Chandigarh-Rishikesh

Saturday, October 22.
Lovely to wake up in a clean bed and have cel phone connection to talk and for internet. Joe was picking up a couple of new tyres for the bikes for down the road and he also needed to open my bike up to check the fuel pipe. Dinesh’s bike was overheating a bit last evening as we entered Chandigarh. So Joe went to work on them, while Amit the still phototographer and I were updating images and text on to our websites.
By the time the bikes were done, had breakfast and ready to roll it was already 10:30 or 11 am. (see photo). Real slow start. The day was sunny and warm and we headed towards Dehra Dun, about 200 km away. Our night halt was scheduled to be New Tehri, which is another 100 km from Dehra Dun.
The roads were lovely and soon we started to get in to the hills, were very different from the himalayas. These were very small and dense with forest. We only went up to around 2000 ft and it kind of plateaued. Going through the villages along the road side and seeing the relaxed pace of life was very nice. Again, lots of school children in uniforms walking to school was a common sight.
The trees were lined all along the road side forming a canopy over us. At about 50 km from Dehra Dun, Dinesh’s front tyre got a puncture and went flat. (see photo). We were so thankful that something like yhis did not occur when we were in the Himalayas. By the time mighty Joe fixed it and we got rolling it was another 1 1/2 hour delay.
We then got to Dehra Dun and had lunch around 4 pm. We then decided to break our journey at Rishikesh which was 40 km away. We wanted to avoid having to ride at night.
The traffic through the town was heavy and crazy. When we got out of the towns, the road was through the forest and if not for the blaring headlights coming at us in high beam, was fine.
We reached Rishikesh by 6 pm and settled in to a hotel Natraj. We sat down to discuss tomorrow’s ride plan and figure we will have to make up the lost time from today. I am happy to get this time to post this blog and be current.
Cheers and Good night!

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