A small ride through Andhra Pradesh - Odisha

I always wanted to do a road trip however, never really materialized everytime planned. After ISG2G in Nov 2012, blocked the last week of December thinking if at all I could do a road trip. Where to ride? where to ride? what is the budget? - 'I'm not bothered about it' as long as I enjoy riding!

Earlier Yuvaraj and myself planned to do Maharastra during Aug/September, approaching the planned dates got busy with work, so Yuvaraj carried on to his favorite destination - Kerala. Oh! I'll try to keep this thread interesting but cannot guarantee. I shall keep my writing simple and to the point. Remember, there will always be many events that cannot be put in words, but pics might help me to tell the story better than me.


Preparation?

I had only done short trips and have always returned the 3-4th day home, did not know what to and where to start the prep. Okay, bike got it serviced and was ready technically. Do I need saddle or tail bag and tank bag will do? Will it be balanced if I have saddle? Will tank bag pose a threat during turns? Uff! there were war of words inside my head. So I settled with Tail bag and saddle and started to pack with spares, tools and clothes. Woah! it was heavy but manageable I thought.

Just the day before the ride, bike's electrical problem creeped in, button start won't work so had to use kick start the Karizma. Why all this happening now? Totally dejected but not lost faith. Called up the Doctor. After PSR Sir diagoinising, changed the RR unit and was able to see the right amount of current passing but still the problem persists. Expected to be ok when the bikes runs for 50kms+.

Started on Saturday 430 AM from home and met Yuvaraj at Redhills junction. After few words, started to ride towards NH5. I was exposed to all the High Beamer on the opposite side and learned that I'm not fit to ride in the dark. It was very scary that at one point went off the road since the glare got me blind temporarily. This happened not very far from the city.

Dawn simmered slowing brought some smile on my face. NH5 is wide and good for high speeds. Lorry traffic is something we need some patience to tackle. Since we got going early faced less of them.




We had a flexible plan to either run to Vizag or even halt at Rajahmundry. Thoughts lets keep riding without compromising on the enjoyment. Least don't want be called a high speed truckdriver. We did not want to enter Nellore so we kept riding until next village for breakfast.

I should really appreciate AP that most of the time roads appears in good shape. As the time went by dogding the LMV and HMV's, we found a Hotel for lunch very near to highway, Vijayawada. After lunch we decided to halt at Rajahmundry so that we could relax taking pictures on the way to Vizag the following day. 180kms to Rajahmundry, contacted Franklin Selstad (xbhp id - Frankpili) and gave ETA at Rajahmundry. It was already past 5 PM in the evening, while we on the way, Franklin had come in opposite direction and spotted us.

Met Franklin and his friend who both had come to the NH and received us.We both tagged along with them and got in to the town. I Thank Franklin, Satish (friend) and Sudakhar for helping us to find a good accommodation without much time spent. We all had a small chit chat, Frank shared his 2 stroke days and even talked about his Yamaha D350 that in resurrection.

After refreshing, they took us to river bank of Godhavari River where there are two Railway bridges spanning atleast 3 kms across the river. The old bridge was constructed during the pre-independence time which still holds good looking at the contruction, but the new bridge constructed parellely is the one in operation carry passengers and good across the other side.







The town was bustling with lot of activities as the festival time and clubbed with holiday season. Building, temples, churches were all lit up bright and it looks great at night.




Took pics at few locations and headed back to room after riding 630km for the day. We both wanted to get up early for the sunrise photo shoot and our tiredness sunk us into the bed.. you know what happened the next day? We got up! unfortunately juggling between view points learned from previous day, almost missed the rise, to our bad luck clouds shattered our hopes.



We packed our bags and got ready, to our surprise, Franklin and Saitsh arrived in Classic Merc. Wow! They came towed us both toward the NH. Oh! just before the exist, I had to fill fuel, so they took us to the bunk and said this is one of the best bunk. While we exchanged few words before leaving, Franklin briefed about the petrol bunk and it's specialty. He said the bunk is managed by the Rajahmundry prison and showed me the walls across the road and then he said those working in this bunk are inmates. I was like what? He later detailed that prisoners who have earned good behavior and conducted well in prison gets to work in this petrol bunk. Then I understood why the guy scrambled to get the change (almost exact) when I had filled 10L.




This pic was taken on the way.




Next destination Vizag!