Wednesday 21 June 2017

A quick escape to Kanatal

"No road is too long when you have a good company and a Royal Enfield"

A very old quote yet a powerful one which explains a lot. Travelling is not just a hobby but also which keeps our sanity alive. And in Delhi's heat its a normal thing to become insane.

So one fine day of May'17, I & group of fellow riders decided to escape from Delhi and go to some offbeat location. We checked our options and voilllaaaaaaaa😃😃, found a small town of kanatal nestled in the Himalayas. So the location was set and we were ready to go.

We gathered at our meeting point which was DTC bus stand near Akshardham Temple. Though the time was for 4 am, however such planning doesn't work. So finally after waiting , chit chatting we all were ready to go at 5:30 am. We started our enfields, warmed up the engine and throttled up to start our journey.

 Till delhi the roads were good and clear but as soon as we crossed Mohan nagar, we were welcomed by treacherous roads full of potholes which made our ride quite bumpy. After rideing for almost one and half hours we had sigh of relief as we reached Meerut Highway. We had a quick stop for nature's call and quickly posed for a snap too..!!!!!!!!!



After riding for an hour more, we stopped at a highway side dhabha cum restaurant in muzaffarnagar. It was quite cozy and nice and we grabbed quite a good attention as our roaring enfields entered the parking area. We ordered paranthas, lassi & tea. The food was good, economical and clean. That is the best which a biker expect. After getting supercharged & filled up, we continued our journey and came back on NH-58. 

The highway was clear, wind was cool and our bikes were burning rubber on highway at 100+ kmph but then it came to halt as soon as we reached roorkee as the road was jam packed. So we streamed our bikes through narrow lanes(perks of being a biker) and quickly came to roorkee-haridwar highway. By the time we reached haridwar, noon was on us and heat was unbearable. We took a break to quench our thirst and of course sutta(saviour for all high class people). After that we took the haridwar-rishikesh highway and reached rishikesh at about 1 pm. Though Knatal highway was just 5 minutes away but a biker is never satisfied with an easy ride. We decided to roar our enfields through the city and stromed in to enter Ram Jhula and reached swarg ashram area. We surely turned few heads too. We took Laxman Jhula exit to reach the Narendranagar highway. 

Soon we were taking curves and turns on the mountains roaring up our enfields. We even got some time to take snaps of picturesque landscapes.


 At about 3 pm, we reached our destination after crossing the town of chamba. We stopped by the side and called our camp manager to help locate the camp's location. By the time he reached we were enjoying the beautiful lanscape of Garhwal Himalayas. Our manager came after 20 minutes and took us to the location. And reaching there was also not easy as we have to do a little off roading to reach there and one of our fellow rider on Thunderbird even fell hard as the downhill road was too treacherous for him to understand but other came to help him out soon. We parked our bikes in the area, unhooked our bags and went to our camps.

We were soon informed that hot lunch was ready. It was a homemade buffet which comprises of matar-paneer, cucumber raita, dal tadka from organically grown pulses, rice, chapati, green salad and masala tea to relieve us from our tiredness.

After lunch few of us retired to their camps for a quick nap but some of us started exploring nearby areas. It was a nice area giving us enough locations for some photography tryouts.




After that I and my fellow rider VAIBHAV decided to do some trek in the nearby forest area.







We roamed  through narrow trails, smiled, talked ,waved to some trekkers like us who were passing by. Even saw a group of school children who were leaving no stone unturned  in trying out adventure sports like rock climbing, rope-way hanging etc. Also tried our hands on photography(After all, who doesn't like to make good memories).


So it was evening, dark clouds were floating, cool wind was flowing which made us to pull out our jackets. The bonfire was lit, snacks started coming up straight from the kitchen and everyone of us were digging our canines on delicious roasted chicken and poor vegetarians had to satisfy on pakodas only. And finally, the mood was set(If you know what i mean ;) ). There were chit chats, ride discussions and even songs were sung(Thanks to Bhanu sir).


It was midnight when we decided to have our dinner and retired to our camps beneath the clear sky full of glittering stars(Not feeling romantic but just praising the nature).


I woke up at 6 am in the morning to see the vibrant sunrise i have always heard about the mountains. And trust me, it really was. Even before the sunrise, the mountains looked so beautiful and full of nature's color.


After a quick morning walk through pine and rhododendron forest, we had our breakfast which comprises of toast, omelette, butter and special pahadi chai. At around 8 am we started our return journey to Delhi but this time from a different route. We ride all the way across Dhanolti-mussoorie highway and entered Dehradun(yayyyy!!!! my hometown) and it was super hot. After having a quick tea break in Doon valley, we rode towards Paonta Sahib. At about 1 pm we reached Paonta Sahib which is located on the banks of river Yamuna. We stopped at a road side juice centre to have fresh sugar cane juice and home grown blackberries(reminded us of our childhood).

We refueled our Enfields, recharged ourselves and continued our journey for karnal which will take us to Delhi-Chandigarh Highway. We reached Karnal at about 4 pm. We had our lunch and tried to beat the heat with restaurant's AC. As we were on national highway so Delhi doesn't seem too far now but bad luck halted our spirits as one of our fellow rider met with a flat tire. So it took one hour to find a mechanic and get it repaired. We continued our journey and finally touched Delhi at 8:00 pm.

Before heading for our homes, a final selfie was clicked and bid adieu till the next ride.
END OF 700 KMS OF FUN...!!!!!!