[Photo Feature]: [ENDURANCE RIDE] : The Ride to Belum Caves

It was a lousy Saturday afternoon in the city of pearls. But there is this one guy active and excited. Full of life and preparing nothing less than a soldier preparing for war. Yes. You guessed it. A Ride on Sunday. Not just any other ride, but an endurance ride of 800 KMs. For passion, for the love of travelling and for pushing our limits. Not just me, but my steed was also prepared for the big ride.

The messages in the WhatsApp group was just never ending. We kept talking about what to carry and exchanging ideas and Jugaad. Going to the supermarkets for purchasing food and snacks. It was completely busy & no sleep all night despite knowing that I need enough rest for the ride. Bike all setup, chain cleaned & lubricated, removed the rear tyre hugger & the pillion foot rest.

I wasn’t alone here. No surprise, nobody could sleep. Everyone excited, Goosebumps and waiting for the clock to tick 3AM. Till then I was tossing and turning trying to sleep eyes closed, brain actively thinking of the ride, shivers running down the spine with the very thought of the ride. Thinking of all the stuff we need/might need. Lying on the bed, remember something, running around the house and picking and shoving it into the bag & back to bed.

Finally!! It’s 3AM!! The alarm rang!! Trrrrrrrrinngggg…….

I don’t usually jump out of the bed. But when I do, it’s followed by a ride!!!

We decided to meet up at the infamous “Pillar #145” at 5.00 AM in the morning.

I woke up at 3.00, and the meeting point being a good 24 KMs from my home, calculated my time to reach the place, time to suit up & eat. And finally got out of the bed at 3.30 and suited up for the day.

Had curd rice as late as possible so that I can stay “not hungry” for as long as possible.

Saddled up the bike, bid farewell to mom & dad, praying to god for a safe ride, I got on my steed, she was equally excited. Put on the iPod I took from a friend of mine, loaded it with fast beat and party songs and some old ARR Tamil Songs that I love for the highway, reminding me of my childhood when I used to listen to the old 90s Hindi songs when travelling on the highway. It was like a dream-come-true!!

Locked & loaded, I set on course. As a matter of habit, I took the route towards my office only to realise halfway that I’m on wrong course!! But I know the city routes well. So took a turn & back on track towards the “Pillar 145”.

The “Pillar 145” is the 145^th pillar in the country’s longest flyover. The “Airport Flyover”!!

Yes the PVNR Flyover!!

Finally reached there at 5.05 and found everyone there already and waiting for the last one of us.

We were 5 – two KTM Duke 200, one KTM RC 200, One Yamaha R15 & One Yamaha R3 for the ride.

Two Yamaha R3s (@pkhammu2005 & @mustang28 ) decided to join us till half of the way.

We were on the way in the dark of the early morning. Riding crazy fast to keep up with the schedule, in a line like ants but at high speeds catching everyone by surprise about the passion we have for placing a hot moving block of metal with inflammable material on top of it and keeping the whole setup between our legs, balancing on two wheels.
I was the “sweeper” going back and forth making sure no one was left behind, the R3 by @Sarvajit leading us. @s1d on his D200 who was followed by another D200 @arun7, a young dude of 20 years completing 800 KMs – give him a big hand please :applause::applause: ) & the R15.


We rode till our first designated stop, Jadcherla. As scheduled, we stopped for a quick break at 6.30. That is about 100 KMs from here. It was supposed to be a quick break of 15 minutes, turned to be a big break & by the time we started back on track, it became 7.15. One R3 (@pkhammu2005) bid us farewell and turned back.


and a little photoshoot....
@s1d trying out his new GoPro:

The rest of us continued and rode as fast as we can & per the plan, we should have our breakfast at Kurnool at 8.30 AM. That’s about 220 KMs. But we were so hungry that we stopped a good 20 KMs before Kurnool & had breakfast at Ghar Dhabha, filled our bikes too to the brim.
Nice clean place with clean washrooms, and decent food for breakfast. That went till 9.30 AM.


Then we vowed not to stop till we reached Belum Caves. It is still about a good 180 KMs and out of which, a good 130 KMs was Bangalore Highway, have to take a left at Gooty. And about 50 KMs from Gooty that’s got bad roads through villages. Not to mention the speed breakers that were there almost invisible and almost everywhere slowing us down. Along with pothole ridden roads with bad patchwork.

Sadly we broke our vows. But to err is human. We stopped under a tree at 11.45. We badly needed a break. I took out a pack of perks wafer chocolates and we were munching on it till 12.00. Had water & got ready to continue the journey. Riding slowly on the bad roads, our happiness knew no bounds. We were screaming with happiness when we saw the words “Belum Caves”. We were mad with happiness. Like a sailor stranded on an island for years seeing a ship approaching. Like you are going to marry the love of your life. Like you just got the dream bike gifted to you.


With 400 KMs covered, we reached there at 2.30. There was no cloak room sadly. Luckily one of us had a long cable lock and we tied all our helmets onto it and tied it to one of the railing at the entrance. Some of us kept our jackets & bags also along with it. So, lesson learnt – always carry a long cable lock.
The guide told us that irrespective of the temperature outside, the temperature inside the caves are 33 ° Celsius (91.4 ° Fahrenheit). Also, the caves are 3 KMs long. So that translates to roughly 3 hours of time over there (per the tourism guy again).

We thought its cool enough and I went inside with my full gear except helmet strapped outside, my zipper on the jacket open to let the air in, carrying my Viaterra Raptor with my stuff inside, and my camera in one hand.

Beware of the steps, one might trip & fall, tread slowly for I did lose grips on my riding boots and almost fell. Once down, it’s a whole new world.


