RajatGhosh Editorial Photographer: 2500 km ride comes to an End , till we meet again , adios

Monday, February 24, 2020

2500 km ride comes to an End , till we meet again , adios

Is it a bike or a Truck ?

I was up at 0700 hours. We had planned for an early start. We were 6 bikes by now returning to Jamshedpur, more the bikes, more the chances of something going wrong, and that would slow us down.

Only to realize another rider had a flat tyre... oh well.. all happens for a good reason I am sure, so we took the opportunity to fill our self with food, one less stop to make once we start to ride.

All saddled up, YA

Bells

Did I mention I have bought a fairy bell..these little bells keep the bikers safe from spirits and other little creatures that might want to ride on our shoulder as we cross their territory. I love the sound of the bells, it is so 'musical'. Hope the bells don’t actually attract these spirits that it is supposed to keep away and us safe as we ride through.

Breakfast consisted of chana, samosa and litti. I was hoping I had not eaten too much that it would make me sleepy since we had a long way to go and GOD willing we would do the full 500km today itself without much adventure.

While riding through Bihar we came across scenes that one would expect in Bihar, and is just so charming.

The rains, the country side, the people and their warmth.

As we took shelter from rain and waited for the rains to pass.. it made a very pretty sight.

The roads via Dehri are better we were told and so we decided to give Patna a skip and ride on the rad as suggested by a few truck drivers. Except for 3 wrong turns we did fairly okay for most part and did not lose much time as we had realized our mistakes quickly enough.

As we reached Bodhgaya, the rains were once more on us, and we decided this would be the right time to take a break for lunch. It was 1300 hours and the breakfast had been well digested by now. I for one was not too keen to ride in the rains and if we could wait it out and let the rains pass us by, it would be just ideal..

Food done we started out, we had also regrouped by now and all 6 of us were riding together.

Our next stop was at around 1730 hours where we met two riders from Koderma who had come to share a glass of tea and Samosa, and a few minutes of chit chat. Our short chat lasted for 45 minutes but it is always a pleasure to see familiar faces while on a ride.

We were at Hazaribagh by 1900 hours and looked like it would be midnight before we reached home. We had decided we would ride through till we were back home. We took a break to call up home and let our folks know not to wait for us as would be really late, and also to call up some friends and let them know our ETA as they planned to ride out (like a 130 km) to meet us on the way and we would all ride back together. It was going to be like a big homecoming with only music missing else it would be a reunion of fellow riders from Jamshedpur on the highway near Ranchi 130 km away from home.

Well another hours riding and then disaster struck. One of the bikes suffered a broken bolt of the handle. While thankfully there was no accident, the bike was completely incapacitated and the only way out further was having to truck the bike back. So we waited by the road side and after a 2hour long wait we managed to get a truck. Finally by 2200 we started out again.

Till then we just sat by the roadside and chatted and laughed about the silly antiques we had faced. The cheerfulness was infectious and even the one whose bike suffered the misfortune was soon one with us...having a good laugh and ready to get on with the ride.

Along the way we did meet a few friends, Rakesh, Ravi and Navin who had come to greet us, in Ranchi and ride back with us towards Jamshedpur. We rode on, taking a break for a round of Tea and Coffee before we were home.

It was 0330 hours on next day morning when I managed to reach home. The milometer read: 21067. It was a great ride and thank you all for your good wishes as we reached home and prepared for our next adventure.

We had ridden 2500 km on this trip approximately and all riders back home safe and sound sans one bike, needing serious servicing.