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Monday, January 6th – Rohtak to New Delhi, 16,079 km
The morning arrives early in the sugar cane field. There is a hazy golden glow in the air as we pack up the tent. Frank is a bit groggy from lack of sleep. No to worry, he says, which is his nature. He says he can catch up on his sleep over the next few days in New Delhi. It is hard to believe that by tonight we will be there. Coen and Vincent should be there by now, but I have no idea where they will be staying.
We push our loaded bikes back to the dirt road and ride out to the highway. It is still early, around 8:30, so the truck traffic is relatively light. In only a few minutes though, we enter the city of Rohtak and are dealing with Monday morning rush hour traffic. Hwy 10 cuts right through the heart of the city, and continues east to New Delhi.
After Rohtak, it wiggles and bends more and the traffic increases. Some of the bends let it bypass towns it once passed through, such as Sampla. We pass by Sampla at 11 am, about 40 km from our start, but we continue on without stopping to the village of Sankhoi at 55 km. That is where we stop for lunch.
We are both anxious to get into Delhi before evening rush hour so we don't linger there long. We are soon back on the highway pedaling in tight formation along the left curb. About 20 km further along we begin to see industrial plants and the outer fringes of the suburbs. The excitement is building, like the traffic. The road surface has improved significantly now that we have entered the Capital Region. The roads are wider too. Every type of traffic fills the width of the highway, from farmers with their oxen and carts and camels, to three-wheeled rickshaws, bicycles, cars, buses and trucks of all sizes. It is a live video game. One moment we are gliding along smoothly and suddenly, without any warning, a bus or a truck swerves across the median from the opposite direction, into the on-coming traffic, and all vehicles on our side crowd over towards the shoulder. I must stay alert.
Except for these moments of high adrenalin, our ride into the centre of New Delhi is surprisingly easy. With a population of 6.8 million, this is the biggest city I have cycled in east of Istanbul - I didn't cycle in Tehran - so I expected it to be more difficult. We find a café with outdoor seating and Frank pulls out his Lonely Planet Guide to read up on where we should go. There is a tourist information office in Connaught Square a couple miles from here on Janpath Dr, which runs south off Connaught Circle, the geographic centre of the city, but we have arrived 1.5 km or so north of Connaught Circle. There is a tourist campground very close to us, on a thin slice of land between two major streets, Asaf Ali Rd and Jawaharlal Nehru Marg. How curious - right in the heart of the city, only a kilometre from Connaught Circle!
The tourist camp is surrounded by an eight foot wall painted a brick orange colour. There is an access from the road over the open sewage ditch, about half a metre wide, which acts as a sort of vile moat. Inside its gated walls I can't hear the constant traffic. In fact, I wouldn't even know I was anywhere near a large city if I hadn't just come through the gate myself. There are mature, overhanging chestnut and other semi-tropical trees and rooms to pitch tents.
There are also low rise motel-styled rooms with doors that open onto the courtyard. It looks like a small, low-key beach resort without the beach. There are two beds in each room. It is cheaply-priced so Frank and I decide to take a room instead of camping. The thin mattresses are quite firm because there is plywood underneath them. I like this set up a lot.
It is too late to do much exploring. The showers are available for two hours in the mornings and evenings so we grab them while we can, and then go out looking for dinner. The streets of New Delhi are teeming with activity and street vendors, but we find a local restaurant and enjoy a prepared dinner.
Afterwards, we return to our room and read the guide book's chapter on New Delhi. Tomorrow I need to get another advance on my credit card and start investigating return flights to Canada. The realization that my trip is drawing to a close is slowly sinking in.
PHOTO 1: Rohtak
PHOTO 2: the Tourist Camp in New Delhi
PHOTO 3: the street immediately outside the tourist camp
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