Hey this was fun !
That's what I thought after I had come back from the ride. All during the ride I was like "Oh Shit ! Oh Shit ! I am going to fall... "
The ride plan materialized all of a sudden. Abhimanyu's bike was finally not in the garage and rideable. He wanted an early 6am ride to some place near Sohna Road which got pushed to 7am. Knowing him I targetting 7am to leave from home. ETA given by Abhimanyu moved to 7:30am on the morning.
I reached the gurgaon toll first - and after a few mins which I used for photographing usual stuff - bike, the sun rising etc, these guys turn up. We headed out after a few mins. Felt good to meet them after ages!
We took an internal route through Gurgaon to reach Sohna road - which was pretty pathetic. No matter what the govt says that it is the Millenium city, the city roads are probably worse than a Gaon's road.
Near the BSF camp there is a road which goes off into the jungle. We plunged in. This lead us past the BSF encampment and up a hill, where the road just vanished. After a few mins we headed into the jungle. Saw quite a bit of wildlife here - peacocks, tree pies, bablers, parrots. What a contrast to the cacophony of traffic just an hour back! Lovely!
Sumeet asked to turn on a tracker - so we downloaded one on my phone as it was the one with the most charge. Seriously man - these guys dont even charge their phones or carry water before a ride. And they shrug it of as "we are bulleteers" ! :P
First we went to a babaji's temple - but then the decision was to just go and ride in the jungle first. So we headed away into the jungle.
Damn, this road was ... well... not a road. I was thinking this is more like a road where I would like to treck, but taking a plastic bike - i was sure that today either I will fall or some part of my bike will fall. We pushed on through thorn bushes and clinging grasses.
Finally we reached a place where there was a good view. Also we were a bit skeptical of whether the road goes on or not. Just a few hundred meters back we had met a couple of villagers who assured us that the road does not go on. Stopped and took a few pics. We could see the tall buildings of Gurgaon shrouded in early morning smog. Picturesque to look at. Like Abhimanyu said later "Even Gurgaon looks good from far!".
We decided to check out the road down on foot to see if there was really any road, and soon came up to a dead end. Sumeet and me were talking about what animals would be in this forest, and Sumeet was of the opinion that he would punch a leopard if it comes here. lol !
We headed back and I was told that we would now head to a Shiv mandir and the road was even worse than the one we had been through. "uh-huh" I thought.
However, either I was becoming more experienced on these roads, or maybe because the other road was a bit better, we did not have too many scares on the way. We did get a bit lost in the jungle but the tracker helped us get back on the route after going around in circles - which I suspect was deliberate on Abhimanyu's part.
We reached the mandir after reaching a small open ground ( check the panorama ) and where Sumeet was reluctant to take his bike as there were cows grazing there who seemed to be quite fond of his Bull in the last adventure he had there ! Anyways we headed down towards the temple.
There was a group of families which had come from Gurgaon whom we met there. One of the guys was quite happy to see us there on bikes ( though he was a bulleteer ) . We had a good chat with him and he had got all the kids and families there to the spot as otherwise they all ended up in the malls. Apparently there was a road which ended quite near to the temple and then it was a short hike up.
Time to head back , and the group extended their hospitality to us by giving us some much needed food and water !
We headed back to the open ground an the entrance of the jungle where there was a sutta break and I found out that there is a photoshphere feature in the camera, though I did not really use it for a sphere but for a panorama.
The route back was now a breeze after the initial climb where our bikes wanted to come down and we wanted to go up. Abhimanyu's bike developed a love relation between his front mudguard and the wheel... so he had a bit of problem turning the bike. But all in all, we reached the road safely and then headed to Manesar's McD for breakfast ( though the breakfast menu was over by the time we reached!)
Then I peeled off from the group and headed back as the bulls were doing 60kph and that was a bit too slow for the highway.
Great ride. Thanks to Abhimanyu and Sumeet for springing this on me. If I had known about the road before, I may have had two thoughts, but this worked out well for me !
