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A whim becomes a habit, and habits give birth to tradition!!!
The above line describes what has transpired over the last four years, starting from 2019, and it has become a tradition for me. On a whim, I went on a bike ride with my friends to Hampi-Badami in Dec 2019. It was followed by the Mumbai-Munnar-Adi Yogi-Coorg-Belur-Mumbai bike ride in December 2020 and the Mumbai-Udaipur-Jaisalmer-Longewala-Jodhpur-Jaipur-Mumbai ride in December 2021. Every year, I had at least one or more friends riding with me, but the year 2022 ride had something else in store.
At the time of planning for the December 2022 ride, it was clear that I may have to do a solo ride this year. I have done solo day rides, but this was going to be my first multi-day long solo ride. During this solo ride, I wanted to check three boxes from my bucket list - (1) Rameshwaram - Dhanushkodi; (2) Blaze of Glory sunrise-sunset ride, and (3) Yana Caves.
I started my ride on December 20th and planned to return by December 31st, including a spare day to take care of any exigencies. The idea was to be back home to celebrate New Year's Eve with family. This year's route was Mumbai-Davangere-Madurai-Rameshwaram-Dhanushkodi-Rameshwaram-Tanjore-Puducherry-Mahe-Gokarna (via Mangalore)-Mumbai.
Sticking to our 'core ethos', the primary objective was the bike ride and site visits were a bonus😇. Surprisingly, this time I stuck to the itinerary almost to the T, except few minor adjustments.
Day 1 | Ride from Mumbai to Davangere: I had spaced out the riding plan, but if I wanted to check all three items on my bucket list, there was little wriggle room to adjust the plan. I have ridden ~600km in a single day quite a few times now, but the 700km mark had alluded me. Further, riding solo for the first time was adding to my anxiety.
I started from home at 4:30 am, the weather was pleasant with little to no fog. However, I rode cautiously as it was dark and the local authorities had blessed the Mumbai-Goa old highway with multiple speed breakers. The early morning ride was pleasant, peaceful and therapeutic. Before I realised it, I had crossed Lonavala, where I took the first of many tea breaks of the ride.
I had planned to catch up with one of my college buddies, who is presently residing in Pune and owns a Vulcan. The plan was to meet and then ride together for the next 50-75km. However, he has not been riding regularly and to top it up, turned up without a helmet 😑. I was glad that he turned up early in the morning to meet me but I was not going to encourage him to ride without a helmet, so I asked him to turn back.
The next stop was for fueling and bio-break and I stopped just before Kolhapur for brunch at around 11:30 am at Hotel Visava, right on the highway. Fresh, hot, good food with excellent service - what else do you need!
You meet new people during your travels and everyone has a story; some are inspirational, some scary and some carry a lesson. When I stopped at the small town of Shiggaon (Haveri district) for fueling at around 4 pm, I chatted briefly with a young chap - Charlie. He was in his mid-twenties and used to enjoy his bike rides. During one of his rides, he met with a bad accident, broke his hand and leg, and was bedridden for quite some time but was lucky to make a full recovery.
The nature of bike riding is such that anyone can meet with an accident - could be our fault or could be the fault of others. As a rider, we need to have proper riding gear and always wear those while riding. The good thing is, now we have quite a few Indian brands in the market offering decent quality gears at affordable prices - so my two cents - always wear your gear while riding.
I reached Davangere by around 5:30 pm as this was my planned stop. However, I was having second thoughts about continuing for another hour or so. Given that I had an early start and this was just the first day of the long itinerary, I decided to end the day here and stay at Hotel Pooja International. It cost me ~INR 2300 for an AC room, the hotel was decent with good service and most importantly had covered parking to keep my bike safe.
Day 2 | Ride from Davangere to Madurai (outskirts): With a good night's rest, I started from Davangere around 7 am. All of you may have heard, or read this multiple times - Maharashtra highways are the worst, irrespective of the state one is comparing with. I was now in Karnataka and the highway roads are amazing. After riding for an hour or so, without much effort I had covered ~110km before stopping for a cup of morning tea and then after crossing Tripur stopped for hot sambhar and medu vada at roadside food joint. I don't mind roadside food joints for hot food, as usually, you will get it fresh, however, I always prefer bottled water.
