DAY FORTY FOUR
I am writing this sitting in our First Class train cabin, with our packed up bicycles, on our way back to Delhi, ready to fly back to the UK on Saturday.
Generally, there is no need to pay the extra for first class rail travel in trains in India, except when travelling with two bicycles, then a complete 4 berth cabin is very handy, saving going through the stress & extreme hassles of putting them in the baggage car, where they are unprotected against 80kg bails of cloth, massive metal trunks & other wheel/frame bending items.
Meanwhile, having picked a “premium” super-fast (25hrs) express train, we are being plied with free breakfast, lunch, high tea & supper, with food coming nearly every two hours, followed by a quick floor wipe.
Despite paying for a “premium” super-fast (25hrs) express train, it was two hours late departing from Bhubaneswar, even though this is where the train started its journey. But this delay enabled a truly touching act of Indian kindness & hospitality…. we had met a young IT entrepreneur, whilst taking our roadside breakfast between Puri & Konark. Over breakfast, we had talked about our cycle adventures, including exchanging WhatsApp details & our blog website address. As always, with such one-off meetings, we were told to reach out, if we needed anything at all & to say hello when we reached Bhubaneswar. I exchanged WhatsApp’s, including our train departure details, and whilst sitting on the platform, the young man appeared to say hello, carrying a present for us, a handicraft painted Buddha statue, to wish us well on our trip home. We spent our platform wait talking about life etc. And when the train did come, our newly-met friend helped us load out bicycles & panniers into our compartment. Such unexpected amazing acts of kindness will definitely bring us back to India.
So homeward bound, reflecting upon this adventure. Before embarking on this ride, we knew that it would be more challenging than other rides we have done in India. We knew that we were leaving the “regular” tourist world far behind, riding across jungle covered hills, many nowhere one-hotel towns with Photoshop edited images of clean rooms on Google Maps, being warned about “law & order” problems in Chhattisgarh & tribal areas in general (including Maoist Naxalite guerrillas etc). What we found was the ever-welcoming friendly gentle people wherever we went, beautiful rural & forest landscapes, amazing wildlife (particularly birds) along the roads (inside & outside of wildlife sanctuaries), the very beautiful state of Odisha (we will come back here again). We felt safe wherever we went.
We also found that riding over 45miles (72km) in a day can push us over our comfort threshold, even with the 6:30am starts & 1pm (2pm) ends. Riding up the steeper Ghats with fully loaded bikes (especially after 11am) is really challenging, as is riding really crap roads for tens of kms. I guess that being pensioners, we are not as strong as before.
In my route planning, I had avoided all national highways (NH roads), but now we know that many are fine to ride, with low traffic & good surfaces. Our total distance ridden was reduced by needing to organise lifts due to illness, something that we have not suffered so badly before.
I will miss seeing the wildlife & rural/jungle landscapes. I will miss the wow feelings of seeing incredible architecture in temples, palaces & forts. I will miss the warm smiling faces along the roads. It has been great to eat usually well-cooked Indian food, with the banana, samosa & chai stops along the roads.
I will not miss the endless request for “selfie photos”….. just one snap please, polite friendly requests are OK but almost grabbing demands are not. Often motorbikes would ride dangerously close to me to insist that I stop now & comply with the rider’s selfie demands. Why would we stop every 15minutes with 70km to ride. And even worse, the car drivers who pull over right by me, wind windows down whilst still driving along and then pulling up right in front of me & stopping.
I will not miss the really bad car drivers in their new fast SUV’s who have no idea how to drive. A common way to learn how to drive is by playing a pirate copy of Grand Auto Theft. Just drive as fast as you can, steer, try to squeeze in any gap, suddenly brake & stop….. only looking forwards (who needs mirrors or looking to the side).
I will not miss truly crap road surfaces, although the country lanes of Somerset can be a good substitute for Chhattisgarh roads.
I will not miss the temple Brahmins trying to suck my purse dry so that I can be blessed.
I will not miss the atrocious plastic littering of Mother Earth (or the morning burning plastic)….. the thoughtless & determined throwing down of litter in India is soul destroying to a tidy person brought up to not do this.
Despite all of this we are now thinking about another ride from Odisha, through West Bengal to Assam, where the Eastern Himalaya will definitely halt our journey East.
