Working to plan up early and post breakfast we say goodbye to our apartment for the past two weeks. Fantastic. Not that we haven't enjoyed Almora, but to be back to riding, moving, the journey is great.
Both in a state of anticipation as just under seventy five kms and 1500mtr gain and loss after ten days of no peddling. Add to that two separate comments that the road from Almora to Nainital has been heavily effected by landslips and it makes for a little uncertainty. The road out of town took us back past Bright End so we knew what we would encounter up until the downhill anyway. Along the section of road where subsidence has dropped a section of road 20cm below it's original height but other than this all is fine. In Uttrakhand we have passed many examples of this, ranging in width and depth.
Commencing the downhill sends us into the shade, which gradually accumulates freezer fingers and toes. The bikes and gears are riding well, slight concern regarding Soph's left brake lever but after a little use stiffens up, hopefully not air in the lines. Pine forrest accompanies us on the descent with view down to the stream flowing well below, occasionally turning back to see snow covered himalaya but otherwise fairly consistent country. Motorbikes would love this road plenty of turns and bends as you descend, nice and tight but the angles feel fine, going down is great on the bikes. We compare fingers at a largish Hindi temple complex following a ridge line down towards the Kosi River before crossing the Kwarab bridge and the Swal Nadi flowing down out of the hills to our left into the Kosi.
With fingers thawing, thanks to the morning sunny moments, we swerve sections of road work, but start questioning the bad road comments.... when we hit some serious sections of missing road. Nothing unbelievable nor previously unseen on our journey, but in enough proximity to make bus or car travel painful. However on the bikes it is ok, biggest hassle is anticipating where the road work will lead into a holdup combined with a gradient change or sections that were full of pooled mud. Most of the road issues were down close to the river which meant that you would come to the road issue, which would cause congestion then the challenge of cycling through when poorly geared as the weighted bikes make it clunky to get down rapidly without some serious grind.
Passing Khairna bridge and then Garampani which at 900mtrs is one of the low points on the road, the climb initially is okay, but can tell the legs are starting to feel the exertion. We meet a gap toothed but bright and bristling older gentlemen and his wife when we pull over to grab out some bananas. He tried to talk us into taking a freight truck up rather then cycling, whilst I was trying to strip off thermal bottoms prior to putting cargo shorts back on. We finally moved off, post accepting an orange and reaching a communication enpase.
Post quick lunch at Kainchi where the dhaba owner when we left, was loading a gun to take out I am guessing a local monkey. In the next few kms the gradient increases quickly and the feel in the legs is pretty harsh, with pauses increasing as we go, whether cookies, chocolate, mandarins etc. Soph was starting to really feel Bobette as it in comparison to the pannier weight is sluggish through rough and steep slopes.
The last kms before Bhowali settle a little and we pull the positive psychology back together. We cross the temporary bridge into town before climbing steeply up through the main street. Taxis are all over the place. Challenge to cycle off and once we do the further 2km of climb is testing but doable to a small nestled village in the pines before dropping down to the road junction where we leave the national highway which continues going down whilst we unfortunately continue up to the right.
Some young guys pass in a van laughing and calling out as they pass, they try Soph first and then passing same with me. Testosterone is telling and after the long climb in no mood. They continue on after slowing down a little first waiting for a response. The road leads now up following the ridge side, circling unfortunately offering no respite though we are now in single figure kms from our destination. To our left the view is over hills shrouded in mist and further a hazy smog in the distance. The road to Haldwani snakes down through the hills.
As we continued to climb we passed another large group of guys all in late teens early twenties. Uncertain of whether outside some sort of retreat or cadets camp. The same overly friendly and laughing at aroused a sincere desire to give them the finger as we cycled through, but better to focus on the positive. Hard when tired after a slog and the road just kept on giving climbs. Finally the climbing ceased rolling past an army cantonment and then up to a road junction and our first sight of the lake with a spectacled statue of Gandhi facing out looking over the misted hills through the small gap in the encircled valley that holds the lake.
We swung to the right across the busy intersection but pulled over once on the flat, looking over the lake whilst appreciating the achievement of the destination. No sooner stopped then approached by a guy trying to tout a boat ride on the lake, clearly blind as to our sitting on bikes and looking tired from a journey. The temptation was to tell the guy to fire truck off, but thankfully it came out as recurring neighs to the repeated requests until he thankfully gave in and backed off down to the lakes edge and the tied up wooden skull boats. Soph in her mind was thinking it was hilarious in a super exhausted mind frame that the boat guy could not work out with our bike trailer and panniers along with exhausted faces that perhaps the thought of finding a hotel room and getting cleaned up might be a little more appealing!
Following the promenade around the lakes edge we raced rickshaws going about their business before climbing up past a flat brown cricket field through the Bara bazaar and to our accommodation of choice the Kohli hotel. A bucket hot shower and momentary trial of the thankfully soft mattress restored our chi before seeking out the wifi at the local cyber cafe aptly titled cyberia and then relocating to Sakleys restaurant for dinner. Per Lonely planet the restaurant had pepper steaks and pastries. So I ordered steak, when the sizzling chicken steak arrived I should not have been surprised but the absence felt like caffeine depression. Pizza was a let down, Mac Leod ganj is still the place to order pizza in northern India. Cake was good but comparatively expensive and sold per kg.
