Last Post

All. I have returned from my mountain bike travels and travails and I am back in Rochdale for my 3 month summer holidays. A few posts have not made it on yet but will update them as I get time. Will be back up and running and improved in early October when I return to India to start up in readiness for my first mountain bike Kerala group of the year of the 2007/2008 season. To my readership of 1 Simon Lill, I thank you very much and will be on the phone to speak to you soon.

Bleached

Head out to the only cycle shop in India that knows what it is doing and miraculously manage to pick up a disc rotor, looks thick, weighs the same as the bike but it works and that along with a chunky thick tyre sets me back about 12 pound so thrilled to pieces.
Wander around Delhi in search of relics of the raj and the signs of the mutiny of 1857 that crippled Delhi and witnessed the deaths of 10's of thousands of Indians as the British wrecked vengeance on the citizens of Delhi for harbouring the mutineers. Probably too ambitious in my search as temperatures in the 40C and much has changed since 1857 but did find a church (locked), a crumbling Kashmiri gate and walked up to the Delhi ridge were the British layed siege to the city and found the British Memorial to the dead, now an exercise park, were I battle for space with the new breed of aggressively assertive Delhite's.
Pick up a shave and head shave near the old city for an original fee of 30 Rs (50 pence). All goes well til he accuses me of having unclean scalp which he decides unilaterally to clean up with the aid of some pasty stuff and a electronic vibrating disc, other modifications to my face and head are deemed necessary, and given the original cheap price it seemed best to let him loose with his assorted creams, pastes and tubes of face bleacher. Almost drew the line as he plucked away half my eyebrows with a devilishly painful plucking technique using cotton, his teeth and violent arm swinging. Bald, bleached; to the colour of an exhumed corpse; and eyebrowless I am then exposed to a bit of barbarous barber extortion as he demands 550 Rs for his administrations. I protest and throw 200 rupees in his face before pegging it into the thick swirl of people that is any street in Dehli.

Super Slow Summer Special

All normal trains were booked when I made my travel arrangements so I am excited about the prospect of travelling on my first ever Summer Special, extra trains put on to clear the summer holiday maker rush.
No visible signs of the train arriving on time so chat-chat with the locals about expected delays, here it is discovered that the S.S tag also stands for super slow as the trains have no real schedule at all and only use the tracks when the "real trains" have flown past. Arrive in Delhi 33 hours later for what should have been a 22 hour trip. At least I had an A.C carriage; as the temps were in the 40C; and a reasonable bunch of fellow travellers to pass the time with.
Head out for ales and re-meet the Estonian cycling 6 who are just about ready to launch off on the next leg of their trip which takes them through Kashmir into Pakistan and then on to Afghanistan should be good.

Panthers

Last few days in the Darjeeling hills prove fruitful and manage to unearth enough tracks and paths me thinks to put together a fantastic tour in November time.
Spent yesterday running and walking the 45 km to Kurseong from Darjeeling on a jeep track that follows the old British Military road, excellent stuff with the first 10 k through the thick forests of a National Park. Few signs up saying do not disturb the animals but sadly no signs requesting that the animals don't disturb the humans. Come under attack twice by unidentified animals crashing and hissing in the trees but not brave enough to confront me directly, throw in a bit of sprint training here and there to show the animals what they are up against and it appeared that the suspected panthers/ black bears/ domesticated dogs didn't fancy their chances which is lucky because I was half dead and had to walk the last 30 k of the day.
Return to Darjeeling to discover that the disc has not arrived but its all to late now and I am on the train back to Delhi ready for the last bit of what was to be mountain biking in the mountainous North West Indian state of Himachel Pradesh.