Roads continued to be amazing and I took the NICE ring road (after Makali) bypassing Bangalore City. It was the first time I paid toll charges as a biker, but honestly, I would rather pay the toll and enjoy the good roads and better riding experience rather than ride on the sub-standard roads. After exiting Bangalore, stopped at the Shell petrol pump to fuel the bike as well as myself. The small supermarket attached to the station is one of the good things about Shell petrol stations. They also usually employ differently-abled persons and the attendant who helped me was speech impaired but with little help from his colleague was able to serve me efficiently. His colleague was coincidently from Nagpur, Maharashtra.
When I started the day, Salem was the 'safe' halt for the day while Madurai seemed like a stretch. However, I crossed Salem, 472 km from Davangere around 2 pm, i.e. 7 hours with stops. Once I crossed Salem, reaching Madurai seemed like a real possibility. While I knew that I was in Tamil Nadu, seeing the familiar board of Adyar Anand Bhawan (AAB) at Rasipuram hit it differently. For people who don't know me that well, I spent four years at Chennai during my first job and have found memories of the place. I was feeling hungry as well, so stopped at AAB for South Indian thali 🙂.
The rest of the day was uneventful, and around 7 pm, i.e. another 12-hour long riding day, I halted at a highway hotel (Green Park Residency), approx. 30km before Madurai. The hotel was nice with a small, clean room and washroom and a tiny balcony facing the highway for INR 1500 a night. The hotel didn't have a kitchen so I had to order food from outside which was fresh, hot but average in terms of taste.
Day 3 | Ride from Madurai (outskirts) to Rameswaram: This was an exciting day as I was going to cross the first item of my trip objective. I started the day with prayer in my head; as for a week or so, there had been strong cyclonic winds accompanied by rain which had the potential to ruin my ride to Dhanuskodi. I started the ride around 7:30 am and stopped for breakfast at a roadside food joint in the small town of Manamadurai. Rameswaram was barely 200km from the hotel (Madurai) and hence I planned to reach the hotel at Rameswaram by lunchtime. Post lunch, I wanted to cover either the famous Rameswaram temple or Dhanuskodi.
The weather Gods remained merciful but as I reached Pamban bridge, my bike was skidding laterally because of the strong cross winds. The beauty of the place is to be experienced and can't be described in words. On one side, you have the railway bridge which opens up and an open sea till the horizon; on the other side in addition to the open sea, infinite fishing boats were giving 'Troy' vibe. After soaking in the view and clicking a few pictures, I started my ride towards the hotel (Hotel Harish). I selected the hotel as it was within walking distance from the temple, had secured parking and the owner was really friendly.
As mentioned above, the plan was to either head to the temple or Dhanuskodi in the afternoon. But at the time of check-in, the owner mentioned that early morning would be the ideal time to visit the temple as well as to experience the 22-well bath within the temple. So, I thought of taking a nap and then decide if I wanted to cover Dhanuskodi or do it the next day.
As luck would have it, the Gods decided it for me. I woke up late afternoon, stepped out for lunch, and it started pouring down heavily and I was lucky to get some food. I decided to call it a day as it was going to be an early start the next day.
Day 4 | Rameswaram Temple, Dhanuskodi visit and ride to Tanjore: I woke up early, freshened up and reached the temple before 4:00 am. I left my wallet and phone in the hotel room, as one is not allowed to click photos inside the temple and I wanted to experience the 22-well bath, but kept 200-300 rupees cash for morning tea and the temple entry fee. I reached the temple's South Gate for the morning darshan. Luckily the line wasn't long, and after paying the 50 rupees entry fee for normal darshan I got entry into the temple. The VIP line was smaller, and one needed to pay 200 rupees for the same. However, so early in the morning, the difference between the two lines was not material. I'm assuming as the day progresses, the 150 rupees difference will result in be substantial difference in time spent in line.
The pre-dawn 'abhishekam' of God Shiva was over by 4:30 am and the crowd started moving to the next section of the temple which houses Goddess Parvati. However, the doors of Goddess Parvati opens at 5:00 am. That meant waiting there without a phone (imagine that!!) silently for 30 minutes. Usually, I would have been among the people who exited the temple but for some reason, I stayed back and waited patiently for the darshan. After completing the darshan I exited the temple from the same door, and the entire time I was completely perplexed about 'where the hell was I supposed to go for the 22-well bath?'. I resigned to the fact that maybe the hotel owner missed out on telling me something, and will figure it out later and decide if I want to do it.
