The Lake at Winsome Breweries

The Bihari guard at the Manesar McDonalds looked apologetic and told me that they would not open till 7am. It was 6:20am and I was the first one to pull in to our designated meeting point. I explained to him that I was just going to park my car here for a while we rode our bikes and that we would definitely partake of the the excellent McDonalds menu on our return, but only if he would keep an eye on our cars. He couldn't figure out why the heck I was going to leave my car on NH-8 practically in middle of the night, why on earth I was instead going to take a cycle somewhere, and what was I up to waiting for another two cars, but having been tipped a couple of rupees he wasn't going to object, or report us for suspicious activities. 

The other two cars arrived shortly after and four bikes were pulled out from the various SUVs, front wheels assembled, geared up and prepared for the ride. Manish pulled out a shiny new metallic orange/brown Trek 4300. At the rate everyone is flocking to this great bike, I wonder if it isn't destined to overtake Atlas as the most sold bike in India? Rajesh had brought along his colleague, Elsa, who, after having survived Delhi for three months, had decided to throw caution to the wind and squeeze in one bike ride on her last day in India before going back to the US. 

The destination was an interesting looking water body I had spotted on Google Earth near Tauru (about 32 km from Manesar). The route would pass by a couple of golf courses, cut through Tauru town, and then head into Mewat disrict (right next to the Nation's Capital and the Millennium City but still one of India's most under-developed districts).  

Cycling on what looked like a quiet country road at 6:30am I was surprised by the number of fancy cars that overtook us in the dark, but soon learnt from Rajesh that the Classic Golf Course was hosting a major golf tournament sponsored by the Economic Times. Having survived the rush of corporate honchos in their Mercs, Beamers, and Porsches as well the poorer cousins in their Skodas and Hondas, the next stretch comprised the occasional truck. 

"Why do trucks have those air horns?" someone asked. A reasonable question considering that you can hear them grunting and rattling from miles away and the only purpose their horns serve is to mortify the cyclist and pedestrian into completely abandoning the road. 

The last stretch of the road till Tauru was patchy and bumpy so as we passed through the town we were hoping the road out of town would be better. 

It wasn't till we approached the lake (about 7km from Taura) that we got a smooth patch of road and everyone agreed that it felt like we were sailing on ice.

The Lake was magnificent! 

A gem hidden away right next to a planned industrial area.

It was a bit worrying to think that this lake could become very polluted with all these industries around it. But the sight of the Winsome Brewery plant, abandoned, shuttered and probably bankcrupt was reassuring.

This did however also mean that although the threat of the lake becoming polluted seemed remote, so did our chances of finding a place to get some chai and samosas. After much questioning we located the only chai shop within a 10km radius a little further up the road. As we arrived there was just one customer at the chai shop. By the time we had ordered our tea and samosas the entire village had surrounded us. News had spread quickly that there was a bunch of strangely attired city folks on cycles. Very Quickly the entire village came out to see. "Look there's a foreigner". "A woman". " On a bike!!". The Elsa fan club congregated in full force wide eyed and mouths agape.

 The young men struck poses and strained to be noticed.

The old men looked dumbstruck.

And the kids were more interested in the cycles. We had to eventually shoo them away mortified that as they peered closer and closer they would leave samples of nose guck on the saddles or handle bars!

The return journey was by the same route. As always, it was more tiring to get back, but felt much shorter. And when we did finally get back we put back some of the calories we had lost on the ride. Just so that we kept our word to the Chowkidaar