Re: Ride of my Dreams, Winter Ride to Uttarakhand !

The poetry at the end.. BEAUTIFUL, simply superb..
Every single line/paragraph, I could visualize a place that I visited or a road that I travelled.. I'm sure many others might have felt the same way..
Keep it coming..

Re: Ride of my Dreams, Winter Ride to Uttarakhand !

nice pics bro!!! waiting for more

Re: Ride of my Dreams, Winter Ride to Uttarakhand !

kaydee_bangalore Awesome Photos! Which lens? Your pics just made me thirsty for a long ride due north. I relived those moments and scenes and places through your photos.. All in all.. awesome buddy!!

Re: Ride of my Dreams, Winter Ride to Uttarakhand !

Thanks a lot Pranav I was going through your Leh Ladakh log. Great spirit ,wish to reach there one day.

Thanks

Thanks , Most of the photos here are clicked with the kit 18-55mm and some on telephoto 55-250mm on Canon 1100D !

The 4 rest/restless days

I reached home at Dinner time, and when I told my parents about the plan to take the bike to my birthplace and some more nice hills in Uttarakhand , a straight NO was fired with a "NO DISCUSSION" meta data attached to it. I waited for the next day to start the convincing process.

I explained to my mom, how badly I want to take the bike to Haridwar, all these feelings I get when I ride to the emotionally attached places and with my office schedule , how difficult it could get to do this again in near future.

I started thinking of a plan B, to do Lucknow - Agra - Jaipur - Udaipur - Daman -Mumbai - Bangalore on the return leg. Checked the maps and a few links , seemed feasible. But this is not what I had in mind. I had to go to Uttarakhand.

But my parents and sister also didn't have a reservation ,so they were traveling by Car to Haridwar, with one empty seat there it was getting really difficult to convince.

After a lot of drama from my side, my lovely mom gave me an idea. She asked me to call up my Baba Ji (grandfather, he lives in Haridwar) and seek his permission. If he agrees then everyone has to agree.

Voila it worked like a charm. And I was all excited for Uttarakhand. It was finalized on Christmas Day and my grandfather was my Santa this time

Family in the car and me on the bike, it sounds weird but thats how we went to Haridwar



Will post the Lucknow - Haridwar part soon.

Re: Ride of my Dreams, Winter Ride to Uttarakhand !

Where did you get those stickers ?

Re: Ride of my Dreams, Winter Ride to Uttarakhand !

Beautiful Kaydee, wonderfully narrated and a tantalizing set of pictures to compliment. Spectacular feat, to say the least!
Looking forward to the Haridwar part.

Re: Ride of my Dreams, Winter Ride to Uttarakhand !

Absolutely love this shot... Kaydee sir... The write ups are so well mixed with facts and narrative... As always going crazy with this tlog... Great ride bro - so much of life experienced.

Way to go.

Subscribed and stuck here waiting for the ride ahead...

Lucknow - Haridwar

Day 3(counting the riding days only)

*Detailed road conditions at the end of this day.Road conditions:
Lucknow - Bareilly - Moradabad - Najibabad - Haridwar
__________________________________________________ _____________
Lucknow-Sitapur : 4 lane proper highway.

Sitapur - Bareilly : 2 lane roads, sugarcane trucks everywhere, lots of bumpy patches and sudden potholes. Have to enter Bareilly city.

Bareilly - Moradabad : first 50-60 kms again a 4 lane fast highway. Rest ok roads. 4 laning work in most of the parts till Moradabad.

Moradabad - Kotwal - Najibabad bypass : good smooth pleasant tarmac. Can maintain 80+ easily.

Najibabad - Haridwar : first 20 kms bad patches. potholes. But as soon as we cross the Uttarakhand border great 2 lane roads.



The teaser pic for the next day :

Haridwar - Dhanolti - Mussoorie - Haridwar! Snow on the roads.

Day 4

Route : Haridwar - Dehradun - Mussoorie - Dhanolti and back to Haridwar : 245 kms
View of JayPee properties in Mussoorie.
Road Conditions :
All ok roads, not great, some bumpy patches here and there. Ultimate corners while riding up Mussoorie, in love with them.
Bikers be careful with the lean near the end.. 5-6 kms before Mussoorie, square manhole covers on the roads, not on the same level, may upset the line of the bike.

