What a shame to leave a nice place, these days stay anywhere for two days and you unpack more completely out of your constant bags and it feels like you've put down roots.
We are keen to hit the streets asap so as to give leeway on the other end of the daylight hours available if required. We leave amid many well wishes from our Indian room neighbors. I am sure they got up on mass this morning to see the sun rise to the east of the Himalaya because the noise that started the morning at 5am or so with a mass of humanity outside our room has evaporated.
Bob has been renamed Bobette and does not seem to mind, neither does Soph who settles in fine.
Rolling two hundred meters or so from the hotel we pull over in front of the Yogi cafe for breakfast. Priced well, good food and they have porridge. We notice the owner take a bucket of water out the front he then ladles jugs onto the road out front. We have narrowly avoided such water before and wondered whether religiously based or other. The purpose becomes clear however as no more then dust dampener, as most stores are open front with only roller doors for security at night.
Today the road will take us down to about 900mtrs with the occasional rise and fall along the way, followed by a climb from a town named Kosi, right at the end back to 1650mtrs. This happens fairly quickly so we are uncertain of how many switchbacks it will allow and you can never be certain how a hill at the end of a ride will feel.
The drop down similar to Gwaldam is great, this time however we are both mothering bikes with lots of weight and broken rear spokes. So though the temptation is just to let it out, keep the speed consistent, which no doubt my brakes will appreciate as I notice the rear pad is wearing noticeably thinner.
It is great coming down through the firs but it feels like more of the down is on the leeward side than the last couple of descents as the desire to remove layers is not strong. From the past weeks in Uttarakhand tights etc in the morning to move through the crispness of the morning and by ten or so strip off down to shorts, thermal shirt and sometimes even no gloves.
We cycle through terraced landscapes more noticeably as soon as we fall below the pines, some of these terraces however have beautiful rock walls adding to the patchwork mountain effect. Largish pipes are identifiable heading back up hill away from the stream the road now follows together with thin concrete irrigation drains moving through the fields, down to the river. We pass in a couple of the towns teens on cycles which is a reassuring sign that there may be a half decent bike store in Almora. We also follow a guy, who passes us as we're stripping off layers at the side of the road who has a Hero bike but with massive metal panniers on the back. Later post overtaking him we identify that he is doing bakery deliveries door to door. The ortlieb rear panniers feel decidedly lighter.
The couple of small rises turn out to be ok, and we reach Kosi by 11. We decide to look for a small top up and pull into a dhaba that is cooking fresh pakora out front. Ever since Tira Sujanpur and cold pakora the desire to go back for more has diminished, but fresh is best so we try out. We combine some Jeera (or Jehra, Jeeza or Zeera depending upon location) Aloo, Raita and Chai which is great. Shimla still holds the best pakora record though.
Through town we cross the Kosi river again and start climbing immediately, it is noticeably drier through these parts and whether due to winter, the fact it hasn't rained since we arrived or lack of mountain springs, we are not sure. One thing though is a light haze has returned, which we have eluded since Haridwar / Rishikesh. We can still see the blue sky and surrounds clearly but the crispness of the mountains from Kasauni has faded.
We start hitting the first edges of Almora as we continue to climb. Further up on the ridge we came across compressed development but the guessing begins, brought on by legs keen for any reason to pull over early and no desire to climb unnecessarily. Through a police check post where the smiling policeman confirms our directions.
Police check points are spread through out the India that we have so far seen along the roads but are difficult to pin a particular purpose to. Generally staffed by one or more neatly uniformed policeman, majority very smilely and interested, if not helpful they sit on the side of the road near shelters generally and watch the traffic pass. In some busy intersections we have seen them occasionally semi direct traffic, but in a lot others traffic seems to go where it wants anyway. Some have boom gates, some metal gates on wheels I assume the roads are occasionally cut, but otherwise...
We push up into a congested and built up road junction with large concrete and wooden buildings lining the streets and plenty of stuff going on, we've reached town. Turn left as from Soph's lonely planet investigation this appears the way to our hotel of choice, which has been well sign posted to now. Unfortunately the turn to our left takes us onto a concrete street about two meters wide, semi covered drain inn one side and at a decent gradient. Again concrete on a road is a bad sign. Climb and search, looking for signage in amongst a plethora of signage - Hindi and English and a flow of people and motorbikes in either direction.
No luck up the hill we start asking which sees us heading back to the road junction where I spot the hotel on the opposite corner, it is sprawling, most dropping down the slope and well signed.
We pull in out the front to the usual interest amplified by some sort of a tourist review occurring which sees me being questioned about our first thoughts of Almora. Given that we have seen very little, dirty and tired, not that keen not to mention that we can never really be totally sure on arriving in a town as it takes a while for perspective to sink in and appreciate beyond the hectivity. I even have my photograph taken with bobette, god knows what for.
Post settling in and a hot hot shower ( this place has 24hr hot water) hit the streets to grab some lunch and checkout town. We wander up to the Lalal bazaar which is a mass of humanity flowing like a creek through two to three storied wooden terraces, further along when some of the crowd thins out we notice the almost cobbled surface and the general cleanliness, when compared against other regional cities, pop is about 36k or so.
We follow the bazaar to the end and then loop down to Mall Rd. On the path down to Mall more colonial styled buildings stand out leading down the ridge. At the top end of Mall Rd it is decidedly quieter than down at the junction. On the upper side of the bus and taxi stands so less flow of people and vehicles. We still dodge mother dogs and cows wandering and poking through trash on the side of the roads trying to locate edible material. They all look healthy enough so we guess they find it easily enough. We passed one cow on the bazaar which had started to munch on a cauliflower sitting in a stack on a stall holders rug, until seen and shooed away.
We decide to follow Lonely planets advise and tea at the Glory restaurant. Sometimes LP ids a place well and sometimes it is questionable what they saw that you didn't, the Glory however is fairly represented. I decide to break the veg fast and try some mutton sagwalla which is mutton, don't ask what type, in a spinach based sauce, with channa and dum aloo. The food is fantastic, will see whether all clear in the next 24hrs.