Announcement

**The Monk** · 03-16-2017, 06:07 PM

Re: Tour de South - 4 States, 4 Riders, 4000kms

Travelogue Approved

Lovely pictures

**kdevdatta** · 03-16-2017, 06:09 PM

Re: Tour de South - 4 States, 4 Riders, 4000kms

Originally posted by The Monk View Post

Travelogue Approved

Lovely pictures

Thanks Monk

**mike autherton** · 03-16-2017, 07:09 PM

Re: Tour de South - 4 States, 4 Riders, 4000kms

Tasty, Bring them on.....

**koolsantosh22** · 03-16-2017, 07:17 PM

Re: Tour de South - 4 States, 4 Riders, 4000kms

Superb ride and beautiful pictures and looks like you have covered a lot of places.

**kdevdatta** · 03-16-2017, 07:27 PM

Re: Tour de South - 4 States, 4 Riders, 4000kms

Originally posted by mike autherton View Post

Tasty, Bring them on.....

Originally posted by koolsantosh22 View Post

Superb ride and beautiful pictures and looks like you have covered a lot of places.

Thanks guys

Do check the trailer on my channel as well -

**amods** · 03-16-2017, 07:53 PM

Re: Tour de South - 4 States, 4 Riders, 4000kms

Pictures have come out well. I am really longing for a detailed write-up. I could see Hampi as well, was it ? Bring on the rest soon..

**kdevdatta** · 03-16-2017, 09:06 PM

Re: Tour de South - 4 States, 4 Riders, 4000kms

Originally posted by amods View Post

Pictures have come out well. I am really longing for a detailed write-up. I could see Hampi as well, was it ? Bring on the rest soon..

Thanks

Will post the first part shortly. It's Chennakesava Temple in Belur, Karnataka.

**abhishek_jain** · 03-19-2017, 07:37 AM

Re: Tour de South - 4 States, 4 Riders, 4000kms

Awesome pics... Waiting for detailed story.

**krishna77** · 03-20-2017, 11:22 AM

Re: Tour de South - 4 States, 4 Riders, 4000kms

Awesome teasers!
Bring it on!

**rajpal** · 03-20-2017, 11:29 AM

Re: Tour de South - 4 States, 4 Riders, 4000kms

Waiting for more ....

**sajalsheth** · 03-22-2017, 11:57 AM

Re: Tour de South - 4 States, 4 Riders, 4000kms

Super start @kdevdatta ji

**kdevdatta** · 04-02-2017, 02:22 PM

Re: Tour de South - 4 States, 4 Riders, 4000kms

Prolouge:
I have always been a cautious, no risk taking guy. The fear of falling had kept me from learning bicycle since I was a kid. Also I never had any pressing need to learn bicycle to reach my school or to roam nearby since I always liked to walk everywhere. I tried once to learn bicycle and then backed-off in a few days. Days went by, I graduated, did my post-graduation but haven't learnt to ride a bike till then. In 2013, on constant persuasion of my cousins and nephews I decided to learn to ride. Started off with Scooty since learning how to balance was first task. Made good progress in 3-4 months. As I started to use my Scooty regularly, I actually started to enjoy riding which I haven't imagined I would (People in Pune will understand what I mean

).

After few months, I decided to buy a motorcycle and finalized on Apache RTR 160. I vividly remember the first day on my Apache. In few weeks I started using bike regularly and that's when I went over-confident on a signal. Crashed the bike in the first month itself and learnt a lesson about riding and riding gears. My confidence was shattered for a few weeks but started riding again. As I got confident, started doing 100-200kms ride around Pune. So started my biking journey at the age of 26.

Planning is one of the things that I truly enjoy and I had almost a year to plan. Days went by and we started to detail out the ride by around October 2016. Finally we zeroed in on Kanyakumari and Rameshwaram the main destinations. Due to some unavoidable commitments of myself and other friends, we decided to postpone the ride to 14th January 2017. Time was running out due to workload, as we were closing in on the D Day.

