March19 at EveryTrail
Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging
170 KMs
Gotup early to catch the sunrise. As this was my last chance for it. But again there were clouds at the horizon and waited in vain. To add the disappointment a photographer who had also come there said that the previous day had a clear sunrise! Non the less took a few pix tough the sun was bit high.
Thought of checking out of the room early and head north as to i was not sure where i would be heading and if not cal the other place i need to be before sun down. Was Thinking of diamond harbor. After the morning pix session. Went on a walk to the check out the beach. The beach sand was real hard and could provide excellent traction if i could manage to get the bike there cos it was impossible to do it by the way i entered the beach as i had crossed mounds of sand. The beach was like almost flat and could see a couple of KMs ahead and the waves pretty flat. Walk around lazily talking pix. Missing my bike there. After enquiry i came to know that indeed can get the bike there but through a fishing village called Mohana. Did a recce walking up the village to see if the sand is too deep to handle and it looked good. Now walked back in a hurry. Cant wait to get my bike out here. Have omelet, maggie, tea at the beach stall.
I tape a wide piece of tender coconut flake so that the bike's side stand gets more surface area on the sand. It worked well cos i was planning to take lot of pix with the bike being the poser. Got out of digha and on the road to Mohana, i see nearby dried up canals holding lot of fishing boats some pushed aground for repairs. Reach the village with a board saying No Entry! Acted ignorant and went into the sleepy village and after some asking around i come to the opening of the beach. And was home at once. With hardly any one around the big playground i exalted with screams. It was awesome riding on the beach. Even ride in water. I endup doing couple of rounds of the entire beach. Did not speed much not wanting to risk a bike fall. I asked a family man to take pix of me riding on the beach to which he politely declined! Finally i trusted 3 lads with the cam who did a good job and i got my prised pic of riding on the waves! Time to get back as i still was not sure as to where to head.
Back in the room while having breakfast checkout the maps and think of options. Decided that i would go till Geonkhali and hope for a ferry across hoogli so that i could get to Diamond harbor on the other side of the river. This would be help full to check out some place tomm else i will have to catch the highway to Houra then kolkata and would not be possible to get there any soon. On the way to Geonkhali which was like 100 kms on many enquiries got the reply for ferrying the bike accross the river, with positives and negatives!. But i decided will get to Geonkhali and if not ferry will catch the highway via Tamluk and towards Houra. But the going was slow with bad roads and deadly traffic. Where buses and cars drive towards you recklessly. At the some places the drop off from the road is like one feet and with the weight on my bike cant manage it. So some how manage to stay on the road. Hardly any empty places with always people, cycles etc plying on the road. Not much of country side to view around. It was getting pretty hot as well. Riding through interiors of West bengal was not as pleasant as i expected but was quite an experience. Here knowing bengali helped as i had to ask around a lot. Till now i have been able to communicate in local language. As Telugu is my mother tongue and can speak a bit of Bengali which Orissa people also understand.
Any back to topic. Finally catch the deviation to Geonkhali riding to the narrow streets busy with people. Thought if there was no ferry then i would checkout Haldia port and head to highway. But it was already 4pm and looking at the pace i could manage it would also be to late at 35kms. After some riding i one side of the road opened up the mighty river Hoogli. Now the mission is to find a way accross via ferry. Dont really wannna go back coming so far. It seems i have over shot the Geonkhali launch ghat. And i was told of a bettor launch ghat at Bhasil. Which people told would be half hour on bike. Have to be quick now with loosing daylight and unsure of what time the ferry would come and how long will be the wait. But with road not crowded now and bit nice, i rip and make it to the launch at good time 4.40. And yes bike can be transported across the river to Raichok. The next ferry at 5PM. Could have directly gone to Diamond harbour but was not sure of the ferry timing. So went for this one. 1 ticket for me and 4 tickets for bike! Actually the ferry is not meant for vehicles but bike and cycles are accommodated. As i get to the jetti i was supposed to climb up a steep incline over 3 steps to get to the barge. With out thinking much i reved up and with front wheel up for some time and bang down scaring the passers by. Managed it but now have to get down a narrow plank to the barge, and four feet from the plank was drop to the water. Slowly get down that also. Now i was the object of curiosity of all the people around. Nervously pull out my cam to take afew pix. And there comes the ferry. Lucky that it comes pretty close to the jetti and i just ride the bike in. Again i am the object of observation as i go about clicking my poser bike in the ferry. 15 mins sail and was other side at Raichok. Again climb up the narrow plank and hurry i reached the other side. Felt a sense of relief. The roads bit wider less traffic and felt so good to be on this side of the river.
