With the MTB in India: Video "Discover India" - Train & Bike Adventure in Darjeeling
BIKE
· 10.12.2023
When photography legend Dan Milner makes his next project, a bike adventure in India, appealing to you, you don't think twice about coming along. Professional biker Steffi Marth was immediately keen to accompany Dan and Indian mountain biker Vinay Menon on this unique journey. In an interview, the three protagonists describe how they experienced the trip.
BIKE: How did you come up with the idea of travelling through India by bike?
Dan Milner: I have a soft spot for travelling by train. Maybe it's the combination of the slow pace and the proximity to the earth's surface as you watch life pass by the window, or maybe it's the accessibility that trains mean to so many people, especially in countries like India. So when I first heard about a 140-year-old train still travelling through the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, I wondered: "Hey, can we use the train as a shuttle with the bikes?"
"Steffi, do you want to go on a trip to India with Dan Milner?" What was your first reaction to this enquiry?
Steffi Marth: To be honest, I briefly considered whether India wasn't too blatant for me. But when I heard that Dan Milner was taking part, I said yes straight away. I didn't know Dan personally before, but I know his stories and he is simply an icon when it comes to adventurous mountain bike stories and he was definitely someone I always wanted to do something with.
>> You can find out more about the film and the journey of the four of them in Dan Milner's travelogue. MTB adventure in India: On the route of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
You are from Pune, India, which is quite far away from the Darjeeling region. Have you ever travelled there or in the area?
Vinay Menon: Darjeeling in West Bengal is a long way from my hometown of Pune in Maharashtra. I have never ridden there, although I have a few local friends from Darjeeling who always tell great stories about the trails there. The misty forest trails are completely surreal. With my good mate Michael McLean from Mountain Bike Kerala as my guide on this trip, great times were guaranteed!
You don't conquer big mountains, they allow you to play on them. So when the opportunity arises to visit and ride the mountain labyrinth of the lower Himalayas in Darjeeling, it is the mountains that allow me to enjoy the trails there.
What was it like to look over Dan's shoulder?
Thomas Hessmann: Dan is one of the most uncomplicated people I've ever had the pleasure of working with. He knows exactly what he wants, is absolutely professional, and yet always has that madness in his eyes that you somehow expect from a mountain biker of his class. The work itself never felt like work because he is absolutely passionate about it. He was never interested in staging, but in biking.
When you think back to the trip - which image or experience do you think of first?
Steffi: Of course, the first thing I have to think about is the highlight we experienced on the last day: Biking in the sun in front of the snow-covered Himalayan mountains at around 3,500 metres. The air was so thin, the landscape absolutely unreal and you could simply enjoy the experience to the full. The sunrise that day was also gigantic. It was bitterly cold and I struggled with the hygiene conditions the whole trip, but it was all worth it for those moments. India is simply amazing, it's impossible to describe how exotic this country is.
You have already experienced many different adventures all over the world. What was different or special about this trip?
Dan: Putting the train at the centre of this adventure gave us the opportunity to see and learn about another side of India that is so rarely documented on cycle tours: the gritty, everyday working lives of the people who live in the place you are visiting and, in this case, keep a railway running. However, the idea came with a number of challenges, particularly in dealing with the train conductors, who had never been confronted with the idea of taking a bike on their train before.
You have travelled all over the world and made friends because of mountain biking. How does it feel to receive international guests in your home country?
Vinay: Having been into the sport for over 25 years, I can say that mountain biking is my life. India and our beautiful mountains are my home, my playground. The awe and excitement I see in the eyes of the sport's elite when they visit makes me realise how lucky I am to call India my home. Seeing top riders and photographers enjoying the Indian trails puts a smile on my face! I grew up watching bike videos and reading magazine articles and always imagined that the incredible mountains of India would be showcased to the mountain bike family around the world. Now the time has come! It inspires more Indian bikers to ride the trails in their backyard. When you visit India, you go home a changed person!
You took a lot of great photos. What is the picture of the trip that you might not even have on a hard drive, but is stored in your memory forever?
Dan: It's probably the mental image of the local porters, Sherpas and guides enjoying themselves over a bottle of booze we've given them, dancing around the fire in the cold teahouse high up on Singalila Ridge National Park. Sometimes you have to leave your camera in your pocket and save these images for yourself - the moments that remind you that no matter where you are, no matter how remote or different a place is, everyone around you is human and we have that in common.
What was the biggest challenge from a professional point of view as a filmmaker and what personally?
Thomas: As a one-man film department, you have to do everything on your own, but you also don't want to slow down the flow or get in the way of the photographer. So: run down the pretty rough trail in front of the bikers, find a spot that's outside Dan's radius, find a picture, check the sound, hope the focus is right and then capture the action properly. Pack everything up, run after it, and do it all over again. And all at an altitude of 3,600 metres after 4 hours of sleep at -3 degrees in a hut without electricity or running water.
How was the mountain biking and who would you recommend such a trip to?
Steffi: As is so often the case in such faraway countries, you are naturally on the lookout for cool trails and often feel as if no mountain biker has ever been on the trails before. That's exactly what this adventure is all about. Logically, there are no constructed MTB trails, but everything is very natural and very diverse. We rode through dense bamboo forests, under prayer flags, across wide meadows and through mystical forests with really tall trees. On the very last day, we rode a descent with more than 2,000 metres of descent, which was a real adventure and took what felt like five hours.
When Steffi, Dan and Thomas talk about the trip, it sounds like a real adventure. Is that also the case for you and was it something special or was it just a normal cycle tour for you?
Vinay: Often the hardest journeys lead us to epic peaks. This trip is definitely something special for me! I am extremely grateful to the team for giving me the opportunity to ride with great new friends like Steffi, Thomas, my old mate Mike and the photo master Dan. Thank you so much!
