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“A little rainfall heats up the atmosphere further and a bike trip to a lush landscape leaves you craving for more”.
The hangover of biking in the picturesque landscape of Bhutan refused to let the motophilic folks at BBSR live, as mere mortals and another bike trip became quite inevitable. It was not long before Leh-ladakh emerged as the next probable destination and May 1st week was subsequently ear marked as the tentative tripping week. But as luck would have it, Arnab got a transfer to Bangalore, Soumya got down with personal commitments and thus my dream of driving on the tarmac of Leh was blown to smithereens. Luckily, lady luck smiled yet again and Sunil came up with a plan to drive to Sikkim. This was followed by a salvo of emails confirming participation by individuals coupled with meetings at the CCD. The stage was set for another roadtrip but again, there came a twist. Sunil had to leave for Bahrain and now the tourer strength narrowed down to 4.
As they say ”Adventures are better left unplanned” but I took up the part of planning this adventure trip. The D day was coming closer as we prepped up our bikes in all possible ways we could. While Somnath lured the service centre guys with a hefty tip and a box of sweets after successful completion of the trip, deepak tricked the Yamaha svc in-charge by downloading some popular custom paint designs for R15 bikes and even promised to get my bike painted the next month. On one hand, I used to visit the service centre at the slightest pretext, Rishi was quite confident about his bike’s performance and just went in for the standard maintenance. Apart from taking a crash course on standard bike maintenance, each one of us were finding ways of beating the scorching heat that we would be driving in. As our nights turned from peaceful to sleepless, the D day arrived.
Day 0…..Destination Mecheda
It was the 23rd of Apriland the morning seemed more beautiful than ever. I hurried to the nearest petrol bunk for tanking up my bike for the big ride. At the petrol bunk I met Deepak who greeted me with a big grin and it was quite obvious as this was my first trip to the mountains and a second one for deepak. The trip was slated to start at 1 PM IST and we planned to leave office by 12 noon. While at office we got a distress call from Yatishankar as he was concerned about our ride through Bankura which is a naxalite infested area. In no time, a small meeting was called at CCD and alternate routes were chalked out. After summing up the work at office we left for the day by 12 Noon.
It was 1 PM by the time we assembled at CSpur Petrol pump. Our attires invited weird expressions from the bystanders. After months of interaction here we are, 4 riders, ready to drive to Sikkim, for the experience of a lifetime : -
1. Somnath Chakraborty.
Bike:- Bajaj Platina(read “the legendary Platina” which had already raided Vizag and a sizeable portion of Orissa)
2. Avik Chakraborty.
Bike:- HH Karizma R
3. Rishikalpa Majumdar.
Bike:- Honda Unicorn
4. Deepak Singh.
Bike:- Yamaha R15(though a sports bike but had been ridden across the border to Bhutan )
The trip was flagged off by Soumya and after a brief photo session with him, we started.
As per plan, we were driving in a formation with Rishi leading the way and me trailing the group. We were cruising at a constant speed of 70 kmph on the highway, although Rishi used to clock 80 every now and then but with Somnath’s Platina catching up with us easily, we had no problems with that. After some 70kms of ride we could feel the weather easing up with the sun rays appearing less harsh. We were supposed to stop at Chandikhol but given the beautiful road condition we thought of extending our pit stop to Bhadrak. On the way to Bhadrak, we stopped at the roadside to sip some glucose water as per the golden rule for driving in the scorching Sun. After a brief chat session amongst us we sped off to Bhadrak. The trip was going great so far with no sign of stress amongst the riders with 120 odd kms on the tripmeter.
