Harshil Valley is something beyond words can explain - it broke the misconception of Uttarakhand not having as lofty mountains as Himachal Pradesh for me. Travelling solo sure has its benefits, and I prefer going solo mostly as well but riding along with 3 friends of mine on a set of wheels, sure was an experience I would love to have occasionally.
All the shared excitement in everyone for where we were headed, the stupid but funny af jokes on pitstops and halts, the painful agony of our asses for riding for more than 15 hours, the deep philosophical talks about the meaning of life, collectively missing that one friend who ditched out in the last week after all the planning, noticing the differences in the chaotic lives in bustling cities and the small and peaceful villages way high up in the mountains that we passed through, and much more.
Some destinations are not about arriving. They are about the strange, stretched feeling of reaching a place where there is nowhere left to go.
Let’s roll back to when the journey started. It was the morning of 2nd April. We had planned to leave early, especially because one of our riders was a seasoned veteran when it came to enduring the aching pain in the ass (quite literally) that comes from riding for hours on a motorcycle. He had suggested that we reach Harshil on the very first day itself, which meant covering a whopping 450 kilometres in about 15 hours.
The Crew
The people who made this ride everything it was
The one who suggested Harsil Valley as our main destination instead of Chakrata. Rightfully so.
The one friend who was always into motorcycles and slowly piqued my interest in them over the years as well. We had always wanted to go on a bike trip together.
The veteran - the chain doctor - the one who loves to churn kilometres.
The Kush to his brother Lav, full Ramayan lore. Very chill, fun and adventurous.
We were supposed to flag off from my house at 5 AM, and I thought I’d be the first one fully ready. But I had forgotten how to strap my saddle bag onto the motorcycle and ended up looking it up on YouTube. Everyone had to wait almost 20 minutes for me to finally get it secured.
We had decided to travel via the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway, which hadn’t officially been opened to the public yet, but there was news from relatives that it was functional for bikes. This would help us cut the time to reach Dehradun by atleast 2 hours compared to the usual Meerut-Rishikesh-Dehradun highway which is usually packed with local traffic.
The expressway was only 15 kilometres away, so we got onto it pretty quickly. The road itself was beautifully built, but expressways start becoming boring after a while, especially when it’s just you on them because of how isolated and closed-off they feel.
Dehradun
We reached Dehradun at around 9 AM and had a quick breakfast at Haldiram's. It was a mix of chole bhature, aalo poori and pao bhaji. I have added some random clips from my DJI Action Camera througout the post for a more immersive feel.
