I woke up quite tired in the morning because of the 182-km cycling on the previous day. As I had reached late in the evening the previous day, I did not get time to visit the local places so I visited them in the morning and left for my next destination, Mount Abu in Rajasthan, which is 50 km from Ambaji, Gujarat, at 12:10 pm. I was very excited and happy that I will now enter Rajasthan and all the states form now on are familiar to me (I’m myself from Haryana!). The first 30 km of cycling was on plain roads but then, after 7 or 8 km from Abu Road at Talahati, started the longest merciless climb of 20 km which sucked out all my energy. But I took it as training for the climb which is about to start in next 25 days or so when I enter Himachal Pradesh.
I was sweating like anything cycling up this slope. Mid-way, I found water in clay pots on one occasion, which was a great relief to me and water too was cool. From there, Mount Abu was about eight km. I was passing through the Mount Abu Wildlife Sanctuary but when I reached the entrance gates to the town of Mount Abu where every tourist has to pay a nominal fee for entry to the town, I found the weather a bit cooler than the city of Abu Road. A friend whom I had met during my Advanced Mountaineering Course in Darjeeling came to receive me.
I was exhausted, thirsty and very hungry but I was happy about my stamina and determination. I reached Mount Abu at 4 p.m., in a little less than four hours. Hearing of my timing, my friend and his family were quite amazed.
