The Unexplored Kumaon Motorcycle Ride

"We started on schedule, late in the evening for Old Delhi Railway Station on Day 0 but could manage to reach Kathgodam Railway Station only by noon the next day, against the planned arrival at 5 O'clock in the morning. We were quite okay with train getting delayed due to one of the thousands of reasons we have learnt of, over a lifetime of using Train Transport in India.

However, on that day, it was something new. I enquired with a stranger at an unknown stopage and he told me that it was because of the rains that the engine was unable to pull the train up to Kathgodam. Then, someone else told me that it was due to some problem in the hose pipe. All this while the train kept stopping and restarting.

Finally, when we were short of our destination by about 3 to 4 Kilometers, the engine got into an extremely bad mood and refused to buzz at all. The replacement would take at least 2 hours to arrive, and then God knows how much time to drag us to Kathgodam. So, following the age-old tradition of explorers who believe in DIY, Surbhit told me to abandon the train, and sounded like adventure....!"

So this how our client Mr. Pant would probably describe his experience of getting introduced to the THE UNEXPLORED KUMAON .

So that ride remains swift and comfortable, I had reached Kathgodam one night before, riding my ROYAL ENFIELD ELECTRA 350 all the way from Delhi overnight.

I have to confess that after having ridden solo on Delhi-Goa-Delhi, and Delhi-Laddakh-Delhi routes a few times, this ride was not all that exciting till...........till that famous left turn towards Dariyal after crossing Moradabad.

I also have to confess that even after having ridden solo on Delhi-Goa-Delhi, and Delhi-Laddakh-Delhi routes a few times, riding beyond this left turn still gives me shivers, especially at night. This ride is along a district highway(Zero Traffic) that follows the periphery of the famous Jim Corbett National Park, which is full of elephants, spotted dear, wild boars, fox, rabbits and Neel Gai. Yours truly, by the way, has had honour of being chased by a wild Tusker (Elephant) on mast for several Kilometers - yes! I was on a motorcycle showing a South African Wildlife expert - but let us cover that story some other time.

So, I managed to reach Kathgodam at around 3am. Stayed at a Dharamshala (sort of motel)and went straight to bed as the train was scheduled to arrive in another two to three hours.

Anyways, after all the hustle-bustle of train incident and picking up Mr. Pant from that unknown train stoppage, we came to the railway station, loaded our machines up, and went to refuel ourselves at the local Udupi Restaurant - a short ride and big refuelling with lassi, uttampam, dosa, sambhar and a cup of coffee to wash it all down.

And then, we started thumping.....!

(Rest in Next ......have fun watching the album of this ride! And don't forget to comment!)

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