Last weekend was possibly the craziest, most impromptu fun I've had in my life!!
It started out by getting out of the house at 5am, reaching the main road in quiet early morning Sant Nagar, trying not to awaken the city's dogs sleeping here and there, and waiting for a stranger (friend of a friend) to pick me up from that road.
Got picked up and taken to RDV point in South Ex. There, there were already about 60 motorbikes, bikers and pillions hanging around. That number had doubled by the time we set off, around 6.30.
We rode in quite a regimented manner, no more than two bikes in width in the convoy, for about 65kms, on slow roads (60km/h max) - Quite a relaxed ride, watching the sunrise as we went, taking photos...
As we neared the breakfast place, I could see that my driver (Roman) was getting a little frustrated with the pace... We reached our destination, Delhi Public School or something like that, and had a bite to eat. At that point, I asked Roman if he would go back to Delhi with the group, but he said he might just leave them and go through the highway instead, at a slightly quicker pace. He also said that this ride had felt just like a teaser, and that now we were all expected to go home, but that he actually really fancied a longer ride.
Realizing neither of us had any other plans for the weekend, we decided to head back to Delhi, pick up an overnight bag and head to the foothills for the night!
Possibly one of the craziest things I've agreed to in... a while! Met the guy just hours beforehand, Indian roads are pretty nuts, and I'm on the back of a 500cc bike!
Well, relax anyway, I'm still alive! All went well!
We left Delhi at about 12pm, and had a big ride all the way up to Mussourie, above Dehra Dun (hum.. Spelling?) which saw us get there only around 8.30pm! I've never been pillion for so long! And my backside has never been that painful!!! But Wow, a great ride. Roman is a really good rider, he goes pretty fast, but it's also really smooth! (apart from when he didn't see the bumps which are aplenty - hence the pain!!) - For most of the ride, I was able to just look around, soaking in India...
We got to the mountains at sunset, and the road went through a jungle/national park where apparently you could spot elephants - didn't see any. That was after passing through Haridwar, which I'd visited before, crossing the Ganges, and spotting the ghats and giant statue of... Oops, don't know whom...
After the jungle bit, we started on a mountain road, lots of corners and seemingly never-ending, all the way up to Mussourie, the hill station. Hill station: It sounds like a little village perched on a mountain right? Not quite so. It went on for miles! We got some rooms in a hotel, following a tout at the entrance of the town - The guy ran all the way up a hill for a good kilometer to show us to the hotel, he was quite impressive!
In the morning, Roman decided to look for George Everest's house, which was supposed to be around there somewhere. After getting conflicting directions for a good half hour, we did find the road leading to it, and a road sign (rare thing round these parts) and rode on a trail for a little while, asking people again and again, and being told that it was just 3kms away each time... We finally hit a dead end. And no house. The view was pretty cool though, so we made a stop and enjoyed the silence of the hills. You can really appreciate that when you live in Delhi.
That's where we saw the white eagles! (Pics on FB)
We got back on the road, and headed for... Champa I think. A friend of Roman was to join us on the road, he was supposed to catch up with us, but that took him a good 2 or 3 hours! (well, I was actually riding the bike myself at that point, so maybe that was the reason... ;-)
The roads we took on Sunday afternoon were some the most spectacular I've ever ridden/driven on. Up high on the hill side, with beautiful bright greens in the valleys at the bottom, roads that stretched on for what you could see were miles and miles, lots of great corners, pretty good visibility, bright warm sunshine and hardly any traffic. Wow!
We ended up riding the whole day, from when we left the hotel around 10am until 7.30pm... and then we started the journey back to Delhi! a good 4 hours drive more, in the dark, on the main highways... Pretty scary stuff, but again, really well managed, and I got home, sore as hell, but safe and sound around 11pm.
Waking up at 6 on Monday was not fun, but I think my head was still up there on the hills, in the wind, and I hardly saw the day go!
