Day 5 - Diglipur - Rocky Start on a Roller coaster
Deprived of
good sleep before the day of long ride, I was determined to complete the ride
before 4 pm. Well aware of my stamina and endurance levels, I did not want a
repeat of my GMC 100k ride to Agumbe, where I was completely drained and finished the
ride with support light by 6.30pm.
We left
early at 6.30 with a light breakfast, I carried with me a sandwich too. Today’s
ride was to reach Diglipur, North Andaman, with no planned halts or touring
spots. Me and Chiddu rode together, and
we planned the ride very well, break after every 25 kms, water breaks as required,
and distance check every hour, goal was to cover 15 kmph at an average. During
my Agumbe ride, I had no track of distance or time, it was just going on and
on, the psychological feeling of expectations (flat ride) vs reality (malnad
flat has recurring ascends & downs) drained me further. This time my normal
wristwatch helped me to measure time against my Strava, listening to Illayaraja
songs via speaker we just rolled on.
After about
40 km roads were not so good but they were not bad, not as bad as yesterday!
Probably because we were expecting for the worse, we reached the lunch point at
11.30 am, to see other early riders having their lunch. Mukesh Jain, another
active cyclist from Pondy is another warm and engaging person, pure businessman
living in a traditional family set-up. Not surprising for a businessman, has a
huge network & was quite actively steering his jewellery business remotely
(before and after rides connecting from wherever he could). He was being pulled
and took it sportively to expand his business overseas. Devoured the tasty
lunch with curd, pappad and pickle, I had to admit that I was getting tired of
Daal. Being a Tamilian, wanted the sourness (rasam or sambar or curd), glad to
have rice and curd. As we resumed post lunch Dr. Shailaja also reached the
lunch point. Despite her health condition Shwetha did a good ride but decided
to rest post lunch.
The ride
itself was amidst tropical rain forest area, greenery on both sides, just like
Malnad ride. Semmal’s spokes broke and he had to switch to another bike. Samarth
advised me to try switch back rides, didn’t expect it to make a difference even
in such short ascends, but it did. Just a small adjustment to techniques made a
huge difference. I enjoyed the off-road ascends as the focus was to avoid a fall
rather than on the ascend itself.
I was not
surprised or drained, rather prepared mentally to face ascend after ascend. Just
like in personal life the ride was full of surprises/challenges, need to face
them as they come rather than calculating how much more. Awaiting nice flat
ride past all ascends is exactly like waiting to enjoy life after all challenges
are resolved. The only way is to handle as they come and learn to enjoy all
along. This analogy was much needed as I was mentally preparing to tackle
duties for the legal appearance, a message that I had checked the day before. Responsibilities
(legal/medical/administrative) are part of my life now, even if they are
endless, overwhelming I need to live my life along with them, after all they
make and shape me up.
But I
enjoyed the ride very much, it was fun and fulfilling to ride across the slushed
off-road. Bike was the best mode of commute in these roads, in fact felt bad
for the ones in support vehicle, it will be roller coaster bumpy ride.
We met
Puru, Uma and Brij at Diglipur bazaar devouring samosas, I preferred my
sandwich over the Samosa as it has been too many samosas during the week. We
still had 18 KM to resort and so hurried on to complete the ride. The remaining
18 km was a complete flat ride, and we reached the resort by 2:50 PM, it was a
great feeling to finish the long ride, hard earned early start helped me. Even Dr
Shailaja finished the ride little later, apparently, she dropped her idea of
joining the support vehicle as there was enough time to complete the ride.
Other
riders were chilling at the bar of the beautiful resort, their well-earned relaxation.
Fun is different for different people, me and Chidu hit the beach directly to
check on the sunset. This beach beauty also had fresh river water joining the
sea, surrounded by mountains on one side, two small islands about a
kilometre from the shore, it was a sight to behold. Shore had so many hermit crabs in
different colours, too cloudy for sunset view.
Chidu went across the shallow waters, well inside the sea and I joined him. We stood facing the beach, a completely different view of waves crossing from behind to the beach. In my attempt to capture the waves from behind, both of our mobiles were drenched in sea water, no more photos/videos, must capture them in our hearts.
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