::ThoughtFarm::

Enduro, India’s one and only adventure race, was conducted on 8^th and 9^th Feb across the spectacular theatre of the National Defence Academy Campus, the Sahyadri Mountains and the Panshet Backwaters. Ever since I heard about the Enduro race from a friend Gurdeepak last year, I wanted to participate in it.

The picturesque countryside, the surrounding water bodies, the beautiful landscapes and one of the most difficult terrains create a stark geographical contrast.

I met Aditya on Orkut, who was also looking for a partner. Me, Aditya and Tanu, his friend together formed a team which we named as “Against All Odds” and participated in the Amateur Mix category which had about 29 teams.

The race consisted of 4 events – Cycling, trekking, rifle-shooting and river-crossing.

The flag-off was from Bharti Vidyapeeth grounds, Kothrud. The energy of the participants was amazing. There were around 230 teams ( 690 people) in total competing across 20 categories ranging from all women to Juniors to IT to Open category. The ground had become a virtual bike fair with bikes ranging from Imported Treks, Firefoxes to Hero, Hamilton and even Atlas GoldLine “Bhaiya” cycles.

We had a unfortunate start to the race since both Tanu and Aditya had a nasty fall from their bikes very early in the race. Tanu got a bruised wrist while Aditya took a hit on his left leg. Thankfully Aditya had got a first-aid box with him and after the dressing, we got back on our cycles.

The cycling route was from Kothrud- NDA – Peacock Bay – NDA Air Strip – Panshet Water Sports Club.

The route was punctuated with TCs(Time check) where we supposed to submit the time-sheet which marked our timings as a team and PCs(Passage Check) which ensured that we followed the route marked and not any short-cuts !

Cycling inside the NDA campus was an awesome experience. I had cycled quite regularly on the NDA road from Chandni Chowk, but was always stopped at the NDA main gate where outsiders are not allowed. This was my first time inside NDA and the hugeness of that place sinks you in.

The road from NDA campus to Panshet Water Sports Complex was quite scenic and interspersed with dirt trails & tar-road . We reached the Water complex at around 5:30 pm. Immediately after depositing our cycles we started the trek.

The trek route was along the ridge-line with the beautiful Panshet river flowing below. We must have climbed some 4-5 mountains up and down before reaching the base camp – TC(5).

The trek was route was however not without its casualties. The organizers had planted Enduro flags throughout the route at regular intervals so that teams can know they are in the right direction. However many a times, we would reach a crossroads and the flag would be missing. 50% teams would take a direction and the other teams would take alternate route. This meant that a lot of teams got lost in the trek. Also it dint help that it started to become dark there as early as 6:30pm and by 7pm the torches were out.

Finally we reached the camp at around 10pm in the night. This was followed by River-crossing , which was a stretch of 250mts and one had to run around back to the starting point. After that was dead time which meant that the teams were not timed till the flag-off which was at 2am in the night.

We managed to get some rest in the night, ate some parathas that Aditya’s mom had made for us. Even though we were tired as hell, the sight of 300-400 people lining up to start the race in the cold at 2am in the night was encouraging. Though we dint sprint like some others, we again started the trek back to the Panshat Water Sports Complex. The organizers had changed the route which involved an additional 10-15kms.

At around 3:30 – 4 am, we took a wrong turn and were lost for around 1-1.5 hours. My legs were aching with pain. We were running short on water too and there were few water bodies on the way. A lot of teams actually decided to rest for some hours before embarking again. Though we dint stop, we continued at a slow pace. Finally at around 3:30pm in the afternoon we reached the finish point. The last 1-1.5 kms from the last TC(Time Check) to the finish point was the most difficult and we were glad that we completed the race.

On 10^th evening there was a ceremony held by the organizers of NDA where we are awarded certificates, followed by dinner. There we learnt that out of the 230 teams which participated, only around 120 teams were able to complete the race. In our category (AMX), we finished around 5-6^th.

The Enduro was a an experience which teaches you a lot of things. As the organizers had mentioned, its more about mental toughness than physical. I saw a lot of bikers on their TREKS, Firefoxes, etc. imported bikes who abandoned the race while those on HERO & ATLAS cycles finished on the podium. I guess its not about what bike you ride, but always about how you ride.

Photo Courtesy - Bangalore Pedals

 

I had participated in the National Himalayan Cycling expedition organized by Youth Hostels India.

It was a cycle trek from Seobagh on the outskirts of Kullu up to Jalori Pass 10,500Ft.Our batch consisted of 8 people: Myself,Priyank & Giri(from Mumbai), Ashutosh Soman (from Delhi), Mukesh Verma uncle (from Chandigarh), Prakash (from Chennai) and Dinesh bhai, Hiten bhai (from Ahmedabad).Ours was the pilot batch for Youth Hostels India for the cyclng expedition.

