Tweet
Day 1 - Friday 27th March
Was to start between 2-3 AM, had set atleast 5 alarms in my phone to wake me up. None worked!
Navnish who rode out to Madikeri the night before calls me at 4.15AM to find out about my status. Its only then that lazy me drags out of bed. I brush my teeth and call back Navnish who was thinking I must have been already half way thru to Madikeri. He warns me about heavy thundershowers enroute and lots of police checkpoints. I was'nt going to be carrying my rain gear, but his call made me change my mind. I had hooked up my tripod to the saddlebags too, but getting it wet in the rain was not an option, so removed that.
Finally was ready to move by 5AM. Said a small prayer and headed towards the nearest atm, looted some cash from it and by 5.15 AM I slowly rolling towards Mysore road. As always at the start of the ride I just ride nice and easy waiting for the oil to be nicely warmed up and spread every where thru the engine. Stuck to 50-60 for the next 10 odd kays. Upped my speed by a bit once on the well laid SH17 towards Mysore. Even at this early hour there was a lot of traffic in both directions and this exactly what I wanted to avoid by starting early.
Bangalore city was past me and now the traffic had thinned down by a bit, but was still a lot more than I had expected it to be. Was up to crusing speed of 90-100 by now and the smaller towns where just whizzing past by, Ramnagara, Maddur and so on. Daylight had already started to break and people in the villages were starting their disco dance by crossing the highway unexpectedly. Heck nothing can be done about that, so just kept at my pace. Was really missing a clock on the 220 dash yet again. I think it might have been an hour and a half and had covered about 90 odd kms. Boy this morning was full of bugs, infact there was this one village somewhere before Srirangapatna where I had to pass through a screen of bugs.
As I turned into the turn that goes via Ranganathitu directly to SH88, I could see the roads were wet and the vegetation on both sides of it had seen some really heavy rains. Thanked myself for oversleeping, not that I dislike riding in the rains, but when I want to cover long distances it just slows me down too much! After a short bumpy ride I was on the smooth rolling SH88 that goes straight to Madikeri. Here's pic of the road from another recent trip on this road....
Was to start between 2-3 AM, had set atleast 5 alarms in my phone to wake me up. None worked!
Navnish who rode out to Madikeri the night before calls me at 4.15AM to find out about my status. Its only then that lazy me drags out of bed. I brush my teeth and call back Navnish who was thinking I must have been already half way thru to Madikeri. He warns me about heavy thundershowers enroute and lots of police checkpoints. I was'nt going to be carrying my rain gear, but his call made me change my mind. I had hooked up my tripod to the saddlebags too, but getting it wet in the rain was not an option, so removed that. Finally was ready to move by 5AM. Said a small prayer and headed towards the nearest atm, looted some cash from it and by 5.15 AM I slowly rolling towards Mysore road. As always at the start of the ride I just ride nice and easy waiting for the oil to be nicely warmed up and spread every where thru the engine. Stuck to 50-60 for the next 10 odd kays. Upped my speed by a bit once on the well laid SH17 towards Mysore. Even at this early hour there was a lot of traffic in both directions and this exactly what I wanted to avoid by starting early.
Bangalore city was past me and now the traffic had thinned down by a bit, but was still a lot more than I had expected it to be. Was up to crusing speed of 90-100 by now and the smaller towns where just whizzing past by, Ramnagara, Maddur and so on. Daylight had already started to break and people in the villages were starting their disco dance by crossing the highway unexpectedly. Heck nothing can be done about that, so just kept at my pace. Was really missing a clock on the 220 dash yet again. I think it might have been an hour and a half and had covered about 90 odd kms. Boy this morning was full of bugs, infact there was this one village somewhere before Srirangapatna where I had to pass through a screen of bugs.
As I turned into the turn that goes via Ranganathitu directly to SH88, I could see the roads were wet and the vegetation on both sides of it had seen some really heavy rains. Thanked myself for oversleeping, not that I dislike riding in the rains, but when I want to cover long distances it just slows me down too much! After a short bumpy ride I was on the smooth rolling SH88 that goes straight to Madikeri. Here's pic of the road from another recent trip on this road....
The road is this smooth and well marked all the way till Kushalnagar from where the 30 kms climb to Madikeri begins. I was blasting at 100-120 on this road as it was empty and the surface was conducive for doing so. Finally some 210 kms into the ride I decided to take my first break. I saw the time it was 8.05AM. This was a decent avg. speed and although I was about 3 hours behind schedule it was okay coz I knew from here on avg speeds will drop a lot as the road conditions are going detoriate. Here are pics taken during this break. Please note that the pics will follow the same monotonous line of Bike+Landscape+Click! thru this entire log.
thru this entire log.
The next 20kms to Madikeri took a little less than an half hour and I had covered 256kms since the time I had started from home. Tanked up the bike again in Madikeri even though it was just 130 kms to Mangalore from here. No use in taking chances with a 220.
