Thread: Stress Buster: Weekend ride to Nainital (Long post)

After a hectic and tiring week at office, i was left exausted and stresses.
So come Friday and was chit chatting with one of my friend and suddenly he said; why don't we go to some hill station this weekend??
Got hit by an idea that was buried somewhere deep inside due to the daily chores of the busy Delhi life.
And it was already 11PM and i was in office. Decided to start the ride @ 4:00AM along with my friend as pillion and another friend on his Fiero F2.

So finally my shift ended at 2:00AM Saturday morning and decided to rush back home to pack some stuff and get a bath.
Went to parking lot and to our horror my friends bike was leaking. He had got servicing done just a day before and the amount of oil leak was immense. with every throttle it was spraying oil. So definatly we could not go as planned. Planned to get the bike checked @ 9:00 AM and then will ride together.
So here goes our precious 5 Hours. went back home but could't sleep.
But somehow fell prey to it at around 8:00AM and woke up with a kick on my arse at 10:AM. another hour lost.
Saw a message in my box from my friend that he will not be able to join us, because he was busy sleeping. Sleep was more important to him then what we had planned. Anyways after cursing him for good 10-15 minutes we got ready.

Sun was out with all it's strength and hell lot of traffic.
Got the bike filled up with gas worth 570/- and filled up some air in tyres. So here we were starting our trip good 8 Hours late @ 12Noon.
Anyways we were not concerned about the time shortage we had but we were more inclined towards enjoying the ride sans any timer.
Roas conditions are good and some strechs are really good. That helps in making up for the lost time in the traffic. But then there is a pathetic patch of around 50Km's that kills the ride and the rider. aweful roads due to ongoing work that i've been seeing from the last 3 years. Same consition and no changes.
My first stop was at Gurmukteshwar(probably). took some snaps and enjoyed the beauty of Ganga.





After the patch we went non stop to Mooradabad. and just after Mooradabad and before Ramput toll, there is a sharp left turn that leads to Jim Corbett. Took this route and after 3Km's took a right towards Nainital. roads are good with villages every few Km's.
Took a butt break at a dhaba and hoped on food like a hungry soul.



Then after around 50Kms roads get awesome with almost no one on the road and both sides of roads covered with dense forest.


It was already 5 when i reached this place. And soon i was riding on a steep road. had to reset the tuning of my bike as it started breathing like it is not getting any air or petrol. And even after that my bike was struggling to some extent at every sharp turn. And the struggle was justified too. it was carring a total load of around 150Kg's. Myself being 65 and my friend (Gurpreet) being 85Kg's/

when we started climbing up it was already around 6 and sun was ready to set.
hence at a beautiful corner with enough space to park my bike safely clicked few pics.











Then after loking at the beautiful sunset for good 15-20 Minutes, we started again. This time moving bit slowly. encountered endless Langoors and Monkey's on the way. Another stop came in the form of a maggy point. eating maggy and special tea in hills at night or evening takes you to another world altogether.
After this it was a non stop ride till Nainital and lots of left-right-left turns.
reached Nainital at around 8:00PM, parked the bike at main parking lot near the small play ground. strolled around in the market. Eat boiled eggs, omletts and tea non stop at every given opportunity.

Then realised that we have not booked a room as of now. So the hunt for a decent room started. looked at a room and he asked a price of a small and compact room @500 a day and that too it did not have attached Bathroom. But the view was amazing.
Dropped the plan and went to anothe hotel and he gave us a room at 1st floor with balcony facing the lake and bathroom with good and wide double bed.
Liked it and after some buttering got the room for Rs.400/-.
so left the baggage at the room and went for another walk. The lake looks awesome at night. all the reflection of the mountain with small lights. It looks lovely.

finally came back to room at 11:00 PM and decided to hit the bed after a warm bath.
Decided to wake up at 4:00 and leave the room by 5:00 to witness the beautiful sunrise.

Day 2 to be continued.
A teaser:

Topic Approved

must do trip isn't.... sherry nice wright up there i know you have to rush towards your destination but do you have the night view pic of nani lake...and what was the temperature was it chilling in night & morning....what do you think..about temperature in January...i am planing a trip to noida-nainital-ranikhet-binsar-almora-noida....trip towards mountain in January...

Nice write up and good pictures,,, waiting fore more...

Originally Posted by sherry_unicornlover

where is the man?

waiting for more yaara

Originally Posted by zayn

must do trip isn't.... sherry nice wright up there i know you have to rush towards your destination but do you have the night view pic of nani lake...and what was the temperature was it chilling in night & morning....what do you think..about temperature in January...i am planing a trip to noida-nainital-ranikhet-binsar-almora-noida....trip towards mountain in January...

well the night pic of the lake did not come out well. And the temperature was not freezing but was enough to make you run and get a jacket or some warm woolens.
Well i think you will get good amount of snow in the month of January. So be prepared to carry alot of warm clothing.

Originally Posted by Sikhbiker

Nice write up and good pictures,,, waiting fore more...

Thanks veere

Originally Posted by pulsater

where is the man?

waiting for more yaara

The man is somewhere in the pic... wait i'll search and will let you know

Day 2

So here we were trying to open the eyes but thinking that the other person is still sleeping, Hence giving him some more time to sleep. this continued every 15-20 minutes and then realised that we both are doing the same thing. expecting the other person to get out of the bed. And somehow opened up my eyes and looked at my watch. Another plan went down the dreaming world. It was already 7AM and the plan of watching the Sunrise was all gone.
Ordered tea, stood in balcony for around 10-15 minutes enjoying the lovely morning breeze and then took a warm bath. By now it was already 8AM, So settled our bills and went out to strol around the town.

