Like most men I like to plan everything to the minutest details, at the very last moment and end up doing nothing. The idea of planning my honeymoon struck me a bit late. While most of the people do it 2 months before I started to start thinking of planning it after the D Day. But it was kind of delayed by my subconscious as I always wanted to go on my honeymoon astride my Bullet (Athato) which according to the naive brain of mine required no planning. Ever since I had got Athato, I kept dreaming about a long ride. I travelled vast distances on Google Maps getting high doing it, but never mustered up the balls to do that. I was suffering from BSS (Ball Shrinking Syndrome, a fancy word I came up with for my cowardice). Nevertheless I asked her where she wanted to go for honeymoon. She gave me the look which could kill and said I have never seen sea and snow, you decide. Ladakh came to my mind but BSS struck again. So the sea it was.
I had recently joined Wanderlust Motorcycle Club. It has bulleteers with riding experices in thousands of kilometres. Needless to say the country had been traversed by them. In the company of these thunder gods I started to overcome my BSS and plan my ride.
The initial plan was as follows
Nagpur>Kuntala water falls (on Nagpur-Hyderabad 250 kms)>Goa(via google maps)>Western Ghats(had the route laid out on a silver platter by a senior Bulleteer,Sagar Da)>Lonar Crater Lake (via google maps)>Nagpur.
I had bought riding shoes, knee guards, jacket and gloves for both of us and saddle bags. Athato had been serviced. The ride was actually cancelled twice meanwhile Athato had done about 1000 km already. I decided to get it serviced in Goa. Noob decision. More on that later. This was all I had planned. I had much to learn. This by the way is a rookie level ride. So veterans may please forgive my euphoria and obvious observations by considering me a first timer.

Here it goes-

Day 1-28^th September 2014. Lessons Learnt

Ready to thump


DGR


Kuntala


Xbhp

Day 2-29^th September 2014. Straight Road

Nirmal>Nizamabad>Banswada>Gulbarga. Approx Distance Covered-400km
We started around 8 am, a bit late than we had planned. The roads were mostly good, tree lined but two lane which slowed us down. We got curious looks all along the way because of our safety gear and Gujarat registration plate (The transfer is still under process to Nagpur RTO). A Gujarat registered car checked twice our plates to confirm this, hehehe, while the missus was happily clicking photos. We passed the huge Nizamsagar dam sometime around afternoon. Along the way I remember three quotes

1. Amma!!! Kitta petrol khaati ye gaadi. (on hearing the FE of Athato)
2. Bawaaa!!! Gujarat se aa rahe ye logaa (mistaking me for travelling all the way from Gujarat)
3. Straight road: We asked for directions for some place (forgot the name) and the guy said turn right and you will get a straaaaight road. The emphasis on straight was cleared when we turned right. Before us there was a straight road. Ruler straight. It only had ups and downs no rights and lefts. For about god knows how many kilometres. Pheew. Whenever we reached a summit the straight view of the road till the horizon was stunning.

Nizam Sagar Dam




Straight Road. Notice the gap in the end

Day 3-30^th September 2014. First Night
Day 4-1^st October 2014. Halt at Goa

1. Avoid servicing if you can.
2. Keep your backpack empty if travelling with the missus.
3. Beaches are not a good a place to buy engine oil.

With Paul Smithof Rag&Bones Customs

Day 5-2^nd October 2014. Touch and Goa
The view from the Tarkarli room


My future tense


Up in the air


Aiyyo...

Day 6-3^rd October 2014. The Good the bad and the ugly.
At some beach


At madvan beach


Tashann...

Day 7-4^th October 2014.










Day 8-5^th October 2014. Horny bullet
LS2

Day 9-6^th October 2014. City of Gates.
Exploring Aurangabad

My dad had spent a few months in Aurangabad for some training while he was in Army and he asked me to visit a few places which were worth seeing. Same were the thoughts of Roadmaster. Also wifey was a bit tired due to riding in rains. So we decided to explore the City of Gates. First we went to Ellora caves. Visited a few of them. You need a week to cover these caves. They are really beautiful. So we left for other places we had on the list as we could not cover them in 2 hours. Enroute there were saree stores. Had to stop. She did what she had to do and we had more stuff to carry. The idea of keeping the backpack totally empty will now be my top priority before the next trip. Well she was happy that was all I cared. We went to see Bibi ka Makbra which is an imitation of Taj Mahal. Now if this is an imitation I wondered what the original would be like. Agra you are now on our list. We also visited a zoo which was near our hotel. It saddened me to see those animals in captivity with stupid idiotic nincompoops throwing stones and screaming at them just to see them frown. They were as good as dead with life sucked out of them. I pray for the day when they ban such establishments.
Anyway we were tired because of the walking and dinner at Bhog again. Tomorrow we head home.

Ellora caves




Cave Man


Not so cave woman


Bibi Ka Maqbara


Bibi Ka Maqbara1


Bibi Ka Maqbara3


Bibi Ka Maqbara4

Day 10-7^th October 2014. Homewards.
Handlebars


finally learnt how to tie up luggage neatly




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