We were hopiing for a bit of sunshine but as they say"beware of what you wish for" and bhagan jab deta hai deta hai deta chappar fande. we realized it with in 50kms
By the time we reached Bhadrak, the sky had gone grey and we could sense an incoming downpour. I, out of concern for his camera being drenched in the rain, went to the nearest shop to get some plastic bags. The moment we were to start again I saw a couple of raindrops on my helmet visor. However, Deepak was still confident and told me that this was just a passing affair and there would be a drizzle at the most. But he was wrong! We hoped for a clody day and got rain ,It started raining cats and dogs and the entire group sped off in whatever speed they could achieve. I continued driving in the torrential rain as I had my cell phone in a plastic pouch. The road condition from Bhadrak to Balasore was the worst we had encountered so far and our plight was further accentuated by this heavy rainfall. I continued driving carefully hoping to find my group on my way. After an hour of torture, the rainfall ceased and I reached Balasore as well. But I could not find anyone. I drove non stp and after a couple of calls to others we finally met at a point on the highway that led to Kharagpur. After some rest we carried on but this time we chose to stick together as it was already dark.
The road to Kharagpur was impeccable in terms of smoothness and lighting. We absolutely had no trouble driving in the dark. After a couple of hours we reached Kharagpur and it was already 8PM. We decided to have some snacks at a roadside eatery. While we were having the so called refreshments, the locals flocked at my bike with people calling out probable names for it like modified Pulsar, Fazer etc to name a few. We seized the opportunity to post our query regarding the way leading to Mecheda as we were not sure of finding any place to stay in Kharagpur for the night. As per the locals it would be wise to stay at Mecheda for the night as there were plenty of hotels there. So off we went for Mecheda. The silky road from Kharagpur continued and we cruised yet again with me leading the way. Although driving in the dark was not in our itinerary but we didn’t face any problem as I was leading the caravan and my Karizma was armed with night breaker halogens thanks to indeer bhai, and it was indeed a breaker for the darkness. By 10 PM we reached Mecheda and now we set off looking for a hotel. After a couple of bad lucks we found a hotel which had a dedicated parking space which was our first priority. But to our surprise we were bombarded with all sort of questions to the point that even our photo ids were sought and our intentions were asked. This was quite natural because sane people won’t dare driving all the way to Mecheda in this intolerable heat wave. After a bit of persuasion the hotel owner bought our reasoning and thus we parked our horses in the parking space. It was already 11:30 PM by the time we retired to our rooms. The thought of driving 500 odd kms the next day made us feel all the more tired and hit the sack soon.
Trip Meter Reading:- 373 km
The hangover of biking in the picturesque landscape of Bhutan refused to let the motophilic folks at BBSR live, as mere mortals and another bike trip became quite inevitable. It was not long before Leh-ladakh emerged as the next probable destination and May 1st week was subsequently ear marked as the tentative tripping week. But as luck would have it, Arnab got a transfer to Bangalore, Soumya got down with personal commitments and thus my dream of driving on the tarmac of Leh was blown to smithereens. Luckily, lady luck smiled yet again and Sunil came up with a plan to drive to Sikkim. This was followed by a salvo of emails confirming participation by individuals coupled with meetings at the CCD. The stage was set for another roadtrip but again, there came a twist. Sunil had to leave for Bahrain and now the tourer strength narrowed down to 4.
As they say ”Adventures are better left unplanned” but I took up the part of planning this adventure trip. The D day was coming closer as we prepped up our bikes in all possible ways we could. While Somnath lured the service centre guys with a hefty tip and a box of sweets after successful completion of the trip, deepak tricked the Yamaha svc in-charge by downloading some popular custom paint designs for R15 bikes and even promised to get my bike painted the next month. On one hand, I used to visit the service centre at the slightest pretext, Rishi was quite confident about his bike’s performance and just went in for the standard maintenance. Apart from taking a crash course on standard bike maintenance, each one of us were finding ways of beating the scorching heat that we would be driving in. As our nights turned from peaceful to sleepless, the D day arrived.
Day 0…..Destination Mecheda
It was the 23rd of Apriland the morning seemed more beautiful than ever. I hurried to the nearest petrol bunk for tanking up my bike for the big ride. At the petrol bunk I met Deepak who greeted me with a big grin and it was quite obvious as this was my first trip to the mountains and a second one for deepak. The trip was slated to start at 1 PM IST and we planned to leave office by 12 noon. While at office we got a distress call from Yatishankar as he was concerned about our ride through Bankura which is a naxalite infested area. In no time, a small meeting was called at CCD and alternate routes were chalked out. After summing up the work at office we left for the day by 12 Noon.
