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Published: January 5th 2010
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At 8.00 am we were flagged off from the base camp. We were told to peddle to Donapaula Jetty, load our bikes into the motor-launch and get down at Mormugao Port Trust where we would meet Narendra, the mechanic and Chandan, the guide for our expedition. It was a pleasant biking experience with no sun overhead. We loaded our bikes in the Ferry and settled down to soaking in the refreshing morning air. There was a minor scuffle at the Mormugoa Port Trust, where two cops asked out for some legal documents required for landing at the Port. The guy that seemed in charge was 6 ft in blue jeans and a white shirt which was a little tight for his beer belly. A call to the expedition director, Manoj Joshi, settled out the matter and we met Chandan and Narendra on the port gates.
From the port, it is a steep climb to Vasco town to take the airport road towards Velsao city. The sun was up and shining and the road with all its traffic did not make it any interesting. This is probably the most boring part of the expedition. At one junction, we all stopped and
gulped down glasses of sugarcane juice. After that keen on finishing this patch, I pushed off ahead of the pack. As I was driving alone, a guy on his motor-cycle slowed down and in the typical Goan informal style struck a conversation. After the usual where, what, why the guy started talking on girlfriends ! And then he made a remark that there are lot of gays in Mumbai. I do not know whether it was supposed to be an opening line or he was plain stupid because after that he kept grinning and insisting that we should meet ! I got rid of him and took the right turn to Velsao beach. At Velsao, we had the option of hitting it to the beach and drive all the 12-13 kms on sand with no trees to Mobor beach. We unanimously ditched the option and instead took the internal road to Benaulim beach. On the way we opened up our pack lunches in the courtyard of a house that said beware of dogs. At Benaulim, we finally came up on the beach to peddle the remaining 3 kms to Mobor. Biking on the beach is a mixed bag with everything
in its favor except for the scorching sun on your head. At Mobor, completely parched out, we dashed into the sea, which is by the way strictly prohibited on the YHA goa expeditions. The orange juice at the beach shack was probably one of the best I have ever had. Then we cycled for a few km inland and took the right turn at Cavalossim to take the ferry to Assolna (every 15 minutes). Half an hour later we were at the Assolna camp, large rooms with celing fans in the Assolna stadium. However the food was cooked in our room and it was literally hot as oven. So we preferred to sleep outside. Rana, always hungry and ever-enthusiastic made a couple of trips to the village to bring Dosa first and then a deck of cards later. Since there are no camp leaders for the biking camps, we were free to play cards, which we did. Sendil, was the master of the ceremony as he came up with brilliantly innovative and slightly weird card games. That night we slept pretty nicely under the stars. We were now probably well acclimatized to Goa!
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