Mojo Desert Trail Part 1: Rajasthan diaries

Day 1: Jaipur to Nagaur

Day One started with a flagoff from the Mahindra dealership in Jaipur. The first day itself posed one of the biggest challenges– riding through the heart of Jaipur. The city has an abundance of jaywalkers, rude motorists and absent-minded cyclists, and we tried our best to dodge or scare them out of our way. Even in this chaos, the subtle beauty of the Pink City served as a constant distraction. This was the first time I had been exposed to Rajput and Mughal architecture styles, and they made me wish we could have spent a day exploring this beautiful city.

This being the first day of the ride, most of us were still getting used to the Mojo, and the advance was slow. Around 2pm and 200kms into the journey, we stopped for lunch at a local dhaba. Overwhelmed by the sheer size of our convoy, the cook keptdishing out daal-baati, sev tamatar and phulkas as fast as possible. Stuffed with the hearty lunch, we reluctantly got on our motorcycles to finish the remaining 100km leg of the day.

After checking in at the hotel at Nagaur, I joined Joshua and Naveen, my newly made friends from other media houses, to have a look around the quaint town. While the day’s 300km ride was quite uneventful, the delicious kadi-kachoris, gajar ka halwa and piping hot tea made up for it.

Day 2: Nagaur to Sam Sand Dunes, Jaisalmer

Our second day would also have been uneventful, had it not been for a mishap. The arrow-straight highways of Rajasthan lull you into a sense of comfort, encouraging you to push your bike to the limit. Around 200 kilometres into the ride, we suddenly encountered a brief patch of deep potholes. A majority of us managed to slow down from the triple digit speeds and avoid these, though three of the bikes weren’t as lucky. While they managed to avoid crashing, the rims took a beating. We stopped by the road and waited for Mahindra’s mobile service van (MSV). Fortunately, the MSV was carrying just enough spare rims and Birju, the jovial nanny of our motorcycles, got these replaced within an hour.

After lunch, we advanced to the Jaisalmer War Museum, a monument built to honour the contributions of our war heroes. The museum also took us for a walk through the history of the Indian army and advancement in weaponry over the years.

From here we advanced to Sam Sand Dunes on the outskirts of Jaisalmer - a popular tourist destination for those who want to get a taste of the local culture and the Thar desert. This was to be our home for the next two days. As soon as we dropped our luggage in the tent, we heard music being played outside, announcing the start of a cultural program.

Every now and then you hear stories about how deserts experience extreme drop in temperature during the night. Heeding this advice, I had all bases covered to confront Rajasthan’s winter - or so I thought. Irrespective of how you mentally prepare yourself, it is impossible to grasp the stark change in weather in a desert. My mental picture of Rajasthan being a brown and hot expanse lay shattered. Even with my warmest winter jacket and riding boots, I started shivering the moment I stepped out of my tent. Nevertheless, hunger won over the cold and I headed towards the mehfil.

The show included traditional Kalbeliya and Ghoomar dance forms performed by two pretty women decked up in colourful Rajasthani attire, to the beat of khartal, ravanahatha and dhol. The highlight of this show was the Bhavai dance, a balancing act where a lady danced around the camp fire with eight pots stacked on her head. We then advanced to the dinner hall to have a normal dinner of roti, sabji, daal and rice.

Day 3: Jaisalmer Fort & Longewala

Our ride on Day 3 was supposed to be relatively shorter than the last two days’, and the agenda included a visit to the Jaisalmer fort and Longewala. But as our luck would have it, we ended up having a lot more fun than we had imagined.

Built in 1156 by the Rajput king Rawal Jaisal, the Jaisalmer fort is major tourist hub and a bustling marketplace which lies at the heart of the city. The yellow sandstone walls change colour according to the time of the day, and provided the fort with camouflage in the desert. Shops sell a variety of cultural wares like shawls, carpets, puppets and show pieces.

Thanks to the high volume of foreign tourists, it also has several eateries serving Tibetan, continental and local cuisine. Having spent an hour marvelling at the beautiful architecture, we got back on our bikes and headed towards Longewala.

