Day 3: 3rd November 2006
0630 hrs: Started off for Chittaurgarh…with several breaks on the way I reached Menal, which was around 75 km away, at 0930 hours…The waterfall which I had read about was almost dry yet it was not a waste of time…There was a 1000 year old Shiv Temple with a valley like place nearby…The place was so quite and serene…I could actually relax there for hours…There were stairs going down the valley (some 100-120 feet) which means if you keep going down, you can reach all the way at the bottom of that valley and can see yourself surrounded by a jungle from all the sides and a waterfall from the top…Isn’t that so amazing…There were no sounds other than the chirping of birds and seldom shrieking of monkeys which echoed in the valley…If the waterfall was not that dry…I would have definitely got wet…After spending around an hour there I moved on…As soon as I hit the road again I saw a restaurant…it was a perfect time to treat myself…
1100 hrs: After some good food I realized that I was running short of time and headed to Chittaurgarh…The way to Chittaur had some really nice places to stop…so even when I was getting late I kept taking frequent breaks…
1315 hrs: Finally reached Chittaurgarh and had the Engine Oil changed…
Trip Meter: 933.8 km
Now I had to go through a really confusing situation…My original plan was to spend some time in Chittaur and then finally spending the night in Udaipur…The next day I would go to Mt. Abu via Ranakpur, Kumbalgarh and Haldighati…But as I had to cut down on 2 days, I knew I had to miss almost all of these because if I tried covering these places, I would mess up all the 7 days…So the final decision was to miss Udaipur and the other three and head to Mt. Abu straight away…But this was not the best thing to do…I jumped on the NH-76 at 1415 hrs and ripped off…
1600 hrs: Udaipur…
Trip Meter: 1046 km
I didn’t have the time to even look at Lake Pichola or The City Palace…So with some hard feelings I took the road to Mont Abu…Now this came out to be worse…There was a road construction work going on and hills were being blown up with dynamites…All the vehicles had to stop for 15-20 minutes at a point after every few kilometers…The road was a dirt track and biking was difficult as well as risky…As soon as the sun started descending, vehicles almost vanished from the road…I had been told by people that there was a stretch of road from Gogunda to Pindwara, which would take more than 1 hour to cross, which is said to be dreaded and I must cross it before it gets dark…People said that this sretch was inhabited by tribal people who used Bows and Arrows and looted people…Now this was not funny as it was already dark……
This was the longest hour of my life…At around 1900 hrs I entered the dreaded region…The road was properly leveled now…but it was up and down with dead curves…At 7o’clock all I could see was…Nothing!! There was dense forest on both the sides, totally dark surroundings, no light other than the bike’s and not even a single soul for the next 1 hour when I knew that the ‘aadivasis’ would come out from anywhere and cook me up for dinner! I knew that if anything went wrong with the bike...either I was dead or would be helped only the next morning…With all these fears in my mind I kept moving on at around 60 km an hour which was the maximum possible at that time on that road…
Suddenly after a sharp curve there was a big thorny bush right in the middle of the road…After balancing the bike because of a sudden brake, I thought it was over for me…I don’t know whether it was a trap or not…I managed to slip away…After an hour long spine-chilling fight with the scary road…I finally had a sigh of relief as I reached Pindwara…
2015 hrs: After such an act of bravery I definitely needed something to eat…haha…The people at Hotel Siyaram thought I was mad when they came to know that I was coming from Udaipur at that time…Anyway after relaxing for some time I went back to the road as Mt. Abu was still far…
2200 hrs: Reached Mt Abu without enjoying the evening scenes of the hills…couldn’t do anything about it now…I had almost screwed up 2 days…I cant say it was my fault as I was short of time and was not very sure of whatever I was doing…Still it was all fun…Riding in a total blacked-out situation through a jungle is definitely some fun…Isn’t it!!
Final reading of the day: 1239.5 km
I had covered 554 km which was the longest ride of the trip till then.
One piece of suggestion…DO NOT try to cross this road at night especially when you are alone…It is indeed DANGEROUS!
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