Friday, January 10, 2014

Day 3 : 7 Jan 2014 : Malia to Dhrangadra: 76 kms

Today was a very tough day. It took us almost forever to cover the distance of 76 kms. We left Motibarar around 6.15 and by the time we reached the highway and unloaded our cycles, it was 7am. Started cycling at 7.15 am and reached our destination only at 4.30 pm, that is 9.5 hours of cycling. The reason for this was strong headwinds almost the entire distance and it was very tough cycling against it.

We initially cycled on the NH, but very soon turned off it to get onto the State Highway, going east. This is when the headwinds began and did not stop till we stopped ourselves. Over and above that we had 4 punctures on 2 bikes. Small pebbles, thorns and small metal staple-pin like things, these are made our lives miserable today... Fixed the final 2 punctures ourselves after we came to our destination. We figured we do a better job than the puncture repair people on the road and we were carrying a puncture repair kit.

The good part of today was the ride itself. We are all now very comfortable with our respective cycles. The seats have gotten higher and the handles also have gotten higher and all our aches and pains have almost stopped.

So far each day has brought us a totally different view. Today brought us Windmills. For long stretches on both sides of the road, we could see these huge things, slowly turning in the wind. Once the windmills stopped, the cotton fields began and they were interspersed with bright yellow mustard fields (We even managed to take a few pictures next to the ‘sarson ke khet’).

All in all a good day, though long.

Beautiful sunrise...

The team starting cycling after a small break

Some of us on a Chakda / Jugaad :)

Next to the mustard fields

Our truck driver and his helpers...

Sugarcane!!!!!! They were so sweet...

Deepa fixing the punctures...

No comments:

Post a Comment