Just outside the temple, a small shop was serving hot vada, tea and coffee and I had started feeling hungry. So after a plate of vada-chutney and coffee, feeling satisfied decided to complete the temple 'parikarma' as I walked towards my hotel. I crossed an Africa twin parked beside the road with MH number plate. I was in two minds, should I stop/ wait for the rider to say hello or move forward? After a few seconds of juggling my thoughts, I decided to meet the rider, who turned out to be quite approachable. I don't know but the term 'biker' is an immediate icebreaker between two bikers. We ended up chatting as if we had known each other for a long time. He had completed his Rameswaram-Dhanuskodi trip and was now heading to Chennai and then towards Mumbai. He shared his awesome experience of the 22-well bath and apparently to take the 22-well bath, one needs to the use temple's East Gate😑.
So after parting ways, I headed to the East Gate. If you want a bit of a 'royal' treatment, pay 300 bucks to the agents outside the East Gate, and they will take you to each temple well and properly pour water on you. If you want to experience it like the common man, just head inside and they will throw water on the crowd, so you will have to persist at each well to get the bath. Since I was not carrying my wallet, I didn't have an additional 300 rupees with me, a "common" man experience it was. To summarize, it was worth taking the pain; despite all the wells being situated within the temple precinct, water from few was sweet while others were salty, few were lukewarm others were cold. One is supposed to change into dry clothes and then proceed to the darshan of God Shiva and Goddess Parvati, but as the Lord has wished I did it in reverse order😀.
There are a few interesting things about the temple, its religious importance and the mythology around it - the temple has a corridor of 1000 pillars, was constructed by the Pandya in the 12th century; it has one of the 12 jyotirlingas, apparently the linga was brought by Ravana from the Kailash parvat, and the same was worshipped by Lord Ram before rescuing Lady Sita.
After taking a nap for a few hours, I got ready for Dhanuskodi. If one is interested in the mythology, there are two sites on the way that could be of interest - Jada Teeratham and
Kothandaramaswamy Temple (or Vibhisan Temple) while riding Rameswaram to Dhanuskodi. Jada Teeratham has a small temple and a tiny pond in front of it, with the local belief that Ram-Lakshman washed their hair in the pond after defeating Ravana to wash off their sin of killing a Brahman (yes, Ravana was half Brahman from his father's side). Vibhisan temple is in the middle of the sea, a narrow road connecting it with the main road. It was the only structure that survived while most of the Dhanuskodi got washed off in the 1964 cyclone. The temple is believed to be the place where Lord Ram coronated Vibhisan as the King of Lanka after Vibhisan defected and joined Lord Ram.
Ride to Dhanuskodi turned out to be a mini adventure, as I have never ridden in so much cross-wind. Just like at the Pamban Bridge, the bike was skidding laterally due to the cross-winds. I was extra careful and finally reached the extreme end of the country - Dhanuskodi, without falling off the bike. However it was overcrowded, so didn't feel like spending time there. I drove back a bit and parked the bike on the side to enjoy the beach and the waves.
After reaching the hotel, I took a quick bath and started my ride towards my next destination, i.e. Tanjore. Surprisingly, I wasn't feeling too tied and the roads were butter smooth, hence managed to reach my hotel at Tanjore around 5 pm.
Day 5 | Tanjore sight-seeing and ride to Puducherry: In my view, there are two main attractions in Tanjore - 1) Brihadeshwara or 'Big Temple', and 2) Tanjore Palace and both were at walking distance from my hotel. While the temple remains open from 6:00 am early morning till 8:30 pm in the night, the palace timings were 9:00 am to 5:30 pm. I decided to retire early, visit the temple early in the morning, have breakfast and then visit the palace.
Many of you would know that the temple was built by the Cholas and it's more than 1000 years old. It is also one of the largest Hindu temples, with one of the largest Shiv linga and a great example of Tamil architecture. In addition to the main temple, quite a few smaller temples were added to the complex by various kings who ruled over Tanjore after Cholas.
