Through Indian Traffic to the Hills
[Hynek] I wake up at 5 h in the morning. Not that I have slept enough, not that I have slept well. Too much tension has built up in me over the past weeks. Have we prepared all the necessary? Did we forget something? Will we get out of Delhi fast enough? Will there be problems the first day on the trip?
I walk out of the sleeping room, rolling over Aurelie. To my feet lies Fabio. I step over Schlatti and Moni, both hugged together sleeping. I don't want to wake them up! In the living room, the rest of the party sleeps: Felix, Alex,... Hei, Martin is opening his eyes! The day can begin.
Half asleep, not believing that one could get up so early, not sure that this shall be the start of the journey, all of us start getting up, getting ready, packing up, eating toast, getting down to the car, drinking coffee, carrying bags down, cleaning, searching for last lost things, filling up the car pounding bags and toolkits onto the bikes. All happens like in a SOSOTVC - Self Organising System On The Verge Of Chaos! Eight people still dreaming and wishing they could sleep some more and leave the next day crossing each other, stepping over bags, talking little.
Slowly the SOSOTEC is changing environment, from the house down to the street. The link to the house becomes thinner and thinner, fewer and fewer things that have to be carried out that have been forgotten. Last stroll through the house. Big mess we leave behind but nothing is forgotten, all has been loaded onto the three Enfields and one Gypsy. Nobody can believe it, it is time to roll out of Defence Colony out onto Delhi Ring Road northwards, towards Chandigarh.
[Moni] After two days in the huge palace of Hynek and Aurelie in the very calm Defence Colony, getting first insights to indian heath, habits and food, having driving lessons with Hynek and Vinod and buying the last stuff, we made our way to the north.
What is called a highway appeared to be a good conditioned road sometimes crowded with rikshaws, bicycles, people and cows, sometimes leading through even, quiet landscapes. But always the road was full of big trucks and strange vehicles. In the evening, in a hotel in Solan within the first hills, our mind was full of new impressions and the body exhausted from the long travel.