Nainital
- 15th of August
- New Delhi - Ghaziabad - Hapur - Moradabad Bypass - Kashipur - Ramnagar - Haldwani - Kathgodam - Nainital
- 310km
We left New Delhi early in the morning, at 6AM. The streets of Delhi were completely vacant. We expected a certain amount of official presence, what with it being Independence day and all… but nothing. The few cops who were around, were gracious enough to direct us out of the melting pot that is New Delhi.
Backward state or not, we saw nice smooth roads throughout UP. Our journey through the wide 4-lane highway was only marred by some severe traffic jams.
Prashi enjoys the nice UP interior roads.
Rather silly, the jams. Two trucks both try to squeeze through a gap meant for one, and neither can. Before either one can reverse out, traffic is backed up as far as the eye can see. One such jam reputedly took 42 hours to clear. Vestiges of this jam still remained when we got to the Moradabad bypass. A nudge here, a squeeze there, a short stretch on a dirt road elsewhere got us past these jams comfortably.
There was some rain on the way. In fact, we encountered rain every day of the first leg. The only variation was in the amount of rain we had to ride through. Believe me, August is not a good month to spend in Uttaranchal.
We met some Royal Beasts inside Corbett park. They were on their way back from Binsar. The red Thunderbird in the foreground has an AVL500 engine.
The mother of all jams awaited us at Kathgodam, just a short way from Nainital. A large tree keeled over across the road, and traffic again was backed up for hours. We squeezed, nudged, honked and raced our way through the seemingly interminable line of traffic till the fallen tree. The local police and PWD (Public Works Department) were still working on the larger parts of the tree, but had cut a large enough path for our bikes to squeeze through. Quite a lucky break. A lot more nudging, and we reached Nainital late afternoon.
My first look at the Himalayas. This photograph was taken just after we crossed the traffic jam.