I have visited Big Temple quite a few times, and I have always found the experience very soothing, and temple campus peaceful, and this time it was no different. The beauty and architecture (not that I know much about architecture 😝) never fails to amaze me.
The next stop was Tanjore Palace and after reaching there I learned that it was originally constructed not by Cholas but by Marathas (Nayak Kingdom) in the 17th century. Further, the palace building and royal court were certainly not what I imagined. Quite a simple building with exquisite paintings to provide some grandeur to the royal court. Within the same complex, there is also a library that houses multiple well-preserved literature and manuscripts written on palm leaves. One can't but marvel at the effort and devotion of the creators of that time. Sadly I was running out of time, so couldn't spend more time at the museum and bell tower.
I reached the hotel and after freshening up, started my ride to Puducherry. Puducherry is less than 200 km from Tanjore but faced bad, broken roads for the first time after exiting the Maharashtra border. Maybe because till now I have been primarily driving on national highways. In addition to the bad roads, temperatures were north of 30 degrees despite being the end of December, which forced me to take a longish break right after riding for barely 1-1.5 hours. The result - it took me a good 6-7 hours to reach the Puducherry hotel.
Day 6 | Cafes and Beaches in Puducherry: A non-riding day in Puducherry was strategic as the next item on my bucket list was a hectic and demanding day of ride. I started the day with sunrise at Uppalam Harbour Beach. It's always a pain waking up but always rewarding. After enjoying the sunrise, I went back to the hotel to freshen up and then headed to 'Crepe in Touch' for breakfast. For the uninformed, this is one place that offers authentic French crepe; and don't go by the look, it's very filling and yummy. Breakfast done right, it was time for a nap 😛, and I planned to go to Rendezvous Cafe for their steaks but couldn't get a table - neither during lunch nor for dinner :-(. They don't take reservations, and the place was in high demand. I'm not sure if it was because of Christmas Eve or if it was the usual scene for this cafe. Unfortunately, Le Cafe, at Beach Road was closed for repair work. Nothing special about it, but it's right beside the sea, and serves decent food with beer, what more do you need!!
I'm not sure how many of you know, but Eden Beach, Puducherry is one of the eight 'Blue Flag' beaches in India, and I must say it is worth a visit. The only sad part is the local administration has not done enough to promote it nor it has posted road signs for visitors.
Day 7 | Ride from East Coast (Puducherry) to West Coast (Mahe): It was the day for the Blaze of Glory sunrise-sunset ride. In short, the plan was to start from Puducherry, which is on the east coast at sunrise, and end the day with sunset at Mahe (Puducherry), which is on the west coast, a ~630km ride. Apparently, Mahe is one of the four districts of Union Territory of Pondicherry😀. The plan was to start the ride with the sunrise from the beach, but it was a cloudy morning, so decided to start from the hotel.
As per the weather app, sunrise on 25th December was at 6:30 am, so I started my ride exactly at sunrise. I also realized that I was attempting the ride on the shortest day of the year, December 25th, which made me a bit anxious, but the calming factor was - I had nothing to lose. If I completed it successfully, it would be a great ride and a tick-off to one item on my bucket list; even if I failed, it would still be a great ride 😉. As I was covering distance, crossing Tamil Nadu, the ride seemed not that demanding at all; but I had forgotten what lay ahead - yes, the two-lane highways of Kerala, passing through every town, and the blue and purple buses - I think they hire people as drivers who had aspiration to become F1 or rally car drivers. As soon as I entered Kerala, the challenging nature of this ride became apparent; the positive side is that Kerala roads are also more engaging with their twists and turns. Only if the weather was nicer, and traffic was more bearable but then as the saying goes - 'you can't get everything in life'. I reached Mahe Beach at 5:50 pm, well before the sunset, and I can't describe the satisfaction I felt on completing this bucket list. I will certainly recommend it.
However, the day was yet to end, as I couldn't find hotel rooms in and around Mahe. I lucked out, as I found a business hotel in Velapuram, 50 km from Mahe. I ordered my dinner from Zomato, as the hotel's restaurant wasn't operational and then retired for the day.
