cycling in rural india

Cyber - you are full of useless but fascinating information!

Personally never had a problem cycling here except the usual stares - especially being a female cyclist who rides like the devil himself is after her

has anyone ever cycled between goa and Kerala, coastal?

I found at least 2 good routes for cyclists near Rishikesh. The upside is that it is a beautiful area with plenty to do for non-bikers, especially rafting the Ganges, and wide sandy beaches with tented camps where you can stay inexpensively. The downside is a 7-8 hour drive from Delhi (or a 4 hour train to Hardiwar and hiring a car to Rishikesh about 1 hour, which makes bring bikes problematic). And when the weather is nice and cool for biking, you need a wetsuit to do river rafting, but operators can supply these.

Route 1. Gular – Loyal Ghuffa route. Going out of Rishikesh on the road following the Ganges up into the mountains, you pass the Shivpur bridge, go past the Himalayan River Runners Camp, then on to the Gular bridge at about 23 km peg. This road following the Ganges has some traffic but it’s not very dangerous for cyclists as there is almost always room to pull over and most vehicles sound their horn around blind curves.

Turn left immediately after the Gul ar bridge, go down past some shops and the old defunct bridge and continue up bearing right through Gular village. It’s quite steep and the road is not good, but after about 400 metres the road is tarmac. It’s a nice climb up the mountain about 15 kms, with almost no traffic, with excellent Ganges views and winding through forests and a few huts of Kashmiri buffalo herders and small villages growing crops on stone terraces. At about the 13 km, the tarmac ends, but the road is still okay, and you pass through a village called Loyal Ghuffa. The road hooks back up to the left and in about 1 km there is a temple at the mouth of a cave that is worth a look (actually the temple may be called Loyal Ghuffa). The temple< span style="font-size: 10pt;"> babaji will show you natural formations that are supposed to be natural representations of Ganesha, Shiva, Vishnu, Parvati, nagas, etc. You need a very good imagination to see most of them. Give him a tip of 10 or 20 rupees. If you have a small flashlight bring it with you, as the cave has lights, but often there are power cuts. The road apparently goes about 7 kms further past the temple cave– I didn’t follow it as I ran out of time. There are no dhabas on this route and only minimal snacks available at small shops.

Route 2 Tapovan/Laxman Jhula route From Rishikesh following the Ganges, the last urban area is Tapovan, and there is a road signposted “Laxman Jhula” which winds down a hill and across a suspension bridge too narrow for cars but okay for motorcycles and cyclists (although crowded). Across the bridge, at the little roundabout, turn left. The road is excellent and there is very little traffic, very soon there is a junction with a road coming in from the right. Keep following the river; continue about 4 kms on a gentl e road to Gadur Chatti, a little village with a waterfall about 0.5 kms well worth checking out. You can get a simple meal here and cappuccino/espresso from at least one of the stands. Gadur Chatti is as I got but I heard if you carry on there is another waterfall about 1 km further, and then after another 8 kms a very nice lake where you can swim up to a beautiful waterfall called Nishu Kunti. The road may continue on further.

Its possible to do both routes in a day – I did the two shortened versions of them in about 7 hours including a break for lunch an d exploring the cave, and not at a blistering pace, probably 60 kms or so total. But it’s likely that both routes could be extended to full day rides. And there are other interesting roads with little traffic that I didn’t explore.

Thank you Tall Rock both routes seem to be close to what I'm looking for. I was in Rishikesh oct 2003 and walked the far side of the river between the two suspension bridges and have often wandered how much further the road progressed. The fact that there is no heavy traffic and the general beauty of the area may make this particular route one of the best day rides in India.

Hehe

Ya'll are lucky I've sworn to 'good behaviour '

http://www.crazyguyonabike.cosmo.com/

Received via private message, it's a great read.

dont cycle in india, unsafe, etc., BULLSHIT.
parts of bihar, u.p. are unsafe but to make sweeping generalisations is unfair and stupid.
i've been cycling thru remote places for years and NEVER had a problem.
and i've never heard of any cyclist who got into a life-threatening situation.
it's obvious from the tone and content of some of the alarmists here that they don't travel except by hired qualis, to downtown bombay....

if you travel in lucknow,varansi or elsewhere. never open your full wallet in any hotel or vendor. sometime they aer in formers of robber.