Me and Mayur did much homework on places to visit, night halts and hotels. Google, Trivago & xBHP came to our rescue. We planned to book all hotels in advance, so we prepared detailed itinerary to work out our start times, places to cover each day, breaks, night halts etc. This approach had its pros and cons, but we were okay with it. So after this gargantuan amount of planning finally we were ready to leave for this exciting adventure.

All was going well and then same the bad news. One of fellow rider, Vidish, had broken his leg and would not be able to join us. Bummer. We told him that we will postpone the ride, but he insisted us to continue with our plan. We were sad for he was not able to join us, but as they say, show must go on.

Before we move on let me introduce my co-riders and their steeds -

Devdatta (yours truly) - Apache RTR 160
Mayur - Avenger 220
Swapnil - CBZ Extreme
Ambar - Pulsar 135

Day 0 - Pre-ride day:
I already had a DirtSack tank bag and a DSLR backpack. So my luggage problem was partially sorted. Only thing remaining was saddle bag. I was thinking of tying a rucksack with cords, but dropped the idea. Got a saddle bag from a friend to try out, but since they were made for Enfields, they were not useful on Apache. So decided to purchase Viaterra Rapide which fit perfectly on Apache. Got the bags and did much of the packing the same day. As luck would have it, I got an urgent meeting to attend in Mumbai on 13th (which I was trying to avoid BTW

), just the day before our ride. Thankfully managed to leave Mumbai by 4pm and arrived in Pune by 8pm. Since I had done all packing a day before in anticipation to this damn meeting, things were partially in control.

All set

But I had some office work to finish before I left for ride, which was finally done by 11.30pm. Cross-checked all items, put mobile, action cam and bluetooth intercom for charging.

**kdevdatta** · 04-17-2017, 10:10 AM

Re: Tour de South - 4 States, 4 Riders, 4000kms

Day 1 : Pune - Ponda, Goa

After the small break, continued towards Belgaum without any breaks and reached Hotel Ramdev at around 12.30pm. Had some nice punjabi food and juice. Tummies satisfied now it was time for the main attraction of the day. Chorla Ghat..

Stopped on a nice curve for some photo session

**kdevdatta** · 06-17-2018, 12:41 PM

Re: Tour de South - 4 States, 4 Riders, 4000kms

Day 2: Ponda, Goa - Maravanthe, Karnataka
6am. Alarm - Snooze - Alarm - Snooze. After this typical routine, I woke up. Surprisingly more fresh than expected. Our plan was to leave by 7.30am, so I had to hurry a bit. Fast-forward 30mins, I was ready and started wrapping up all my stuff. Mayur’s aunt had prepared delicious dosas for us as breakfast. Mayur was having dosa with jaggery which I saw for the first time. I also tried it out which tasted good than I had imagined. After the heavy breakfast and a good cup of coffee, we were ready to start the ride.

Mounted saddlebags and tankbag, geared up and we were ready to roll. Bid adieu to Mayur’s aunt and we were on our way to destination, Marvanthe. The weather was just perfect, fresh morning breeze, sunshine and cool breeze on the face. Just perfect. Our first stop was Palolem Beach near Canacona. Crossed few towns on the way and now we were in the Canacona ghat section, which BTW is very beautiful. Halfway through the ghat, stopped for a small tea break. Had a good lemon tea and some clicks.

Pitstop in Canacona ghat

After the small tea break, we were back on the road. Reached Palolem Beach at around 9am. Parked our bikes and unloaded all luggage since it didn’t seem safe to leave it unattended. Spotted a Food Stall nearby who let us keep our luggage at his stall. During general chit chat, found out that he was from Pune as well. With luggage issue sorted, we were off to beach exploration

.

Palolem Beach

I generally like the South Goan beaches than the famous ones in the north and this one was no exception. Serene, calm, clean and soothing. We strolled the beach for some distance, clicked a few pics and sat for some time admiring the natural beauty

, soaking in all the good vibes.

Now it was time to leave for the next stop, Saibaba Point. It's a small viewpoint just off the NH66 near Moshem. Reached there in around 30mins and parked our bikes near the edge. Time for few pics now..

