During this week of WWOOFing, I have spent a lot of time outside digging holes, carrying stones and breaking rocks. But a nearly autonomous farm does not only run on muscle power. This beautiful ecosystem would not survive even a single week without the delicious and delicate cuisine of Brij Bala…

And here is a small excerpt, one of her specialties, passed from generation to the next: Brij Bala’s Chutney!

The presentation is rough but do not trust the appearances…

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Saturday, May 10. I lift my left foot and my bicycle rushes into the slope. While the first curve is approaching, I take one last look back. Gravity takes me away, but the light is faster and manages to give me one last picture of Samuel. He decided to stay in McLeod Ganj where he hopes to immerse himself in Buddhist spirituality and thus get closer to his. As for me, I head towards a more down-to-earth experience…

I rode downhill until I reach the most accurate address that I had: Gharoh. A village… But a village where all the inhabitants know of Devinder Rana’s farm! A few moments later, I was laying down my bike on the grass and getting up to shake hands with Devinder.  I then met his wife Brij Bala, and Sulekah (their adopted daughter in a way), then their children Priyanka and Guglu, and Buti a childhood friend of theirs. All welcomed me with open arms, so that I stayed with them until Monday, May 19. For one week, I was WWOOFer in India…

The concept of WWOOFing ? To work in the farm in exchange for accommodation and food. And I think I deserved accommodation and food!

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“But in Jaipur, fabulous news was waiting for us…”

This is how our previous newsletter had ended. Because at that time, our world tour by bike was about to become electric again: we had got back the batteries of our bikes! They made it until the General Post Office of Jaipur; we only had to climb up to the floor of the customs, justify their non-commercial use (“yes, our bikes are just down the stairs, you want to see them?”), and pay the customs clearance to free them from their custody. It should have been simple… Though once there, we got surprised by the chaos we had in front of us! The parcels of the day (or week, who knows?) were scattered all over the place, there were power failures every 15 minutes, and it took us no less than 2h to get rid of the paperwork. But what does that matter?! We got out of the building with the batteries in our hands; the engines of our bikes would finally resume work!

Unfortunately, this perspective quickly evaporated… when the batteries did not turn on. Our sponsor, VELOSCOOT, found the cause of this dysfunction, and the diagnosis is formal: the batteries must return to France for an update at the factory. Eventually, it is not in India that we will again hear the soft purring of our engines.

Destiny played a hell of a trick on us, but what could we do? This disillusionment did not kill our motivation. Ahead of us were the Himalayan Mountains, and with them the hope of a peaceful and harmonious atmosphere. It was time to get back on track.

In Jaipur, we took the train to Amritsar. 800 km identical to the 500 that we had already ridden, so we were told. Neither remorse nor regret when purchasing the ticket, we were actually quite relieved to skip these 800 km in 1 night. The last 500 had turned our references upside down and shaken up the cornerstone of our thinking; we learned a lot, but Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan are certainly not the most pleasant states to cross by bike in India…

Thursday May 1st. We arrive at Amritsar, spiritual and cultural center of the Sikh community. We have changed state, we are in Punjab!

Harmandir Sahib, the “Golden Temple”, in Amritsar. The most important place of worship for Sikhs.

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Monday, April 14. The safety belt lights turn off for good and the aircraft doors open. It is 6 p.m., our captain is certainly a very punctual man. We enter the airport, pass the immigration without any problem, then arrive in front of the luggage belt and grab all our bags within a minute. Perfection itself seems to have coordinated our arrival… An hour later, however, we learn that our bikes have decided to extend their stopover in Colombo, Sri Lanka. And nobody is able to predict when they will leave for the India! So we leave the airport sitting in a taxi, but with the insurance to be called as soon as our bikes have resurfaced.

The next day, around 6 p.m., the airport called: our bikes were on today’s plane. They’ve arrived in New Delhi and will be delivered at the hotel within 2/3 h. Very well…

8:30 pm : “I’m on the way, I’ll be there in 10 minutes”
9: 45 pm : “I am at the traffic light at the end of the street” 
10: 15 pm : “Hello!”

So yes, obviously we were a bit stressed! At the airport, the bikes were safe. At the hotel, they would have been safe again. But between the two… And this guy doesn’t give any news for more than an hour after he had said that he was only 10 minutes away!

But what a relief to get our bikes back! We only had to put them up and the Indian adventure would begin!

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Leo: “Hi everyone,

About 3 weeks ago, I stopped our world tour and urgently went back in France when learnt that my older brother Antoine just past away.

For now I do not feel like riding again so I have decided to stay with my family for a while.

The project Ride The Flavour is adjourned, however the trip continues for Damien who will leave soon with his little brother to India. “