Fair Weather Holiday and Yamuna Bridge

Today the powers that be decided to give the weary students and teachers of Woodstock School what they call in India a "fair weather" holiday. Not exactly sure where the name comes from but I guess now that the monsoon is ending I guess the weather is getting nicer. Whatever, all I know is I had a day off from school, not conducive to getting through the curriculum but well needed and appreciated none the less. I used this opportunity to jump on the Enfield and take a cruise. My destination; the holy Yamuna River 50km to the east of Musoorrie. The road snaked steeply down the mountain the whole time. The road surface ranged from butter smooth to filling rattling washout and potholes. The road was literally blasted out of the mountainside, so a few potholes and gravelly sections can be overlooked.

Me and my trusty stead at my final destination, Yamuna Bridge

Pretty sweet looking bike, huh? I will get some better close ups of it soon.

The Yamuna is the second holiest river in India after the Ganges. River Yamuna is revered by millions of Hindus as the blue-coloured (nila-varna) Goddess Yamuna. According to legends, she is the daughter of the Sun God and the twin-sister of Yama, the Hindu God of death. The Goddess is believed to have come down from the heavens to sanctify the world. Once at the river, it was impossible to fight the call of the clean, cool glacier fed waters of the holy Yamuna. So I joined the 15 or so water buffalo that where cooling off in the mid-day heat and jumped in. The water while cool at first was absolutely perfect temperature once you got used to it. The temperature down in the valley is about 15-20 degrees warmer than up in Mussoorie due to the 4000' of elevation difference.

A local kid that is obviously comfortable around 1500 pound animals. After I took this shot he jumped up on the buffalos back and dove off.

This is the same way I will be driving next weekend when I ride out to the source of this holy river in Yamnotri, many miles upstream. Next weekend is fall break so I am going to do a little ride, visit some temples and hike up into the heart of this amazing mountain range.

Stay tuned.