Part 4 — Mt Abu and sleeping in the open in Bear territory
This is a part of a series of blog posts about our bike trip to Kashmir from Kerala. The travelogue is split into several blogs. You can find the intro and the link to all blogs here
Day 7(21/04/2017)
Valsad — Unjha
Distance: 478km
ODO: 2435km
Day 7 was completely on Highways. Even though it was one of the longest rides, we expected that we would cover a lot more distance.
We covered 200kms in the first 2.5 hours before we stopped for lunch. After about another 100kms, we started feeling sleepy and stopped to take a quick nap.
When we started after that, the road was burning into our eyes. It was really hot. So we stopped for an early tea after another 60kms. We passed through Ahmedabad city and stopped at the walkway near the Sabarmati river to watch the sunset.
While waiting there, a guy stopped near us in a car and shouted, “Aliyanmaare evidunna?” (Translation: “Bros, where are you from”)Always happy to see a Malayali when you’re in a different part of the country. Continued the journey and crossed the Tropic of Cancer.
When it was dark, we stopped at a petrol station, but they did not allow us to pitch the tent. It was our first rejection. So we ate dinner from a nearby dhaba and kept going and found another one. The guy there agreed before we even had to tell the entire story, we just said we wanted to sleep there for the night and he agreed. When we were pitching the tent, he came and asked something, which we did not understand. We told him something in Hindi, which he didn’t understand. Then he left and came back with another guy and asked us to repeat everything to him. So Sree started with our by-hearted sentence in our own Hindi “Hi, we wanted to stay here for the night. Hum Kerala se aaye he, Kashmir jaane hey. Aaj rath yaha sona chaahiye. Sone ke bath subah jaayega”. The guy after hearing all this, paused for a moment and asked in our native language “Naattil evideya?” (Translation: Where in Kerala are you coming from?”), Kannan Chettan, He was a Malayali from Kollam.
Day 8(22/04/2017)
Unjha — Mount Abu — Guru Shikhar
Distance: 169km
ODO: 2604km
When we woke up the next day, the guys at the petrol station made Tea for us. Then the owner of the pump came and talked to us about our trip. He said he had seen us the day before at Mehsan. Later, after we freshened up and packed our stuff, Kannan Chettan called us up and bought us breakfast. When we were about to leave, we noticed that one of Sree’s LED lights was broken. On seeing that, people all around came ahead offering help. One guy went to his shop and took some tools and a clamp and in no time fixed it for us.
It was something that we experienced throughout the trip. What we see in the media is not the real picture. It is entirely different. People are ready to step out to help us when we are in need. Although there are some rare people who try to loot us, they are not in many. Most of the people we met were happy to see us and offer any sort of help that they can.
We left after thanking everyone there.
The fuel station we stayed at didn’t have Petrol, so we stopped soon for refuelling. When we were refuelling, some teenagers came by and started posing near the bike and taking pictures. Sree happily offered them his shades and they took some photos. In the meantime, some other people got interested in us and came around asking questions about where we were from and where we were heading.
Our next destination was Mount Abu. When we started climbing the Mount, it looked dry, but as we climbed further up, trees started getting greener. We went straight to Nakki Lake, a beautiful lake covered by mountains on all sides.
There was an option for boating, but we didn’t find it very enticing. So we walked around the lake while Sree was hunting for Pokémon in his Pokémon Go App. Next, we visited the Dilwara Jain Temple. It’s built completely of white marble. Beautiful craftwork done on the marble makes it a ‘must visit’ place. Later, we went to the Sunset point and watched the sunset.
Now we needed a place to spend the night. We thought we’ll camp at a place that can offer a good view at sunrise. We asked around for such places but couldn’t find any. We asked the police guy we met at Valsad, but we didn’t get any reply. We lost hope and decided to set up the tent at some petrol station. Just when we were about to ask, the police guy replied, and he suggested ‘Guru Shikhar’. When we looked in the maps, it was 16kms away. We were confused at first whether we should go or not but later decided to go for it.
The ride to Guru Shikhar was scary. It was through the forest, and the road was narrow and winding. We knew we were going up a hill. We expected to see a small town when we reach, but we didn’t. The map took us directly to an Infrared observatory station of PRL. We got stopped by the security guards and asked us to turn off the lights instantly. Since it was a space observatory, the light from our bikes might disturb it. We asked them if there were any place to camp, for which they said no and asked us to go back. We didn’t know what to do. It had started becoming cold and going back that 16km in the pitch darkness was unthinkable. We drove back a couple of km when we reached what appeared to be the Guru Shikhar Temple. We saw a light at a height and decided to check there if there was someplace for us to set up our tent. By that time we didn’t care about good views, we just wanted someplace to sleep.
