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Monday, January 13th – Gurgaon to Kishangarh Bas, 16,263 km
From our campground north of Gurgaon, we cross the city, stopping long enough to eat breakfast in a small restaurant. We have decided to head south towards Sohna, taking us away from the valley floor and away from the major truck traffic that follows the highway southwest to Jaipur. This route isn’t free from traffic but it is much better.
It is a bout 30 km to Sohna, and we reach it by 10:30. We stop for a fifteen minute break here before heading west to Taoru on Hwy 28. There is a notable change in both the terrain, which is now a series of rolling hills – our first in India – and the dryness of the land. Farmlands are giving way to low, scrubby trees that dot the hillsides and patches of denser greenery in the valleys and gullies. I am excited by the change after so many days of either urban congestion or flat farmland in Haryana and Punjab. The population is much sparser here too.
Sohna in fact sits at the base of a 40m escarpment that we must climb as we leave town. The terrain flattens out slightly as we continue west. Taoru is a cute little town so we take another short break there. Then we continue west to Bhiwadi and Dharuhera, turning south again on Hwy 25 just before Dharuhera. For the next two hours we ride south towards the town of Tijara.
It takes two more hours to reach Tijara. The road starts climbing and the topography getting more interesting as we approach the town. It’s not much of a climb but at least there are views here. There is a 14th century octagonal-shaped temple to Shiva on a hill outside of the town.
For the last hour of the day we continue along Hwy 25 to our destination for the day, Kishangarh Bas. Along the way, we stop at a newly-created park that protects a small lush fern forest beside the highway. The new boardwalk through the jungle only goes a hundred metres, as if they ran out of money after starting it.
As we approach Kishangarh Bas, the first ridges of the Aravali Mountain Range appear. These are supposedly the oldest mountains in Asia. Kishangarh Bas is nestled at a crossroads at the north end of the mountains. It has a campground there, where we stop for the night. We have covered 107 km today.
There are rudimentary outdoor showers with semi-private stalls. Frank and I use them before preparing dinner. This campground is more interesting and has more campers than last night. An American couple, Jim and Natalie, invite us over to share a dinner together, which we are happy to do. They have bought a jeep and have been traveling around India for a few months. Deanna and Sean, and Irish couple, have already joined them. It is a simple meal of dhal and cooked vegetables on rice. The common area for food preparation, set up by the campground, is a colourful array of tarps and tapestries set up to deter the wind more than the rain.
The two couples are already in the midst of preparing dinner when we arrive. They want to finish early so they can take a ride into the hills in the jeep to watch the sunset. They invite us to come with them and share a bottle of wine. It is a treat to meet other travelers after being on our own since we met, except for a few encounters with fellow campers at the tourist camp in Delhi.
The hills are not very high so it does not take long to reach the tops. The sunset isn’t spectacular but I enjoy the hill vistas. This is not the image I had n my mind of India. It could be in Africa or Turkey. The single glass of wine is all it takes to get me yawning tonight. I am tired from the first 100 km ride in more than a week. Jim sees me yawning and suggests we return to camp.
The night air is still cool here, cooler than in New Delhi for sure, but cleaner too. The group of us build a campfire and sit around talking until about 10:30 when Frank and I call it a night.
PHOTO 1: a banyan tree
PHOTO 2: Shiva temple in Tijara
PHOTO 3: rain forest reserve near Kishangarh Bas
PHOTO 4: northern edge of the Aravali Mountains
PHOTO 5: food tent at the campground
PHOTO 6: Jim, Nathalie, myself and Deanna with the jeep
PHOTO 7: Frank and I in the back of the jeep
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