On the ridge

As far as the route and timings went, the cycling group had a ride today that suited me. However, the riders who had confirmed their participation are not regulars. They are very slow. I have been on rides with them, and their emphasis has always been on tea-shacks, oily samosas and gossip. I like cycling, so I chalked out my own route.

Today was even more muggy than yesterday and the wind was stiff. After a while an overhead sun arrived and now my arms are a bit zebra-like. I hadn't done dirt tracks in a while and decided to take the one a friend and I had discovered. The last time I was there was on November 5th. If yesterday was the day of the dragonfly, today it was the pond heron. They were all over, some a bit flustered as I rode near them. Buffaloes are their companions. Then, in a couple of places gangs of dogs were having face-offs. And to add to the list from yesterday, I saw a dead eagle. Or it could have been a hawk.

Decided on a discovery ride today and found large, wide and incomplete roads leading almost up to the villages. A group of people had parked their cars and were about to have a remote-controlled airplane flying competition. A photographer, with a very long lens on a Nikon body was waiting for proceedings to begin. Once in the villages, away from sounds of cars, it is a whole new world. Fields stretch wide on either side, farmers are at work on tractors or in the fields. Lazy cattle graze but run away with their tails high as they hear me rattling towards them on their path. The number of birds at this time of the year is more than I can imagine. There are peacocks, kingfishers, a variety of herons and egrets, flocks of little birds with green bodies and orange wings, large ones with brown bodies and orange wings and tails. The variety and numbers of calls heard were far more than species seen. Then I was rather shocked to see a wild Indian deer(one with curly antlers) crossing my path. It wasn't a Sambar, Chital, Nilgai, or a Tahr. It belonged to a farmer who had bought it from Dehradun. A single deer amid other life-forms, away from its habitat.

The greens on the path had converged from either side, and were almost taking over. This wasn't the way I remembered it but it was pleasant being surrounded by green for a while. I was reminded of my visit to Discovery park. One moment you are in downtown amid high-rises, zooming cars and all the clamour and the next moment, you are walking across wind-beaten cliffs, treading narrow trails through the forest, hearing nothing but nature's breathing. The ride today was about the same distance as yesterday, covered in the same time, but had about 12 km of dirt-tracks thrown in.