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The Day Before Delhi

We started off this morning from the “Taj of Moradabad” knowing that this should be our last full day of cycling before Delhi…before the END. It was raining cats and dogs and we laughed about a conversation we had a week earlier in Nepal that went something like “if you had to choose between no rain and sun everyday or, rain everyday, from here to Delhi which would you prefer?” Given that day was baking hot sunshine, we had both decided we would prefer rain…luckily!

The road was pretty much the continuation of the smooth by-pass we were on yesterday and we knocked out 50km easily before stopping at a roadside “dhaba” for lunch (more aloo!).  After lunch we thought we would try for another 40 or 50km and get to, or just past, Hapur, leaving only 50km to cover on our last day to Delhi. As is usually the way when you are thinking about how well you are getting on, things turned to custard a little from here.

We crossed the Ganges and the by-pass road ended and we were back to stretches of potholed road with the exhausting blaring of horns as drivers speedily approached us from behind and impatiently wanted to get past us (there being little room often because a truck would be coming the other way and a car trying to overtake it thereby taking up the width of the road). We have to keep constantly on edge to navigate the crappy broken road without getting in the path of any of the cars/trucks/buses. It doesn’t help when so many of the motorcyclists slow down and stare as they come up behind us or when they pass us, squashing us further toward to edge of the road.  With all the rain, the road turned completely to mud where it went through towns and the potholes were so full of water you could not tell how deep they were or in fact where the edges were – leading to a quite spectacular ‘very nearly over the handle-bars head first’ incident for me; thankfully managing to keep myself and bike upright and only minimal damage to certain bony bits.

Anyway enough of the road works stories. We also met some nice folk on the road today. We met a carload who had seen us 250km earlier at the Nepal border and had some photos with them. We also met some nice guys who work in the seed and vegetable industry and were kind enough to check the location of the hotel we were headed for near Hapur (having seen a massive billboard for it 50km earlier). They were all very impressed that we had come all the way from Beijing.  Seeing people’s reaction here to the fact we have come from Beijing by bike really makes it hit home to us how far away Beijing is, in distance, culture, colour – everything. 

We are now really starting to think about reaching Delhi (fingers crossed) and completing the journey we set out to. Over dinner we got chatting about the things we had learned about each other and ourselves during the trip – thankfully nothing scary learnt – and whether the trip had fulfilled what we wanted it to, sort of irrespective of making it to Delhi tomorrow or not. Then the food arrived and we tucked in to some aloo – again! For those that are not well acquainted with Indian food, if you are avoiding meat (as we are just to be on the safe side and having seen too many trucks of crated chickens) you are pretty much left with potato (aloo) or paneer (a type of soft cheese) dry or in gravy and generally spicy. We have tried most of them we can highly recommend a few of our faves such as Dum Aloo Kashmiri, Aloo Jeera and Paneer Pasanda. Yum!

Tomorrow, well, all roads may lead to Rome but this one, we hope, leads straight to the centre of Delhi. Bring it on! 

STATS: Dist 100km. Avg 22.8 Time: 4 hr 23 mins