tonight, so he was preparing plain dal-rice as dinner. We enquired about the trek for the following day and he sent his nephew to us. Navin Rawat. We discussed on how to undertake the trek. Navin was very contradicting in his replies and they kept changing with every large peg of rum he took. First the weather at Dayara was reportedly clean, then it turned snowy. He gave us marketing lessons on how he was using social network to build his business. He also told us that he was the first person to see our Bullets climbing the road to the guest house and then he only called up his uncle to welcome us. We like smart people, but Navin was turning out to be a smart-ass. After having enough drinks and sleepy from the long day, we had the simple dinner and retired for the night.
(Route taken: Delhi - Meerut - Rishikesh - Chamba - Uttarkashi - Bhatwari - Barsu)
19 Feb 2016:
Tonight we aimed to reach Dayara Bugyal, but with caution. We did not want to take any unnecessary risks. We don't have great trekking legs and we know it. We listened to the guide and opted to stay at the established shepherd huts at the place instead of carrying our own tent. This also meant that we could carry more food now. Before that came the matter of breakfast. We were accompanied by a big Bhutia dog who came right to our doorstep. We have seen large Himalayan dogs before, but this one was huge. He blocked our entire doorway. He was quite friendly though.
The first km was the toughest. It was over a very steep gradient straight up from the Barsu village. Moreover, it started to drizzle. We were panting and wheezing in no time. Once we were past the tough slope, it gradually decreased, but never levelled. The rocky path didn't help. We had to break frequently to catch our breath, but soldiered on. The weeks of gym-ing helped otherwise we would have been down on our knees. Dayara is supposed to be a popular trek, but at this time we were the only ones on this trail. It hadn't snowed much in the past month so that cancelled the routine trekkers' visit. Newbies do not travel to higher altitudes in Feb, so we had the place all to ourselves, just the way we liked it. Anuj wasn't the talkative kind. We hoped that he was a better cook than a talker. We were not in a talking mood as well. We were quite busy inhaling lungfuls of air.
The initial spell of sleep was ok. Then it started to rain. The zipper of my sleeping bag got stuck and I couldn't close it all the way. Moreover, the space besides the fire was not enough for us to stretch our legs fully. We kept on shifting and turning the whole night. Sleep was uncomfortable. To add to the misery, we had to get up in the middle of the night to relieve ourselves. That meant getting out of the half open bags, putting on more layers of clothing and stepping out in the rain, which we did or rather we had to, there was no choice.
20 Feb 2016:
We got up the next morning in aches. The disturbed sleep had not taken away the tiredness of the trek but only added to it. That threw the Dayara trek out of scope. The open air dump, however in that scenery was refreshing. It was still raining. After a maggi breakfast, we decided to head down in the rain. There's only so much time one can spend away from civilization, however I do plan to stretch these spans in the future. During the descent we appreciated how steep the ascent was. Our guide Anuj was rolling swiftly down the slope while we tried to catch up with him. Needless to say, he reached Barsu, while we got lost on the way and then had to make our way back to the correct path.
We had made the 4 kms ascent in 2.5 hours and the descent in 1.5 hours, pretty decent for rare trekkers, I would say. We found the next group at the guest house. They had reached late yesterday and would be climbing to Dayara today. Now came the matter of payment. This resulted in a big argument between us and the guide as they demanded two days full payment while we blamed them for unclear communication on the first day. Finally, a compromise was reached. But the argument had left a bad taste. It would prevent us from a revisit.
We warned the other group on this outcome and also gave them the weather situation at Barnala. The path to Dayara looked treacherous. But since their group had frequent trekkers amongst them, I'm sure they wouldn't face as much problem as us. We settled the guest house bill and left.
Sitting on our motorcycles provided great relief. All the tiredness was now draining away. We were riding at leisure and enjoying the scenery. We were in no rush as the aim was just to shorten the return distance for the next day. If we could do that coupled with a new place to explore, that would be fantastic. Strangely though, we could not remember the roadside scenery while coming this way. We must have been too concentrated on reaching Barsu. Just a short distance ahead, we came across a lake at Maneri. The colour of the Bhagirathi river was a glowing green. Since it was close to lunch time we looked around for a place to eat with the lake for a view and spotted a GMVN guest house. We rode up to the place and asked for food.
This was a newly opened place. The manager told us in a very welcoming voice that food would have to be prepared afresh. This attitude was in great contrast to what we had faced by the staff at Barsu. We were in no rush and readily agreed. We could while away the time admiring the lake from a high vantage point. The manager arranged to cook traditional dishes for us, some very green vegetable dish and a traditional dal. I must admit the taste wasn't that good, not bad either. But the different taste was welcomed. This would be a good place to stay later on. The lake would have water sports starting in a month.
