Hi Folks,
This is my first post on xbhp and I am excited. The trip started out of the need to relive a new destination biking and get away from the mundane sad work life. so after resigning from my job in a multinational just after a week I left from Bangalore on 24th march 2015 for this journey. idea was very simple, I have time and best way to do it was not to rush.
So it all started on the early morning of 24th, started from Bangalore at 5 am , though got up at 4 am and finished what needed to be done before the start. started from old airport road and reached Goreguntepalya via CNR Rao underpass. Took a left by mistake and headed 10 km further and took a u turn from over-bridge via service road.
Made a mistake and it took a 10 km toll on me. Always advisable to use g maps whenever in doubt.
Came back to Goreguntepalya signal and took a left again. After crossing initial mess there wasn't any stops in between and I reached CCD with meter reading 84 km wherein it should have been a bit less due to signal mess up.
Decided to take some rest at ccd as I left soon enough in morning to avoid breakfast. Had a small conversation to one of the employees there, polite and friendly this guy knew about whats good and whats bad but didn't know a thing about what goes on on this highway during the day or which highway leads to where. By the way his name is Pranam.
Waited in ccd for half hour and then headed back on the highway 48.
Starting from Bangalore the road was three lane but after a few km in tens the road became 2 lane again. but still manageable on National Highway 48.
The whole trip was divided in many parts and time frame. So this point of time I was heading for Chitradurga. Chitradurga is scenic. The road though shrinks but the windmils and the mountains are a bliss in a cold windy air. As I was on my way to Chitradurga there were many farmers who had put up a small kiosk on either side of road over considerable distances and it featured from coconut to lime juice to condiments. This gave an indication of farmers colony nearby and farmlands on either sides of the road.
Chitradurga is a small town and a small bridge is what all it takes to surpass this small town. The roads after this town shrunk even more and were more bumpy and full of pits (this is nothing like the Bangalore - Kodaikanal highway).
The following 20 kilometers were a pain though, as the road shrunk more to single lane the traffic on this stretch was difficult for maintaining 60 to 70 km per hour speed.
After a small halt in Chitradurga I headed for Davangere with an aching back for 2 reasons. 1. The bumpy ride, 2. Heavy truckload type tourister bag on my shoulders. By this time I had realized that this journey can become bump if i dont manage these issues. Had a target to reach Davengere before 12 pm to maintain the route action plan. After crossing Davengere 10 km ahead there was interceptor and little further two more cops stopped me and the one in white asked me for licence. Soon as i handed him the licence the other one in khaki started hovering around the bike and the" RJ" number on the bike he just simply couldn't digest. Next moment to clear my doubts he asked for the road tax documents to which i explained to him about the new rules. that moment the white shirt guy flew towards the interceptor and in meantime the other cop kept pestering for road tax, court case, 3 days, lawyer and what not to which i agreed to do the needful if road tax is required.
finally the cops agreed to look only the essential docs primarily Licence, RC, Emission, Insurance.
All this drama consumed 20 minutes and i was back on the road.
First thing in my mind was to fill up in goa as petrol is cheaper there as compared to Karnataka. but i couldn't manage the fuel economy and ended up with less than half tank. didn't want breakdowns so had to fill first top up at 340 kms and filled some air too.stopped at Kamat Hotel little further from the bunk which was on my side of the road.
also midway between Davengere and Kamat Hotel I stopped by Harihar river just to have a glimpse.
The bike was operating at full throttle and i reached Shigaon at 2:20 pm. That day i realized how awesome CCD's are. Riding from hours and horrible sun with hunger gave me a different outlook. Stopped there for an hour and a half. Off season rains and patchy roads slowed me once more while heading towards Hubli-Dharwar.
While i was heading towards Belgaum , saw a sign board that showed 165 km to Panaji, thought i still have time for that as 165 km could be easily covered in 5 hrs as I was not travelling the whole night.
Now here is the funny part,there are two different ways to go to Goa. The board which showed 165 is a different route. God knows from where I took a different route
and ended up in the difficult route which was 250 km.