Thanks to the Lonely planet, on reaching Diamond harbor, i went straight asking around for sagarika hotel, which gave a room with Hoogli river facing balcony!. Plan to get up early tomm and check out Bhokkali before heading to Kolkata.
Sunrise at Digha sun showed up a bit high...
Then a walk to recce for bike riding.
Awesome flat beach...
The sea hawk hotel where i stayed..
Maggie at one the small beach stalls
One the way to fishing village Mohana. Then have these canals built deep into the land where they tow boats and do repairs and stuff...
Sleepy fishing village Mohana.
Yeppie its beach riding time :D
Some handy arrangement so that the stand wont sink in easily into the sand.. as i had planed to take lot of poser pix of the bike..
A dead puffer fish.
Finally my priced beach riding pic :)
I trusted these guys with cam and they din fail :)
The beach is so flat and hard that tough near water the tires are digging in only 1 or 2 mm!
Here it was about the fall..
Those are my tracks as i had taken a couple of laps of the beach...
On the way to Shankarpur harbor
The fishing harbor
On the way to Geonkhali
The uncertainty of crossing the hoogli river on a ferry..
Yes ferry is possible bike on the jetti..
On the barge and waiting for the ferry coming behind...
Evening sun on the hoogli river.
Yeppie i am on the other side of the river...
Here i dared to open the cam for a pic... as it was not so crowded..
View of River hoogli from the balcony of my room at Sagarika hotel at Diamond harbor.
Tomm plan to visit Bokhali before heading to Kolkata...
Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging
170 KMs
Gotup early to catch the sunrise. As this was my last chance for it. But again there were clouds at the horizon and waited in vain. To add the disappointment a photographer who had also come there said that the previous day had a clear sunrise! Non the less took a few pix tough the sun was bit high.
Thought of checking out of the room early and head north as to i was not sure where i would be heading and if not cal the other place i need to be before sun down. Was Thinking of diamond harbor. After the morning pix session. Went on a walk to the check out the beach. The beach sand was real hard and could provide excellent traction if i could manage to get the bike there cos it was impossible to do it by the way i entered the beach as i had crossed mounds of sand. The beach was like almost flat and could see a couple of KMs ahead and the waves pretty flat. Walk around lazily talking pix. Missing my bike there. After enquiry i came to know that indeed can get the bike there but through a fishing village called Mohana. Did a recce walking up the village to see if the sand is too deep to handle and it looked good. Now walked back in a hurry. Cant wait to get my bike out here. Have omelet, maggie, tea at the beach stall.
I tape a wide piece of tender coconut flake so that the bike's side stand gets more surface area on the sand. It worked well cos i was planning to take lot of pix with the bike being the poser. Got out of digha and on the road to Mohana, i see nearby dried up canals holding lot of fishing boats some pushed aground for repairs. Reach the village with a board saying No Entry! Acted ignorant and went into the sleepy village and after some asking around i come to the opening of the beach. And was home at once. With hardly any one around the big playground i exalted with screams. It was awesome riding on the beach. Even ride in water. I endup doing couple of rounds of the entire beach. Did not speed much not wanting to risk a bike fall. I asked a family man to take pix of me riding on the beach to which he politely declined! Finally i trusted 3 lads with the cam who did a good job and i got my prised pic of riding on the waves! Time to get back as i still was not sure as to where to head.
