Long Ride in Lockdown, Mandarmoni Ride

Meeting at Radhamoni

This lockdown was making me sad and my Himalayan was screaming to get out. I brought a new bike and could not ride it. I was skeptical that at this pace I would not be able to reach the minimum required kms for first servicing. So being a bit desperate I decided to ride. Sourav and Pallab also agreed to join me in this noble venture.

Ready to ride

Some where along the road

So on this holy day, after offering my prayers to ‘Corona Mata’ I put on my riding gear and started the White Elephant. At Radhamoni they would meet me. I waited for them over a tea and they reached as planned. Then we rolled. Road was good. But construction work has resumed in major junctions like Chandipur, Bajkul, Henria etc. So traffic and road condition were bad there. There we had to be careful. Otherwise it was a good ride. A bright sunny weather was keeping our moral high. A few tea breaks and coconut water breaks later we reached Chawlkhola. Previously this stretch from Chawlkhola to Mandarmoni was very bad and with lots of speed breakers. So we started cautiously but a newly paved road with very little number of speed breakers welcomed us. It was a pleasant surprise.

Breakfast

Posing around

After Chawlkhola we were eager to reach sea beach as if we could smell the sea already. After a lot of turns we finally reached sea beach. We knew that it was lockdown time, we knew there would not be any tourist. But still that deserted sea beach of Mandarmoni striked us hard. It was beautiful as well as eerie. We so not visualized it like this ever.

First view of Mandarmoni

Deserted sea beach

We parked our bikes and started photoshoot. Well actually I was mostly doing photoshoot as the hathi looked so beautiful beside the beach that I couldn’t help taking pictures of it. After a lot of photos we hopped onto the beach. It felt like we were some kings and this was our private sea. We found a deserted stall of some kind and rested in it for some time. Then walked along the beach just above the water. The shore line was studded with millions of sea shells. And it was so clean. This really showed how we degrade an environment. Without us for only 2-3 months and already it was a whole new world!!

Such a clean beach!!

Then I thought of going to Tazpur along the beach road. As we were progressing through this road we realized that a few hotels had started to open. A few tourists were there inside the hotels. That road finally lead us to a place where the construction of a bridge was going on which was going to connect Mandarmoni to Tazpur. We would have to wait a few years to cross it. We didnt had that much time. So we headed back to Mandarmoni beach but found that as it was already late, all the hotels have closed serving food. We were hungry like hell. We headed towards the market hoping to find a place to eat.

Kings of Mandarmoni

Sea shells studded shore line

We found a shop where we could spot preparation for chowmin, pakora, chop etc. upon enquiry we were told to wait. We waited by sipping mazaa. As the steaming chowmin finally came we gobbled it in no time. Then after an ice cream our souls were a bit satisfied. Then we started our return journey. Unlike morning time we didn’t stop much. I was really enjoying the ride on my Himalayan. In all those bad stretches it showed its edge. We reached Radhamoni again even before sunset. There we had a coconut water then bid good bye to Pallab as he still had to ride upto Bauria.

A bit of offroading near the under construction bridge

This was my first long ride after lockdown. This was a much needed one too. The continuous threat of getting infected was really taking over my nerve as I had to work in this whole lockdown period continuously. Being an emergency worker I didn’t had any choice. So as we were working with caution, we had to have some fun with caution too.