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Highway calling
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Bikers in town hit the highway to Kutch for the annual 60 KPH meet. SYEDA FARIDA reports.
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JOHN DENVER'S Country Roads and the underlying maxim of travelling through rustic locales at unhurried pace meets its new age adventure rhythm in Dhoom. Fuelling this romance between man and his mean machine are riders' clubs in the country, and now 60 KPH, an e-group of bike enthusiasts on Yahoo that is celebrating its first anniversary this month at Kutch about the same time as Riderz Mania 2005, in Mumbai. Participating in the two events are riders from the twin cities who plan to hit the road for the 4,000-kilometre circular trip, in ten days.
Ajay, an MBA student at ICFAI doesn't remember the last time he took a train. He prefers biking across the country on his Royal Enfield. Nothing beats riding the highway and camping under the stars for Manjunath. While Meher plans to improve on his last 1,200 kilometres solo biking tour. Others in the 60 KPH bikers clique for Kutch include Seshu, who earlier biked all the way to Pakistan as part of the Road to Peace event last year, with wife Nagalakshmi, and Rajsekhar `the logistics man (maps and routes)' and a scientist in NRSA, who dotes on his Pulsar. "You need to have two things — a bike and passion for travelling. There is this vague sense of trust as we don't know others otherwise," says Manjunath.
All set for the first halt, the tough terrain to the desert camp in Rann of Kutch, the team meets for the last minute P.O.A. (They prefer to meet up on a dhaba in Sangareddy that they feel is more accessible, than criss-crossing the arterial roads.) Sleeping mats, tents, mosquito coils, spare parts, few sets of clothes and drinking water supported by the Ladakh carrier fitted on the bike, not forgetting the Lonely Planet Road Atlas sitting on the tank bag of their well-toned bikes. (Their take--machines work best if treated as humans.) "You don't need to stock up fuel as there are many gas stations on the highway except when you are driving to places like Ladakh," says an elated Ajay. "Our club members have been the first to have conquered Marsmik-La, the highest motorable road in Ladakh," he adds. Biking for the e-group is a passion, and expensive at that. "You tend to loose the count in kilometres as you start spending a fortune on the fuel. But its worth it," says Seshu. Knowing cultures, be it eating a meal with an adivasi family in remote hamlet of Dang in Gujarat, or applying the lessons learnt from the trips — stress, crisis management and more to professional life not forgetting the goose pimples — sighting a leopard on the riverside, a stone throw from the tent. "Most of us have become good photographers," says Manjunath. "Apart from good riders that is."
"It refines your driving. You don't find indications on highways and you are driving against a constant flow of light, by instinct. You have a village every 10-20 km and you cannot predict the speed breaker at the beginning of the village. Buffaloes and a bus speeding on same lane on a multi-lane highway then is a double whammy. There is one god--the highway," says Ajay.
Once back from the camp, the group plans to write travelogues and post it on the URL for the benefit of future travellers. And ahead, they neither plan to exchange their bike for a four-wheeler nor they plan to participate in races. "You are zipping past then. It is not a ride when you want to see places at your pace and enjoy the ride. Motor biking is about freedom," says Meher. "What is your objective, is an oft asked question for which we still couldn't find an answer," says Rajsekhar as he gears up to hit the desert trail.
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