Two Bikepackers Who Brought First Rainfall Of The Season

Weekend was coming and I called my friend Jayant for his company for an instantaneous unplanned bikepacking expedition to Brihaspati Kund. We booked our bikes on friday evening using parcel services of Indian railways and after a 9-hour train journey from Bhopal we reached to Satna.

The train stops here only for 5 mins. Hustle and bustle during unloading of our bikes from luggage compartment of train already full with Kgs of vegetable bags led to the breakage of my front luggage carrier which will now be with me throughout the expedition like a flag at the end of my bike.

It was a cloudy humid day and we decided to take village dirt roads (kachha roads) over national and state highways for it gives us better opportunity to experience real India the rural India. We ate lots of “samosas” and tea along the way at small village shops called “Chai ki Tapri” in hindi language. A group of local villagers at one of the shops referred to us as:

“Cyclists with Good Fortune”

They said so because on the first day of our bikepacking expedition the region also experienced its first delayed monsoon shower of the season and the whole region was smelling (Saundhi Mitti ki Khushboo) like wet earth. Petrichor aroma is my personal favourite too.

The village communities were curious about our expedition and were thinking that we are Youtubers which is “Not Applicable” for both of us. They welcomed us for group photos, blessings of an elephant, talk under a tree shade, ride and talk etc. It felt good at heart to receive love from rural India.

Recalling about the best memory of our first day; it was near an open well where children were jumping and bathing and we decided to take a dip there too. They liked us and our bikes and quickly became our friends and encouraged us by clapping and show of hands when I taught Jayant his swimming lessons using a float.

We both lost a track of time – It was evening already and it started raining again and this time more intense. We had a rainy goodbye with village children when we started preparing ourselves further for expedition ahead.

It was time already when we should have pitched our tent for the day but we got further delayed as the dirt road was already at its saturation. The intense rain shower was sufficient to prepare a perfect slime-sludge-slush mud road (keechad in hindi language). First our shoes and then our bike chains, gears, bags, breaks, tires and finally ourselves were all in sticky mud.

We somehow reached a village shop “Maharaj Ji ka Dhaba” and Maharaj Ji (An Indian chef) was humble enough to provide us with pressurized pipe water hose for cleaning our bikes. It was also a great relief to find all my belongings dry – thanks to my weatherproof “Our Slug Life” bikepacking bags

We cleaned our bikes and kept them safely inside the dhaba, we took bath, we charged our electronics, we had insightful conversation with Maharaj Ji, we ate delicious Indian food prepared by Maharaj Ji and we pitched in our tent inside the dhaba. Such was the beauty of the place that the tree in front of the dhaba was twinkling and glowing with fireflies (Jugnu in hindi language).

Away from city life I was feeling more connected to nature, I was feeling peaceful, I was feeling good at heart thinking about the love I received from the village community and lastly; I was feeling thrilled thinking about tomorrow – thinking about Brihaspati Kund.

We got early in the morning, got ourselves ready for the day and had “Aloo Paratha” as breakfast from Maharaj Ji ka dhaba. Re-washing our bikes was mandatory as the sticky mud was still stuck on our bikes. We started for the day after thanking Maharaj Ji and having a group photo with his whole family.

Brihaspati Kund was very near (around 10 kms from the Dhaba). I have not much googled about this place except the fact that it is a waterfall and hence a surprise and thrill factor was increasing my dopamine, testosterone, happy hormones and What Not!!   

1.5 hours on the second day ride and I found myself hanging from the waterfall cliff observing the magnificent Eagle Eye’s view of water falling from a great height (Google says it is around 120 meters) over a beautiful cliff of stratified rocks. Lush green forest surrounding the waterfall and its valley further adds to the beauty of the moment. I sat in the shadow casted by waterfall rocks and listened to the peaceful music of water falling and flowing.

It was time to feel the waters but we were concerned about the safety of our bikes. We discussed regarding this with local community and they suggested to take help of a temple priest – Pandit Ji. He was humble enough to allow us to keep our bikes and bags parked inside his home.

The beautiful narrow path to the base of waterfall was both historical and geological. I was observing the rock paintings on the layers of stratified rocks and was wondering about the life of early human beings who must have passed from here or would have lived here. Near to the base elevation of waterfall I also observed multiple flat grounds which at first instance looked like an abandoned camp site courtesy to its similarities in terms of area and level of smoothness. Little did I know that it was meant for extracting something precious!

Finally, we were seeing the mighty Brihaspati Kund from its base. I forgot the float inside my bikepacking bags but this did not stop me to quickly jump in the water and start swimming all the way towards the waterfall. Jayant stayed back near the shore.

I experienced the mesmerizing near to 90-degree view of waterfall while floating in the water reservoir (Kund). I also climbed a bit on the sharp stratified rocks and made my move towards the back of the waterfall. I cannot express in words about my feeling while standing behind the falling sheet of water but I remember murmuring

“For men may come and men may go, But I go on forever”

A phrase from the poem “The Brook” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

It was time to start the return journey. I whistled Jayant and he clicked my photograph after which I started “The Return”.

As we started our way up cliff, we saw many such “camp look alike sites” again. This time some men were closely working with the dirt and gravels on the site. They were extracting diamonds!! We had an insightful chat with them and got to know the process of extraction. Indeed, Brihaspati Kund in itself is a Geological, Historical and Mythological Diamond.

We reached Pandit Ji’s home only to find out that Jayant’s bike is punctured. It was a real-life application of Charle’s Law –

“The volume of an ideal gas is directly proportional to the absolute temperature at constant pressure”

Let me simplify – Since the bikes were left in sunlight the volume of the air inside the tube expanded and in case of Jayant’s bike exploded!!

I was the Doraemon of our group; little jiggle wiggle and I gave Jayant the spare tube I was carrying. Before we began replacing the tube; Pandit Ji offered us traditional delicious lunch – Roti with Dal. Pandit Ji was also very kind to help us in fixing Jayant’s bike.

We said goodbye to good people. It was late Saturday afternoon already and Jayant and I had to start our office work from Monday. We speeded our way to Panna from where we were hopeful to catch the last bus to Bhopal.

We were lucky to catch the last bus to Bhopal – 1000x speed to Bhopal with our bikes on top of the bus. Jayant and I had an endless conversation regarding the beautiful memories of our 2.5-day bikepacking trip.

If I were to summarize the trip, I won’t say that “We covered 110+ Kms over 2.5 Days between 15/07/2022 to 18/07/2022” rather I will say

” We created memories for lifetime over a weekend ….. Memories that we will cherish forever “

Note:

(A) The photographs in the article are taken by Jayant and Utkarsh

(B) A picture from this article is featured in Weekend Snapshot by Bikepacking.com