Shimla to Rishikesh

Friday, 13 September - First of four riding days to Rishikesh. Today is punctuated by a 1400 m climb over 30 km in the middle of the day. The best weather of the day was departing Shimla, an imaginative route through residential areas above the Mall and Ridge areas we'd wandered the last couple of days.

looking down on Shimla on the way out

nicely groomed yak available for rides at the side of the road

Saturday, 14 September - Terrain is a mix between woods and agriculture with some narrower canyons in between. An 800 metre climb in the afternoon at about 5% average grade, and not much respite anywhere n the way up. The reality of these climbs is that at those gradients, we can climb 200-300 metres an hour, so the climb might take three or four hours, and with no real relief anywhere on the way up, they just don't level off until you're over the top. We see always to be perched on the sides of these steep valleys with views sometimes into towns below. Suspension foot-bridges are everywhere - something we're curious about is when and who put them in - they mostly are similar design.

In the woods, we've encountered a few gypsy-like groups driving their yaks along the road and camped along the road with significant numbers of women and children in low tarp-covered lean-tos, with large open cooking areas and fires. A bit eerie seeing such large groups huddled around appearing not to be doing much, but apparently, these are people who historically have driven their herds seasonally back and forth from higher grazing grounds to lower winter areas but who are increasing finding themselves unwelcome as their 'traditional' camping areas are taken over for more permanent use. 

Rae managed to break a couple of spokes today - thankfully near the lunch stop where our trusty and amazing bike mechanic Baba replaced them and trued the wheel while we enjoyed lunch.

Over the top of the hill and another dramatic change in scenery as we enter this wide cultivated valley as we descend to tonight's accommodation.  

Sunday, 15 September. Similar countryside today...

...Himalayan asses seen many places - they are beasts of burden here...

...and very hot even before the real climbing started after lunch - our support staff took advantage of a waterfall to cool down after lunch...

The real climb today came after lunch - 1400 metres over the last 30 km - and continued all the way to the hotel - three and a half hours in the heat and humidity. So humid that our room had water condensation running down the inside of the window all night. The air conditioning did nothing to dehumidify things. We put our wet stuff over chairs to dry, but not a chance... nothing was any drier in the morning, not one bit.

Monday, 16 September - okay, on with the wet stuff for the run into Rishikesh. No significant climbs today, hallelujah. 80 km mostly downhill, fastest average speed of the trip for us and we were at the hotel in Rishikesh shortly after noon. Weather hot and hazy - humidity was as close to 100% (and temperature in the thirties) almost like being in cloud - in places, rain was not falling but you were running into raindrops on the bike. Did we sweat... wow, did we sweat.

The hotel backs onto the great Ganges river...

On arrival, we all needed to be blessed by Raj, who seems to be the hotel's guru, a real character...

Although a bit skeptical at first, about a dozen of us joined him that evening to go to a 'Ganga Aarti' which is a ceremony on the banks of the Ganges as an offering to the Goddess Ganga, the mother goddess of the Ganges river which is India's most holy river.

It turned into a great evening. We went to the Triveni Ghat which apparently is the biggest and most famous ghat in Rishikesh on the banks of Ganges and where many devotees go to take ritual baths to get cleansed from their sins.  

Triveni Ghat is used by devotees to perform the last rites and rituals of their loved ones and this was taking place before the Ganga aarti ceremony.

The Ganag aarti ceremony includes fire, songs sung in praise of the worshiped, flowers, incense, music, etc. The purpose of aarti is to show humility and gratitude to God’s divine form. 

At the end, lit lamps and flowers are floated down the river, which the literature describes as 'the sight of oil leaves, filled with diya and petals, which are released by devotees, floating on the pristine Ganga and the traditional aarti is a sight to behold'.  

It certainly was interesting to see so many people in the water placing their flowers with burning candles in the water.

Very comfortable hotel for the rest day. 

Tuesday, 17 September - If you wonder why I write the day of the week, then the date, it's to keep track ourselves of just when these days are happening. When you're on a bike from 0730 until 1700 or even later, you totally lose track of the real world.

Today started with a yoga class for Ursula, a leisurely breakfast, then some bicycle cleaning and preparing this blog. I'm about to post it and then we'll go out into the heat and humidity that's like a steambath and have some lunch down the road at the Beatles cafe, a hark back to hippy days when the Beatles spent time in a local Ashram.

We are now facing seven consecutive days of cycling - more hills of course, but not the high altitudes of earlier in the trip (Rishikesh is only 400 m elevation, barely higher than the house in Garibaldi Highlands). We end the week with a 150+ km day as we arrive in Nepal for our next rest day. Not sure what opportunities there will be for the next post.