Now all this problem had a valid reason. My idea of carrying only basic phones so that less time is consumed in phone and more on the road with better standby times from two basic phones was more promising then carrying a multimedia 5 inch touchscreen. I was though fully aware of the GPS option i had to keep open but left this just to avoid more mobile time.(I don't regret not having multimedia cell though)
Unfortunately the 250 km distance road was real bad. Road wasn't tarred completely and there were unimaginably large patches like the government forgot to put a road on actual terms. Now finding such a road was not out of the question for two reasons. 1. There is another shorter route available for interstate transport. 2. State Governments are not willing to spend a ton on money on state borders on either side.
Actually in a way it turned out to be a boon for me as I was looking for some real adventure the whole day and this ghat section just proved it worthy. The average speed gradually slowed as I was pacing at 80 to 90 km per hour but due to absent road lights, road markings, roads, patches, jungle dark pins didn't allow room for speed rage.
After crossing Sanda there was good road for a while but just before entering Panaji the road was again bad but this time it was under construction. Crossing the ghat in pitch dark with flash on the face from HMV's was equally blinding but I knew i can manage sleep as i had good rest in ccd during the day.
reached panajim at 10 pm and I decided to take the hotel in panjim to save some money on hotels. basic idea was not to stay in good hotels just to add some spice to the road.
Enjoyed Goa the night on the beaches and the next morning surfing around town. My sleeping time on the first day was mere 3 hrs. 3 am to 6 am
It's 7 am in morning and distance meter reads at 664 km from Bangalore till now. Last night had some Goan food,shared some spills. Took bike to Baga beach from the hotel. after finishing a few pew determined visits i was again back to belgaum side which I made "via"/by getting Goa in between.
descent of Goa towards Kolhapur was done by 2 40 pm on the 2nd day and once again the heat of the day combined with sleeplessness from last night made it impossible to ride inbetweeners was the highway 47 again patchy roads. by the time i was in Kolhapur i was exhausted and decided again to stop at subway and a nice coffee. dont know the name of the road but it was just beside a med college. so 2nd day basically was dedicated towards invading pune before night and that happened too. to my surprise the 60 to 70 km stretch from pune towards Kolhapur is excellent. its like an open playground with many tunnels and vehicles can perform at their top speed.
so on 3rd day morning 8 am i left from Pune thinking morning traffic will be avoided if i am on highway by 9. as soon as I stepped out of the hotel it was the same madness i say the last night while entering Pune. The target for 3rd day was to enter Gujrat before night.
pune mumbai highway was a fun time as the roads are excellent and broadened over the years visible on the roads. As entering the expressway was not allowed for 2 wheelers i took the parellel lane which is the old mumbai-pune highway. but at the same time there were taari and todi shops on highway to quench thirst and get some instant energy. now these are the spoiled perks of riding in hot weather as it was maddening hot near manore(on the way to Mumbai). Stopped at taj inn(by the way it'sn again a hotel on the highway) on my way of the road just to beat the heat of the noon. The meter at this point was 1384 kms in total.the stops between Mumbai and pune were Lonavala and Khandala.
To my surprise mumbai was horrifc. The city is stretched to its limit and one has to certainly cross the city to reach the other end of the highway towards gujrat. confusing signboards, asking people, mad heat, tons of bridges and tropical/sub terr climate actually takes time to get accustomed to it. Along with that the tiredness and the heavy backpack took a toll on my neck and i had to take muscle relaxants from a med shop. this time i decided to add this med to my first aid kit and by evening i had entered gujrat. the evening i had crossed many towns after entering in Gujrat and after Valsad, just so it happened I didn't reallize it was too late to head for the next city so i decided to take a halt in a hotel on the highway. also taking a rented place on highways saves a lot of money and one gets to meet wierd people a lot which in a way adds to a good experience depending on how one has defined and designed the tour.
