Topic Approved.

Kindly use smaller images. And, All the best for the trip.

Congratulations for COMPLETING the trip successfully; Awesome

Thanks for the approval.
Will use smaller images in the rest of the log!

Thanks!

Day 0: April 30th
Leg 1: Pune - Bangalore
Departure: 1600 HRS, Pimple Gurav, Pune

Both bikes had been tanked up the previous day, with a view that no time should be wasted as we started off. The aim was to complete as much distance as possible when we were fresh, and before dark. Getting off work a little early, riding back home, and making final preparations, all these seemed to pass in a daze. The journey that lay ahead promised adventure and excitement. As the body prepared for the assault, so did the mind. A tingling sense of venturing into something new and challenging refreshed the mind. Yet, the grounding realisation of the many risks and challenges we would undoubtedly face cautioned us. Amid this flow of emotions, we went through our final steps of preparation. As per schedule, we were to twist our wrist at 1600 hrs, but this was made stretchable on purpose, keeping in mind that it was a long journey, and it was vital that nothing be rushed.

We finally donned our gear, bungeed our bags onto the pillion seats and started our engines. The customary punching of wrists followed, and it was then that it dawned on us. It was FINALLY happening!

Day 1: May1, 2012
0000Hrs, Hubli
Continuing further, truck traffic increased, and a lot of diversions started to show up. Road repair was underway, and almost every 3 kms, a diversion was taken. We had decided that we would ride continuously to Bangalore all the way, but at the slightest sign of sleep, we would immediately stop to rest. This happened about a 100 kms before Tumkur, when we felt it was imperative we rest. Stretching the limits of human endurance was not our goal, and we still had a long way till we got back. So, we found a good spot, and stopped by the side of the rode, and dozed off for a while. It was finally 45 min before we hit the road again, but the difference that the short nap made was tremendous! We were totally rejuvenated, and headed towards Bangalore feeling pretty fresh.

As we crossed Tumkur, the eastern sky was just turning light. Eager to reach our destination and cross Nelamangala before it got jammed with all the incoming buses, we headed with no further halts till we reached Peenya at about 0640 hrs. After a quick call to Kunal Bhagi Prashanthi, Lakshmi and Pallavi
The rest of the log will be up in a bit.
PS: Neither of us are too much into photography and all we did was point and shoot. So, please dont expect brilliant photographs! Whatever we clicked at night came out particularly bad.

I'm enjoying the write-up; not too long, not too short, conveys things to crisp, it's really good. Felt like I'm watching over you when you were riding, gave me a sense of one biker riding, not both though.

Thanks! Will put up the rest asap!

Just you wait for the rest of the log, you'll find the other rider all over the place

Looking forward to it

Let me tell you what makes this very interesting...
^^^ is some serious riding; now I understand you guys even rode through Night, which is like Doing about 751 Kms a day (that too on non TN roads) for 3 days consecutively, be it even on 4 laned super highway, requires a good talent...atleast in this country. With this kind of riding skills, you guys can accomplish SS1.6K if you want to, without big efforts. You guys certainly have the endurance.

Leg 2: Bangalore – Mysore
Departure: 1700 hrs, Bangalore

We quickly repacked our stuff and thanked our gracious hosts for their hospitality. The previous night’s ride had dirtied our visors and we promptly cleaned them out before leaving.



We geared up and set off for Mysore at exactly 1700 hrs. To avoid all the traffic, we headed to Tumkur road via ring road and took the beautiful NICE road towards Mysore Road. At the Mysore Road exit we met up with Anudeep G, a fellow Team NITK Racing buddy. A 15 minute break was taken to bring each other up to speed. Anudeep had recently acquired a Honda CBR 250 and both Siva and me parked our bikes and took turns on the CBR 250, to get a feel of the much talked about Honda Engineering!


After that brief stint we were back on our Pulsars, headed to Mysore. Bangalore-Mysore road (SH 17) is a beautiful four lane road, which cuts through the green environs of the Cauvery heartland. Unfortunately, we could not treat ourselves to too much of natural beauty as we were riding at night. Also, the traffic was considerable until Mandya, which is about 40 kms before Mysore. What was also irritating was the presence of an unusually high number of speed breakers on the road, which once caught us unawares. We then decided to follow a car that was doing similar speeds as us and use it as a marker for speed breakers. This technique worked well, as we found a Bangalore-Mysore taxi service car. The driver obviously knew the roads pretty well. We reached the Royal city of Mysore by 2030 hrs and met up with Arjun Manjunatha near my old house in Mysore. He received us in his Hyundai Santro and we headed home. We also surprised Kashyap Jayaram, my younger brother, who had no idea I was on this trip! We tanked up before parking our bikes for the day, as we had to leave really early the next day.

After depositing our bags in Arjun’s house, we didnt waste anytime in visiting the Chamundi Betta, the famous hill overlooking Mysore. Siva had been subject to continued ranting and raving about this hill (from yours truly) since our college days and he finally got to witness the hill! We found our customary spot overlooking Mysore City, and as we sat there, the serenity, calm and peace that Mysore is so well known for caught up on us.



It was the most peaceful moment of the entire trip. After we spent a while admiring the sprawling city of Mysore from the heights of Chamundi Hill, we quickly headed down, not wanting to run into any cop trouble. A quick biryani sufficed for dinner and we hit the sack by midnight, fully aware that we needed to wake up really early the next day.