Back in the room while having breakfast checkout the maps and think of options. Decided that i would go till Geonkhali and hope for a ferry across hoogli so that i could get to Diamond harbor on the other side of the river. This would be help full to check out some place tomm else i will have to catch the highway to Houra then kolkata and would not be possible to get there any soon. On the way to Geonkhali which was like 100 kms on many enquiries got the reply for ferrying the bike accross the river, with positives and negatives!. But i decided will get to Geonkhali and if not ferry will catch the highway via Tamluk and towards Houra. But the going was slow with bad roads and deadly traffic. Where buses and cars drive towards you recklessly. At the some places the drop off from the road is like one feet and with the weight on my bike cant manage it. So some how manage to stay on the road. Hardly any empty places with always people, cycles etc plying on the road. Not much of country side to view around. It was getting pretty hot as well. Riding through interiors of West bengal was not as pleasant as i expected but was quite an experience. Here knowing bengali helped as i had to ask around a lot. Till now i have been able to communicate in local language. As Telugu is my mother tongue and can speak a bit of Bengali which Orissa people also understand.
Any back to topic. Finally catch the deviation to Geonkhali riding to the narrow streets busy with people. Thought if there was no ferry then i would checkout Haldia port and head to highway. But it was already 4pm and looking at the pace i could manage it would also be to late at 35kms. After some riding i one side of the road opened up the mighty river Hoogli. Now the mission is to find a way accross via ferry. Dont really wannna go back coming so far. It seems i have over shot the Geonkhali launch ghat. And i was told of a bettor launch ghat at Bhasil. Which people told would be half hour on bike. Have to be quick now with loosing daylight and unsure of what time the ferry would come and how long will be the wait. But with road not crowded now and bit nice, i rip and make it to the launch at good time 4.40. And yes bike can be transported across the river to Raichok. The next ferry at 5PM. Could have directly gone to Diamond harbour but was not sure of the ferry timing. So went for this one. 1 ticket for me and 4 tickets for bike! Actually the ferry is not meant for vehicles but bike and cycles are accommodated. As i get to the jetti i was supposed to climb up a steep incline over 3 steps to get to the barge. With out thinking much i reved up and with front wheel up for some time and bang down scaring the passers by. Managed it but now have to get down a narrow plank to the barge, and four feet from the plank was drop to the water. Slowly get down that also. Now i was the object of curiosity of all the people around. Nervously pull out my cam to take afew pix. And there comes the ferry. Lucky that it comes pretty close to the jetti and i just ride the bike in. Again i am the object of observation as i go about clicking my poser bike in the ferry. 15 mins sail and was other side at Raichok. Again climb up the narrow plank and hurry i reached the other side. Felt a sense of relief. The roads bit wider less traffic and felt so good to be on this side of the river.
Thanks to the Lonely planet, on reaching Diamond harbor, i went straight asking around for sagarika hotel, which gave a room with Hoogli river facing balcony!. Plan to get up early tomm and check out Bhokkali before heading to Kolkata.
Sunrise at Digha sun showed up a bit high...
Then a walk to recce for bike riding.
Awesome flat beach...
The sea hawk hotel where i stayed..
Maggie at one the small beach stalls
One the way to fishing village Mohana. Then have these canals built deep into the land where they tow boats and do repairs and stuff...
Sleepy fishing village Mohana.
Yeppie its beach riding time :D
Some handy arrangement so that the stand wont sink in easily into the sand.. as i had planed to take lot of poser pix of the bike..
A dead puffer fish.
Finally my priced beach riding pic :)
I trusted these guys with cam and they din fail :)
The beach is so flat and hard that tough near water the tires are digging in only 1 or 2 mm!
Here it was about the fall..
Those are my tracks as i had taken a couple of laps of the beach...
On the way to Shankarpur harbor
The fishing harbor
On the way to Geonkhali
The uncertainty of crossing the hoogli river on a ferry..
Yes ferry is possible bike on the jetti..
On the barge and waiting for the ferry coming behind...
Evening sun on the hoogli river.
Yeppie i am on the other side of the river...
Here i dared to open the cam for a pic... as it was not so crowded..
View of River hoogli from the balcony of my room at Sagarika hotel at Diamond harbor.
Tomm plan to visit Bokhali before heading to Kolkata...
1 comment:
Great going Pokemo :)
I so wanted to ride a bike on the beach :(
Cheers,
DJ
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