So on the 4th day i started early morning at 6 am and rode constant 1 hour 45 minutes. The plan for the fourth day was to ride as much as possible and enter deep into the belly of Rajasthan but that couldn't happen fue . gujrat is hot yet beautiful, peaceful and serene. by evening I was in Vadodara after crossing Navsari, Ankleshwar, Bharuch, Kurjan, and finally Vadodara. Vadodara on the borders on Gujrat is 175 km away from Mehsana, the first major town in rajasthan. I remember halting at many juice shops as the heat was just maddening. daylight was visible quite good and i decided to halt in mehsana for a while. after stopping for an hour at subway near Mehsana Water Park I headed further in rajasthan and took a night halt again on a highway hotel near Sirohi.
Next day's early morning, the 5th day I had left with an understanding that its not possible to reach destination during the day and the noon will again consume time as i am standing in hottest part of the country. I headed for Ranakpur instead of following the road map just to consume the wee hours. the ghat section and wildlife was an awesome delight and a good start to the 5th day. To make it more happening i decided to keep all my gadgets inside and instead of following a certain path i decided to do some offroading and the next moment I was in one or the other village talking to people, understanding their source of livelihood and so on(coz human beings talk.. lol). by noon i was in jodhpur just to meet an old friend after crossing pali. An incident in Pali - Jodhpur highway was a life changing moment. visited a temple on the highway where a noble soul had died there and the soul just rested in the same place. This bike belongs to a noble soul who died in the same place. Amazing thing is this the motorcycle had always come back on its own from the police station to the same place.
After taking ample rest in the afternoon of the fifth day and a liter of buttermilk in Jodhpur, got checked the oil which was totally empty. though I felt coarseness in the engine after crossing Gujrat I was relying on the Total octane additive too and was giving the fuel tank a good supply of additives just for the highway tuning, I headed for the last and the final city Bikaner (my hometown). Reached Bikaner in the night by 10:30 pm and that's the brief of my little trip covering 2650 km on my dusty 2006 pulsar 150 DTSI. Though this trip extends as I took a few days rest and I had furthermore covered Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh too over the coming days
This is my first post on xbhp and I am excited. The trip started out of the need to relive a new destination biking and get away from the mundane sad work life. so after resigning from my job in a multinational just after a week I left from Bangalore on 24th march 2015 for this journey. idea was very simple, I have time and best way to do it was not to rush.
So it all started on the early morning of 24th, started from Bangalore at 5 am , though got up at 4 am and finished what needed to be done before the start. started from old airport road and reached Goreguntepalya via CNR Rao underpass. Took a left by mistake and headed 10 km further and took a u turn from over-bridge via service road.
Made a mistake and it took a 10 km toll on me. Always advisable to use g maps whenever in doubt.
Came back to Goreguntepalya signal and took a left again. After crossing initial mess there wasn't any stops in between and I reached CCD with meter reading 84 km wherein it should have been a bit less due to signal mess up.
Decided to take some rest at ccd as I left soon enough in morning to avoid breakfast. Had a small conversation to one of the employees there, polite and friendly this guy knew about whats good and whats bad but didn't know a thing about what goes on on this highway during the day or which highway leads to where. By the way his name is Pranam.
Waited in ccd for half hour and then headed back on the highway 48.
Starting from Bangalore the road was three lane but after a few km in tens the road became 2 lane again. but still manageable on National Highway 48.
The whole trip was divided in many parts and time frame. So this point of time I was heading for Chitradurga. Chitradurga is scenic. The road though shrinks but the windmils and the mountains are a bliss in a cold windy air. As I was on my way to Chitradurga there were many farmers who had put up a small kiosk on either side of road over considerable distances and it featured from coconut to lime juice to condiments. This gave an indication of farmers colony nearby and farmlands on either sides of the road.
Chitradurga is a small town and a small bridge is what all it takes to surpass this small town. The roads after this town shrunk even more and were more bumpy and full of pits (this is nothing like the Bangalore - Kodaikanal highway).
The following 20 kilometers were a pain though, as the road shrunk more to single lane the traffic on this stretch was difficult for maintaining 60 to 70 km per hour speed.
