To Durgapur via Ketrokona - Bangladesh + India x 2 - CycleBlaze

November 26, 2010

To Durgapur via Ketrokona

a couple of baris

The man behind the front counter at the place I ate last night, me surrounded and questioned by a bunch of locals, is very pleased to see me again this morning when I pop in for breakfast. There's the usual hot paratas, a spicy omelette, plus some chicken curry thrown in for good measure, washed down with a big bottle of mango juice. This should get me to Netrokona at least, which I think is about 20km away, due west.

Heart 0 Comment 0

Soon after dining and riding across the rail lines, the road seems wonderful with trees overhanging it and very little traffic. The rail lines follow, running parallel.

Mohonganj
Heart 0 Comment 0

It's gone 9;00 already when I stop by the road to take a snap. Whenever I do people soon gather. Where do they come from? I wish I knew. It's like magic.

Heart 0 Comment 0

This time women from a nearby bari (a small commune of huts) look out at me and their bari looks interesting, with simple homes and a wood fire in the yard, which turns out to be heating a large rectangular pan full of wheat. 

I venture across, park my bike and take various shots and show them some laminated 6x8 family photos I have stashed in my barbag. Men haven't been interested, but the women usually are.

Heart 0 Comment 0
Heart 0 Comment 0

A bare-chested man invites me to another bari just across the road and I get offered a chair and the man who's lead me can speak some English and asks if I want coconut juice and when I say okay he quickly disappears and comes back with a fresh green shell that he's chopped its top off. He then pours the clear liquid into a glass. It tastes as good as you can imagine - quite cool. 

Heart 0 Comment 0

I set off, but one of the men in the crowd follows me out and invites me to his bari and the same thing happens with the coconut and the photos and the women, but this time the main man of the place can speak very good English.

Heart 0 Comment 0
Heart 0 Comment 0

He knows the area well, telling me that there's a guesthouse in Netrokona and also one in Durgapur, plus a YMCA there. It's a long way he adds - maybe 50 km. I'm happy as it's 11 o'clock now. 

About 5km covered so far, in two hours.

Heart 0 Comment 0
Heart 0 Comment 0
Heart 0 Comment 0

The route goes by fields of wheat being cropped and through small villages where there are shops selling snacks and drinks and bits and bobs people here might need. Nothing too fancy. As I ride by, people shout greetings. Some just look - often at my legs, or is it my shoes. Shorts are unusual here.

Heart 0 Comment 0

I get to one place by a river and the steel framed bridge has collapsed and the highway body has organized a ferry to shuttle traffic and people across, but it's static and full of vehicles and locals. There are alternatives and I take one - a wooden canoe-like craft that I wheel my bike on and stand with it as two men row across the calm water. It's 10 taka well spent.

Heart 0 Comment 0

My ride continues west and apart from fields of wheat and a few rice paddies the size of a living room I also see a series of brick works with tall chimneys where labourers toil away. Many of the bricks get smashed by workers using hammers to make small pieces that then get used a aggregate in road projects, as there's little rock in this sandy country. 

Heart 0 Comment 0

The sandy soil often drifts onto the road and becomes dust that some vehicles throw up as they whiz along.

Netrokona is dusty and I ride through it without really stopping except to ask the way to Durgapur when I know that it's doable with it being just another 20 or 30 kilometres away.

Netrokona
Heart 0 Comment 0
Heart 0 Comment 0
Heart 0 Comment 0
Heart 0 Comment 0

I arrive at four-ish with long shadows across the land and soon spot a guesthouse which asks 500 taka for a room, which I don't think it's really worth, so opt venture towards the centre to see if there's an alternative. 

Ten minutes later a man tells me there is and walks with me through the town's dusty streets that are narrow and busy and after a few minutes he hands me over to a couple of youngsters on a bike who then lead me to the YMCA, which is hidden down a brick path that's just a 100 metres from the guesthouse that I looked at 30 minutes ago. 

The rate at the Y is 700. It's more, but the room is much nicer and some of that cost is for the AC, which isn't required now because it's cool, being the back end of November.

Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 1,016 km (631 miles)

Rate this entry's writing Heart 0
Comment on this entry Comment 0