The morning view was even more amazing. the reflection of moutains and sky in the water was simply fantabulas.






The day was being celebrated as sports day by few schools. And few events were organised like a race around the lake and painting competition. The area which the school kids were supposed to cover in the race was huge. The lake in itself in big and the route that was given to the kids was even more tiring and lengthy. it included steep inclined roads and some sharp turns. If i was at their place then for sure i was out even before i could cover 10% of what they did. Cheers to all the school kids.
And then the painting competition. The crowd was so big that it felt like thousands of students are taking part in the competition


Then devided to take the boat ride. got it for 150 for two.








The hanuman and shiv temple


Now it was a time to pick up the bike from the parking lot. Had to use choke plus few kicks before it came to life.
went to another side of the lake to click few more pics.


Man's best friend


So started again and this time thought of taking a complete circular route of the lake. Which included a steep ride through the town which was a real test for the bike and at few points my Uni simply refused to take the second gear. had to ride in the first gear itself.
So when the road became easier to ride, stopped at another beautiful point to click few more pics.






The path to unknown destination


The beautiful roads


The beautifl view from the top


Now some posing shosing with my Uni


So started again and this time decided to stop at every given oportunity and every beautiful sight.








One thing that is worth mentioning here is the blueness of the sky. It was completly diffrent then what we see in our daily life. A perfect blue sky which is visible in few pics. You simply cannot stop appreciating the beauty of the nature which make every man made sculpture a microbe.
Example:

It was already 2 and decided to head back towards home. The heart kept on insisting to stay there for another day but at the end the brain won by fair margin. my friend: Gurpreet had office the very next day. So staying back for another day was out of question.
The roads are so tempting that you cannot resist from trying some extreme leans on every second corner.
The return journey in the mountain included 90% slope which meant i don't have to push my bike as hard as i was doing while climbing up. After sometime realised that keeping the engine on is not doing any good and the bike is moving without any push from the engine. After few minutes turned the egnition off and let the bike roll on it's own. I know thats not safe but at that point of time it felt so right and good that the complete return ride in the mountains was done in the same way. sometime the bike was crossing 60-65KMPH without the egnition and was having the fun of lifetime.



After covering the mountain there is a small town or village with the only Honda dealer and service center.
When i started by bike, realised that something is wrong. The front brake was almost non responsive and the engine was harsh.
Decided to get the bike checked at the service center as did't want to take any risk.
checked the Brake fluid and it was below the mark. filled it up and then asked the service guy to check the engine oil. It had turned complete black and thick.
changed the oil Honda oil as Power1 was not available.

After getting the bike checked started back again and it was already 3:30 By now.
wanted to cover as much distance as possible before sunset as i was aware of the bad stretch that i had to face.
first 100Kms went by like a fraction of second. the roads were good and tempting with almost no traffic.
And by the time sun said goodbye, we were on the bad patch of the journey.
And thats when things started getting bad from worse. People simply do not have any sence of driving in this route. they drive with high beam when they actually need low beam to see the huge craters on the road. No traffic sence, no proper signalling, no proper overtaking and no safe distance from each other.Also the signage is almost missing with no street lights. Sometime the road completly disappeared and gave way to some 5-6 feet deep dugups done by the road contracters. saw a Alto resting there. So the life is completly on your fates hand in this strech. No amount of your safe riding can save you if you do not have luck by your side. if it;s not you then it could be some nut who continously try to push you off the road or it would be a pothole which can put a crater to shame.
Anyways somehow completed this nightmare and it was 7Pm by now.
then after around 50 Kms from this strech you get a single lane road that hardly can take two buses at the same time.
This is where i thanked god 1000's of time for saving me.
i was crusing at around 30 because of the condition of the road and saw a bus coming from the oppsotite late. there was a petrol station on my left hand side and that ideot Bus driver suddenly took right to get into the petrol station and that too without any hand or blinker signal. I was just there on the spot, braked hard as much as i can, rear tyre locked up and skid. somehow saved myself and my bike from hitting the bus. And so few cars and bikes. everyone freezed up and virtually everything was standstill for few moments. Before i could realise as what happened, saw some guyz who were also missed hitting the bus was beating the driver black and blue.
After getting back to senses strarted riding again without letting my pillion know that we were almost gone. And made him believe that i was just checking the brakes when the bike skid.
After that took extra precaution till the time i dropped my friend safely to his home.

It was 8:30 when i reached home and took a cool bath. sat in front of the computer to update everyone that i was back and opened up xbhp. The first thing that came in front of my eyes was the shocking news of Kriss's untimly departure from the world with almost similar incident that i faced few hours ago.
It still send the shiver down my spine and still thanking god for giving me another change to be a better Biker, a Son, a brother, a friend and above all a good human being.

nice trip sherry... i see that lot has changed in gharwal region now. I miss being in haldwani. definitely will visit Uttrakhand someday. the road safety (installation of barriers and cat eyes) has also improved coz just few years back, the way to nanital was not considered as a safe journey with just 2 lanes and buses and cars coming your way from blind spots.

Lovely sceneries there buddy!

Thanks dude. these appreciation gives us a kick for thinking about the next ride.