Except the visitors, it’s an amazing place for pictures and to spend some time alone. Peaceful. But it was humid and we were sweating so hard, and as luck would have it, no, no AC there, not even a fan, but air pressure!! Yep you read that right. There are many holes bored from the upper ground to the cave underground. They are for the cables for the lighting to pass from above to the caves, the air is rushing from top to the underground. The air was so forceful, that we stopped under the dry wind for a long time to dry ourselves off of our sweat.

here's the circle immediately after you descend:

Our Faces after descending the steps:


reminds me of this below :p




Please do not use flash, the pictures won’t be so good, the ambient lighting gives the caves some life, but it also gives out heat. Thanks to the bulb they use, transmit a LOT of heat!!


Recommended clothing inside – something light & cotton or polyester.

The caves just keep on going, at every turn, every pass, you will say, “just a little ahead and we’ll turn back” and that keeps going on and on and on. We spent a good 1 hour trying to explore the caves saying the same, while our target at the caves was only 30 minutes!!


I came out, tired as a goat chased by cheetah, done with moving always. Got out, took off my jacket, laid my bag on the ground, and removed boots. We started to eat a pack of perk chocolates and drink water. We wanted to eat something so that it keeps us fuelled till we reach lunch.
And hello there, you are surrounded like you are some alien!! People range from asking a LOT of questions. Some questions range from “which village are you from” “what do you do” till “What do your parents do”.

A group of folks gather simply seeing you and what you are doing, just ignore them. And they will look at you like that only if you are dressed like I went. In full biking gear. No, the villagers are NOT dumb! They know English and speak it well. They use iPads also. Just that they wanted to know where we are from.
Be careful of your bike parking and all. @s1d lost his phone mount on his bike. Someone there broke it.

Now, the time to go back. We were happy again that we came out of there!! So the time we started back, it was about 3.40. The rider and the steed hungry, we started back. Finally a fuel station at a nice crossroad, we filled our faithful steeds up to the brim. And continued to ride to fill ourselves now. We kept riding on and on. @Sarvajit spotted a couple of dhabhas along the village roads!! I couldn’t spot even a single one!!! @Sarvajit went ahead of us all and stopped at a Rajasthani Dhabha. We all reached at about 4.15. There were cots lying all over, it was so relaxing that we ordered EVERYTHING!! Yeah! EVERYTHING!! Not a big menu, but we had dal fry, bendi curry and a LOT of rotis!!

The lassi was just AWESOME!! Sweet and chilling!! Bill came to about 800 Rupees.

Starting back, it was 5.30 and we wanted to hit the highway before dark and we hit the Bangalore highway at about 6.30.

The very sight of the highway made me so happy like I achieved independence or freedom from slavery!! I just went out of control, I was fallowing @s1d and the youngest rider of the group, the moment we took a turn and joined the highway, I released the throttle for my steed, let her loose, let her munch up all the miles!! I let them all behind!! It was getting pretty dark, I must have covered about 70 KMs in that constant high speed of adrenaline and fast beat music that I specifically loaded up for highways. It felt like heaven. My steed just want to go faster and faster. Topped out at 135. Riding crazy constantly, my butts started to scream. I just HAD to stop!! Now I envy the R3 of @Sarvajit . Plush seating comfortable, had I had the R3, I would not have stopped & I would have reached Hyderabad in 3 hours!! Yep, the R3 is THAT good in highways.
A personal opinion/note, the MRFs aren’t doing justice to the R3 at speeds over 120. Again, just a personal opinion but @Sarvajit is perfectly happy with that. So, I guess it depends on the rider and their comfort zone.

Others caught up with me in 10 minutes, and we all started riding together. @s1d and the young guy on dukes kept on going, while I began to feel the tiredness. I was keeping up with @Sarvajit & @doonankit.

Please note that if you feel sleepy or tired, STOP for 10 minutes near a dhabha or a nice place. Wash your face, have a cup of tea, relax and then continue riding!! I slept off thrice and almost crashed twice!! Not good at all. It was about 10.30 and we were about 180 KMs from Hyderabad.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I raced forward, put the indicators on to indicate @Sarvajit & @doonankit to stop and we stopped at a dhabha, washed my face. Splashed water on my face. Ordered a cup of chai. It was masala chai that came in. It felt really good and refreshing, but the sleep waning away slowly. It took quite some time to let go of me.
@Sarvajit and @doonankit patiently waited. They kept covering me for good. I owe them big time.

We maintained good speeds about 90+. Mostly @Sarvajit on rear, me in the middle and @doonankit on R15 leading us. We stopped for about two times after that, a small smoke break of 10 minutes, and ride on.

Sleep didn’t touch me till I was about 20KMs from Hyderabad. I managed myself for the last 20 KMs where we had a short break again & lunged forward. The outer-ring road, the very sight that gave me happiness that I reached the city. Still a little sleepy. But the moment I reached Mehdipatanam, the traffic and the busy streets, the sleep just vanished. I felt at home. Happy and warm. Lovely feeling. And from there, we parted our ways.
@s1d and the young rider reached home at 11.10,
@Sarvajit , @doonankit and I reached home at about 12.30.

the way @s1d & @arun7 were riding, looks like they can keep going on and on forever, we might need a new concept of "mid-ride refuelling"

Here are our trip meters:
- 780kms for me
- 800 for the young rider
- 750 for Sid and @doonankit

Fuel consumption for the KTMs were about 23 Litres. About 27 for the R3 and about 19 for the R15.

It was a good ride. I learnt the value of taking short breaks on highways. I almost failed the endurance. But breaks are the little ones that help you in keeping up your endurance. Lovely ride that. And body tired, it’s a good sign. A satisfying sign of a ride well done. Heart full, no gaps left, loving my faithful steed now even more!! Patted it for the amazing job it did.

Now, I’m planning on some gifts for my steed. New parts and make her more attractive.

Love you baby..

Attached Images