Mussoorie - Dhanolti : Amazing landscape, Lower Himalayan ranges can be seen. a few snow capped maountains too. BUT BUT BUT because of snowfall , thin layer of ice on the brown road. Be very very steady while crossing these. Saw a car skid and hit the inner edge.


Next day was the Mundan ceremony which gave an opportunity to add Uttarakhand to my ride. Another Hill Nainital and riding in -1 degrees in my next post.

Haridwar - Nainital - Lucknow

Day 5 - Most Amazing Sunset of 2013

Route: Haridwar - Dhampur - Kashipur - Bajpur- Nainital: 255kms
*Road updates at the end of Day 5 and Day 6.

Day 6 : the Slush Affair

Route: Nainital - Haldwani - Kichha - Bareilly - Lucknow : 390 kms

When we got up we got to know, it not only rained, it snowed early morning, and the current temperature was -1 degrees with chilled winds outside. Went to get my bike from the central parking area and forgot the gloves. Bike cranked in one go with choke. In 2 mins the bike was ready. My hands froze in those 2 kms and 5 mins of riding. Stopped the bike in front of the hotel and immediately placed my hands on the engine. It was cozy. Got the gloves , and got fully geared up soon to leave for Lucknow.

Some photos of the place before leaving.




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We took the Haldwani route from there, again a nice set of corners. We saw a valley on the way with a river flowing down. Had to stop to appreciate the view.


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Next stop was Haldwani, and then we asked around for Bareilly. The roads from Haldwani to Bareilly were the most challenging in this whole trip. As I mentioned it had rained the previous night, and all the dust roads had become skiddy slush roads. With uneven stones lying here and there. This condition continued for 60kms which we covered in a little more than 2 hours. The only good thing was the countryside, lush green fields on the sides and a railway track following us through the whole part.








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After reaching Bareilly the route was same as ours onward journey, but it got dark by Shahjahapur and that changed everything. Was following a car and did a mistake of fixating my eyes on it. It took a sudden diversion and my mind was late to react, I hit the brakes but still entered the under construction part of roads, just to stop in time. If I had braked 2 secs later, it could have been a serious crash. Talked to myself then and there, which I generally do after every mistake I make on the road. Rode carefully to the next stop which was Maigalganj, the place for famous gulab jamuns. Had some 5-6 gulab jamuns and 2 hot samosas to satisfy my hunger. And waited for an hour for the family in the car to catch up. Left Maigalganj at around 9pm , the fog intensified after crossing sitapur, but the four laned highway was a savior. Reached Lucknow by midnight on 31st Dec, what a start to the New Year.


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Road Condition :
Haridwar - Dhampur - Kashipur - Bajpur- Nainital - Haldwani - Kichha - Bareilly - Lucknow
__________________________________________________ _________________
Haridwar Dhampur same old story. Just after Kashipur very bad roads for 10-12 kms, after bajpur smooth run till Nainital, again lovely corners, but mild traffic, due to new years i guess.
Snowfall in Nainital, next day morning rode at -1 degrees. DSG Primal gloves were not enough. Need to have good winter gloves.

Nainital - Haldwani : Love happens. Very well maintained roads. Equivalent to Kashedi and the Sultan Bathery roads.

Did a mistake of taking the Bareilly route from Haldwani, no roads for 55-60 km. Took a little more than 2 hours to cover that stretch. But it was fun on the bike


As I had next three days for rest , got my bike ready for the return journey. I did not want to take the exact same route. I knew it was the best, fastest route but I needed to change it even for a bit. Asked some highway kings about it, they all advised me against using the Jabalpur route. I was going through google maps and saw that I can cover Khajuraho , it would just be a detour of 100-150 kms. And it was decided.

Re: Haridwar - Nainital - Lucknow

Wow!! An amazingly put travelogue. Wonderful set of pics.
Waiting for the Khajuraho part. Keep it coming!!


Cheers
AP

Re: Haridwar - Nainital - Lucknow

Day 7 – Back breaking ride and Khajuraho

Route: Lucknow – Kanpur – Hamirpur – Mahoba - Khajuraho – Chattarpur – Sagar: 520kms

The riding day was back, after three days of rest and full on heavy meals all three times, it was the time to hit the road again, to talk to the bike and myself.

