Arrival into Delhi from KathmanduTo quote my good friend Tom(Tom) 'You have arrived at your destination'.
I am very happy to say that both the dude and his bike arrived yesterday into Delhi in one piece ... unbelievably! It was a 1300k spin from Kathmandu and I wrapped it up with three monster stages; 182k+190k+175k. I'm still scratching my head as to how I managed to drag my 16kg bike, 20 kilos of kit and 2.25" tyres that far. However, these crazy Indians put the fear of God into me and so I had to summon the necessary resources from somewhere. Of course, the better than expected roads and flat Indian plains helped me no end. If I keep this up I should be up for selection by the time the Tour rolls around in July. I had hoped the final leg would be a 'Champs Elysees' procession-like stage but a head-wind and the lack of a safe lunch-stop made it a slog. For those that are into quantitative analysis the trip went as follows:
Kathmandu - 90k+92k+ day-off in Royal Chitwan Wildlife Park (Elephant Safari) +140k+142k+80k+80k+130k+ day-off in Lucknow (Pizza-Hut, Baskin Robbins, Subway, cricket, kiting) +182k+190k+175k - Delhi
I will hesitate from penning weary thoughts as a gesture of diplomacy. This is an extremely challenging country to travel in so I will wait until I'm a bit fresher so that I'm a little more even-handed (I'm ready to sock someone etc).
As I have made such good time I'm going to get the hell out of Delhi. I will give India a chance to redeem itself with day-trips to Jaipur and Agra. Annoyingly, I've had my first drops of rain since I left Dublin. They are only drops and I wouldn't complain but for the fact that clouds will spoil any good photography of the Taj Mahal.
Will post thoughts soon.
Marco