The staff wished us a safe journey and we carried on. Google Maps again showed their mischief. It has happened to us earlier when the distance of 750 kms from Gurgaon to Jaisalmer in the maps actually turned out to be 850 kms. There had been other instances too. This time the maps were showing a road before Uttarkashi leading to Barkot. From there, we could take the route to Paonta Sahib and onwards to NH1. It has been a long time since we rode there. This had been our initial plan as the maps showed that this route would be only 30 kms longer than the Rishikesh route. In reality however we reached Uttarkashi, crossed it, travelled another 25 kms and then the turn came towards Barkot at Dharasu. Barkot was 60 kms from here. This lengthened the route by more than 80 kms which would be too long to traverse the next day. We decided to stick to our original route for the return. It dawned on us later that this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Jat Reservation Agitation was in progress leading to mass looting and ransacking on NH1. It is enraging to see Indians still fighting over caste. Why can't we just be Indians?
Clouds started to gather overhead. Then a few droplets came. I dare not stop now and just continued on riding with Ankit tailing right behind. We rode on in the light rain for more than an hour. As it started to grow dark, we stopped at a tea stall. Some hot tea was necessary in that lovely weather in the hills. As we were close to Chamba now, we thought of taking it a little easy and enjoy the rain. However, as soon as we started off again, the rain turned heavy. The water started to seep in through all the open spaces it could find. Although we do enjoy the rains quite a lot, but it was twilight now. Darkness, rains and mountains get somewhat risky. We kept on the lookout for a place to stay, but there was none to be found in the entire 27 kms to Chamba. Ankit was having more trouble because of his spectacles. We crept along slowly until finally we could see lights of an open guest house and immediately stopped for shelter.
The room was decent and clean. There was no option of riding ahead in that weather. We took the room and stripped out of the wet gear. While the rest of the day had been easy, these last few kms had taken a high toll. We were exhausted. Dinner comprising of egg curry was ordered as room service. We appreciated the television set and the soft mattress after our rough day of camping. Mad Max was playing. The situation was kind of ironical. We had spent the last day in rough countryside and were now watching a movie set in rough countryside. But the movie did give us an idea. We had been thinking about another place to explore before heading back to Delhi. Seeing the water pumps in the movie, we thought of Tehri dam and the idea stuck. Another place would be explored, if the weather allows it the next day.
It did.
21 Feb 2016:
Morning came with clear skies and bright sunshine. But before leaving, we had to dry out our wet clothes. The last day of the Ride is always the laziest. We had less than 350 kms to cover today. This relaxed us even more. After the cold suffering of past two nights, the warm day was quite welcomed. As our gear dried out we reluctantly got ready and started on our way.
The road towards the dam was filled with police personnel. On enquiring, we learnt that the Nepalese PM was visiting the site today. That also meant that we could not explore the area as much from as close view as we would have liked. Security was beefed up. One of the security personnel guided us towards the path that would lead to the backside of the dam. It was a busy road and very steep one. On reaching the other side, we saw what was keeping the water in the reservoir. The dam was big, but not huge. The reservoir looked quite large in that respect.
We left at around 4:30 PM with 300 kms left to go. The numerous diversions now started and along came rash drivers. This road has been in construction for so long. I can't make out why the Uttarakhand government doesn't finish this busy stretch. What sort of profits are made without construction of roads? Sure, it makes the case of good business for mechanics and hospitals, but it also reduces the business of dhabas. Moreover, better roads can yield highly profitable tolls and even more tourist influx. Less travel time would place more profits in the hands of traders.
Our goal was to stop at Jain's shikanji at Modinagar. The stretch from Muzaffarnagar to Meerut has become one of the smoothest. 60 kms are done and dusted in no time. We regrouped at our fixed point at 7:30 PM. The timing was going swell, but we knew there was more mess to be faced ahead. My parents and manager had been calling me for the past two hours and when I called them back they wanted to know whether I was also stuck at NH-1 caught in the midst of Jat reservation agitation. Luckily, we had opted to avoid that route during the return. There was no saying what could have happened. We felt sorry for all the innocents caught in the agitation.
Two guys came forward to meet us. They were also riders although travelling by a car this time. They asked us about our associations with different rider bodies. We confessed our ignorance, proudly. We don't associate with authorities, we just Ride. The place was shutting down, but Ankit being the resourceful person as he always is, managed to get a last plate of pakodas.
Now we were somewhat prepared to tackle the mess ahead. In the past couple of times when we had traversed this stretch we had been lucky and escaped the area with ease. Today was not going to be that day. The creeping and crawling traffic continued all the way through Modinagar, Muradnagar and upto Ghaziabad. We hardly spent any time on the roads. Most of the times, the motorcycles had to be taken off it to sneak ahead.
Braving enough of the brunt, we finally made it to Delhi before 10 PM. Goodbyes were exchanged at the launch point of Akshardham.
Addition of a trek in a Ride can be an exhaustive task but it also kicks up the adrenaline quotient. We could not complete the trek this time. That doesn't mean that treks would not be added in future rides. If not a complete trek, camping would surely be included. The 2016 Riding season has kicked off and some great places would be explored.
JAI BoP !!!
Labels: Bulls On Parade, Dayara Bugyal, Royal Enfield, Uttarakhand
posted by Ken Slayer at 4:21 AM
6 comments