Day 8 | Ride from Velapuram to Mangalore: It was short ride to Mangalore, and I had found a homestay at walking distance from Tannirbhavi beach. The homestay room was non-AC but clean, tidy, and approved by Karnataka Tourism and Zomato/ Swiggy were delivered to the location 😋. I spent the evening at Tannirbhavi beach soaking in another beautiful sunset.
Day 9 | Ride from Mangalore to Gokarna: I selected Gokarna as the next stop instead of Goa for two reasons - 1) Goa was going to be much more expensive than Gokarna, but more importantly, 2) Last item in the bucket list was Yana Caves. It wasn't easy to find a decent, affordable place to stay during the holiday at Gokarna but luckily HostelLife had availability, so booked my stay there.
My first stop of the day was at another Blue Flag beach on the way - Padubidri Beach. While the beach was clean with all amenities, it was quite hot, even at 8:30 am. I didn't stop for too long, as with each passing hour, it was going to be hotter to ride. The next stop was Maravanthe Beach because simply it's worth stopping by, even if it is just for a picture. This is one place where the highway runs right beside the beach, making the beach landscape a beauty.
I also visited Murudeshwar temple, however, it was overcrowded. So I simply lowered my head, paid my respects and turned my bike towards Gokarna. The highway continued to be fabulous, so did the scenery around. I reached the hostel by 3:30 pm, freshened up and had lunch at the canteen which had a great view of the sea, decent food and chilled beer.
The thing is, most of the hotels, resorts etc. are on the cliff, and to reach the beach - Kudle or Om beach, one has to descend from the cliff, so vehicles can only take you that far. In my dormitory, there were two other bikers from Bangalore. It's crazy how a common factor like love for bike/ bike ride make people 'friendly'. We headed to Kudle Beach, which is within walking distance from the hostel to enjoy the sunset and then settled in one of the shacks for dinner and beer.
The next day, after breakfast I headed out to the Yana Caves. I firmly believe that within our country we have so many amazing locations, and sights that if promoted properly, they can attract a significant number of tourists. However, we continue to ignore them. It was again evident as I rode to Yana Caves. There are a few signs providing directions and most of them in the local language - Kannada; having them in English as well would have been very helpful. But since it wasn't, I had to make do with asking the locals regularly to make sure I was on the right path.
I parked my bike at the entrance and started my hike towards the caves, which was difficult in the hot weather and my riding boots were certainly not helping. There are two sets of caves, that appear to be almost alien and one can spend time exploring each one of them. However, in the scorching heat, I was completely spent and wasn't in the mood to spend any more time there. After returning, I lazed around for the rest of the day.
Day 10 | Ride from Gokarna to Mumbai: Home from Gokarna hostel was approx. 720 km and many people have done it in a single day. Having ridden 700km twice in a single day ride😊, I was fairly confident that I could also do it. However, I didn't want to start early or ride in the night; so the idea was to ride till Satara or Kolahpur, halt for the day and then complete the remaining ride the next day.
So, after a good night's sleep, I started at 7 am. The route connecting Gokarna to NH48 is surely scenic with few bad patches which bring you back from the joy ride to reality.
One option was to ride till Goa, then take the Amboli ghat route and connect NH48 at Nipani. I had done the Amboli ghat in August, and that route is an hour longer as per Google, hence decided to take the straightforward route, i.e. Gokarna - Ankola - Yellapur - Halyal and join NH48 at Kittur. The ~170km ride to Kittur took approx. 4 hrs, and I touched NH47 at 11:20 am. I was feeling hungry and luckily there was a small roadside eatery on the corner of the road connecting Halyal to NH48, so stopped for food and tea. It was then I realised it was the same eatery where 2 years back Ashish and I had stopped on the last day of our Munnar return trip for breakfast.
The food break was energizing and I continued towards Kolahpur on NH48. I was doing good speed and crossed Kolahpur in the afternoon and I reached Pune (Shell petrol pump on the highway) by around 5 pm. After taking another good break, I decided to ride till home rather than staying in Pune. The rest of the ride was uneventful and I reached home by 10:00 pm.
I can't describe the satisfaction of completing another long trip successfully. Every such ride only increases the thirst for the next one. I'm sure it's the same for other riders as well. I'm looking forward to 2023 to see which places I get to see this year.
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