After a small halt in Chitradurga I headed for Davangere with an aching back for 2 reasons. 1. The bumpy ride, 2. Heavy truckload type tourister bag on my shoulders. By this time I had realized that this journey can become bump if i dont manage these issues. Had a target to reach Davengere before 12 pm to maintain the route action plan. After crossing Davengere 10 km ahead there was interceptor and little further two more cops stopped me and the one in white asked me for licence. Soon as i handed him the licence the other one in khaki started hovering around the bike and the" RJ" number on the bike he just simply couldn't digest. Next moment to clear my doubts he asked for the road tax documents to which i explained to him about the new rules. that moment the white shirt guy flew towards the interceptor and in meantime the other cop kept pestering for road tax, court case, 3 days, lawyer and what not to which i agreed to do the needful if road tax is required.
finally the cops agreed to look only the essential docs primarily Licence, RC, Emission, Insurance.
All this drama consumed 20 minutes and i was back on the road.
First thing in my mind was to fill up in goa as petrol is cheaper there as compared to Karnataka. but i couldn't manage the fuel economy and ended up with less than half tank. didn't want breakdowns so had to fill first top up at 340 kms and filled some air too.stopped at Kamat Hotel little further from the bunk which was on my side of the road.
also midway between Davengere and Kamat Hotel I stopped by Harihar river just to have a glimpse.
The bike was operating at full throttle and i reached Shigaon at 2:20 pm. That day i realized how awesome CCD's are. Riding from hours and horrible sun with hunger gave me a different outlook. Stopped there for an hour and a half. Off season rains and patchy roads slowed me once more while heading towards Hubli-Dharwar.
While i was heading towards Belgaum , saw a sign board that showed 165 km to Panaji, thought i still have time for that as 165 km could be easily covered in 5 hrs as I was not travelling the whole night.
Now here is the funny part,there are two different ways to go to Goa. The board which showed 165 is a different route. God knows from where I took a different route
and ended up in the difficult route which was 250 km.
Now all this problem had a valid reason. My idea of carrying only basic phones so that less time is consumed in phone and more on the road with better standby times from two basic phones was more promising then carrying a multimedia 5 inch touchscreen. I was though fully aware of the GPS option i had to keep open but left this just to avoid more mobile time.(I don't regret not having multimedia cell though)
Unfortunately the 250 km distance road was real bad. Road wasn't tarred completely and there were unimaginably large patches like the government forgot to put a road on actual terms. Now finding such a road was not out of the question for two reasons. 1. There is another shorter route available for interstate transport. 2. State Governments are not willing to spend a ton on money on state borders on either side.
Actually in a way it turned out to be a boon for me as I was looking for some real adventure the whole day and this ghat section just proved it worthy. The average speed gradually slowed as I was pacing at 80 to 90 km per hour but due to absent road lights, road markings, roads, patches, jungle dark pins didn't allow room for speed rage.
After crossing Sanda there was good road for a while but just before entering Panaji the road was again bad but this time it was under construction. Crossing the ghat in pitch dark with flash on the face from HMV's was equally blinding but I knew i can manage sleep as i had good rest in ccd during the day.
reached panajim at 10 pm and I decided to take the hotel in panjim to save some money on hotels. basic idea was not to stay in good hotels just to add some spice to the road.
Enjoyed Goa the night on the beaches and the next morning surfing around town. My sleeping time on the first day was mere 3 hrs. 3 am to 6 am
It's 7 am in morning and distance meter reads at 664 km from Bangalore till now. Last night had some Goan food,shared some spills. Took bike to Baga beach from the hotel. after finishing a few pew determined visits i was again back to belgaum side which I made "via"/by getting Goa in between.
