Where do I start?
I have only driven a motorcycle once in my life. It was in Khandwa (in Madhya Pradesh), when I was working there in the mid 1990's and it didnt go all that well. A supporter has let us the use of one of his motorcycles for a few days but the teacher I was working with (a young fellow from Orissa) was too scared to drive it, so when we needed to get somewhere I volunteered. Things went OK the first few hundred yards until this fellow was coming straight for us and seemed confused. It was not until we passed each other in the midst of much horn blowing and arm waving that I realized I had not factored in the obvious fact that I was in a former British colony so instead of staying right you are supposed to stay left.
Bikaner contains one of the few places in India where you can can rent motorcycles. I did so and kept firmly to the left.
The goal was to get out of Bikaner via the shortest possible route and do a big loop to the west through the desert and south and make it back BEFORE dark.
I had wanted to go north west but when quizzed where I was headed, the owner said that was no-man's land from 1 km from town to the Pakistani border, military personnel only. I am glad he asked.
Streets in Indian cities tend to be a bit chaotic.
So I filled up with 3 liters petrol and headed west towards Jaisalmer. It took about 45 minutes to make the 5 km to the western edge of the city and stunningly no crash.
A few kilometers further I came to the first burned out overturned truck (see previous post)(sorry no pictures).
As the traffic thinned out I was able to look around and was stunned by the number of windshields laying about. Literally every 100-200 feet there was another pile of windshield, sometimes accompanied by gashes in the pavement where one of the two vehicles moved for some time in an upside down position.
India has a highway mortality rate in a day that equals about the US's mortality rate in a year, despite having about 1/40th the vehicles.
Its not that Indian drivers are bad (even though with the explosion of private cars over the last 10 years the quality has declined), they are for the most part very skilled, far more skilled than US drivers. When you can meet oncoming traffic with a few inches of spaces or pass other vehicles and miss oncoming traffic by an inch or two, that requires great skill. The problem being that at those tolerances there is little room for miscalculations.
Once out of the city I could do a few photos:
Centuries (or tens of) of severe livestock grazing has eliminated most of the vegetation. Grasses still occur in robust condition within shrub protection (just as in the US). Accessible forage was grazed to close to 100%
So I made it back just as the sun was setting after about 140 km (on 2 liters of gas)
I have only driven a motorcycle once in my life. It was in Khandwa (in Madhya Pradesh), when I was working there in the mid 1990's and it didnt go all that well. A supporter has let us the use of one of his motorcycles for a few days but the teacher I was working with (a young fellow from Orissa) was too scared to drive it, so when we needed to get somewhere I volunteered. Things went OK the first few hundred yards until this fellow was coming straight for us and seemed confused. It was not until we passed each other in the midst of much horn blowing and arm waving that I realized I had not factored in the obvious fact that I was in a former British colony so instead of staying right you are supposed to stay left.
Bikaner contains one of the few places in India where you can can rent motorcycles. I did so and kept firmly to the left.
The goal was to get out of Bikaner via the shortest possible route and do a big loop to the west through the desert and south and make it back BEFORE dark.
I had wanted to go north west but when quizzed where I was headed, the owner said that was no-man's land from 1 km from town to the Pakistani border, military personnel only. I am glad he asked.
Streets in Indian cities tend to be a bit chaotic.
So I filled up with 3 liters petrol and headed west towards Jaisalmer. It took about 45 minutes to make the 5 km to the western edge of the city and stunningly no crash.
A few kilometers further I came to the first burned out overturned truck (see previous post)(sorry no pictures).
As the traffic thinned out I was able to look around and was stunned by the number of windshields laying about. Literally every 100-200 feet there was another pile of windshield, sometimes accompanied by gashes in the pavement where one of the two vehicles moved for some time in an upside down position.
India has a highway mortality rate in a day that equals about the US's mortality rate in a year, despite having about 1/40th the vehicles.
Its not that Indian drivers are bad (even though with the explosion of private cars over the last 10 years the quality has declined), they are for the most part very skilled, far more skilled than US drivers. When you can meet oncoming traffic with a few inches of spaces or pass other vehicles and miss oncoming traffic by an inch or two, that requires great skill. The problem being that at those tolerances there is little room for miscalculations.
Once out of the city I could do a few photos:
Centuries (or tens of) of severe livestock grazing has eliminated most of the vegetation. Grasses still occur in robust condition within shrub protection (just as in the US). Accessible forage was grazed to close to 100%
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| Typical house in the scattered villages |
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| Taking a break after a long stretch of sand covered, one lane road which was VERY difficult on a motorcycle |
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| One interesting grass seed head, probably some grama family |
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| Gajner Palace |
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| More Gajner Palace out in the sands. It was built just a a winter hunting lodge. |
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| Cattle and pigs grazing on Gajner Palace garbage |
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| Typical wind erosion - and sampling of the tough, unpalatable species that remain |
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| grass species surviving within spiky shrub protection |
So I made it back just as the sun was setting after about 140 km (on 2 liters of gas)
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