[bkunnithan]

It was a totally adventurous and funny ride though a hectic one. We were a group of 6 riders on 3 bulls - my Classic 350, Rohit's Machismo 350 and Dilip's Thunder Bird 350; and our pillions Dipesh, Sayan and Arungeeth; all from different parts of India - Kerala, Rajasthan, Bengal, Odisha and Telangana, living in Noida. It was an Independence day weekend of 2011 just as this year's. I had bought my bull in that January and was longing for a ride. She was among the first batch of Classics launched in Nov'10.
Dipesh came up with the name - Chopta - he had just heard from some one.

Chopta was a not much known remote village at the foothills of Tungnath Temple, 480kms from Delhi, 90kms before Kedarnath, 250kms from Rishikesh.

The trip was from 12-Aug to 15-Aug 2011. We started on Friday evening 6pm from Noida and hit NH-58 to reach Rishikesh by 11pm and camped there. Next day early morning we started at 6am and rode towards Chopta via Devaprayag - Srinagar - Rudraprayag and then took the Chopta-Pokhari road. The onward journey was so smooth, all the bulls performed well, traveled in sync with each other at an avg. speed of 60-65kmph. Barring the regular halts at intervals for refreshments, landslides and poor roads ate up our time the most.

By nightfall we reached the top of Chopta hills where a small village inhabited by hardly 8-10 families existed. The biggest mistake we did was in collecting proper information about our destination. By the time we have had learned that this village had no fuel station, no ATM, no hotels and no electricity, we have had reached Chopta, which was 40kms from the nearest town - Rudraprayag.

Anyways, we decided to see to things next day as we all were very tired. We scouted for an accomodation and managed to find a dormitory attached to a household. The next morning, that was Sunday, we trekked a 7km trail up-hill to pay a visit to the Tungnath mandir. From there, we got the breath-taking scenery of Chopta which was also called as the mini Swiss of India. Small hills with lush green grass grown uniformly all around you. The black Himalayas in the back ground with white caps dotting the horizon in whichever direction you looked at. Yes, one of the most beautiful sights I had in my life. Continuous drizzling was troubling us all the way and took some fun out of the trip. By lunch we climbed down and had a very meager meals owing to the fact that we were left with few hundred rupees in hand and two of the bulls were running on reserve petrol too.

By evening we took the road down-hill; 12ft wide flanked by rocky hill on one side and a river bed deep down on the other side. After few kms downhill, while negotiating a hair-pin bend, Dilip's TB wobbled heavily as her back tyre got punctured. I still wonder, how he had managed to stop her from falling into the deep gorge. After fixing the puncture we continued the journey at a safe 40kmph speed on 2nd-3rd gears for better control on muddy and slippery roads. A few kms ahead, we were stopped boulders on road. A landslide is about to occur. Slush and small rocks had started slipping down. Some told us to halt. But the decision was quick - we should pass now, else, we were going to get stuck at the middle of nowhere. By night we reached Rudraprayag and decided to call it a day.

Even though the police were sealing off the wine shop, as it is our Independence day the next day, we managed to arrange whiskey and chicken legs to nourish our aching bodies. On the morning of the Independence day, by 10am we had breakfast and fed our bulls too with oil and petrol and started heading towards Delhi. But, shortly after we left Rudraprayag, it started raining heavily and since we were equipped to face rain, we continued riding, but cautiously. Landslides stopped us at occasions all through-out the way till Rishikesh. By evening we reached Rishikesh and had a full course dinner. It was raining still. We mounted our bulls and rode aiming home. But, suddenly I noticed that my headlight is not working. I gave signal to others to stop and checked for the defect. The villain was a fused bulb. Nothing to do in that holiday night with water every where. We decided to ride under street lights and Dilip and Rohit rode in-front and behind me to show me light and guide.

After all these adventures and hurdles and fun, finally we reached Noida by 11pm on the night of 15th - Aug. Thanking Mahatma Gandhiji for getting us freedom to do all these cranky things that day, we all parted our ways to own houses in different sectors in Noida and slept peacefully.