A short Monsoon Ride

I was almost planned to ride to Leh, Ladakh in Himalayas, but somehow plan didn't worked out, May June months passed quickly with lot of other stuff and i didn't find time to tour north india. Now in July 2012 monsoon showers has started already and raiding Himalayas in rains is full of danger, which i have avoided. just to feed the hunger of rider in me i planned to ride to Hyderabad. Hyderabad is around 600Km and well connected by national highway from Bangalore.  Very recent two of my friends, actually three of my friends have shifted to Hyderabad from Bangalore. i called up them and told that will visit you this weekend.

Hyderbad Highway

I completed my office work by noon and started journey at 3PM from Bangalore. As usual it took time to come out of Bangalore traffic. I stopped after Bangalore Airport and called up Bharath and Amit Sharma at Hyderabad to inform them. Sky was warning me that its about to rain and i was thinking that by the time rain drops will fall on the earth i will to escaped from this part of land. I kept riding with an intention that i wont stop before Ananthpur, which was around 200 Km, but after travelling about 160Km rain caught me. I parked my bike on roadside to cover my Bag with a rainproof cover and continued to ride. I was surprised that just 100mts after this place there were no signs of rain. Road was all dry i felt happy that i have really crossed the patch where it was supposed to rain, when i was at Bangalore. Next i stopped at Ananthpur where an Chariot shaped temple caught my attention. and i have to apply brakes to take picture of the monument. 

Temple at Ananthpur, Andhra Pradesh

By this time fuel has also reached to reserve part of tank and sensor was blinking indicator for that. Driving more 20 Kms i got fuel on a petrol pump. Very next to petrol pump there was a Punjabi Dhaba . Royal Enfield was parked on front of Dhaba. Registration plate of bullet was from Chandigarh. I was thinking may someone else is also riding but unfortunately the bullet was owned by owner of Dhaba. I had a nice tea here and started riding further.

I had just crossed Gooty after Ananthpur and it started raining heavily. It was time to turn on headlamp as sunlight was no more showing up road. I couldn't close the Helmet glass as rain was decreasing all transparency. No doubt rain was heavy but wind coming from left side of road was hitting so heavily that rain was visible almost horizontal, initially i was not speeding up more than 80Km/hr in this rain but gradually i found that bike is stable even if i increase speed to 100Km/hr. Checked twice that brakes were also responding normally. it was almost no effect of rain on the machine. Things about which i was worried about was less visibility due to rain and the rain droplets which were hitting hard on my face.

Completed 10000 Kilometers on by Bullet

Sometimes it was not raining to hard as it was in starting but it kept raining all the time. I was not knowing where exactly i have to go in hyderabad so just before hyderabad i stopped at a petrol pump took out my phone from the bag to check the email which Bharath has sent, email was having route map. because it was raining hard i was sure i may not be able to check maps so frequently so i called up Bharath and told me to sms some directions after entering Hyderabad. I read sms and kept in my mind before entering Hyderabad i will get shashabad flyover i have to travel 17Km on that and then go down find Andhra Bank and call up Bharath. Yes i have also stopped once more to capture 10,000Km on the Bike's odometer.  At a place A huge truck was trying to take U-turn from our side to other side of road and with long body it couldn't be done in 1 go. When i noticed this truck i was perpendicular to me. Heavy rain and darkness, but Headlamp was able to detect the correct position of truck with help of reflectors on the truck. and awesome brakes easily reduced the speed from 100Km/hour in seconds. A normal 2-wheeler could have banged on side wall of truck easily in the situation.

