Solo riding... Destination Thar

I was a proud owner of a new bike. A Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 350cc steed that I decided to christen as Michelle. Apart from the daily commuting, I hadn’t put Michelle up to a real challenge for around 2 months. “How about a cross-country?” I asked myself…”Why not!” the immediate answer came. I rushed to the nearest bookstore, bought myself a map of India (something long forgotten since school days) and began route planning over some lassi.

Kanyakumari to Kashmir? Sounds good... Works as great branding too. But, let’s look at it practically. I had two weeks to devote to traveling after which I needed to find a way to make money again. Kanyakumari to Kashmir was definitely possible in two weeks if I rode constantly for a 4000 odd kms. Oh! And then I had to get my bike back to Mumbai. My idea of traveling was not simply letting the world around me breeze past. I wanted more halts and more interaction with people and places.

A bunch of my friends were heading for a rickshaw run at around that time from Cochin to Darjeeling. I then considered taking Michelle side by side with their rickshaw. Wouldn’t work again! The average speed of the rickshaw was way below that of Michelle and these guys had a very stringent deadline to meet.

Frustrated with the ‘buts’, I decided to think within my limitations of time and money. I had 15,000 rupees to spend on this trip and 2 weeks. Michelle would give me an average of 30kmpl. I then decided to explore any neighboring state that was worth a ride. Thumbing around Maharashtra within 5 seconds I knew where I was heading… Rajasthan.

It was a land I had found fascinating since childhood but never had a chance to visit. So, the decision was made. Now moving on to the route planning and the budgeting. Some critical points to remember while charting out your route are:

1. Get hold of a lonely planet or anything similar to get a feel of the places you might want to visit.
2. Chart out the distances. This is pivotal for calculating fuel expenditure (A huge chunk of the budget).
3. National and state highway access. Will help in estimating average speed and time. Any other roads could mean a serious hindrance and eat into your itinery.
4. Route back home. Don’t forget to build that into your last stop!
5. There is an 80% probability that your route will change when you reach there. Don’t over plan and keep your mind free for building in suggestions from locals and alterations made necessary through your own experiences.

After running through the entire plan and budget, it looked like the whole trip was in place. The calculations worked out to around 7000 rupees for fuel and another 7000 for stay and food. It fit in quite snuggly into my budget. In case of any emergency I would always have enough to get back home.

I told some people about this plan for more inputs. Most felt it was great until someone came up with the point of me going alone. I told her about my ‘self-sufficient’ nature but was faced with a retort that gave me plenty of food for thought. “What if you have a bike failure in the middle of nowhere?” I hadn’t tested Michelle on such a long continuous drive. My friend had a point.

I started looking around for a pillion rider. I didn’t have to look around for long. I had a neighbor who was as enthusiastic about the whole plan as I was and we got along well. So that was that.

We took off at 5am on a cool Monday morning in January with nothing but the excitement of the moment (and a little extra baggage). Our route to Rajasthan was right through Gujarat using the NH8. A long butt crunching journey led us to Ahmedabad by daybreak.

The itinery after Ahmedabad was quite relaxed with one or two day stops at some places. Our first stop was Mt’ Abu, the only hill station in Rajasthan. I must mention that we were freezing right through the ride, Michelle's thumping in harmony with our clattering teeth as we took the winding road up to Mt’ Abu.

After that came Ajmer, Pushkar, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. Each city had so much to offer and learn from. The people, monuments, culture and food have an almost soothing effect on a hard-bred Mumbaite. However, I would still ask travelers not to let their guard down completely. The places which I rode into were all quite touristy (Lonely Planet being to blame for that). I’ll definitely build in an element of unpredictability for my next trip involving more anonymous locations.

Michelle wasn’t always thumping away to glory either. She gave me a fair amount of problems starting with battery failure at Mt’ Abu, overheating at Ajmer and a flat tyre in the middle of the Thar. All these were sorted out with the help of a benevolent local in every location (even the flat tyre!). We seemed to have had guardian angels posted at each location.

Out of all the places I had been to, Jaisalmer and Mt’ Abu left the biggest impact in terms of people, culture and architecture. Of course, Jodhpur had the magnificent Meherangarh fort. But, the rest of Jodhpur was like an ordinary city. Pushkar had a much more impressive mélange of people and places. Ajmer reminded me of Mohammed Ali Street!

Ahh! Then there was the golden sand of Thar experienced on Hrithik Roshan’s back. Hrithik was my camel’s name incase you raised an eyebrow. The camel rider boasting about how fast Hrithik was in the annual camel race second only to Michael Jackson!

This was a complete potpourri of experiences. Our trip consisted of lovely cities punctuated by vast expanses of land with a black streak running through it like a crack. Sleeping in dusty beds in cheap hotels punctuated by lazing on a cot in the sun at some nondescript highway dhaba.
We touched down in Colaba at 4pm after 14 days and 3030 kms of riding with outlandish sunburns, dirty clothes, plenty of learning, another battery failure, empty pockets and broad smiles!