descent of Goa towards Kolhapur was done by 2 40 pm on the 2nd day and once again the heat of the day combined with sleeplessness from last night made it impossible to ride inbetweeners was the highway 47 again patchy roads. by the time i was in Kolhapur i was exhausted and decided again to stop at subway and a nice coffee. dont know the name of the road but it was just beside a med college. so 2nd day basically was dedicated towards invading pune before night and that happened too. to my surprise the 60 to 70 km stretch from pune towards Kolhapur is excellent. its like an open playground with many tunnels and vehicles can perform at their top speed.
so on 3rd day morning 8 am i left from Pune thinking morning traffic will be avoided if i am on highway by 9. as soon as I stepped out of the hotel it was the same madness i say the last night while entering Pune. The target for 3rd day was to enter Gujrat before night.
pune mumbai highway was a fun time as the roads are excellent and broadened over the years visible on the roads. As entering the expressway was not allowed for 2 wheelers i took the parellel lane which is the old mumbai-pune highway. but at the same time there were taari and todi shops on highway to quench thirst and get some instant energy. now these are the spoiled perks of riding in hot weather as it was maddening hot near manore(on the way to Mumbai). Stopped at taj inn(by the way it'sn again a hotel on the highway) on my way of the road just to beat the heat of the noon. The meter at this point was 1384 kms in total.the stops between Mumbai and pune were Lonavala and Khandala.
To my surprise mumbai was horrifc. The city is stretched to its limit and one has to certainly cross the city to reach the other end of the highway towards gujrat. confusing signboards, asking people, mad heat, tons of bridges and tropical/sub terr climate actually takes time to get accustomed to it. Along with that the tiredness and the heavy backpack took a toll on my neck and i had to take muscle relaxants from a med shop. this time i decided to add this med to my first aid kit and by evening i had entered gujrat. the evening i had crossed many towns after entering in Gujrat and after Valsad, just so it happened I didn't reallize it was too late to head for the next city so i decided to take a halt in a hotel on the highway. also taking a rented place on highways saves a lot of money and one gets to meet wierd people a lot which in a way adds to a good experience depending on how one has defined and designed the tour.
So on the 4th day i started early morning at 6 am and rode constant 1 hour 45 minutes. The plan for the fourth day was to ride as much as possible and enter deep into the belly of Rajasthan but that couldn't happen fue . gujrat is hot yet beautiful, peaceful and serene. by evening I was in Vadodara after crossing Navsari, Ankleshwar, Bharuch, Kurjan, and finally Vadodara. Vadodara on the borders on Gujrat is 175 km away from Mehsana, the first major town in rajasthan. I remember halting at many juice shops as the heat was just maddening. daylight was visible quite good and i decided to halt in mehsana for a while. after stopping for an hour at subway near Mehsana Water Park I headed further in rajasthan and took a night halt again on a highway hotel near Sirohi.
Next day's early morning, the 5th day I had left with an understanding that its not possible to reach destination during the day and the noon will again consume time as i am standing in hottest part of the country. I headed for Ranakpur instead of following the road map just to consume the wee hours. the ghat section and wildlife was an awesome delight and a good start to the 5th day. To make it more happening i decided to keep all my gadgets inside and instead of following a certain path i decided to do some offroading and the next moment I was in one or the other village talking to people, understanding their source of livelihood and so on(coz human beings talk.. lol). by noon i was in jodhpur just to meet an old friend after crossing pali. An incident in Pali - Jodhpur highway was a life changing moment. visited a temple on the highway where a noble soul had died there and the soul just rested in the same place. This bike belongs to a noble soul who died in the same place. Amazing thing is this the motorcycle had always come back on its own from the police station to the same place.
After taking ample rest in the afternoon of the fifth day and a liter of buttermilk in Jodhpur, got checked the oil which was totally empty. though I felt coarseness in the engine after crossing Gujrat I was relying on the Total octane additive too and was giving the fuel tank a good supply of additives just for the highway tuning, I headed for the last and the final city Bikaner (my hometown). Reached Bikaner in the night by 10:30 pm and that's the brief of my little trip covering 2650 km on my dusty 2006 pulsar 150 DTSI. Though this trip extends as I took a few days rest and I had furthermore covered Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh too over the coming days