Re: Pedalling Dhoom from Doon

It's 'DEHRADUN'. Why didn't you notify us, we could have joined too.

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Re: Pedalling Dhoom from Doon

Good... Ride pics plz ....

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Re: Pedalling Dhoom from Doon

Take a bow sir!

I did Nandi hills once and gave up long distance cycling since. My outings nowadays are <40 kms. Need to take some inspiration and start pedaling.

Re: Pedalling Dhoom from Doon

On Thursday night I got a message from my cycling buddy to do a Sunday morning breakfast ride. Woke up early on Friday for a photoshoot and decided to do a weekend ride instead, since i had the Saturday off.

Went back home by afternoon, packed my bags and chucked it on my bike and started pedalling to Delhi from Gurgaon. And then the May Thunderstorms started rolling in. Pedalling into a headwind is never fun, even less fun when it is just the start of your trip to nowhere land.

Met my riding partner (hereon referred to as The Hobbit, due to physical resemblance!) enroute and headed out to Kashmere Gate. The plan was to catch a bus to Kotdwar and climb up to Lansdowne and if energy permits to Tarkeshwar.

At ISBT we packed the bikes with bubble paper, duct tape, and some cloth bags. Wrapped up the shifters, levers, cables and derailers.

Walking through the security check while carrying a cycle through the Beep Beep thingy with the CRPF cursing us for damaging their 'state-of-the-art' security equipment was quite an amusing experience. The Hobbit not being used to technology or for that matter civilization tried to ride his cycle down the escalator!!!! Fortunately the CRPF personnel didn't shoot the non-human moving object on sight and led him by hand to the ramp, meant for luggage! Even while descending the ramp, The Hobbit tried racing The Monk only to lose!

At the bus terminal, we were told that the bus for Kotdwar had just left and the next one would be in a couple of hours. All this information i gleaned while standing in one place while The Hobbit roamed the entirety of the terminal and came back with the exact same information. If you have watched The Lord of the Rings, you would know that Hobbits love to walk and are extremely talkative! Well this Hobbit was no different.

Waiting for the bus in the middle of a mass of humanity was quite taxing, so we thought we would catch a bus to Shimla instead, where buses were running more frequently. Unfortunately most of Delhi was travelling in the buses to Shimla, and when the Dilli ka banda goes one way, i go the other!! We did have our fair share of entertainment as well, as we waited.

Delhi boy trying to impress Delhi girl by speaking in English, "Myself getting you some cokes". Now say that with a delhi accent

Most of the human traffic comprised of love birds of the non feathered variety, giving each other coy looks, as a weekend of *ahem ahem* was planned. We don't talk about t we only do it in copious quantities to increase our wonderful population. All the old uncles and aunties around were giving them dirty looks. Whether because they were jealous or angry, am not sure!!! You young people should not be getting UP to any monkey business in my hometown. Go to your own village to the dirty deeds!

After a number of bottles of Slice and water, the bus finally reached at a very random time of the night. Like rats jumping out of a sinking ship, humans did it in reverse while jumping into the bus. Climbing onto a moving bus tyre to get in through the window is not my idea of fun. Especially considering am too big to fit into the tiny windows of 95. In the 30 seconds that it took me to convince the hobbit to climb through the window, the bus was full. Damn the bloody population of this country. Can't even get two prime seats in a roadways bus without an AC. What is the world coming to!

Funnily, all the UK buses go either to Dehradun or to Haridwar. Not being the holy joes, we decided to go to the Doon instead. Found a relatively empty bus, got a couple of seats and it was time to load the bikes on the roof. The Hobbit being from Bollywood land decided to do a Rajnikanth and flicked a cigarette between his lips and climbed the bus in one leap trying to impress all the pretty ladies in the surrounding. I meekly picked up the bikes on the ground and passed it to him on the roof. The Hobbit showing off full 'Heropanti' decided to lift the cycle with one hand, as the other was busy holding his cigarette. Rest assured all the women were suitably impressed. Unfortunately for him, all the women were old aunties eating Pan Masala and checking out his cyclist legs

After securing the cycles firmly we jumped into the bus and finally the journey started in earnest. And with every pothole our collective hearts jumped into our respective mouths, as we didn't hear the cycles banging on the roof. Either we had done such an awesome job of tying the bikes that it didn't move, or the bikes had already fallen off!

The conductor told us that the bus normally reaches destination by 4 AM, but we might reach a couple of hours later, due to a bad traffic jam in Meerut. For once we were happy to have traffic. But like all my plans, things never go to plan! And this is what happened -



The bus broke down in the Dacoit land of Ghaziabad. Since The Hobbit was wearing shorts, i was worried that he might get molested by the desparados of GZB. We tried push starting the bus to no avail. We finally decided to get our cycles off the roof of the bus and ride back to Delhi, since we were just 30-40 km away from home. Fortunately for us along came a drunkard of the local theka and he promptly repaired the bus within a couple of minutes. I must say, quite enterprising these outlaws are!!!

We got back into the bus and reached our first destination for the night. The Meerut Jam. Where we welcomed with a variety of mosquitoes. Its not like the govt sucks enough blood of ours, by increasing customs from 10 to 45% on imported cycles. But the Meerut ke mushoor mosquitoes also joined in the fun. Just to make sure that no part of the body was spared, we happily covered 1 whole km in an hour.

Finally in the morning woke up in a stationary bus to realize that we are going no where. The front tyre had a puncture. My prior puncture repairing experience had been with cycles, motorcycles and cars. For the first time i got to repair a bus tyre, even if it was just helping out with the stepney. When it weighs a ton, it is an achievement! We finally reached Doonberg at 8 in the morning, where The Hobbit, who is not used to civilisation decided to change his clothes in the middle of the road. Not a pleasant sight for sure. Even the dogs ran away in fear.

Long Post, so you can go TLDR

More coming up after the break. Well i did not use this much energy when cycling as typing!

----consecutive posts auto-merged-----

I know

Because i came to know that we were going to Doonland, 5 minutes before we left!

All in due course To take pictures you need energy, when cycling, that is one thing that you don't have !!!

Haa. Wait to read the rest, you will send a kick with a size 12 boot instead of a bow

Nandi is pretty darn difficult from what i have heard.

If you need some inspiration in 'peddling' as well then let me know, will provide the necessary resources

Re: Pedalling Dhoom from Doon

Respect :thumbup:
Keep the pics and log flowing...

Four Wheels Move The Body.....
Two Wheels Set You Exploring....

Re: Pedalling Dhoom from Doon

An outstanding achievement of pedalling with your fingers on the typewriter Keep on writing (y)