Riding for 250 odd kms in a day isn't a lot to mention, but add in the bad (understatement, honestly) roads, cold wind, rattling shockers and a pillion to carry and any rider can imagine what I am talking about.

It all started from Delhi on a chilly Saturday morning when eleven of us got together to make it to Lansdowne, Uttaranchal, a journey of about 250 odd kms, easy to comprehend and supposedly a piece of cake.

Having decided to start early at about 6:30 AM from Delhi we all got together at the Noida Crossing petrol pump. As expected, the IST (Indian Stretchable time) factor came into play and with all the rites and rituals done, we started off at about 7:30 AM. The route was simple, Delhi-Meerut-Bijnour-Najibabad-Kothdwar-Lansdowne. We all reached Meerut in about 45 minutes and after a quick cup of tea, headed off for Bijnor. This is where the group split into two and one of us took the dreaded road towards Bijnor through some God-forsaken country and the other, making the sensible choice, ventured into the Meerut city and further on to Bijnor.

Our group was just reaching Bijnor when Rajan's 500 had a flat tyre and we lost some quality riding time. We wrapped up the puncture time with a quick snack and after about an hour and a half, moved onto Najibabad. The road to Najibabad was being redone and most of the time we found a single lane for both ways. Except of course, Lalit and Douglas (rightly called Douglas 'Lightening' Lobo) wanted to find out what freshly laid road tar is like and soon realized that their tyres were half sinking in the charcoal. Fortunately, no major problems except for some ugly tar on the bike!! If charcoal wasn't enough, we had brick patches in the middle of the road and umpteen in number. I am sure all of us would agree that we definitely could have done without them. We soon reached Kothdwar and then on about 30 odd kms of hill roads led us to Lansdowne.

Lansdowne is one of the quietest hill stations in India, quiet and so well hidden that you only realize you're there when you turn past the gates of the elegant "Gadhwal Rifles Cantonment". We all took a round around the town square park and anybody could tell that Lansdowne was anything but quite at that time. We checked into a State Tourist Complex and quickly returned to main town square for a late lunch. The other group of riders also managed to reach just in time for some grub. The rest of the day was spent in languishing around and sightseeing and after a nice dinner we all hit the sack. Before I knew it was 6:00 in the morning and Sachin was waking me up. All of us quickly dressed up to catch a glimpse of the Himalayas and early morning wonders of the vicinity.

We started off for Haridwar at 10 in morning and reached there in good time and high spirits. Half of us wanted to get our bikes into the water. Imran's bike took it to heart and decided to break down. All of a sudden it struck to Lalit (it must have been him) that Rishikesh would be a better idea. Imran along with Adnan and Salman stayed back to get his bike fixed and then on take off for home. After a quick dip and fixing up Sachin's flat tyre, we all started off on the ride home.

It was almost 5:00 and we had to travel a long way. We set out at a good pace and after a few mix-ups, traffic jams and hold-ups, made it to Meerut just in time for dinner. Everybody was very exhausted and needed the much-awaited food. There our luck ran out and we landed into an argument with the "dhabawala". Vivek aptly handled that and after another stop for refueling we all sped on towards Delhi. The road from Meerut to Ghaziabad was very good and minus the traffic, we were all able to throttle our bikes to top speeds. Finally, we reached Noida and after some quick snaps and hearty goodbyes, rushed off to our homes.

I made it to my house at 12:20 and if I were to sum it all. then except for the bumpy Bijnor.it was totally worth it. In the end it was kudos to all the riders who took it all along and in exceptional mood.

Joyride by: Waseem Anis
City: Delhi
E-mail: waseemanis@yahoo.com

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