Sunday 12th October
Breakfast was spent on a veranda in the plush Oberoi Maidens Hotel, and we then had our bags loaded onto a 'Tata' four-wheel drive Indian made sort of 'the original Land Cruiser'.
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| Leaving Oberoi Maidens Hotel |
I still can't work out whether theTata is indigenous or
We are soon out of this haven into the ocean of bodies, bikes, trikes, cars,
buses, etc of Delhi on a Sunday morning.
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| Near the start of the journey |
It is the day after a festival where effigies are burned. The female goddess gets burnt and thrown into the river. (The previous night we saw some of this festival.) Dussehra.
Today's was a 240 km drive to Rishikesh, with Ebrahim at the wheel. Driving in
India is stressful. We sped or forced our way via Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Haridwar,
with lunch at a rather upmarket service station - the Cheetal Grand Hotel at
Khatauli, where we ate Thali special.
Most of the journey was through a corridor of chaos - mainly built-up areas,
but with rich crops nearby. Lots of sugar beet in particular.
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| From Delhi to Rishikesh |
Regular chimneys indicated brickworks (the piles of bricks were also a giveaway). About halfway we saw our first monkey, on the side of a wagon. A pet?
We passed numerous ancient looking factories with smoking chimneys, which added to the general feeling of being in a cloud of dust laden diesel all day.
However, there is wildlife, and various birds of prey were seen - mainly black kites. Women in full purdah abounded and must have some difficulty avoiding the persuasive hooting traffic. Here one is expected to 'sound horn’ - most lorries/buses have that painted on the back. The roads are not only occupied by traffic but by ubiquitous water buffalo and other cattle, and by pigs and sometimes chickens.
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| En route to Rishikesh |
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| En route to Rishikesh |
( I pause here for the second time - now at camp above Wan - 4pm Thursday - and not particularly relishing a mammoth session with the diary.)
The 'crow' of this area appears to be the Egret, ubiquitous amongst the sugar cane. John is 'into textiles' and thought he saw felt being made in one of the towns. This is apparently a rarely seen event - comb wool, lay it out on a mat, flick on soapy water, roll repeatedly, unroll, work on a bit more to finish. After about a mile, Ebrahim realised John's need to view this unusual event, so a tricky U turn led us back, only to find people stuffing mattresses! This caused some delay as traffic in the town (Muzaffarnagar) was trying to negotiate a flooded town centre full of mud and shit and cattle and lorries and trikes and land cruisers and jeeps and 'Ambassadors', the local car, based on the Old Morris Oxford.
Huge canals were crossed. These presumably irrigate the vast government owned cane plantations. Between towns we encountered what appeared to be huge piles of dung beside the road. They turned out to be 'wigwams' made of dung, presumably to dry it for fuel.
Charpoys were seen. These are beds, outside houses, made of a wooden frame and a rope/string lattice. Much used here.
The roads also featured 'speed bumps'. These did in fact succeed wonderfully in calming traffic as did the occasional chicane caused by placing barriers halfway across the road at discrete intervals. The roadside featured lots of shops with various produce - most significantly bananas in various states of repair. The occasional carcass, mainly dogs, also littered the 'pavements'. There are lots of dogs here, but very few cats in evidence. The footwear of the locals shows their affluence, or lack of it. Some have proper shoes or trainers, but many just have old flip flops or bare feet.
Trees include palm and mango, as well as eucalyptus. Many trees in the last part of the journey were being used as improvised haystacks.
We reached Haridwar at sunset. This is one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindus, and cable cars were in operation, taking pilgrims to the temples which overlook the town. Many many pilgrims - perhaps the reason for our being unable to be booked on tonight's overnight train from
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| Haridwar at sunset |
After a brief stop for photos, we continued on in quickly falling darkness (18:00) to Rishikesh, where on entering the town, we immediately located Hotel Natraj, the best hotel in town, another old colonial place but not as plush as Oberoi Maidens.
Sudhil, from Adventours, soon joined us. He was uncertain about our further progress. He seems to be the link man for the local agent, Mercury, and he used to work for Mercury. He was the sirdar on last year's trip led by Monte. Uncertainty remains tonight - we are to be contacted again in the morning.
So, to a hotel meal, the usual mixture of Indian dishes plus rice, nan and chapatis. No meat or alcohol though in this town, which was where The Beatles came in the 1960s for meditation and marijuana, with their guru, the Maharishi (not a real one) Mahesh Yogi.
Later we walked into town to Triveni Ghat, where after sunset lamps are set on the water in the Ganga Aarti (river worship) ceremony.
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| A picture taken at Triveni Ghat |
The place was fairly deserted at our late arrival time. Photos of statues of Shiva and his wife Parvati were taken by Richard, as well as Krisha and Argena on a chariot, and we enjoyed a pleasant walk along the beachy riverbank - there are many good beaches hereabouts. This led us in a circuit past closed shops and on to the stroll back to the hotel. The gates were shut so we climbed the 'In' gate whilst the nightwatchman opened the (nearer) 'Out' gate for us.
Bed and sleep soon followed, but my bowels are still quite a problem.
2 comments:
Interesting stuff. My elder brother who comments on my blog occasionally and is four years older than me "did" Outward Bound in Eskdale. I suppose it was in the early 50s. Eric Shipton was one of the instructors. On backpacking trips that they did Eric declined to sleep in a tent, "too stuffy," preferring to bivy outside.
Shipton and Tilman were two of a kind and seemed to flourish in challenging conditions...
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