Plant tree ride- Day 4

Day 4

Surprisingly last day I didn’t feel tired. Well, of course while riding I was tired and took rest frequently but once I settled in a hotel room and had my lunch, the tiredness was gone. May be this is what happens when the body get accustomed. In the evening I went for a walk on the banks of Mukutmanipur dam.

Day 4th was very special. The route supposed to go through the most dense jungle of the whole ride.  I was excited. I packed my luggage and started the ride around 5:30 in the morning. I was enjoying the ride in the cool morning. Curved hilly roads were very beautiful. At Ambikanagar I was supposed to take a right turn according to map but I couldn’t find it. I missed the turn and went ahed. Then I asked a local people. He said there were two ways, if I go ahed I will reach jhilimili, also there is a short cut route which I actually missed. That raised question in my mind. If its a short cut route according to him, how the road conditions would be? But still I took the chance and took the short cut route. This road goes straight to Makhnu where it reaches the other route. 

The road was very bad at first, going through villages and fields. After a few kilometres it became moderately good. And then the jungle started. A very beautiful dense green jungle it was. Small adivasi villages were along the road. But the climbs and decent were becoming more and more intense. I was struggling to keep pace as i have never climbed so much previously. Then just before reaching the jhilimili road the jungle was most dense and the climb was most intense. One climb had hit me so hard that I couldn’t padel anymore, so I walked my cycle upto the top.

The jhilimili road was wide and smooth. I reached jhilimili in no time.    After jhilimili the terrain again became intense. I was often reaching speeds upto 35-40 kmph in the decents. But the beautiful jungle was healing all my pain in the climbs. Also after facing so many climbs I was starting to learn the process of climbing. That made riding easier. And in this section in one of these monstrous decent I had hit my personal best of 63 kmph! But after facing so many climbs my legs were giving up. I was stopping after every one or two climb. I was thinking when will this end. Then I reached Belpahari.

After Belpahari the landscape changed dramatically. It was a huge open flat ground. I can see upto horizon in every direction. Also the road changed to worst nightmare for road bike. It was very narrow, with frequent small potholes and heavy traffic. I was riding more on the gravel sidewalk than the road itself. This continued upto Silda. After silda, the road got better again but sun had started to heat up the environment. I had almost 40% of the road still left to cover. I just kept paddling in a moderate pace. In due time had reached Jhargram.

I wanted to stay at the forest rest house, so went straight for the forest range office. They sent me to divisional forest office, and there i was informed that the rest house is not open to common person. I lost almost 30-40 minutes in this process. So didn’t have much energy left for searching a good hotel. I booked room in the hotel i first saw. The room was dirty and in very bad condition but they let me keep my cycle inside the room. Now that is why i will again stay there if i go to jhargram again.