We encountered several stretches bordered by sand dunes. Bored of sticking to the arrow straight roads, a bunch of us decided to separate from the convoy and head into the dunes. While a few were fortunate enough to have MRF Mogrip block pattern tyres, the rest of us had to make do with the road-biased Pirelli Diablo tyres. Riding on sand might seem easy, but the 180 kilogram bulk of the Mojo and the heat made it a daunting task.

Carrying your momentum becomes essential because once you lose steam, the bike will start digging in faster than it can move ahead. And that is when you have to start waving at your friends to help you get the bike unstuck. We were completely drained by the end of it, though it was worth it. Satiated, we got back on the road to Longewala.

The Battle of Longewala was fought between India’s 23rd Battalion, Punjab Regiment and Pakistan’s 1st Armoured Division between December 4 and December 7, 1971.Against heavy odds, Major Chandpuri led the 120-soldier regiment to successfully defend their post against the Pakistani tank division with its 2,000 odd soldiers.

The memorial built at Longewala celebrates the victory and honours the two soldiers who lost their lives on the fateful day. Having paid respect to the martyrs, we wound our way back to Sam Sand Dunes.

Day 4: Desert safari and ride to Sanchore

Only a select few adventurous souls managed to be up and running at 6am on day four to catch the sunrise and a camel safari. The locals who drove the Mahindra Major and Commander jeeps were well-versed with the terrain. They gave us a rollercoaster ride, swerving through the sand sharply, climbing dunes as tall as buildings and diving off them as we clung on for our dear lives. And they did all this dune bashing with just their headlamps illuminating the path.

Imagine our surprise when we were told that these were two-wheel-drive vehicles, and not four-wheel-drive. When asked which one he enjoyed driving more – the Major or the Thar, our driver retorted with a smirk, “The Thar is for novice drivers, true men drive the Major.”

Having caught our breaths, we got onto camels for a 10-minute safari through the dunes. This ride was supposed to offer a rustic experience from the times when this creature was the only mode of transport through the deserts, though the excitement paled in comparison with the jeep safari.

A little past 7am when we still were on the camels, sun rays started flooding the sky. The horizon developed an orange glow, highlighting the dunes’ edges. Dawn broke, filling the sky with shades of red, orange, pink and ocean blue, painting a mesmerising picture of the desert. There was a sudden change in the atmosphere and cell phones and cameras were whipped out in an attempt to capture this hypnotic phenomenon.

We were back at our camp site an hour later, showing our sleepy comrades what they had missed. After having breakfast, we were back on our bikes for an uneventful ride to Sanchore. While the highway was littered with high-beam-flashing truck drivers and irate tourist vehicles just a few hours ago, the back roads were almost empty. Sanchore was getting closer by the minute and even after a full day of riding we couldn’t have enough of it. Such was our craving to ride at night that we started taking breaks more often and goofed around aimlessly, waiting for the dusk.

Every now and then, a couple of us would get bored and blast off into the distance, making use of the Mojo’s 26bhp power. However, we did have to wait for the convoy later, but that didn’t stop us from stealing those split seconds of unadulterated fun. We rode joking with each other for most of the part and pigging out on street food during the rest. We were in no hurry, and all I could think about was that this is as good as life can get and I had to make the most of it.

The next day we were to cross the border into Gujarat. While the ride had revolved around desert and sand so far, Gujarat presented a very contrasting atmosphere. The highways seemed no different, but they led to exciting places like the salt flats of Kutch, temple cities in Bhuj and beaches in Mandvi. Stay tuned to BikeWale to find out what Gujarat had in store.

Anyone can be a part of Mahindra's Mojo Tribe and their rides. The Mojo Desert Trail costs Rs 18,000 if you bring your own Mojo, though you can also opt for a company bike for an additional Rs 10,000. Interested in enrolling yourself for the next Mahindra Mojo Trail? Click on this link to head to their official site.