Initialization..

We were planning for an outing trip. Massanjore was something we were planning from last few weeks.

Initial thinking was like to go, spend the night and come back next day.. Couple of guys showed interest and we fixed the plan for Tuesday (August 10, 2010).

At Massanjore, best place to stay is the Youth Hostel offering the best possible view of the dam. However its not a walk in, one needs to have booking..

I learnt from my past mistake as in those cases, I found my self solo, hence this time, I was ready to face the same situation and I was right.

Actual Ride plan..

At 4.30 AM, three times in row, me and my pal found our self altering the set plans because of no attendees .

My pal was also having some issue at his home, he also suggested to do something which will allow same day return and I thought why can't we do a return trip of Massanjore in same day ??

Start up.. NH34..

At 4.45, we start..



Keeping in mind that we have to push hard to make sure we return within day light. The P180 we have is really poor in terms of light .

NH34 at morning hours was empty, low light, sleepy head, we start our journey..



Belgharia Expressway

At Birati, we take the left to get into Belgharia expressway, which would lead us towards NH2..



The Early morning sky over "busy" airport with its morning departures..



The expressway allowed us to maintain high rpm's..





We took the Dakshineswar exit since Bikes are not allowed in 3rd Hoogly bridge..



Crossing Bally bridge...



the view of 3rd Hoogly bridge from bally bridge..



too bad that bike was not allowed in it

Access roads till the NH2 / NH6 junction point..

After bally bridge, one has to continue in a single lane access road till NH2 / NH6 junction point, after which one can take the actual GQ stretch !!!



We went under the GQ to get in to GQ..



Finally we were taking the GQ...



The NH2 / NH6 selection point

Left leads us towards NH6 and right is NH2..



NH2 till Gurap

Sun seems to warming up as we started our speed run in NH2..



We pressed on hard and maintained 8k+ rpm as we passed via singure and reached our first pit stop in no time..





Pit stop 1 (BP AzadHind)

No, puri, no south indian, only alu parata that too without any Rayata and last of all, no THUMBS UP .. We wished we would not have stopped here..



NH2 - Saktigarh - Bardwan - panagarh

After the Ywak type food, we again started and raced towards panagarh.. Weather was hot, sunny and humid.. Not something one can called idle for ridding .

However we kept on maintain highest possible speeds to cover as much ground possible to save time..





We flew by the Saktigarh / Bardwan in no time..





NH 2 - Panagarh..

With arvg speed of 97kmph, we arrived at Panagarh.. The 2x2 NH2 became a narrow single lane, full of local traffic .



Both side of the road is full of shop, selling military junk and scrap, but every now and then, your eye would pick up a treasure in the scrap..



SH14 - Illambazar

Clock was 7.45AM, oddo reading around 170kms..



From Panagarh, it was time to leave the 2x2 NH2 and take right to get in to SH14 towards (Moregram / suiri / illambazar)



Thirst and heat forced a little stop at SH14.. We bought a bottle of water ..



SH14 was a charm to ride..



We continued to maintain a good pace towards Illambazar..

Illambazar - NH60 - Towards Suiri / moregram

SH14 allowed us to cover the 22 kms within no time and we reach the point in which we leave SH14 and start our journey in NH60..



The Mighty NH60..

Although single lane but very little traffic along with low local traffic couple with smooth and wide road allowed high speed..



However the most enjoyable part of this part of NH60 was the twisted terrain with tons of S curve.. Curves allowed long and sweeping corners..



Although most of the surface was good enough however at times NH60 did through some of its own surprise.. however wide road, day light and two wheel meant easy task to skip them..



weather was getting hotter by minute as we crossed Bakrswar thermal power plant..



The Rail gate near Suiri on NH60..



Navigation mistake - Suiri.. NH60

Few kms after suiri (between Mohmad-bazar), there was a place called "Shyaorafuli" where we were suppose to leave NH60 and take SH7 towards the Jharkhand border.. However somehow, may be because of heat , I made the fatal navigational mistake and continued on towards Rampurhat..

