Sunday, May 8, 2011

Off Road cycling By Night To Manger and Damdama Lake










Uff no words to express the feel of doing Manger trail under dark night sky , so very serene quiet and the stars so near and clear.No honking no pollution no scorching heat just us 7 insane cyclists on no mission just keeda to cycle.I was asked to put my radio off so that we could enjoy the silence of the night in jungle and see the skyline of Gurgaon from a distance.
Cutting through 11 kms of rocky off road track which in day time looks never ending other wise, just finished in a jiffy and we were in Manger Ashram in no time.So much so we thought we have wondered off a bit as we cant possibly do it so quick.
Anyways a warm welcome was showered at  us at Manger, for them it was a change to have guests at about 830 pm.We were offered hukkas and chai which we didn't let go but skipped the dinner they offered.
Now as we headed towards south ie Damdama the the elder baba got up and sternly warned us not to go down as the track from last year is washed off and there is waist high (mine chest high)  in the lake.But we stubborn insane cycling morons decided to do whats not to be done and check the water levels and come back so we didn't say bye to the babas.
The Track down was indeed broken and we had to get off bikes to navigate .
We hit the water front at about 10 pm and  as luck would have it we decided to take it on so one by one bare feet in pitch darkness we get into water , cycles on our shoulders waist below under water ,feet on slippery lake bed but  we make it to the other side about 10 meters away.
Now to go east or to west was the quagmire after crossing as the terrain looked different than last year, lucky that i was carrying my GPS  and we could navigate our way back.Now the water  had washed away all the slime so it was a puncture fest post lake and soon we ran out of spare tubes but we managed. At about 2330 hrs we were repairing tubes at Damdama
As all good things have to come to an end, so  this ride ended after 6 hrs of adventure  and streams of adrenaline and we made it home post 1am.
A ride to remember and cherish for a long time,me Manas,Ankit,Vinay,Arminder,Nachiketa&Rahul had a ride of a life time missed Nitish though.Thanks friends for making yesterday night so special

2 comments:

  1. great write up chiro i lived every moment of it all over again this ride will always be in our memories

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