Loooooong Straight Road, I didn't crossed 125Km/hr mark

Finally i was at Shamshabad with help of someone i got the way to get onto flyover and started riding. This flyover was Express-way to Mumbai. normally two-wheeler are not allowed on many such express-ways but still i kept riding because i didn't see any sign board saying no entry for two wheelers, it was still raining heavily i increased speed to 110Km/hr along with SUV moving next to me, but soon i have slow down after i went into a pool of water standing on the flyover. Kept riding with a hope to find exit from fly over with a signboard showing exit to Nan*guda.. but i was not seeing any. I have crossed more than 20 Km on the express - way so definitely ih have missed the exit. Next exit was to 'financial dist' area. i came out of flyover and started searching for some people i was expecting a tollbooth which was missing. under flyover there was a crossing and 2 guys were standing  there waiting for rain to stop. I tried to get location of Bharath's place but the were not able to make me understand, I took out my phone to check directions but my wet hands were making it impossible to work in touchpad of phone. As phone was showing low battery i kept phone inside bag and started riding in direction told by these guys. very soon i found that i am in some IT park. that was a good thing I started asking from the security guards of the companies. and i got the way out. this road was fill be holes i was like sitting on camel, Water filled road was dangerous, at one place i went very deep inside water i could head bike's silencer struggling hard to pump out smoke. Thanks to 500cc engine i came out of pool safely. finally i found the Andhra Bank. took out my phone with 1% remaining battery. Bharath asked to come to some KS school and he told that he is coming towards me. Security guard of bank who woke up listening to the thump was not having any idea about that school but he pointed to a direction. I thought to get and idea about direction from bharath once again. but my phone was already dead. I continued in same direction where security guard pointed but was not able to locate and school. I decided to return back to Andhra bank ATM thinking that Bharath will surely reach there searching me, but i found Bharath on the way back to Andhra Bank. 

It was 1am when i reached his home. Had a quick showed i was all wet. My woodland shoes were weighing almost double with lot of water. Had a quick shower and dinner and then lots of talk which usually happens when we meet after a long time. Day started with Puja and Bharath's home and nice Andhra food. I have taken too much food that i have skipped lunch easily. by noon i moved to another part of hyderabad to meet another 2 friends the Sharma Family. Spent time with them .. and we had lots and lots of things to talk about. We roamed around in car in near by area but as it was raining cats and dogs, so missed he Bawarchi Biryani and char minar visit. Stayed at Sharma's place for saturday night. Sunday morning we visited Microsoft Campus, its was a huge campus. I enjoyed visiting campus as if i have visited a big  resort.

While Coming back to Bangalore

Coming back is always bad i was getting a feeling to continue further towards north and could have reached Himachal in next 2 or 3 days. but i was not free to move away from the commitments i had at office, started my journey at 3pm, i was at kurnool at 6pm fuel up to tank full here and continued further. i kept looking for the Dhaba where i have stopped while coming to Hyderabad but couldn't find it after Kurnool once more time clouds were again successful to make to wet, i had to ride some 3 Km in rain but then it was clear sky till i reach bangalore. I reached Bangalore Airport at 10PM, Another 40 minutes to reach to my house, i had dinner at a restaurant near to my house and after some phone calls i slept nicely. It was amazing experience, stable riding in rain has raised the proud feeling of owning a Royal Enfield.

Nahan, Himachal Pradesh to Bengaluru #trip3

Route Map ~2700 Kms

It was time to move back to Bengaluru to join office after year end holidays. I have to take my bike to Bangalore though i was confident to ride down 2700Km on my RE and enjoy real adventure but considering views from friends and family i made up my mind the riding ~2700Km alone is not a good idea. So plan was to send my bike by indian railways. i decided to ride bike up to New Delhi and from there send it via indian railways.