That's what I thought after I had come back from the ride. All during the ride I was like "Oh Shit ! Oh Shit ! I am going to fall... "
The ride plan materialized all of a sudden. Abhimanyu's bike was finally not in the garage and rideable. He wanted an early 6am ride to some place near Sohna Road which got pushed to 7am. Knowing him I targetting 7am to leave from home. ETA given by Abhimanyu moved to 7:30am on the morning.
I reached the gurgaon toll first - and after a few mins which I used for photographing usual stuff - bike, the sun rising etc, these guys turn up. We headed out after a few mins. Felt good to meet them after ages!
We took an internal route through Gurgaon to reach Sohna road - which was pretty pathetic. No matter what the govt says that it is the Millenium city, the city roads are probably worse than a Gaon's road.
Near the BSF camp there is a road which goes off into the jungle. We plunged in. This lead us past the BSF encampment and up a hill, where the road just vanished. After a few mins we headed into the jungle. Saw quite a bit of wildlife here - peacocks, tree pies, bablers, parrots. What a contrast to the cacophony of traffic just an hour back! Lovely!
Sumeet asked to turn on a tracker - so we downloaded one on my phone as it was the one with the most charge. Seriously man - these guys dont even charge their phones or carry water before a ride. And they shrug it of as "we are bulleteers" ! :P
First we went to a babaji's temple - but then the decision was to just go and ride in the jungle first. So we headed away into the jungle.
Damn, this road was ... well... not a road. I was thinking this is more like a road where I would like to treck, but taking a plastic bike - i was sure that today either I will fall or some part of my bike will fall. We pushed on through thorn bushes and clinging grasses.
Finally we reached a place where there was a good view. Also we were a bit skeptical of whether the road goes on or not. Just a few hundred meters back we had met a couple of villagers who assured us that the road does not go on. Stopped and took a few pics. We could see the tall buildings of Gurgaon shrouded in early morning smog. Picturesque to look at. Like Abhimanyu said later "Even Gurgaon looks good from far!".
We decided to check out the road down on foot to see if there was really any road, and soon came up to a dead end. Sumeet and me were talking about what animals would be in this forest, and Sumeet was of the opinion that he would punch a leopard if it comes here. lol !
We headed back and I was told that we would now head to a Shiv mandir and the road was even worse than the one we had been through. "uh-huh" I thought.
However, either I was becoming more experienced on these roads, or maybe because the other road was a bit better, we did not have too many scares on the way. We did get a bit lost in the jungle but the tracker helped us get back on the route after going around in circles - which I suspect was deliberate on Abhimanyu's part.
We reached the mandir after reaching a small open ground ( check the panorama ) and where Sumeet was reluctant to take his bike as there were cows grazing there who seemed to be quite fond of his Bull in the last adventure he had there ! Anyways we headed down towards the temple.
There was a group of families which had come from Gurgaon whom we met there. One of the guys was quite happy to see us there on bikes ( though he was a bulleteer ) . We had a good chat with him and he had got all the kids and families there to the spot as otherwise they all ended up in the malls. Apparently there was a road which ended quite near to the temple and then it was a short hike up.
Time to head back , and the group extended their hospitality to us by giving us some much needed food and water !
We headed back to the open ground an the entrance of the jungle where there was a sutta break and I found out that there is a photoshphere feature in the camera, though I did not really use it for a sphere but for a panorama.
The route back was now a breeze after the initial climb where our bikes wanted to come down and we wanted to go up. Abhimanyu's bike developed a love relation between his front mudguard and the wheel... so he had a bit of problem turning the bike. But all in all, we reached the road safely and then headed to Manesar's McD for breakfast ( though the breakfast menu was over by the time we reached!)
Then I peeled off from the group and headed back as the bulls were doing 60kph and that was a bit too slow for the highway.
Great ride. Thanks to Abhimanyu and Sumeet for springing this on me. If I had known about the road before, I may have had two thoughts, but this worked out well for me !