Started my ride early morning by 5am , reached Kanpur by 6:20 am and then took a diversion towards Hamirpur, the roads started deteriorating from there on, slowly the two lane road turned into a broken roller coaster track for a bike. A villager helped me and showed me another way, where the condition was better but it was a 1 way village road. If a truck/bus comes from opposite side, we need to go off the road to make way. This NH86 has been in this condition since a very long time, and roads like this make me appreciate what we have in Karnataka.




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The pukka mud roads and loose gravel for the most part of the ride in the first half. After Mahoba, the roads till Khajuraho were potholed badly and I was wondering if this is the situation of the roads near a very famous tourist center, what would it be like in other parts of MP. Reached Khajuraho with a very strict agenda. Had 90 mins to spend there and then move on to Sagar as I had no idea of the road conditions for the route chosen for this day.

Clicked some photos in the Western group of temples, Khajuraho. Can’t upload all of them here, as the obscenity policy might be used against me. Just uploading the wide shots of the temple compound.


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This temple had three different type of domes, and is said to be constructed quite later than all other surrounding temples.


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Meet Mr. Dixit, the Government of India-licensed guide at Khajuraho.
I was entering Khajuraho, after a tiring ride, with just 90 mins to spend in the city, saw this man on his splendor, asked him for a few directions and I learned about the place in a short time.
As I was just there for 90 mins he did not charge me anything. And also arranged a place to keep my bike and the luggage mounted on it safe.

Mr. D : Aaram se jaana, waise kitna deti hai ?
Me : 32-35kmpl, agar bhagate hai to.
Mr. D : Baap re , bohot paisa lag jaata hoga.
Me : Haan uncle, petrol bhi har din mehnga hota ja rha hai.
Mr. D : Waise karte kya ho bike chalane k alawa ?
Me : Software Engineer hu uncle, IT company me kaam karta hu.
Mr. D : Bas fir kaha paiso ki kami . Waved good bye and shouted dobara aana to yaad karna


The ride from Khajuraho till Chattarpur and a little further was all good with smooth roads, I saw a small trail to take the bike to this place. Took the bike to the top, and got down for clicking. Suddenly saw 2 wild pigs coming towards my bike, I was afraid that my bike would fall, a villager helped me to shooo them away. Got the bike to the base for this click. I had to click a pic of this place.


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After this point, the roads suddenly turned to the worse, all patches , potholes, and loose gravel. Saw a beautiful dusty sunset as I was approaching Sagar, there was minimal traffic and the roads pretty much belonged to me only.




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Reached Sagar by 6 pm and got into the first hotel I saw next to the road. I was actually tired that day, the most tired I had been in the 7 days of riding that was done. I cannot feel my bums, the back was giving me some troubles. Ate some quick snack and lied down for a small nap, got up directly at 4:30 am next day.

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You can get it at any stickering shop, I got it done near Marathahalli.

Thanks bro. Just 2 days of log remaining.

Thanks again, only 2 days of log remaining.

Thanks a lot , Khajuraho part is up above.

Guys I have posted this log in True Wanderers 3.0 , here : http://www.truewanderers.in/travelogues/entry/144.html

If you feel I deserve the vote please do so, you can vote twice. (Mobile and FB).

Thanks a lot!

Re: Haridwar - Nainital - Lucknow

great journey...lovely pics
nice narration too

Re: Ride of my Dreams, Winter Ride to Uttarakhand !

Wonderful narration bro...being an NS owner I can certainly understand that this would have being an amazing trip for you...before going to leh-ladakh...this is one trip I would like to do from my home town(mumbai)...

Helmets off to you sirji...

Sent from my LG-P765 using xBhp Connect mobile app

Re: Ride of my Dreams, Winter Ride to Uttarakhand !

Nice pics there mate!! ANd wondefully put together, with all the small details in it.
Nothing beats a ride back to your hometown and birthplace .

Monsoon ride in August 2013 and Winter ride in Uttarakhand, add to that the Naked bros , should be more than sheer coincidence .