Day One :: Seobagh base camp:: Acclimatization

The base camp was located just on the banks of the beautiful Beas river and was full of trekkers who were participating in other Himalayan treks that Youth Hostels was organizing simaltaneously.We cyclists were put up together in a large tent and we spent some time knowing each other.

In morning, we went for a small Acclimatization trek to a nearby Waterfall. Ours was the first batch and the cycles had not yet been delivered and so for the first 2 days we used the normal gearless cycles.In the evening we cycled to a nearnby monastory. The monastery is huge with dormitory for students who come from all over Induia.It was very beautiful sight to see small children reciting their Buddhist scriptures while we all were checking out the monastory.

In the night we had a campfire with all the other trekkers and were briefed by the Youth Hostels officials about the Dos & Donts while cycling.

 

 

Day Two :: Seobagh Base Camp to Youth Hostel Aut ::4000ft to 3500ft

We started out first leg of the cycle trek in absence of the geared cycles and instead opting for the conventional gearles cycles.Since we had the advantage of a slope gradient it was easy and we reached our stop for the day Hostel Aut near Beas river, at around 4 in the evening.

We utilised the time to go around the local bazaar and also visited a Shiv temple nearby.

 

 

 

Day 3 :: Aut to Banjar:: 3500ft to 4000ft

In the moring we received our new bikes. These were Aluminium frame bikes & extremely light with 21 gears - 7 levels for the rear sprocket and 3 for the front.

The main climb started today though the distance was covered comfortably due to the new bikes.

In the evening we went the topmost point in the village where we had a stunning view of little hamlets spread across the banks of the magnificent Beas river with Himalayan peaks in the backdrop.

 

 

Day 4 :: Banjar to Jibhi :: 4000ft to 6000ft

Our cycling route ran parallel to the valley covered with dense Deonar tress.

Today we had to climb a gradient of 2000ft spread over a short distance of 10 Kms.We also departed from our path and visited a temple called Shringarishi temple,also called the Valley temple

Shringa Rishi was a sage who meditated at several places in obscure mountains. Higher up is another village where one can see structures that are 9 storied and 5 storied high. Only 4 of us were enthusiastic to climb all the way up, but it was rewarding. The priest informed us that the structure used to be 11 storeys high, until the earthquake of 1905 destroyed upper two levels.

Our camp in Jibhi was the best possible we cud hav asked for. A small garden,flowing river,meditation centre all located in the dense Himalayan forests.

 

 

Day 5 :: Jibhi to Jalori Pass:: 6000ft to 10,500 Ft.

This was unarguably the most difficult part of the entire trek. Altitude gain of 5500ft in just over 10 Kms. The gradient was so steep at some places that we at some points it was impossible to ride up the cycle even in first gear.Add to that it started raining heavily in the afternoon and made our journey even difficult.However the route was also the most scenic in the entire journey.We met lots of snow points in the journey. Jalori Pass connects Kullu and on the opposite side down one can go far as Shimla.The views offered from Jalori Pass were just stunning.Also there was this peculiar trend that everyday in the afternoon it would start Hailing. In the evening a newly married local couple came to visit the Jalori pass temple along with their entire marraige troupe. There was a band too which played local music followed bydance. while the fire crackers were bursting on the occasion.

 

 

Day 6 :: Nature Trail at Jalori Pass

We took a break from cycling and spent the entire day at the Jalori pass. It offers a beautiful variety of flaura and fauna.

In the evening we went to the Sereolsar lakesouth-east of Jalori pass, at a distance of 10km.Here legend is that not even a single leaf falls in to the lake.There ’s small temple too right in front of the lake.This lake has several myths associated with it. One of it says that nobody can cross the lake and remain alive.

We also went to see a local fort nearby but the wind picked up speed so fast and it started hailing again and we had to hurry back to our camp.

 

 

Day 7 :: Return Journey :: Jalori Pass to Base Camp Seobagh

The most important part of the entire return journey was the Break. In the entire day since we were going down from such a altitute we hardly had to paddle even once but breaks were most important.One small mistake and we would have been on the wrong side of the Himalayan valley.

This was mostly a flat ride 42 Kms long and the organizers at the base camp were eagerly awaiting our return since we were in the first batch. We all broke in to celebration as soon as we reached and were really glad that the entire expedition was successfully completed without any major accidents.

There was a presentation ceremony that followed where we were all given certificates for the completion of the cycle trek. We took our fellow cyclist’s contact details and bade them goodbye as we left the base camp at night for McLeodganj, Dharamshala.