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Part of the Dehra Dun road |
Speed freak
The last chapter was all about Delhi. What about more local travel? Well, the scooter is earning its keep, especially with Christmas shopping on the agenda. An evening trip into the bazaar, pick up some nice local crafts, a meal - a far cry from those interminable Saturdays in town looking at the same old gift ideas. But I had my first interesting solo jaunts this last week or two. First, I awarded myself a day off in lieu of.. not having had any. Off to Dehradun, 25 miles downhill, and a cruise around to find places. Main reason for the trip was to buy paint remover to refurbish an old wardrobe (more another time). On the way back there was a road off to the left, near the top of the hill, which I'd often wondered about. So..
After half a mile the road started deteriorating, and for the best part of an hour I traversed a big hill on a cart track, fording streams as I went. Brilliant! The path comes out on the other side of Mussoorie, I found, on the road out to Cloud's End and Everest House, at the end of a ridge overlooking the Doon Valley. Everest House is where the most famous surveyor of India lived, the chap the big hill is named after. A thoroughly good explore.
My next solo trip down to Dehradun was on business - to drop off printing and arrange for more, and to drop off a press release about one of our PR events (oh, I must tell you about them as well). Shot down nice and fast (53 minutes from school to the printer), then started to shoot back, getting really into being a speed freak on a 102 c.c. scooter. Took a bend too fast and narrowly avoided missing a bus coming the other way. Brilliant piece of evasive riding that resulted in my not being plastered along the side of the bus, but didn't quite make it past the rear end - clobbered the kick start and bent it all out of shape. First accident! Didn't fall off, though - that's still to come.
OK, no problem; the garage in Mussoorie will bend it back. Keep going - work waiting. Another few miles and - ran out of petrol! Couldn't believe it. So much for the reserve lasting 30 miles - more like 15. "What to do?" as the Indians say. I tried scrounging off a taxi, and only realised that the funny look he gave me was because it had a diesel engine. Tried a little roadside dhaba - they have petrol-driven cookers. Unfortunately my Hindi for "I want petrol" sounded too much like "Please give me a cup of tea". So, refreshed but still without petrol, I realised that the only option was to return to Dehradun, some 8 - 10 miles. So I did. In that whole distance I only had to push for about 200 yards - all the rest was downhill. Into the scooter dealer to scrounge a cup of fuel and pay 60p to get the kick start straightened, top up with petrol, and off home - again!
So then, a few miles from home, my first puncture. Yippee! Getting them all out of the way in one go. 15 minutes to change the wheel - OK for a first attempt. Three hours late, but it's FUN - isn't it?
Only one other scooter incident to report so far. I went off road at night to visit someone - a rough zig-zag track with very sharp turns every hundred yards or so. OK going up, but coming down in the pitch dark I had the problem of keeping the engine going so the headlamp didn't go off while not going so fast I drove off the edge or fell off when I hit a rock. Came to a sharp turn, foot down, manoeuvring the scooter round, combination of throttle, clutch, brake and.. why is the scooter driving over the edge of this hill? Do I let it go without me or.. I think I'll.. quickly throw it on its side so I don't have to climb down after it in the dark. Only a slightly bent footplate - I'll soon hammer that back. At least the newness is wearing off. Dot asked one of the Indian guys who rides a bike whether he had ever had an accident. After a bit of thought he said "well, it's several months since the last one".