Day 2: May 2, 2012
Leg 3: Mysore - Payyanur
Departure: 0430 hrs, Mysore

The alarm jolted us out of our sleep, and the first thing we noticed was the rain outside the window. We were prepared with adequate covers for our bags in case of this eventuality, but it wasn’t what we had hoped for. Thankfully, by the time we were done with our ablutions, it had stopped raining. Arjun’s mom insisted on a strong coffee before we left and it held us in good stead as we felt fresh and ready for the ride. We left at 0430 hrs from Mysore and headed towards the forests of Coorg district of Karnataka. This would be the most ghat-infested part of the trip and after 1100 kms of continuous highway riding, both of us were thirsting for the twisties!

The road was good initially, for about 60 kms, with no traffic at all. Once we took a turn off towards Gonikkoppa, the road worsened and average speeds dropped to 25 to 30 kmph. At 0600 hrs, we stopped to stretch a little to ease off a few cramps.


After a 15 minute break we were on the road again, eager to clear the portion of bad road (which would stretch for another 35 km). We passed through the Rajiv Gandhi forest reserve and also saw an elephant camp on the way, which had a few tuskers. Siva was pretty thrilled and stopped to have a better look. The ride was peaceful. Despite the bad road, the whether was perfect; cloudy and misty, yet not raining. The forests lent an eerie, quiet charm to the ride and we rode silently, immersed in the rejuvenating beauty of Mother Nature.

We stopped at Gonikkoppa for breakfast and continued on, in anticipation of better road. Soon we passed Virajpet and reached the starting of the ghat section. This was market by a beautiful, tiny lake where we stopped for a few pics.


After this, the roads were brilliant all the way. About 15 kms of ghat section followed, after which we crossed into the state of Kerala and reached Irrity. Another 80 kms remained from Irrity to Talipramba (which is on the NH 17) and this turned out to be an amazing treat! The road was a single lane, but of impeccable quality with no aberrations at all! Even though we weren’t climbing or descending a hill, we were constantly on semi-ghat type twisty roads. We maintained pretty good speeds, but were totally concentrated as we had enough prior warning about the way Kerala bus drivers operate. It took almost 2 hours to get to Talipramba on the NH 17, by which time we had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on what is definitely the longest, twistiest continuous 80 kms I have seen!

Once on the NH 17, we were only 20 kms away from Payyanur, our final destination. We quickly reached home and waited outside the gate, deciding on the best way to surprise my parents, who had no clue that I was going there! So finally at 1030 hrs, we pulled into the driveway, looked upon by my dumbfounded dad, who could not believe his eyes! We realised that surprising your parents by visiting them is an amazing way to realise how much they look forward to their children’s company.


After all the initial haahaa-hoohoo, we went for a quick bath and after a heavy breakfast, we hit the bed and slept soundly. We then woke up at 1500 hrs feeling fully refreshed and ravenous! We were treated to a sumptuous meal after which I headed out to show off my little village and its surrounding environs to Siva. We went to a tiny village nearby called Trikarpur and spent a while relaxing next to one of those customary temple tanks that you see all over Kerala. We then returned and went to Ezhimala, which is a hill close to Payyanur (about 15 km away). We stopped by a huge statue of Lord Hanuman on the way. The hill right next to the coast offered a breathtaking view of both the sea as well as the inland backwaters near Payyanur. We struggled in vain with our point-and-shoot camera to capture the beauty, but then gave up realising that there are some things that can’t be captured electronically. They just have to be experienced.


We then headed down to the beach next to the Ezhimala Naval Base and witnessed a peaceful sunset.

As nightfall descended, we quickly headed back home wanting to sleep early, as the next day would be our most arduous, both in terms of distance and nature of roads. After a quick dinner, we slept off by 2100 hrs.

Next up, the finale! NH 17 and NH 4 all the way back to Pune!

Actually the breakup was like this:

Day 0 through Day 1 (overnight): 877 km
Day 1: 143 km
Day 2: 204 km
Day 3: 999 km

The trip was planned in such a way that we get adequate rest before each "long" ride, which would be our first and last days. So Day 1 and Day 2 were pretty chill, getting us in shape for the last day of 999 km!

Thanks for the compliments!
Actually the challenge lay in the fact that i was on a P150 2005 model (that had already done 65,000 km), and despite the fact that NH 4 would allow us cruising speeds of 120+, we were restricted to 95 - 100 due to my bike. Poor old Siva was on a P220 and yet he had to stick to my speeds. Must have -taken quite a bit of mind control!

Beautifully penned log Kaushik ! Many congrats on the awesome ride. Looking forward to the return leg !

Take Care & Ride Safe

This is such an amazing log mate, hope you do more such trips man.
The last pic of the sunset is awesome.

Dear Kaushik,

After this, the Leh ride will offer different challenges. So, once you are done with Leh, your overall development as a biker would be manifold well-rounded!

How did your P 150 perform -I too would be doing Leh on a similar machine.

Very succinct trip log, refreshing in its brevity.

Waiting for 12 June?

Warmest Regards,

Maneesh

Many thanks! Many more rides shall follow!