I was getting restless, yet again. I knew the exact way to get rid of that itchy feeling. It had to be yet another solo bike trip that i had to undertake to quench my thirst. A number of times earlier also, before starting a solo trip, and even while riding my bike all alone up in the hills, I have tried to figure out why the hell do I have to do it. What’s the whole point behind, taking risk of travelling all alone, on a bike, in unexplored areas. Believe me people, I haven’t been blessed with the enlightenment on this one as yet!. I often wonder, may be it is because of sheer love of biking (bulleteering...to be precise) in the hills, or may be it is because of the restless soul, that wants to explore, or may be it is because of that adventurous lil dude inside me, who wants to do exciting stuff all the time!! God knows what it is, but what ever it is, believe me, it is so damn compelling!
Anyways, to cut it short, I kicked off yet again, on a solo bulletering trip. The route selected by me this time was new for me for almost first 500 odd kms. I am sure not many would have tried a solo on such a crazy route. Anyways, the route selected was, Dehradun-Mussorrie-Chakrata-Tiuni-Hatkoti-Theog-Narkanda-Karsog-Chindi-Mandi-Macleodganj-Pathankot-Jammu. In all, a lil excess of 800 odd kms. A number of times while riding on those long, never ending dusty, non existent roads, I really had solid self doubt, God! I must be actually crazy to be doing this! The roads, were non existent, the areas were one of the remotest, with vehicles passing you at the rate of one/hr, hardly a soul to be seen and God save you if your bull decided to go FLAT in middle of no where! To top it all, I ended up travelling well into darkness almost everyday of my riding. So you see I had everything going for a perfect, getting-screwed-big-time kinda scenario. But I guess, as the saying goes, "luck favours the brave". Sure as hell, it favoured me BIG TIME! Not even one puncture in the entire excursion. I guess that explains the luck part quite well. Ya another one, I reached home as a single intact entity. That’s a lot of luck to ask for.
Nevertheless, people, If you have not tried solo bulletering in hills of Himachal Pradesh, you surely are missing something, Big Time. Forget about Shimla, forget Manali and even Macleaodganj for that matter. Stretch a lil beyond Shimla and go for, Theog, Narkanda, Hatu peak, Karsog valley. Try riding through interior roads of Himachal, east of Sundernagar -Mandi axis. You will witness, some of the most pristine and breath taking views. The interior, unfrequented villages of himachal, the virgin beauty of the surroundings and the villages, will submerge your entire existence into soothing peace and calm. You may never want to leave the spot, that you stand at, watching such sights. What a pace of life! You would suddenly start yearning to retire and just come and stay in one of these villages forever. Nothing really seems to be moving around here, the time also seems to be, too lazy to bother about ticking around here. Everything just becomes so relaxed, quiet and calm. Typical of OM Shanti, shanti...shanti.... Anyways, that was about the philo part of it. Now the other parts, well seriously, I am talking about parts, the body parts! Take for example, the ass that went missing. Just because it went too numb to be even make its presence felt. The shoulders, that felt as if they had been carrying a 200 kg Enfield on them, all of the 800 odd kms. The knees, they kinda make you feel guilty as if you forgot all about them, after keeping them in a refrigerator! So damn stiff! Ah the back, lets just not talk about it. Well people, I still say, its a very small price to pay for the fun the whole biking(Bulleteering...i meant) thing can be.
Ok people, there is another interesting angle to this whole solo-bulleteering-high-up-in-the-hills thingie. That is the interesting people that you are likely to come across en route. Like in this one small lil village market, Tiuni (sounds French, but lies in UK..Uttrakhand i mean) I came across this woman who runs a dhabba there. I was kinda all rattled up n tired and had decided to plonk myself in a small lil hotel in the same market. So before I went to the hotel, I felt like having a small cup of tea at this lady's dhaba (Nothing to do with the lady guys, it was just the tea I was interested in). I asked this lady, "maam can I have a cup of tea"..of course in hindi. She replies curtly, nahi hai! Koool....anyways, dono what happened but she asked me, kitne cup chahiye? One only..I said. Lil afraid and hopeful, I still asked her, kya dudh patti milegi ji? Her reaction was...Dudh patti!!!? Soch lo, dus rupeye ki milegi...Phew guys, at that moment I just could not stop smiling and just stopped short of laughing out. I was so amazed at the innocence of this lady and so touched by the simplicity of the life in these remote villages. Nevertheless, I had told her that I had no problem with a tenner for a cup of dudh patti. Few mins later, she hands me over a steel ka big glass full of pure local milk boiled with tea leaves and sugar. I just smiled knowing well, how small is a tenner for that kinda purity and taste. Guys, irony of the whole thing smiled at me, when two days later, I was paying a twenty for a stupid cup of machine wali espresso coffee, at Macleaodganj.
Besides, coming across this amazing lady, I interacted with a couple of school going girls in a remote village in Himachal, while I was enjoying my another cup of dudh patti and was trying to give my rattled butt a break. Well these girls, walk twelve kms a day, for going to school. That was some effort to get literate in 21st century! Few more questions to them and I was a lil more wiser about the life in these villages. Believe me people, there is a lot to feel jealous of. Yes to get mesmerised too, I am talking about the beauty. You got it right, I am talking about beautiful women around these areas. You stand a very high chance of forgetting to watch the road altogether. These village beauties can give a run for their money to almost all Bollywood actresses, that too without even applying a tiny winy line of mascara or whatever gamut of things they plaster their faces with in the tinsel town. Anyways, people, believe me, I tried a lot of inconspicuous safe ways to capture such natural rare beauties through the lens of my camera, but my mobile camera fell way short of the requirement. I couldn’t take the risk of being too obvious in clicking those pics, lest the subject became wary and decided to chop my head off. Mind you, most of these innocuous looking village beauties roam around sporting a draati (Sickle! its sharp!). So, word of advice here, either, use a expensive long zoom camera and shoot keeping the safety distance in mind, or else just watch these beauties and try to commit as much to your photographic memory as possible(exactly what I did). Never....never try and get adventurous around these places, you might end up getting warmed up in a cauldron! Just on the lighter side.
Johannes Osterrath, was the name. I knew I would have a tough time trying to pronounce it correctly (so I just didn’t take a chance). A german giant I met at Macleodganj. I am no less a giant myself by Indian standards, but guys this dude was of German make, I guess you understand what I mean. Standing next to him, I looked like a lil dwarf straight out of Snowhite drama. Size besides, we struck up a great convo. Just like me, this dude was on a solo exploration trip, minus the bike of course. We spoke a lot about pros of travelling alone and we unanimously concluded that solos rock! He explained to me what "Das Auto" means. "The Car", he had said. Remember hearing that in Volkswagen advertisement?? He explained to me how there are three articles in German language, 'de', 'da' and 'das', which mean 'she', 'he' and 'a thing'. Anyway guys, my aim is not to start a German language lessons here. It is just to justify solo travelling I guess. You can never come across interesting people, when travelling in a group. You don’t have the luxury of that kinda space for interesting random people to step in and interact with you. Anyways, on the whole me and that German giant, had a nice convo going for close to three early morning-sunbasking- peanut butter- toast n coffee hours. At around two in the afternoon, after five days of rollercoaster of a trip n 600 kms, it was time to head home, some 200 kms away. My heart grew heavy, but my soul and my 'Braveheart' both knew that there were more solos for both of us...till then..it was..asta la vista..
