FIRST BIKE TRIP TO THE HEAVEN ON EARTH—UTTARAKHAND

As discussed, we all met at a common point (a deserted road beside the Tezu’s apartment) at 4.30 am. We helped each other to put and tighten the backpacks on the bikes. We did plan to start our journey at 5 am. But, it took longer to tighten our backpacks with the help of harnesses (as it was the first time we were packing something so damn rigidly on our bikes). Finally, just before dawn, engines start roaring (Vroom..Vroommmmm…). Spirits were high. Helmets were off (except Tezu). A perfect time to capture some pics from the borrowed DSLR.

Now, with lots of worries and strange thoughts inside my head and a helmet outside my head, I adjusted the Trip-meter to 0 km and shifted gears from Neutral to One…….and the journey finally began.

The first few kilometers were amazing as we were driving through the fog without any traffic (a beauty of Saturday mornings). The greenery around the Highways (NH9, NH34, NH58, NH334) was mesmerising. The touch of wind through the pores of my helmet and cutting through my gloves were tempting me to go faster and faster. A self-proclaimed professional photographer, namely Tezu, sitting behind Sunny Leone couldn’t resist taking this amazing picture when I surpassed them like a bullet.

Some random pit stops like pee breaks, drink breaks, abhi-mai-yahaan-pe-bhi-pics-lunga breaks helped us stay refreshed over time.

Somewhere near the hometown of Sunny, we made an unplanned stop, not to say Namaste to his family member, but to repair the tyre valve of Sunny’s bike which might lead to a puncture very soon (one less thing to worry about). After a long journey of more than 200 km, we finally reached Kotdwar around 11 am — a place from where we can actually see the mountain ranges. All of us were quite excited to conquer these mountain ranges with our mean machines. But before beginning the new phase of our journey, we had to withdraw some cash as they may be no ATMs in remote terrains. Also, we started looking for some good eateries joints to kill the rats in our stomach as we were starving quite badly. Everything was going perfectly as we per the plan. But, out of the blues, my bike did not start. I tried again and again, but the result was same. I started to think that she was terrified to play with the curves of hilly roads. I called my friends who were looking for food to help me out. Finally, we managed to find a mechanic ask him to replace the faulty Fuse Wire. Engine starts roaring again so as our spirits. As a precautionary measure, I also took few more Fuse Wires which turned out to be a smart move. This whole exercise had consumed one precious hour. We then decided to skip our breakfast to make up for the lost time.

So, the transformation of terrain—from straight, wide roads to curvy, narrow roads—takes place as we move from Kotdwar to Rudraprayag via Srinagar. Our speed decreases from 60 kmph to 40 kmph in order to negotiate the turns safely. We were slow, but we were absorbing the change in culture at an accelerating rate.

Since Pankaj was travelling to hills for the first time, therefore we introduced him about some key rules to follow while driving on these roads. It is essential to understand that driving on the curvy roads will test your biking skills and patience. Driving on these roads is quite different than driving on urban and sub-urban roads.

After an hour, while driving though the curves and enjoying continuously changing spectacular views of rivers, rounded stones, ditches of infinite depth and blinding green colour of the nature, we spot a muddy hut. We stopped there and asked if they serve food. The moment they said yes, the rats begin to sprint in a circular track inside our stomachs. With a mere amount of Rs. 250 (for five person collectively), all of us ate up to the brink of our mouths along with teas (In Delhi, we usually end up paying that much amount of money for paying VAT).

After filling our tanks with food and tea, we restarted our cruise to reach anywhere along the road—no destination, but just some random spots to capture few pics.

Some crazy pit stops and back-ache were the flavour of the day. We had driven 300 km so far and it was already sunset. We are still 50 km far away from Rudrapryag. We had to reach there to conclude our Day 1 so that we could reach Chopta on Day 2. It means that we had to ride during night which is not recommended as it is highly dangerous. A quick discussion broke out while having Tea and Samosa at Srinagar. We decided to drive at night to reach Rudrapryag instead of halting our Day 1 journey at Srinagar.

We drove carefully with indicators on. As the colour of sky transformed from tangerine to jet black, I noticed that my heart had started to skip beats again and again. As the trucks, buses and cars were zooming towards us with high-beam lights on a narrow road, every curve on the road was trying to test our ability to drive past them. For the first 15-20 minutes I was struggling to cope with this as fear of driving was griping me. Gradually, the struggle to drive was fading away from my mind (Seems like it was just a mental blockage) and a grin is slowly growing in my face (which is obviously covered inside the helmet; thankfully no one could see it). Fear was real, so was the grin (once in a lifetime kind of grin). Afterwards, the fear was gone and I started to enjoy the night ride (Night Riders).

After two hours continuous driving under the blanket of blackness, we reached Rudrapryag somewhere around 8.30 pm. Now, our next struggle was to find a room in a hotel as most of the hotels were occupied by the early birds. Shockingly, Fuse Wire of my bike was again blown. I parked my bike one the one side of the road and with the help of couple of screw drivers and extra Fuse Wire (told you, a smart move), I fixed the problem within 15 minutes. On the side of the road, my fellow riders had booked a room for five persons with a mere amount of Rs. 800. Not to mention, an OYO room (Budget Room) for the same in Delhi will cost around Rs. 3500.

For the first time, we had parked our bike under the shade. We hastily unloaded our backpacks from the bike, locked the bikes, scattered everything on the room’s floor and crashed on the beds. After catching our breath and powering all the electronics devices we had, me and Sunny were end up driving the bike to locate a Wine and Beer shop. Our search ended up 2 km away from the hotel. Then, I and Transistor explored the Rudraprayag market which was already closed to get some chakna and cold drinks. Food was already arranged by the hotel management. After having our dinner and drinks, we crashed on the beds to conclude our Day 1 journey.

Let's conclude the remaining story in the form of key-points and pictures

Day 2 (October 9, 2016 SUNDAY)

Driving on extremely slippery roads due to meltdown of snow

Test of breath while Tungnath Trek

Hailstorm

Driving through jungle in night

Day 3 (October 10, 2016 MONDAY)

Driving over heap of stones (under-construction road) for 30 km to reach Badrinath

Small crash (one biker down)

Day 4 (October 10, 2016 TUESDAY)

Impulsive decision of doing river rafting at Rishikesh

Trying to achieve the impossible task of reaching home before sunset but failed miserably and end up reaching home by 11 pm

Learnt a lesson for life....never ever ever drive a bike on a highway at night....bikes headlights are of no use in a highway when the speed reaches beyond 80 kmph and you end up driving blind...