This is a boring post (the first of two more to come soon). It is about three guys (Niladri, Chiranjib and yours truly) going to one of the D-day beaches in Normandy and coming back alive. It is about them trekking 17 km in 3.5 hours (which is, of course, doable, since they did it). It is about thanking Albert Einstein for his General Theory of Relativity, without which these guys wouldn't have GPS tracker in their phones. It is about telling everyone that Normandy is a far better place to be in during the Christmas holidays than Paris. It is also about coming face to face with the best experience in life and realizing the significance of learning about yourself.
I will cut straight to the chase. We spent a relaxed evening in Bayeux on 28th of December, had a nice dinner, slept, woke up at around 10 on the next day and had a croissant and a pain chocolat for breakfast from a patisserie (Yes, this is something you should do once in your life. Come to France and have these things for breakfast, served hot) . We then took a bus to the Omaha beach, had a satisfying lunch, strolled along the beach for a few minutes and then visited the American cemetery (for the WW2 martyrs, ala Saving Private Ryan opening scene). We had to take a return bus to Bayeux at 16:50 hours. We had time on our hands and hence decided to be at the beach for some more time. It is then that the first surprise welcomed us. Me and Niladri were busy taking pictures of the landscape when we suddenly noticed something a little farther on the beach. At first we couldn't believe our eyes. Could it be really.. surely not..oh wait it's moving..Damn it's a seal!) Before we could reach our hero, it had managed to slip back into the water, pushing itself through its belly. Chiranjib, who decided to see all this from the cliff, gave us a call. He wanted to communicate that there was a group of five of them. From the beach, me and Niladri could see only two.
We then decided to leave the beach and headed for the bus stop. (We did manage to see the entire group of seals from the cliff though.) We arrived at 16:35 hours and waited for the bus. Earlier when we took the bus to Omaha beach from Bayeux, I had overheard the driver mentioning to the guy who got on the bus after me, that there would be no return bus on that day. I had mentioned this to my friends but neither them, nor me took this over-heard conversation seriously.
At 17:10, twenty minutes after the stipulated time, we finally accepted the situation. There would be no bus today to take us from the cemetery to Bayeux. We tried to hitch-hike but we never really stood a chance.
It was already getting dark and we had 17 km ahead of us. Our phone batteries were far from being at any satisfactory level because of the constant use of the camera throughout the day. So whatever be the scenery around us, we had to optimize our battery usage (given GPS drains batteries more).
We set out walking. I felt something peculiar during that time. It was as if the setting light and the rising hope were at a phase difference of pi. The darker one became, the brighter shone the other. We walked on the highway for around twenty minutes after which Google maps suggested a deviation. The new road seemed to go parallel to the highway for sometime but the bend was not properly visible. Since there was still some light, there also was some doubt. But we took the road nonetheless. Walking for around another ten minutes, I was convinced at the time that it had been a bad idea. The road was muddy, too muddy to walk comfortably. Without any light, this road would simply lead to a greater disaster. But we kept walking, three of us, keeping each other's spirits high. Our shoes had stopped talking to us by that point. But we had no other option. I asked Niladri twice whether we were on the right road, and he simply said, "Yes."
We were surrounded by grasslands on all sides, extending to the horizon. (There are no photos, sorry. We were saving batteries, remember?) We had two visitors along the way, a man and his dog. He must have wondered what we were up to.
Chiranjib in his usual demeanor, said that he loved the new road and that he didn't want to take the highway anymore. I, on the other hand, was simply being myself - Freaking out on a literally unknown and difficult path. We were simply not able to walk on the road. We were literally walking on the grass on the sides. There were branches sticking out every few steps. You had to carefully maneuver your head and feet all the time. On top of that, the grass we walked on was on a slope and we surely could not afford to slip (not that we would have fallen a great distance downwards, but there were chances of injuries).
I did know for sure that this road was unusable in pitch darkness and I wanted to get the hell out of this stretch as fast as possible and get on a more solid road. Niladri was mostly focused on the direction, and thus being our true 'Nilu da'. Just as the final rays of the Sun bid adieu to us, so did this non user-friendly stretch of mud. We were now at a crossroad. The muddy terrain extended straight but a highway bisected right through its muddy heart. I was not going to let go of this opportunity to walk with some sanity. Chiranjib, in his style, mentioned we could still walk straight. But Niladri, thankfully, saw the sense in taking the highway. There was a left turn being suggested by Google, if we would walk on the highway for a few minutes. We could only hope that that left turn would be a better option than the one we had just left behind.