Foggy Road Before National Highway 1

On 2nd Jan 2012 i started from Nahan (Himachal Pradesh)at about 8 am , I was having a backpack with laptop and some clothes. I chose to ride up to Ambala and then take NH1 to reach Delhi. first break was at KalaAmb where i top-up fuel tank and met my in-laws. Moving further on NH72 i reached Naraingarh, from naraingarh i took state highway to reach Ambala as soon i crossed Shahajadpur, road visibility decreased with fog. Headlamp was on but was giving no happiness, travelled at 30kmpl upto Ambala and joined speedy zone. Increased speed to 80kmpl, I did not have breakfast at home so i stopped for a Alloo Prantha and tea at restaurant. After crossing panipat policeman stopped me, now this is interesting incident, i stopped bike removed my gloves, policeman asked me to show documents to other officer who was standing in the road side booth and was checking documents of other 2 wheeler, He was checking documents and was telling something about his washing machine, some comedy stuff .. others were smiling i also joined the queue with a smiling face. Along with the bike documents i had a letter from income tax department and officer took that paper, i remained quiet, he had a look on the letter and said to me," क्या लिख्या यो म्हारी समझ मा ना आवे, Licence दिखा दे " (i don't understand all this, you show your licence). i gave my driving licence which he returned after having a look and i continued my jounney. i reached Connaught Place delhi and called up my friend Prashant. Kept my bike at parking and went to new delhi railway station to enquire about parcel process. After riding from Nahan to Delhi i got a feeling of incompleteness as journey was not sufficient  for me i started thinking to ride further, but after talking to Prashant, Tejinder and Gaurav Gupta i again dropped the plan and started calling various transport facilities, some were charging too high some were asking for no objection certificate etc etc. Railway department was asking for a confirmed ticket after that only i am eligible for sending parcel.  finally at about 8 pm i decided to ride down to bangalore. Cancelled my flight ticket and had nice dinner with prashant.

Rajasthan Entry Pillars

Next day morning i was ready at 9am to leave gurgaun. Started my journey with top-up tank at gurgaun petrol pump and hit the NH8 towards jaipur, I was moving on 90kmph. After moving about 200Km i decided to take a break and all of sudden i got attracted by a roadside board with a restaurant name "Achanak" (Hindi word meaning "Suddenly"). Had nice alloo parantha along with a tea. People were staring my bike and asking common questions cost, milage, etc etc. Continued my journey after food and this time i increased speed i was riding above 100Kmph with a plan to finish today's ride before sunsets.

अचानक Restaurant

Stopped at petrol pump after some kilometers to feed the tank. i noticed that a shield of silencer was hanging out as one of the screw came out most probably due to vibrations. i had touched 120kmph during this time, at Night Prateek has told me to tighten all the screws before starting, but i forgot, few kilometers after petrolpump i found a shop where i could get a temporary screw to hold the shield, also tighten the other similar screws here. After this point i was mostly riding at about 100kmph and enjoying greenry of rajasthan. at around 6 pm i reached udaipur, with help of Prateek's sms and calls i finally managed to find "Pathako'n ki Pol" street and reached Prateek's house.

People Staring my Machine

Had bath and awesome dinner at Prateek's house and a night walk to famous Jagdish Temple and adjoining famous Lake. i was sleeping on the bed at about 11PM which is very early from the usual sleeping habit and as a result i got up early at about 3:30. I dont wanted to disturb Prateek's parents so i remain on the bed trying to sleep again, but i know myself i couldn't sleep after certain hours. finally i got my android and starting internet surfing. After about 1 hour Prateek's father got up and saw me awake, first he was worried i might got up due to cold but i ensured him that udaipur temperature is no cold for this pahadi. I managed to tell him that leaving early will be nice for me to reach pune on time.