Amazing amazing weekend!
It started out by getting out of the house at 5am, reaching the main road in quiet early morning Sant Nagar, trying not to awaken the city's dogs sleeping here and there, and waiting for a stranger (friend of a friend) to pick me up from that road.
Got picked up and taken to RDV point in South Ex. There, there were already about 60 motorbikes, bikers and pillions hanging around. That number had doubled by the time we set off, around 6.30.
We rode in quite a regimented manner, no more than two bikes in width in the convoy, for about 65kms, on slow roads (60km/h max) - Quite a relaxed ride, watching the sunrise as we went, taking photos...
As we neared the breakfast place, I could see that my driver (Roman) was getting a little frustrated with the pace... We reached our destination, Delhi Public School or something like that, and had a bite to eat. At that point, I asked Roman if he would go back to Delhi with the group, but he said he might just leave them and go through the highway instead, at a slightly quicker pace. He also said that this ride had felt just like a teaser, and that now we were all expected to go home, but that he actually really fancied a longer ride.
Realizing neither of us had any other plans for the weekend, we decided to head back to Delhi, pick up an overnight bag and head to the foothills for the night!
Possibly one of the craziest things I've agreed to in... a while! Met the guy just hours beforehand, Indian roads are pretty nuts, and I'm on the back of a 500cc bike!
Well, relax anyway, I'm still alive! All went well!
We left Delhi at about 12pm, and had a big ride all the way up to Mussourie, above Dehra Dun (hum.. Spelling?) which saw us get there only around 8.30pm! I've never been pillion for so long! And my backside has never been that painful!!! But Wow, a great ride. Roman is a really good rider, he goes pretty fast, but it's also really smooth! (apart from when he didn't see the bumps which are aplenty - hence the pain!!) - For most of the ride, I was able to just look around, soaking in India...
We got to the mountains at sunset, and the road went through a jungle/national park where apparently you could spot elephants - didn't see any. That was after passing through Haridwar, which I'd visited before, crossing the Ganges, and spotting the ghats and giant statue of... Oops, don't know whom...
After the jungle bit, we started on a mountain road, lots of corners and seemingly never-ending, all the way up to Mussourie, the hill station. Hill station: It sounds like a little village perched on a mountain right? Not quite so. It went on for miles! We got some rooms in a hotel, following a tout at the entrance of the town - The guy ran all the way up a hill for a good kilometer to show us to the hotel, he was quite impressive!
In the morning, Roman decided to look for George Everest's house, which was supposed to be around there somewhere. After getting conflicting directions for a good half hour, we did find the road leading to it, and a road sign (rare thing round these parts) and rode on a trail for a little while, asking people again and again, and being told that it was just 3kms away each time... We finally hit a dead end. And no house. The view was pretty cool though, so we made a stop and enjoyed the silence of the hills. You can really appreciate that when you live in Delhi.
That's where we saw the white eagles! (Pics on FB)
We got back on the road, and headed for... Champa I think. A friend of Roman was to join us on the road, he was supposed to catch up with us, but that took him a good 2 or 3 hours! (well, I was actually riding the bike myself at that point, so maybe that was the reason... ;-)
The roads we took on Sunday afternoon were some the most spectacular I've ever ridden/driven on. Up high on the hill side, with beautiful bright greens in the valleys at the bottom, roads that stretched on for what you could see were miles and miles, lots of great corners, pretty good visibility, bright warm sunshine and hardly any traffic. Wow!
We ended up riding the whole day, from when we left the hotel around 10am until 7.30pm... and then we started the journey back to Delhi! a good 4 hours drive more, in the dark, on the main highways... Pretty scary stuff, but again, really well managed, and I got home, sore as hell, but safe and sound around 11pm.
Waking up at 6 on Monday was not fun, but I think my head was still up there on the hills, in the wind, and I hardly saw the day go!
Amazing amazing weekend!
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