Bussed to departure point. The cacophony of sound is just incredible here – no traffic jam can compare. It’s a competition. And the monkeys – Monkeys, monkeys everywhere – until we reached the outskirts of the city. Then it was camels, cows, pigs … anywhere, everywhere. In fact, I think the camels must have been responsible for the city electrics. No human being could possibly have put together the mayhem that was every telegraph pole. My hair was standing on end just looking at them.
Arrival at our departure point was incredible – to see all the bikes standing in rows, all labelled and all personalised with various ribbons and streamers, scarves, teddy bears (LOADS of teddybears – but Rosie was the prettiest by far, of course!) … The Bindi Man (sounds scary, eh?) was waiting for us and we were all blessed before setting off. I had to laugh when I turned around and somebody – truly – said “Oh my God, Amanda, what have you done to your head?” The fact that so many people here really just did not know what was going on around them was something I found personally quite hard to deal with throughout, but perhaps that’s another story and not for here.
Just 74 km today and very flat but I found this a very difficult day. In retrospect, I think it was more of a mental battle than a physical one, although I think today was a great warm-up for legs and a good initial test of stamina. It was exciting, however, and I think my energy was channelled into other things rather than into cycling. There was a lot of pressure about cycling in groups –but which group to cycle with? I tried to stay with friends but soon found that cycling at any pace that’s not your own natural pace is incredibly tiring. We all worked this out eventually but it added to the uncertainties of the first day – and the fear that perhaps I wouldn’t be able to make it. Had I done enough training? Would it all be too much? Would I cope? What would happen if …? What would happen when …? I think the day would have been a lot easier if I’d just got on with the cycling instead of worrying about all the extra stuff.
We stopped every 20 km or so and our ever-faithful team of gurus, as we called them (from a firm called Guru North), were there waiting with gallons of water, orange juice, fruit and packets of peanuts, crisps or biccies (varied day to day).
Most memorable part of Day One was our introduction to the typical Indian village – and its inhabitants. The quality of the ‘roads’ through these villages varied greatly, but they were all narrow – and made narrower by the inhabitants (mostly adult men and very young children) who lined up either side. The men gawped, yelled, occasionally said Good morning and occasionally tried to grab your handlebars, block your path or even knock you off your bike. I was fortunate enough not to encounter much aggression but I know some of the team were hit with sticks, stones and thrown off their bikes and I have to admire them for carrying on and riding through subsequent villages as if nothing had happened. Having said that, the incidences were statistically very few, thanks to a fantastic security team. My own experience of these villages were the hundreds of tiny faces on the tiniest children you’ve ever seen (I think some of them were born walking!!!! LOL), all with the most gleeful faces, little hands reaching out and waving, joy and delight when you waved back – and peels of laughter when you answered in their own language. ‘Hello’ and ‘Good Morning’ echoed from every mouth, every sidestreet, every hill, valley and field. They came up out of the ground, they dropped out of trees and it was unbelievable. You could only throw your head back and laugh and delight in the energy and vitality that came from the smiles and laughter of children who, in our eyes, have truly nothing but in this, their own world, have enough to enable them to share the thrills of greeting these visiting helmet-clad, pale-faced aliens on bicycles. Five days later I could still thrive on this. It never got boring, it never ceased to have a profound effect, it never ceased to make me smile inside and out. These were beautiful, beautiful children living in a whole other world which I would never understand. These were children who I wanted to pick up and take home and feed and clothe – but who’s to say my world is any better? Because I couldn’t bear for my own children to live like that, how could I dare say these children would be any happier elsewhere? I struggled with this throughout – and wondered at the sad fact that under the same circumstances my children would not be able to smile and laugh like that – but rather whine and be ‘bored’ and hungry and dissatisfied. How can one world’s values be better than another, then?
Of course, some of the children were a little more advanced. “You want to touch my penis?” seemed to be a favourite phrase from the older boys. I suppose that’d be Level 2.
The sound of India was altered somewhat today. Amidst the already spoken of cacophony of trucks (usually aiming straight at you – nothing as exciting as a bunch of cyclists to run off the road!) were added cries of BUMP! CAMEL! TRUCK! CAR! BUS! PIG! GOATS! POTHOLE! DOG! and even PERSON! – which echoed from those in the lead and was passed back from group to group, warning those behind of the more ‘unusual’ perils ahead. Unfortunately, I now think all those village children have learned a new word (BUMP) which they believe to be a greeting! I have visions of them waving madly at the next group of crazy Englishmen passing through and yelling “Bump, Bump” as they leap up and down with their toothy grins. This is due to the fact that every village had a serious of speed bumps (i.e. in the bits that had tarmac, at least!) which were invariably and progressively more painful if you happened to ride over them without noticing in time to get out of the saddle! So the cries of ‘Bump’ were welcomed by all – but probably misunderstood by many!
This was my dog day. I was only attacked by two dogs in the whole trip. This was one of them!
My feet ached all day – due to unforgiving cycling shoes. They have no ‘give’ at all – and I think my feet swelled in the heat, too, so I got horrendous cramps. This improved somewhat throughout the week as I changed to very thin socks and left my shoes as ‘open’ as possible. Still – I didn’t bring them home!
Tonight was our first night camping. Tents were great and beds very comfortable. This was also our first day/night without toilets, however. I’ve never known so many conversations about bodily functions. This continued throughout the week – an ongoing theme. I’m very grateful that I had no trouble in this regard after the first day and I still reiterate how amazed I am at the courage of so many people who had horrendous trouble in this department and continued cycling regardless. Hats off to all of them. Also to those who were very, VERY ill – and who also still managed to cycle if and when they could. I had a horrible fear of falling unwell as I’m such a wimp when I’m sick and I know I wouldn’t have been half that brave. Bravo to all!
No Bravo!s to those who weren’t sick, though – and who complained constantly. This was another bugbear of mine at the beginning of the challenge. Fortunately, I managed to ‘put it away’ fairly quickly before it got under my skin and affected my own experience. People complained and complained and whined and complained and I couldn’t understand their attitude. But maybe it was me who was weird. I just couldn’t complain because there was nothing to ‘complain’ about. There was plenty that was unpleasant and awkward and humiliating and uncomfortable but for me these were all things to be embraced. These were all part of the experience, part of the challenge. These were things that made it all so worthwhile – and made the victory so much sweeter!
BUT …
BUT …
BUT …
it was fucking freezing at night!
And I wore THREE sweatshirts sitting around the campfire having dinner, countless rums did nothing to heat me up and I crawled into my sleeping bag wearing EVERYTHING! It worked. Warm and cosy.
