The Ganga is quiet here and a beautiful spot for swimming.

We had a very nice picnic, Vimal, Lin, Vihaan, Naveen, and me.

Going and coming was a thrill ride in their enormous new Mahindra SUV. Lin is new to manual transmission and right hand driving having done her previous driving in China.

She does not lack confidence but it will take her some practice to gauge the space on the passenger side of the vehicle and starting on a slope. My adrenalin was rushing a few times when we came extremely close to pedestrians. As a cyclist on the road it does worry me.

Tomorrow I see the doctor and whatever he says will leave Tuesday morning.

I was very impressed. Vimal is an amazing instructor and the ashram is beautiful, peaceful, unpretentious and natural.

Priority- doctor. I will spare the photo of my unbandaged foot but here it is bandaged.

The doctor prescribed augmentin (antibiotic) and i hope this works. He said 99% it was a bacterial infection. I hope he is right. I will stay here at least through Monday to see how my improvement goes.

I wanted to visit Vimal, meet his wife and baby. They live in Rishikesh where Vimal is a successful yoga instructor. I took the flat route and good road surface- bliss! I will stop here to see a doctor about my infected toe and wash my filthy clothes.

Mainly I am suffering from a toe infection. I may have gotten it from a stick that cut me in Bardia national park in Nepal. I was careless and yesterday and today it has caused me much pain. No question of a doctor up here. It took today’s full 8 hour ride just to find a chemist shop! The road was very bad today and progress was very slow. At the end it was 8 hours and 10 minutes in the saddle. Further down it was another long stretch through Corbett National park. I saw a lot of elephant poo on the road but did not see any. Finally reached Duggada and here a proper hotel (800 rs.). Immediately I went to the chemist shop, showed hom my toe infection and he prescribed an antibiotic for fungal infection eventhough I told him I didn’t think it was fungal. After a beer I passed out. I was exhausted…….

I thought I would be going to Delhi but Santosh at Bike Station cleaned and greased up the bottom bracket and I think it is much better. It will get me back to Mumbai without the hassle of Delhi.

I am thus headed in a westerly direction and will head up into the hills again tomorrow. I am staying in Ramnagar which is the main town for visiting Jim Corbett National Park. At the hotel here they tell me visiting the park is all booked up. It somehow doesn’t look like I will be visiting, except for cycling through tomorrow on highway 309.

It was really nice spending time with Suvendu. I hope I see him in the future.

It was a cold foggy descent from Almora. It was a pleasant ride and a longish climb to Nainital. Traffic around there was quite intense. Then came an endless seeming descent to Haldwani. Monday and the bike shop was closed so we’ll see tomorrow. I’ve met my 2nd cycle tourist suvendu from orrissa but living in delhi who was spending his few days of diwali holiday riding solo around Nainital. We shared a hotel room for the night as we wait for the cycle shop to open at 10 a.m.

Laxmi pooja day of Diwali and the crackers are going off.

Today was a short day with (finally) a fun descent. I had a late start so I could visit the small Archaeological Museum in Jageshwar (no photos allowed). I had a nice walk around the temple before the museum opened and I enjoyed that noone paid any particular attention to me. I liked this low-key place very much.

I really could not have gone much further today. With this insane amount of climbing and the first 20 kms. of descent on some very bad roads, I was finished. It was another 3 kms. off the main road to this Hindu holy place Jageshwar Dham.

My Maharashtra driver’s license to the rescue again. Many guest houses do not accept foreigners because they are required to fill in a “c” form which they must deliver to the local cid office. If the establishment either has very few foreign customers or is a distance from the local cid office, it is easier just to say no to the odd foreigner who may come by. Luckily my Maha drivers license was good and the room itself very good.

Aarti was at 6p.m. and we just got back in time from a run to the off-license to participate in a beautiful ritual. Photography not allowed, but always a privilege to attend.

I rode in the car to the off license with an energetic intelligent guy who runs a restaurnt here. He had gotten second place in this cycle race and won 7000rs.

I had been recommended this place in Champawat for the Himalayan views. I wanted something short after yesterday’s marathon (clothes to wash etc.) As I began my morning in glorious sunshine and after buying a thick sweater for this cold weather I saw the signs for the abbot mount eco lodge and thought that this might be a good place to regroup. As could be predicted the eco-lodge was closed, but equally predictably the caretaker knew someone….and here I relax at one of the almost charicatural English cottages now owned by some absentee Indian landlord as a retreat and run by the caretaker who has lodged me. It is quiet and quaint and a respite from the usual inquisition.

Now the question is where to go next. If my bicycle did not have a problem I would really feel free to climb and climb. Alas I have a problem with a knocking in the bottom bracket. I can only get this fixed in Delhi and thus I am heading there via Almora and Nainital.