Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Jan 6: Best Day so far! (part 1 of 5)

Reached a place called Naraini after 15kms or so. I was planning to stop here yesterday evening, but hadn't by the advice of a shopkeeper, who had said there was no place to stay. Moment I entered the small town, I knew that there would be a place to stay there. Local enquiries only confirmed my thinking. I've been riding on broken roads till here, and expect the rest of the day to go the same way unless a miracle happens. So more than an hour wasted in the day. Moral of the story: local advice need not be perfect, always cross-check!

Kalinjar was still 20km away. Kept riding at the same pace - about 13km/hr. Had a full breakfast at Kalinjar before moving on to climb towards the fort. The road climbs to an altitude of 380m or so from 120m or so in 3km. Not a great climb, considering Teesta in Darjeeling. But my legs are now more than 2700km old! The first minute or so of pedalling turns out to be rather painful. But smooth after that, till the top.

The Kalinjar fort covers a great area over the solitary hill and is surrounded by plains to a good distance. Hence an ideal place to build a fort. It's a historic fort, and has far more tourist attractions than the number of visitors it attracts suggests. No great views of the fort from outside, but the interior is a completely different story altogether.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

nice read