The source of light was a small shop which was about to close. When we asked if we can pitch our tent somewhere there, they said it was not safe because there are chances of Bear attacks. That gave us chills. For a moment we didn’t know what to do. Then the guy at the shop said, we can sleep right there with them if we want to. To that, we agreed right away. He was so caring. He asked if we had dinner and offered to make roti for us. We declined since we had already had dinner. They kept telling us that there were military offices around, so we don’t need to worry about anything. We sat there while he closed down his shop and did the daily chores. After he was done, he told us pointing to another guy there, “He has a shop at the viewpoint at the top. It is the highest point in Rajasthan. If you wish, you can go with him and sleep in that shop.” Boy oh boy, how this turned out! 5 minutes ago, we were scared as shit and didn’t have a place to sleep. And now, we had the opportunity to sleep at the highest point in Rajasthan. We were super excited, We took just our sleeping bags and some extra blankets and climbed 300+ steps with him to reach the top viewpoint. From there the view was mesmerizing. We couldn’t have asked for anything better than that.
He showed us inside his shop and asked us to make ourselves comfortable. We asked him if he was scared of Bears. He said in a calm tone, no need to be afraid or anything, sometimes the Bear comes, take some Mango Juice from the shop and goes. If we don’t annoy them, they won’t harm us.
However, Sree being the adventurous guy he is, asked if we can sleep in the open and to that he said, if you’re not scared, you can. No problem with it. And so we did!
It was a freezing night. The wind was gushing right at our face, and we couldn’t sleep. We turned around and that helped a bit. It was hard to fall asleep partly with the excitement and partly with the fear of a Bear attack and partly due to the cold. However, due to the day’s tiredness, we slowly fell asleep.
Day 9(23/04/2017)
Guru Shikhar — Mount Abu — Jaisalmer
Distance: 508km
ODO: 3112km
Thankfully no bears were thirsty (or hungry) that night. We woke up in one piece the next day! We woke up at 5.30 hearing the alarm to see the sunrise. The sunrise as beautiful, relaxing and refreshing as always. It gives you special energy that you carry throughout the day.
We had the place to ourselves to enjoy the sunrise. After we got freshened up, we drank tea and ate noodles from the shop there. In the meantime, some crowd started showing up. A sadhu was sitting there drinking tea. He was young. Probably in his late 20s or early 30s. We were talking to two guys who came to visit the place from Ahmedabad. They were thrilled to hear that we slept there. While we were talking about other stuff, somehow we came across partying and Goa. Suddenly the sadhu sitting there made a pro comment about partying in Goa. We were like “What!” for a second and he repeated, “You cannot take partying out of Goans. If you make rules to stop it, they will do House Parties” Now we thought we lost our senses. Then he continued speaking. Apparently, he was a party lover born in Goa. He worked in the Event Management Industry before he quit all that and went to Haridwar. There he met another Sadhu and joined them. Now he lives as a Sadhu at Guru Shikhar Temple. Both of us and the guys from Ahmedabad all sat around him hearing his stories. After some time he stood up saying its time for the Pooja and went. We were all still in shock!.
After we packed our sleeping bags, we went to the Temple. We later thanked all the guys who helped us and left with a whole lot of stories to tell and a lot more to come.
We started off to Jaisalmer. After a few hundred kilometres, the terrain started to change. We were seeing what appears to be a semi-desert. There were trees here and there, but overall it was dry and sandy. Slowly, the temperature started rising, and it was really hard to ride. Hot air was gushing through the pores in our jackets. We stopped here and there to cool ourselves down. One thing we noticed is that all around Rajasthan at every junction, people keep some water in earthen pots for passers-by to drink. They also cover it with a wet cloth to keep it cold. Sun was burning in from one side and we used our handkerchief to cover the side of the helmet to protect our face. When the hot atmosphere was taking a toll on us, we saw some women carrying water pots on their heads and walking along the highway with not even any shade in sight. As time passed, the burning sun decided to give us a break, but the heat was still on! We saw a few wild camels roaming here and there chilling themselves in the heat and confirming that we are indeed in a desert. Since we were planning to spend the next day at Jaisalmer, we had planned to take a room there. And, since we didn’t have to spend time pitching the tent we decided to hit Jaisalmer even if we were a bit late. We reached Jaisalmer by around 10:30. The first impression of the place was amazing. The whole place looked royal. Maybe it was because of the golden colour of the stone, or that, all the doors and windows have a palace like decoration on them. It was different from what we had seen. We stopped at a small restaurant for dinner. When we took our seat, they moved a big fan from the other side of the room to our side. When we ordered food, they only gave us one plate. After wondering for some time what we were supposed to do, when we looked around, we saw people eating from the same plate. It was something we saw around Rajasthan. People just pour the curry on the plate and all of them ate from it together. We joined them in their culture. Next, we found a lodge nearby. It was our first 500+ km day and also one of the hottest. We were thoroughly exhausted, so we drifted off to sleep even before we knew it.
