Vintage Monday

~An Expedition to Remember ~

Around 1981, once Ibex Expeditions was up and running , various adventure trips were on agenda and one of them was a mountain biking trip from Delhi to Kathmandu.

So when a group of 12 from France wanted to do a cycling expedition from Delhi to Kathmandu, it was an exciting venture and a 1500 km three-week program was designed.

While it was being arranged, Mandip envisaged this personal experience would help him immensely and a desire for more adventure got the better of him. In those days in India, multiple gear bikes were not available, so a second hand bike was bought and practice sessions around Delhi was the training in waiting for the adventure.

All began well for the group, but on the first few days, speed was definitely not on Mandip’s side as he would find himself left behind and would only meet them at camp in the evening, so the question playing all along was ‘What the hell is happening? This was supposed to be adventurous, right, and now it’s getting embarrassing.’

And then the truth unfolded that this group of 12 from France were really not normal touring adventure driven tourists, but were seriously training for the Tour de France, an annual bicycle race held in France covering 3600 kilometres over three weeks.

This expedition was from Delhi - Agra - Etawah (Chambal region of the baddies ) Allahabad - Varanasi to Gorakhpur and northwards towards Pokhara in Nepal and finally ending in Kathmandu.

In those days, Chambal was the dreaded refuge of various groups of dacoits ( bandits ) . On this journey, the idea was to camp every day and alternate it with a guesthouse and hotel to freshen up. With a bus trailing the group carrying the gear and spares and a distance of 100 to 150 kms to cover every day, days were pretty arduous.

One evening while traveling through the Chambal region with the usual schedule of camping around 6.30 pm, the experience of two whirling police jeeps and a hurricane like pack up and move order seemed quite bizarre for the group. All had a sigh of relief as word had leaked to the local police that the bandits were due to attack the group that evening.

All ended well once the group successfully completed the arduous pedaling expedition and Mandip swore never to sit on that bicycle seat again! Adventure probably has its own ways, from a hard seated bicycle to escaping mild mishaps; the memories are what live for a lifetime.