Couple on Bike to Dhanaulti- Day 2

Day -2:

We were out of bed before 0700 Hrs. and got to know that it rained in night too. I checked weather forecast on mobile before looking out from window and found heavy rains in mobile , then I checked outside and as expected there were heavy clouds over hills with no views. We thought of skipping Sarkunda Devi trek because of unfavorable weather (and creating one more reason to ride back there :d). At 9:00 am we started from Kaddukhal towards Chamba and beauty of nature around the road tried to compensate the loss of trek by a smaller amount. We rode with easy pace till Chamba and reached there in no time.

After reaching there we decided to see Tehri Dam (24 Kms from Chamba) and turn handle towards that direction. It took little more than an hour to reach near Tehri Dam because of bad condition of roads and few marriage processions on the road. Relaxed for half an hour at Tehri dam, clicked few pics and returned back to Chamba.

It was noon when we crossed Chamba and entered a hill side restaurant to refill us. Restaurant was newly built but having quite good facilities, food and service (recommended for everyone going there).

After having our fill we crossed Kanatal and reach Rishikesh at 3:00 pm. There was huge traffic jam between Rishikesh and Haridwar, negotiating that jam we reached Har ki Pauri and parked our bike there. Went to Gange's Ghat, sat on the bank and talked about a lot of things. After few minutes we walked to market behind ghats and had some snacks there (puri bhaji, aalo tikki, paani puri etc).

Started last lap of our weekend ride from Haridwar at 5 pm. Roads till Roorkee was in very very bad shape with a less amount of road and huge amount of pot holes with equally huge traffic rushing towards Delhi. Reached Roorkee and took a butt break with Shikanji on a dhaba. Then rode again till Muzzaffar nagar without any relief from traffic (which is obvious part of this road) along with a lot of Barats (due to Akshay Tritiya) on the road. Just before Meerut Bypass, took a brief break for dinner and thereafter rode non-stop till Delhi. Entered Delhi at 11 Pm (because of traffic and took a wrong road because of a stupid sign on the road which is directing towards a closed road for Delhi). Reached home at half hour past mid-night and crashed on bed.

Pics from Day:

Couple on Bike to Dhanaulti.

It was so much exciting as we were to plan about my introduction to hills in Uttarakhand. It was my first ride to hills and quite adventurous for me. We decided our destination Dhanaulti. Dhanaulti is a beautiful and calm hill station with very less tourist in-flux.

Day 0: This was friday and in evening we planned a sudden weekend ride to DevBhumi Uttarakhand. We packed our clothes and few other essentials in Saddle bags and slept earlier (11:30 pm :P).

Day 1: Woke up earlier, just after 5 hrs of sleep and got quickly ready, mounted saddle bags on bike and riding gears on ourselves. At 5 am we started from Dwarka to cross Delhi roads in less traffic. Weather in morning was very pleasant and at around 8:30 we have bypassed Meerut and reached Muzzaffer nagar. There we took a halt on a dhabha for breakfast, our riding gears (specially knee guards) are catching enough attention there.

After having breakfast, we again started to reach Roorkey with few butt breaks. Reached Roorkey and took left from there for Chhutmalpur and Dehradoon. Reached Dehradoon by noon and took a much needed brief halt there for shikanji to hydrate ourselves in scorching Sun. We thought that it would take less than 2 hours from there to Dhanaulti (around 60 Kms), so postponed lunch till then with help of biscuits and namkeen and started to ride towards Mussoorie. As we entered in hills clouds started playing hide and seek with Sun. As we took right from 5 Kms before Mussoorie for Dhanaulti, Sky filled with dark clouds; I feared by this time that the unfortunate (heavy Rain) can happen anytime now. But God postponed that till we reach Dhanaulti.

After reaching Dhanaulti, we could see few tourist there in some eco-gardens. We directly went to GMVN guest and enquired about room. The GMVN guy told us that rooms are available, then I asked about rooms in Kaddukhal (8 Kms from Dhanaulti); he told that yes, rooms in that GMVN will also be available much cheaper (600/- per night), but we need to go there to check the same. By that time light rain start, ignoring that we decided to move ahead and check Kaddukhal GMVN as trek to Surkanda devi Temple also starts from there only.

But who could know that next moments were so hard that I could ever imagined. Heavy rains with fast blowing winds were waiting for us to make our ride more difficult. As it started to rain heavily and sky was getting more dark, we saw a small shop on the road. Immediately we stopped bike there and took shelter in that shop. It was a small shop of general items (biscuits, sutta). As we postponed our lunch and forgot to refill us in Dhanaulti, so after getting in the shop, mice started jumping in our stomach., we asked shopkeeper if anything is available and he happily said yes!! Maggie!!! I hate maggie, but in Cold winds and Rain, it looked most delicious cuisine to me. After finishing our maggie and tea, we saw that rain subsidized, so we got ready to cover last 4 Km of our day. But a huge blow of wind came again to say bye bye with uninvited guest Hailstorm. Temperature was dropping due to those grape sized ice-balls falling from sky and we have to stay in that shop for more 1.5 Hours with half shutter down (to save ourselves and others from those hail-stones). When we came out from shop, we could whole road was full of hail-stones and it was dark like night and light rains were still there. So we decided to move ahead. 

Reached Kaddukhal in no time and missed the GMVN guest house, asked a person (who is warming himself with his family under a hill) for direction and reached back to guest house. Got a room with valley view, weather was still cloudy and no electricity was there because of rains. Took some rest in room, then went to a near by restaurant for a candle light dinner behind a closed shutter of the restaurant at 9 pm. After returning from restaurant we traded our horses for sleep.

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