But then there comes a mail .... Few people planning a trip to bharatpur bird sanctuary.... And true to the name of the group, they plan to travel by MotorCycles.. WOW..... Something i always wanted.... But hey hey.. Mr Aditya Bhushan... come to reality.... what bike do you have... a hero honda passion... probably not even the makers claim it can handle a long ride....
Trip Planned
So i start looking for few people who wish to travel by car... And hitherto.. I find Nitin and Ayushman. Trip is planned. Four people travel by bikes(Paresh, Amit, Pankaj aka p2 and chaitanya), we three on my car. The day before (24th Mar) I stay at Jitender's place. In the night i ask him.. hey.. jp why dont you join us.. i have a place in my car.... And sporty that jp is.. he says why not...i am in.... and what more.. he says he can take his car as well... !!! All set...
We leave ...
Around 5:30 Saturday evening we leave for Bharatpur on jp's car. People to go by bikes already left at around 4:15. We go to P2's house first to pick up speakers and then off to our destination. By around 7 we cross faridabaad and hit the beautiful highway... Total distance to bharatpur is 180kms. JP keeps driving while me, nitin and ayush keep chatting .. various topics.. some with sense.. others senseless... At around 8:15 we reach Mathura... From here we have to take a right turn and leave the highway.. We have been told its not a good road from here on.. But never even in our nightmares we could have sensed what was coming.. The worst strech of 40Km i have ever travelled... Poor jp's car... Somehow we cross that strech and reach bharatpur!!!!! Bikers had already reached (God knows how did they manage that strech of road by bike)...YES WE ARE AT BHARATPUR....
On Reaching...
We take rooms at RTDC hotel saras and order for dinner... Alcohol enthusiasts arrange some beer for themselves and in an hour or so we are at the dinner table... After the dinner we sit down for a round of flash... For the next two hours some lose their fortunes while others make assets... Thank goodness none of us were married... Else another Mahabharata was in the making... Anyways i am Rs.65 up at the end.. so it was good fun (Paresh might have a different opinion). After some more gossiping we go off to sleep... With plans to leave by 6 the next morning..
Bird Watching...
Impossible... i must be dreaming... The next morning all of us are ready by around 6:30.. I start to wonder if were going to watch the real birds or the "figurative" ones.. coz none of us looked like the ones to appreciate any of God's creations except for one(other than ourselves of course..)... But somehow.. we were ready..
We reach the sanctury entry gate.. Thankfully for the birds, no vehicles are allowed inside.. Available modes of transport are bicycle, rikshaw or battery buses. We decide to hire bicycles for we had a rep to protect... after all we are members of young blood group.. :))We also hire a guide Mr DD Mittal, one who was an educated one. He told us he had done his research in this very park. And he had a good knowledge about birds..... For the next two hours we roam around spotting various birds...
Our first catch is the "snake bird". It has a long neck like a snake... After that many more... Hairons, eagles, various varities of ducks , stoks, and more (i dont remember all the names). We also spot a migratory bird locally named "Brahmin bird" for its saffron color. Most of the birds we see are water birds coz we see only the "Marshland" area of the park. The "dryland" is the other extreme side and we are told there are not many birds there this time of the year. We realize God has not created just "one" beautiful being on this earth... :)
Boat ride..
After roaming for around 2 hours, we free our guide and decide to go for the boat trip. A small canal flowing admist the trees... Comparisons range from a "naala" to "kerala's backwaters".. whatever it was.. it was beautiful... we take a boat... one that is driven using a bamboo stick... All of us even try our hands at becoming a naavik... but probably only chaitanya can choose it as a career... With that awesome experience we end our park adventure.
Return back to hotel..
At around 11:30, we return back to our hotel rooms. And then the discussions .. what to do next... Available options are Fatehpur sikri, Tajmahal, Agra fort and Matura temples... After few inconsiquential discussions, we decide that we will visit Fatehpur sikri fort and after that the ones on the car will head to delhi while the bikers would stop at Mathura (which as expected.. they later dropped.. :)
Off to Fatehpur Sikri..
We leave at around 12:30 and around 1:15 we reach Fatehpur. All of us are hungry and sit for lunch at a local small restaurant... After a heavy meal we head to visit the fort. We hire a guide as well.. a boy aged around 15. He tells us about the buland darwaaza, chisti's dargaah, the tunnel from agra to delhi, the mosque, the place built of principles of din-e-elahi, the seven doored corridoor...... A walk down the Mughal era is always interesting....
Back to Noida..
Finally we head to delhi... all tired, sleepy... wondering (and fearing to a small extent) how would jp drive now... But i must say Kudos to jp... he probably never even yawned and ensured we all reach back noida safe and sound...
Young blood's first outing ... Great success... !!! And surely not the last...