Rides and Riders at Saibaba ViewpointSaibaba Viewpoint

After the small break, it was time to head for Moshem, the last petrol pump in Goa. Petrol in Goa is around Rs. 15 cheaper than other states. Filled up the tanks to the brim and moved forward. No fuel breaks for next 600 kms

The next stop was Sadashivgad Fort and Karwar which was around 20 kms away. Reached near Sadashivgad Fort and checked for the route. It turned out that we had to park the bikes at the base and trek all the way to the top. Since it was impossible to leave the bikes and luggage unattended there and to trek wearing all the riding gear, we dropped the plan to visit the fort and headed straight towards Karwar which was just 5 kms away. Reached Karwar in another 15mins and parked our bikes at a hotel. We were here to visit the Karwar Warship Museum which was just besides the hotel. So decided to first have lunch since it was around 12pm and then head to the museum.

Karwar Warship Museum

Got a table, the sea and the warship both in our view. Occupied another table for the riding gear �� Munched on some delicious food admiring the view. In that came the discussion as to how they moved the warship on the beach. I thought that's simple, first gear, half clutch, full throttle and voila you have a ship on the beach. �� By around 1pm, we were done with our lunch, so we headed towards the warship museum. Casually strolling around the ship, we saw the damn board saying that the museum remains closed from 12pm to 4pm. We were like, Pune’s influence has reached till Karwar, Wow!! Clicked some pics of the ship and left for Karki Hanging Bridge which was around 88 kms away.

Karki Hanging Bridge

Karki Hanging Bridge was not on our route but we took the diversion just for the adventure on riding over a small suspension bridge. The bridge tilts a bit when you get to the middle section which is fun

So after our small adventure on the bridge, we got back on the highway and rushed towards our next stop ie. Khetapayi Narayan Temple at Bhatkal. It's a small group of temples built in the Vijayanagar Empire era. Though small, these temples were no exception to the typical South Indian temples, which I truly admire for their intricate stone carvings, sculptures and overall art. Clicked a few pics and it was time to move on towards Marvanthe, our destination for the day.

Khetapayi Narayan Temple

Although the distance was just 37kms, but due to ongoing highway expansion work, it took us about 50 mins to reach Marvanthe. Mayur has already booked the hotel so were in no hurry to reach early and search for hotel. Just before Marvanthe there is one point where the highway goes between the sea and a river. We had planned to stop there for some photos. As we reached the spot, we were like, WTF. As part of the highway expansion, government had built a bridge on the river and totally obscured the river view. There goes the view point

. With nothing left to do we turned towards the sea and the beautiful sunset. Spotted a tea shop for a much needed cup of tea.

That damned bridgeSunset at Marvanthe beach

Our hotel was right on the highway, a few kms ahead. Found it, dumped all the luggage and freshened up. Today's ride was horrible in terms of traffic and idiots we encountered on the road. My cam mostly recorded only swear words today, I'm damn sure

The road expansion work also added up to the mix. So a nap was must for some mental relaxation.

After an hour long nap, we headed out for dinner since it was 8pm and most hotels close early in small towns. Spotted a decent looking hotel nearby and settled down. Now the hotel was quite interesting coz for any dish we ordered, the only reply was that you'll get Fried Rice. �� Apparently we were late and it was the only dish remaining. We requested them for some Mixed Veg and roti and they finally relented. So Mixed Veg, roti and fried rice was our dinner. Taste was good though. Thought of having some ice-cream and to our surprise they didn't offer Fried Rice again

After this interesting dinner, we were back at our hotel. Made a quick review of tomorrow's plan and after some time pass went to sleep. Next day we had to leave by 5.30am as our destination was Kannur, Kerala. Roads in Kerala were quite narrow, even the NH was going to be two lane for most part and we had a few places to cover along the way. So leave early and reach whenever you reach was the plan

Announcement

Tour de South - 4 States, 4 Riders, 4000kms

[Photo Feature]: Tour de South - 4 States, 4 Riders, 4000kms

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment