03-07 Oct: Jaipur to Nainital

To get away from the heat in Rajasthan, leafing through Lonely Planet I noticed a little place called Nainital described as like an English Lake District town. A former hill station - a retreat for the old British colonials up in the hills - it sounded perfect as at 2,000 meters it was bound to be cooler and a bit quieter than the madness of the triangle between Delhi - Agra - Jaipur.

So it turned out! The ride there would take two days but having made it to within 80kms on the first day, a town called Rudrapur was effectively closed off due to rioting. Something to do with tensions between Muslims and Hindus burning each others sacred items had meant the army moved in and road blocks were in force. There was no easy way round, and with the sun setting, just no time to go investigating side roads for fear of getting marooned in the middle of nowhere in the pitch black.

Monkeys on the road

Marriage advice

Riding up into the hills

The rain starts

One of many landslides on the way

Finding the nearest hotel, the manager knocked 30% of the rate which was fortunate given how plush it was, and fortuitous that such a place was sat on the roadside having not passed anything like it in the previous few hours! A bit of last minute planning showed two options, a long detour round several cities totalling over 200kms, a decent days riding at least, or a shortcut through farm tracks to then re-join the original road to Nainital. Trying and coming up with two dead ends (a river with no bridge) it was third time lucky and off to the mountains. For the first time in India the roads became interesting, well surfaced, twisty and quiet for about 30kms, heaven!

The track then wound up to Nainital over increasingly broken up road as mudslides had taken chunks out of it. STaying in a small cheap hotel room complete with mouse scurrying around, the town was lovely. Trees just turning autumnal, cool air in the mornings and evenings and a pleasant Lakeland look was a huge boost to morale. Fortunately, a local festival was underway which brought parades out to the streets in the day and fireworks and more at night.

Parked up for a few days

Boaters on Naini lake

Lakeshore at night

Looking like the Lakes

Sail boat on the lake

A parade passing through

Prayer flags in the hills

Hire boats on the shore

Fireworks at a local festival

Getting set for fires

Crowds watch the effigies on fire

After a day walking in the hills (sadly too cloudy to see the famous Himalaya views) and one walking the loop around the lake its time to move on to Chandigarh for a few days. A large city thats meant to be somewhat different to most in India, more ordered and laid out on a grid pattern which will be great, it's so hard to navigate around places here for lack of signs and general cutter / mayhem on the streets. There's also the small matter of an India v England cricket match there that I'm really hoping to get a ticket for!