Sleep came quickly brought on the back of a tiring but successful first day back on the bike for the new year.
Both in a state of anticipation as just under seventy five kms and 1500mtr gain and loss after ten days of no peddling. Add to that two separate comments that the road from Almora to Nainital has been heavily effected by landslips and it makes for a little uncertainty. The road out of town took us back past Bright End so we knew what we would encounter up until the downhill anyway. Along the section of road where subsidence has dropped a section of road 20cm below it's original height but other than this all is fine. In Uttrakhand we have passed many examples of this, ranging in width and depth.
Commencing the downhill sends us into the shade, which gradually accumulates freezer fingers and toes. The bikes and gears are riding well, slight concern regarding Soph's left brake lever but after a little use stiffens up, hopefully not air in the lines. Pine forrest accompanies us on the descent with view down to the stream flowing well below, occasionally turning back to see snow covered himalaya but otherwise fairly consistent country. Motorbikes would love this road plenty of turns and bends as you descend, nice and tight but the angles feel fine, going down is great on the bikes. We compare fingers at a largish Hindi temple complex following a ridge line down towards the Kosi River before crossing the Kwarab bridge and the Swal Nadi flowing down out of the hills to our left into the Kosi.
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| From India, Almora to Nainital. |
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| From India, Almora to Nainital. |
With fingers thawing, thanks to the morning sunny moments, we swerve sections of road work, but start questioning the bad road comments.... when we hit some serious sections of missing road. Nothing unbelievable nor previously unseen on our journey, but in enough proximity to make bus or car travel painful. However on the bikes it is ok, biggest hassle is anticipating where the road work will lead into a holdup combined with a gradient change or sections that were full of pooled mud. Most of the road issues were down close to the river which meant that you would come to the road issue, which would cause congestion then the challenge of cycling through when poorly geared as the weighted bikes make it clunky to get down rapidly without some serious grind.
Passing Khairna bridge and then Garampani which at 900mtrs is one of the low points on the road, the climb initially is okay, but can tell the legs are starting to feel the exertion. We meet a gap toothed but bright and bristling older gentlemen and his wife when we pull over to grab out some bananas. He tried to talk us into taking a freight truck up rather then cycling, whilst I was trying to strip off thermal bottoms prior to putting cargo shorts back on. We finally moved off, post accepting an orange and reaching a communication enpase.
Post quick lunch at Kainchi where the dhaba owner when we left, was loading a gun to take out I am guessing a local monkey. In the next few kms the gradient increases quickly and the feel in the legs is pretty harsh, with pauses increasing as we go, whether cookies, chocolate, mandarins etc. Soph was starting to really feel Bobette as it in comparison to the pannier weight is sluggish through rough and steep slopes.
The last kms before Bhowali settle a little and we pull the positive psychology back together. We cross the temporary bridge into town before climbing steeply up through the main street. Taxis are all over the place. Challenge to cycle off and once we do the further 2km of climb is testing but doable to a small nestled village in the pines before dropping down to the road junction where we leave the national highway which continues going down whilst we unfortunately continue up to the right.
Some young guys pass in a van laughing and calling out as they pass, they try Soph first and then passing same with me. Testosterone is telling and after the long climb in no mood. They continue on after slowing down a little first waiting for a response. The road leads now up following the ridge side, circling unfortunately offering no respite though we are now in single figure kms from our destination. To our left the view is over hills shrouded in mist and further a hazy smog in the distance. The road to Haldwani snakes down through the hills.
As we continued to climb we passed another large group of guys all in late teens early twenties. Uncertain of whether outside some sort of retreat or cadets camp. The same overly friendly and laughing at aroused a sincere desire to give them the finger as we cycled through, but better to focus on the positive. Hard when tired after a slog and the road just kept on giving climbs. Finally the climbing ceased rolling past an army cantonment and then up to a road junction and our first sight of the lake with a spectacled statue of Gandhi facing out looking over the misted hills through the small gap in the encircled valley that holds the lake.
We swung to the right across the busy intersection but pulled over once on the flat, looking over the lake whilst appreciating the achievement of the destination. No sooner stopped then approached by a guy trying to tout a boat ride on the lake, clearly blind as to our sitting on bikes and looking tired from a journey. The temptation was to tell the guy to fire truck off, but thankfully it came out as recurring neighs to the repeated requests until he thankfully gave in and backed off down to the lakes edge and the tied up wooden skull boats. Soph in her mind was thinking it was hilarious in a super exhausted mind frame that the boat guy could not work out with our bike trailer and panniers along with exhausted faces that perhaps the thought of finding a hotel room and getting cleaned up might be a little more appealing!
Following the promenade around the lakes edge we raced rickshaws going about their business before climbing up past a flat brown cricket field through the Bara bazaar and to our accommodation of choice the Kohli hotel. A bucket hot shower and momentary trial of the thankfully soft mattress restored our chi before seeking out the wifi at the local cyber cafe aptly titled cyberia and then relocating to Sakleys restaurant for dinner. Per Lonely planet the restaurant had pepper steaks and pastries. So I ordered steak, when the sizzling chicken steak arrived I should not have been surprised but the absence felt like caffeine depression. Pizza was a let down, Mac Leod ganj is still the place to order pizza in northern India. Cake was good but comparatively expensive and sold per kg.
Sleep came quickly brought on the back of a tiring but successful first day back on the bike for the new year.