“The journey, not the arrival matters.” – T.S.Eliot

I’ve always believed that clichés exist for a reason. The aforementioned clichéd beginning to this blog shall be another testimonial to my belief.

Post-graduation is tiring. You’ll have your own definition of mental exhaustion, post post-graduation. Everyone constantly yearns for an escape. Situated in Paonta Sahib, the picturesque location of the campus helps a lot. Still, human minds craves for more.

Love in its nascent stage is the wildest. It grapples your mind and you do nothing but see yourself getting immersed in it. My roommate’s love for mountains was almost nine months old. He was head over heels with the wild sereneness of the mountains. I don’t blame him. The setting was to be blamed. Every sip of warm tea in the evening, teased by the cool breeze added to his longingness.

Such pure feelings are infectious. My immune system was never strong. And, a few days later a plan full of constraints was laid. However, with growing concerns about shaking finances looming, I was becoming sceptical of the plan. I rarely let my head lose out to the heart. This was one of the exceptions. With my studies nearing completion, corporate slavery just around the corner – I had to let the chaos win!

A bike was arranged and a bare minimum plan was laid down. This trip was to be the test of my will and newly acquired capability of breathing sanely. ‘Chopta‘ – the highest abode of the God of destruction. The description and stories of the journey fuelled my will and we set off. The plan was to make the introverts of room no. 33 experience real life outside their laptop screens!

Initial plan:

Day 1:
Paonta Sahib -> Dehradun -> Rishikesh (52km in bus; 45km on bike)

Day 2:
Rishikesh -> Devprayag -> Srinagar -> Rudraprayag -> Chopta (208km)

Day 3:
Trek to Tunganath and Chandrashila -> Back to Rudraprayag (12km trek; 69km on bike)

Day 4:
Rudraprayag -> Dehradun -> Paonta Sahib (182km on bike; 52km in bus)

The budding managers were successfully able to stick to the initial 20% of the plan. Recently acquired knowledge in project management was proving its worth. With 18 horses breathing calmly beneath us, we reached Rishikesh by 8 PM. Hotel searching is never an issue at a touristy place. The issue was finding pocket-friendly good food. Our search ended about a kilometre away from our hotel. Mouth-watering Dosa @40! What better way to end the day than this?

At dawn the next day, we bid adieu to Rishikesh. The roads were well built. Cruiser comfort helped us in immersing ourselves in the beautiful landscape of the surrounding. This was my first ever bike trip, let alone tackling a mountainous terrain. I was elated to a level where I could even fart rainbows. We hadn’t progressed much when we encountered some road construction. The traffic was halted for a while after every kilometre. This pause and play movement allowed us to satiate our craving for mountain scenery.

We halted at another roadside dhaba near Byasi. There’s something about roadside dhabas which the AC restaurants just cannot provide. Their lack of garnishing, non-fancy & sane dish names, and basic cutlery adds a flavour which the elite dine outs can never provide.

Abiding by a plan and the possibility of reaching its goal gives me a satisfaction like no other. We were optimistic about reaching our destination by 3 PM. Little did we know that we had overlooked a major factor – pristine nature. About half the way was lined with gorges. At many places, one could hear the playfulness of the river. We were finding it hard to not stop at every 500m to click pictures. Neither did we own a photography page on Facebook nor did we have DSLRs. Not to mention my NID certified travel-mate, who was unstoppable with him Xiaomi beast! Only good editing could’ve saved our pathetic photography skills.

Srinagar was a pleasant surprise. This is the Srinagar which the terrorists don’t fantasize about. I had no clue as to how beautiful this small town was. This was the first time I was witnessing a river beach outside my Geography textbook. Boy, it was a looker! The town was fairly populated as per the mountainous standards and has an army establishment as well. This was our last stop before the destination.

Google had been our constant support system. It would’ve been tough without the Google maps. Google is like that eager-to-help wise old man, who knows everything. The road from Devaprayag to Rudraprayag, especially the stretch between Srinagar and Rudraprayag is phenomenal! You can cruise comfortably without breaking a sweat. I wish the road never ended. You have the Alaknanda river by your side and buttery roads beneath. There isn’t a single reason to not love this stretch.

Before embarking on this journey, other’s travel stories always left me pondering over the experiences they shared. You should experience the stories you hear for real. The narrator’s eyes brighten up, they can’t help but smile, and often the narration is so good, that you can’t help but imagine yourself in their shoes. If this imagination moves you, you set out to make your own story.

I was lucky enough to have a roommate who’d travelled the length and breadth of the country on his beloved Enfield. I don’t think I’ve seen many bonds as pure as the one he shared with his bike. My travel mate and the guy I just mentioned were at different phases of their love for travel. While one was experimenting with his new found love, the other was at the epitome of relationship goals. What united them was their hunger. Hunger for travel. And, I was happy that I came in contact with this insatiable appetite.

These thoughts crossed my mind as more kilometres piled up on the odometer. Finally, we reached Chopta at around 3:30 P.M. Much to our surprise, the village was way too dull to be an adventurer’s paradise. It was like any other mountainous village – content faces, eager eyes, and loads of tranquillity disturbed only by the occasional trespassing of vehicles.

Our doubt was confirmed by the septuagenarian whose wrinkles questioned Google’s expertise.

“This is not the place you’re looking for…”

(If you’re interested in exploring what my ex-roommate experienced, do check out his blog: Vishal K Gawade’s travelogue)