Most of the NH60 was smooth with few bad patches







At Rampurhut, while refilling, we discovered that we have left the turn at-least 50 kms ago ..



Returning towards SH7



Almost 120kms of extra travel along with waste of valuable couple of hours as we speed towards SH7 on NH60..

SH7.. Towards Massanjore

That left turn what we missed...



SH7 welcomed with some off roading condition..



However as we moved towards border, road surface once again went smooth and almost ZERO traffic ..



Soon enough we found a board notifying us the end of West Bengal and welcomed us to Jharkhand..



SH7 - Jharkhand..

We were told this area is under Moaist ... Forest in both side, empty roads.. Hot weather, not even a dog to be seen.. some time felt pretty wired feelings in stomach ..



The Massanjore Dam - Target Achieved..



IRC was dam poor in this condition..



time to get on foot and do couple of hundred meters []



The youth hostel, the best place to stay in Massanjore (in terms of view)...



Accessing the reserver water edge was not that easy, bit of off roading was needed..



Digging up some old memories as few years ago, at same place I took the picture shown in "inset"..



The weather was dam hot.. Didn't noticed it till our excitement and photography frenzy came low. At a near by tea stall, we sat down and took a breather of few mins.



Time to say Good Bye..

After a brief break.. It was time that we say good bye to the place.



The clock said 12.10PM, odd said 360kms so far as we started our return ride.

Though tired, but with a 15 mins of Power Break and mountain like condition, we felt charged up and started to enjoy the challenge from start



SH7 - Jharkand



as soon as we crossed the dam / reserver area, smooth surface and monotonous condition along with scorching sun forced our eyes to close and hit some potholes at fairly decent speeds

However the part of SH7 in West Bengal was throeing bad patches often..



NH60.. Towards Suiri

As soon as we get in to Nh60, we started to rev to higher RPM. NH60 as expected, was low in traffic allowing us to maintain 85+ for most of the time..



At Tilpara Mihirlal Barage, we slowed down to take a snap of a place, which I recalled and connected back to one of my 3 year old memory, where a picture of mine was taken.



The hot weather made sure that we kept on pushing hard towards panagarh where we planned our next stop, but a sign board caught my eye and forced another picture stop..



Although we were now in 9th our in to the ride, but the surface of NH60 along with these long and sweeping corners made sure that we enjoy even in a harsh (really hot) weather condition...





Panagarh - Schedule stop

By 2PM, we reach panagarh where oddo reads 120 kms from Massanjore.. meaning even with picture stops, we did 120kms within 1 hour and 50 mins..



I wanted to continue, but we had to stop as my pillion refused to do more since his butt was hurting pretty bad



I agreed, it was dam difficult to seat pillion in long rides compare to drive..

NH2 - Towards Bardwan

After that short stop, we got on to NH2 and continued towards Kolkata.. GQ, 2x2, allowed us to cruise at 100+ speed..





However heat, sleep n thirst forced an unscheduled stop just after Bardwan.



It was almost 11 hours since we started and for the very first time in the day, I got to test the Thumbs up..



NH2 - Towards Kolkata..

Yeah.. Had thumbs up.. got it just when we needed it.. just another 90 odd kms remained and we pushed the P180 to the max as we flew back towards our home.





"Almost home" as we were reaching Dankuni toll..



Mission complete.. Home at last



It was 5.15PM, 12 hours and 30 mins later and after almost 650kms.. we reached home, sweet home

Trip comments

It was not just another tripping ride. Rather it was Power tripping. We were happy that we meet our goals, in-spite of the navigation mistake, we still managed to complete the ride within sunset.

While we just ripped, through out the ride, few facts we confirmed from our previous exp.

* As we did constant 110 - 115 in speedo, in 2x2 GQ, we covered 97kms within 1 hour..
* In SH14 / NH60, constant speedo 85-95 (occasional full throttle 110) meant 67 kms within 1 hour
* Motul 5100T and NGK Irridium.. Both felt the worth of investment
* All ways ripping with pillion meant a pretty poor mileage figure , Rs. 1350/- of fuel needed for the trip