I will cut straight to the chase. We spent a relaxed evening in Bayeux on 28th of December, had a nice dinner, slept, woke up at around 10 on the next day and had a croissant and a pain chocolat for breakfast from a patisserie (Yes, this is something you should do once in your life. Come to France and have these things for breakfast, served hot) . We then took a bus to the Omaha beach, had a satisfying lunch, strolled along the beach for a few minutes and then visited the American cemetery (for the WW2 martyrs, ala Saving Private Ryan opening scene). We had to take a return bus to Bayeux at 16:50 hours. We had time on our hands and hence decided to be at the beach for some more time. It is then that the first surprise welcomed us. Me and Niladri were busy taking pictures of the landscape when we suddenly noticed something a little farther on the beach. At first we couldn't believe our eyes. Could it be really.. surely not..oh wait it's moving..Damn it's a seal!) Before we could reach our hero, it had managed to slip back into the water, pushing itself through its belly. Chiranjib, who decided to see all this from the cliff, gave us a call. He wanted to communicate that there was a group of five of them. From the beach, me and Niladri could see only two.
We then decided to leave the beach and headed for the bus stop. (We did manage to see the entire group of seals from the cliff though.) We arrived at 16:35 hours and waited for the bus. Earlier when we took the bus to Omaha beach from Bayeux, I had overheard the driver mentioning to the guy who got on the bus after me, that there would be no return bus on that day. I had mentioned this to my friends but neither them, nor me took this over-heard conversation seriously.
At 17:10, twenty minutes after the stipulated time, we finally accepted the situation. There would be no bus today to take us from the cemetery to Bayeux. We tried to hitch-hike but we never really stood a chance.
It was already getting dark and we had 17 km ahead of us. Our phone batteries were far from being at any satisfactory level because of the constant use of the camera throughout the day. So whatever be the scenery around us, we had to optimize our battery usage (given GPS drains batteries more).
We set out walking. I felt something peculiar during that time. It was as if the setting light and the rising hope were at a phase difference of pi. The darker one became, the brighter shone the other. We walked on the highway for around twenty minutes after which Google maps suggested a deviation. The new road seemed to go parallel to the highway for sometime but the bend was not properly visible. Since there was still some light, there also was some doubt. But we took the road nonetheless. Walking for around another ten minutes, I was convinced at the time that it had been a bad idea. The road was muddy, too muddy to walk comfortably. Without any light, this road would simply lead to a greater disaster. But we kept walking, three of us, keeping each other's spirits high. Our shoes had stopped talking to us by that point. But we had no other option. I asked Niladri twice whether we were on the right road, and he simply said, "Yes."
We were surrounded by grasslands on all sides, extending to the horizon. (There are no photos, sorry. We were saving batteries, remember?) We had two visitors along the way, a man and his dog. He must have wondered what we were up to.
Chiranjib in his usual demeanor, said that he loved the new road and that he didn't want to take the highway anymore. I, on the other hand, was simply being myself - Freaking out on a literally unknown and difficult path. We were simply not able to walk on the road. We were literally walking on the grass on the sides. There were branches sticking out every few steps. You had to carefully maneuver your head and feet all the time. On top of that, the grass we walked on was on a slope and we surely could not afford to slip (not that we would have fallen a great distance downwards, but there were chances of injuries).
I did know for sure that this road was unusable in pitch darkness and I wanted to get the hell out of this stretch as fast as possible and get on a more solid road. Niladri was mostly focused on the direction, and thus being our true 'Nilu da'. Just as the final rays of the Sun bid adieu to us, so did this non user-friendly stretch of mud. We were now at a crossroad. The muddy terrain extended straight but a highway bisected right through its muddy heart. I was not going to let go of this opportunity to walk with some sanity. Chiranjib, in his style, mentioned we could still walk straight. But Niladri, thankfully, saw the sense in taking the highway. There was a left turn being suggested by Google, if we would walk on the highway for a few minutes. We could only hope that that left turn would be a better option than the one we had just left behind.
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