"Black Hearted Bongols"

Arrive in the gritty town of Kurseong without the sunshine that give it an allure yesterday it takes a while to orientate. Tea estates flank the outskirts of the town and an afternoons stroll reveals loads of singletrack for further exploration. Retire happily to bar which has the appearance of a 1970's front room complete with sofa,s and a T.V with two fluffy dogs perched on top of it. Ask for cold beer and served a warm beer with a bowl of ice separate try a few chunks and get a cold beer and a stomach tied in knots later that night.
Run about on the trails the following day and bump into ex military intelligence officer seems full of life for a man in his 80's and reckons that it is due to him being a hill area man but "those fat men from the plains they can not do anything." Feelings appear to run high here about the plains/hills divide. This divide I will attempt to explain in brief.
The people in Darjeeling and the mountain areas around it are predominantly ethnic Nepali and while being technically speaking Indian; living in the state of West Bengal; class themselves as Nepali. On the plains below, if locals are to be believed, lie "black hearted man" who will double cross and cheat you without mercy, a population of fat evil man who refuse to relinquish control over the Gorkha (Nepali) people and give them a degree of autonomy and there own state of Gorhkaland. In the 80's and 90's heavy clashes between the the Gorkha separatists and the West Bengal police took place which are well described in Anita Desai's Booker prize winning book "The Inheritance of Loss".
Obviously most of the tourists making their way up to Darjeeling and surrounds are Bengali and Bihari but predominantly from Calcutta and, agreed, they are all fat but these are the wealthy types and and a very poor representation of the plains people who are mostly thin and black hearted. Not true and unfair.

Mirik Revisited

Mirik; the weather has cleared so make instant use of the fine spell and head high to the Buddhist monastery for a vantage point. Looks like plenty of scope with tea gardens everywhere so polish up me running shoes and ready myself for a big day tomorrow of run trekking. Morning still clear so hoick up the main road to the highest point about 8 km to see if there are any paths down. Friendly bunch around here and take breaks twice during the day in peoples houses for free tea, biscuits and route advice. Meet one lively character in one of the houses who appears to have a speech impediment and a large hole in his chin. On his departure the house owner informs me that he was a high ranking police officer in Calcutta but had a big problem with the drink, such a problem that in an armed chase with local "goons" the drunk copper shot himself in the chin by mistake with the bullet departing through his nose.
Find more trails down to the river which again become unrideable but at least got a good view of the terrain to launch myself for two more days of route finding which at last finds a decent days riding on the soon to be famous Sukhia-Pokriabong-Rangbang river-Mirik route . Thrilled with the days work. Walking back on the stiff climb back up to Mirik the clouds lift to give me a view of another town and ridge about 40 .m away with a forested top and myriad tea estates, looks like the perfect place from here so will move on to the vision that is Kurseong tommorrow.


More ludicrous road safety signs. 5 and 6 in the series.

Hurry burry will ruin the curry.

If you are keen on survival then don,t believe in early arrival.

Urine

Decide to give it one more day here using the trekking map provided and head down the 800 metre descent to Relle a tin pot town on the river. Initially excellent stuff for M.T.B' ing, quite steep in parts but plenty of flatter sections and tight corners to make things interesting. Bottom section is pretty unrideable though which would mean a bit of a push so become little down beat. Pep up with biscuits and fizzy pop in Relle and steam back up the track at a frenetic pace only to caught up by a local man who has been on a 50 k.m round trip walk from Pemling to Kalimpong to attend to some business, a trip he says he makes once a month, humbled to see the smartly dressed man bounding up the steep track trying to get back before dark.
Decision made and decide to give Mirik another try and hope that the mist that made Mirik a nightmare has lifted. Arrive the following day after a 7 hour jeep ride. This is pretty much last chance stuff here if no suitable trails around then that is it for the North East. 5 weeks and to date still have only 4 good days riding.
Will finish on a reflection on Indian public toilets. It is common for most public toilets to be manned by a man of the lower castes whose job it is to clean the toilets and collect a small charge usually 1 rupee for a slash "urine" and 2 rupees for a crap "toilet". Yesterday entered a public toilet in Kalimpong and made my way past the attendant with the idea to pay him on my way out. Had a slash but had to wait a bit because of the queue, returned to the attendants desk were the man asked "toilet ?" ; "no" I replied "urine"; "urine" asked the man quizzically "only urine ?"; yes "urine" I responded. The man seemed unhappy with my urine claim and began a prolonged discussion with his mate and assumed toilet tough which resulted in his mate heading for the cubicles to check for signs of non paid toilet use, luckily the attendant managed to refrain him and settled for "urine 1 rupee please". Might just declare myself "toilet" in future .