It was 1 PM by the time we assembled at CSpur Petrol pump. Our attires invited weird expressions from the bystanders. After months of interaction here we are, 4 riders, ready to drive to Sikkim, for the experience of a lifetime : -
1. Somnath Chakraborty.
Bike:- Bajaj Platina(read “the legendary Platina” which had already raided Vizag and a sizeable portion of Orissa)
2. Avik Chakraborty.
Bike:- HH Karizma R
3. Rishikalpa Majumdar.
Bike:- Honda Unicorn
4. Deepak Singh.
Bike:- Yamaha R15(though a sports bike but had been ridden across the border to Bhutan )
The trip was flagged off by Soumya and after a brief photo session with him, we started.
As per plan, we were driving in a formation with Rishi leading the way and me trailing the group. We were cruising at a constant speed of 70 kmph on the highway, although Rishi used to clock 80 every now and then but with Somnath’s Platina catching up with us easily, we had no problems with that. After some 70kms of ride we could feel the weather easing up with the sun rays appearing less harsh. We were supposed to stop at Chandikhol but given the beautiful road condition we thought of extending our pit stop to Bhadrak. On the way to Bhadrak, we stopped at the roadside to sip some glucose water as per the golden rule for driving in the scorching Sun. After a brief chat session amongst us we sped off to Bhadrak. The trip was going great so far with no sign of stress amongst the riders with 120 odd kms on the tripmeter.
We were hopiing for a bit of sunshine but as they say"beware of what you wish for" and bhagan jab deta hai deta hai deta chappar fande. we realized it with in 50kms
By the time we reached Bhadrak, the sky had gone grey and we could sense an incoming downpour. I, out of concern for his camera being drenched in the rain, went to the nearest shop to get some plastic bags. The moment we were to start again I saw a couple of raindrops on my helmet visor. However, Deepak was still confident and told me that this was just a passing affair and there would be a drizzle at the most. But he was wrong! We hoped for a clody day and got rain ,It started raining cats and dogs and the entire group sped off in whatever speed they could achieve. I continued driving in the torrential rain as I had my cell phone in a plastic pouch. The road condition from Bhadrak to Balasore was the worst we had encountered so far and our plight was further accentuated by this heavy rainfall. I continued driving carefully hoping to find my group on my way. After an hour of torture, the rainfall ceased and I reached Balasore as well. But I could not find anyone. I drove non stp and after a couple of calls to others we finally met at a point on the highway that led to Kharagpur. After some rest we carried on but this time we chose to stick together as it was already dark.
The road to Kharagpur was impeccable in terms of smoothness and lighting. We absolutely had no trouble driving in the dark. After a couple of hours we reached Kharagpur and it was already 8PM. We decided to have some snacks at a roadside eatery. While we were having the so called refreshments, the locals flocked at my bike with people calling out probable names for it like modified Pulsar, Fazer etc to name a few. We seized the opportunity to post our query regarding the way leading to Mecheda as we were not sure of finding any place to stay in Kharagpur for the night. As per the locals it would be wise to stay at Mecheda for the night as there were plenty of hotels there. So off we went for Mecheda. The silky road from Kharagpur continued and we cruised yet again with me leading the way. Although driving in the dark was not in our itinerary but we didn’t face any problem as I was leading the caravan and my Karizma was armed with night breaker halogens thanks to indeer bhai, and it was indeed a breaker for the darkness. By 10 PM we reached Mecheda and now we set off looking for a hotel. After a couple of bad lucks we found a hotel which had a dedicated parking space which was our first priority. But to our surprise we were bombarded with all sort of questions to the point that even our photo ids were sought and our intentions were asked. This was quite natural because sane people won’t dare driving all the way to Mecheda in this intolerable heat wave. After a bit of persuasion the hotel owner bought our reasoning and thus we parked our horses in the parking space. It was already 11:30 PM by the time we retired to our rooms. The thought of driving 500 odd kms the next day made us feel all the more tired and hit the sack soon.
Trip Meter Reading:- 373 km
. Kudos to my bad luck, I was a part of the planning commission, yet had to drag my sorry a$$ to Bahrain on work, while you were living my dream.
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