Began the decent from Madikeri at about 8.45. Some 10kms into it and I could signs of heavy rain in a few hours before in the forest. Thanked myself again for oversleeping.
Took a nice long break here, was carrying glucose water a kg of bananas with me. Gobbled up more than half the bunch of bananas and after this started my ride again.
30Kms post Madikeri comes a small town of Sampaje and the roads were smooth again so speeds came back up again. I was a Udupi seeking missile piercing through the forest roads . The road was nice and curvy for the next 90kms and that just added to the fun. Took another break at 10.30.
Began the decent from Madikeri at about 8.45. Some 10kms into it and I could signs of heavy rain in a few hours before in the forest. Thanked myself again for oversleeping.
Took a nice long break here, was carrying glucose water a kg of bananas with me. Gobbled up more than half the bunch of bananas and after this started my ride again. 
. The road was nice and curvy for the next 90kms and that just added to the fun. Took another break at 10.30.
This SH of which I don't know the number meets NH 48 somewhere before the Bantval turn off. Once on the NH traffic increased considerably and road condition worsened by quite a bit. The NH runs in a sort of ring around Mangalore city so you avoid city traffic, but the pathetic road condition just before entry into Mangalore had me 
. And this has slowed down my speeds by quite a bit, hitting the coast from the hills means a huge bump in humidity and temperature....and I was wet with sweat inside my jacket. Finally came the circle that said left for Udupi and I was on my way on NH17 towards Udupi. Now I had been warned considerably about the mad bus drivers between Udupi and Manipal and I was careful from here on.
Past Mangalore I passed NIT Surathkal, reminded me of good ol engineering days.
Took a break here, it was 12.30PM. Messaged Motormania aka Anurag that I was 40kms from Udupi. He had been really helpful in arranging contacts for 'safe' hotels in and around Udupi where I could park my bike for the night without having a going paranoid about the bike's safety.
. And this has slowed down my speeds by quite a bit, hitting the coast from the hills means a huge bump in humidity and temperature....and I was wet with sweat inside my jacket. Finally came the circle that said left for Udupi and I was on my way on NH17 towards Udupi. Now I had been warned considerably about the mad bus drivers between Udupi and Manipal and I was careful from here on.Past Mangalore I passed NIT Surathkal, reminded me of good ol engineering days.
Took a break here, it was 12.30PM. Messaged Motormania aka Anurag that I was 40kms from Udupi. He had been really helpful in arranging contacts for 'safe' hotels in and around Udupi where I could park my bike for the night without having a going paranoid about the bike's safety.
From here on I was just taking it slow and easy. Reached my hotel which about 13kms ahead of Udupi and dumped my bags and my butt there. It was 1.30PM and I had covered 460Kms from the start in the last 8+hours.
After relaxing for about 2 hours I headed towards PBK Manipal with help in directions again from Anurag. Riding on bad roads had loosened the front fork by a bit. Got that fixed in a jiffy. After this I was riding around in Udupi and Manipal. Finally after an hour I got bored and headed towards Malpe beach.
After relaxing for about 2 hours I headed towards PBK Manipal with help in directions again from Anurag. Riding on bad roads had loosened the front fork by a bit. Got that fixed in a jiffy. After this I was riding around in Udupi and Manipal. Finally after an hour I got bored and headed towards Malpe beach.
This spot was too crowded, so went to another place which had lesser people and bench to sit on. I relaxed here for next 2 hours waiting for the sun to go down. Was a nice time sit back and relax, away from the daily mundane and maddening world. And this actually was the essence of this ride, just a get away from it all. No work deadlines to meet, no family requirments to be met, no girlfriend to pamper...just me and the my solitude. Sounds pretty grim isnt it? Well trully speaking it was'nt, was more a relaxation for me. It was nice to just be with self looking at the sun going down. Clicked a few pics here.
Left the beach at 6.30 and after tanking up the bike yet again I was out to eat dinner and had really heavy dinner at 7PM. Was back in my room by around 8.30 and was in deep slumber by 9PM.
End of Day 1
Kms covered from home - 515kms
Route taken - Bangalore(SH17)-Hunsur(SH88)-Madikeri-Sampaje-Mangalore(NH48)-Udupi(NH17)-Brahmawara(NH17)
Day 2 was He-man rides day, a few people said it could'nt be done, its too much of riding, why to ride so much, etc, etc.....
Day 2 - Click on this Link to view the Day 2 log+pics!
Day 3 - Click on this Link to view the Day 3 log+pics!
End of Day 1
Kms covered from home - 515kms
Route taken - Bangalore(SH17)-Hunsur(SH88)-Madikeri-Sampaje-Mangalore(NH48)-Udupi(NH17)-Brahmawara(NH17)
Day 2 was He-man rides day
, a few people said it could'nt be done, its too much of riding, why to ride so much, etc, etc.....Day 2 - Click on this Link to view the Day 2 log+pics!
Day 3 - Click on this Link to view the Day 3 log+pics!
Comment