Udaipur Palace on other side of Lake

Though he don't wanted me to send without eating something but finally he didn't stopped me. i got ready in some minutes and reached downstairs at parking place. I removed stand and tried to move, bike not heavy and when i looked the rear tyre it was flat. Oh i was really sad at this point. i was very eager to move as soon as possible but uncle told me that at this time no repair shop will be open, and we finally went back to house. He was also not able to sleep after this and sun was also out, finally uncle decided to take me for a morning walk along with search for nearby puncher repairing shops, We were on his scooter and we went to lake, He has showed be huge part of udaipur within short time which added udaipur to travel list. i will surely visit udaipur very soon. Parked scooter at a point and did 1 kilometer long walk, while returning i found a puncher mechanic near petrol pump. Back to house and then i said goodbye to Prateek's parents. We found and removed the nail from the tyre so that it doesn't make more holes in the tube . It was nice exercise to take bike to that petrol pump about 500 mts. After staring for some seconds he said its difficult to fix this tyre later he asked me put bike on center stand. Mechanic decided not to remove tyre from the bike's body instead he opened the tyre from the rim there itself. He got is watertub shifted near to bike and somehow with lot of tube rotation he fixed the puncher. By this time 3- 4 people were gathered watching bike and listening to me. People were not believing that i came from snowland himachal. only thing to prove them was HP number plate on my bike. Finally with a tea and all the best i left udaipur.

Big Parantha

Last day i have covered about 650Km and today target was to reach pune which was around 850Km, but i couldn't avoid taking breaks as they were must. so I tried to maintain speed above 100Kmph. Road was awesome i was riding towards Ahmedabad  on NH8 after crossing Ratanpur i took SH5 to reach Vadodara directly avoiding Ahmedabad. Just after starting on this state highway i found a Haryana Dhaba. I asked for 2 paranthas and a tea, the haryanavi guy replied back, "आपको तो एक ही बहुत होगा, शाम तक खाने की जरुरत नहीं पड़ेगी " (for you only 1 parantha is enough, you wont need anything till evening). And guy was true it was big parantha bigger than my Helmet, Parantha was like dipped in butter, along with Parantha he gave me plate full black daal. I managed to eat that complete parantha and continued my journey.

Ends Rajasthan Begins Gujrat

This state highway was two-lane road compared to NH which was 6 lane, i was thanking Narendra Modi for such a wonderful roads, after that Haryana Dhabha i left rajasthan and enjoyed Gujrat .. i visited Godhra before reaching Vadodara. After Vadodara i was back on NH8 and speeding up towards Mumbai. Awesome roads at a stretch i speed up and was able to touch 130 top speed. Odometer crossed 3000 mark at which i was suppose to get bike serviced. Morning parantha was enough not have anything during lunch but just to take a break i was looking for a restaurant at Bharuch. and i saw a gurudwara.  I stopped there visited gurudwara where sardarji asked to have prasada (food) at lunger hall. 

Gurudwara Chadar Sahib, Bharuch

I had no space to take any lunch but i went to lunger hall and had glass full of tea. Wherever i stopped and talked about my journey they were all showing a feeling that i am doing something stupid by riding this much distance on bike but here it was different, while i was tightening up my shoe laces, A guy came and said me "होर जी घुम्मण चल्ले"  i was so happy with greeting i had small chitchat with him and got to know that i was at Gurudwara Chadar Sahib and that guy was truck driver i might have crossed him sometime back and he did noticed Himachal number plate on bike. Got some more wishes from the guy and blessings from Guruji and continued journey. Around 1:40 PM i left gurudwara and i knew that pune is more 500km far. Riding and riding i reached Ghodbunder Junction from where i had to get out of mumbai highway and take state highway to reach pune sun was out of sky and pune was 170Km more at this place. Headlamp on and i have decided to not stop before pune, I unexpectedly i couldn't find bye pass and i spent time in traffic jams at thane, mumbra and panvel after crossing these towns i was on NH4 and enjoying the night ride. finally reached pune at about 10PM and it took another 30 minutes to find and reach Magarpatta City at pune. Veera Pavan came at gate of Magarpatta city. Many of his friends were already at his house to see me as he has informed to all that his friend from himachal is coming on bike. We had nice dinner prepared by Saleem, along with Ananth and all Pavan's friends. Along with dinner lot of talks and what not.  

Replaced temporary screw

I was supposed to get my bike serviced at pune and for that i decided to continue journey after 2 days. unfortunately RE at pune refused to service bike as they were already booked for a week. They suggested me to continue journey to bangalore and get bike serviced at bangalore. In these two days i finished some office tasks and little rest and met Kiran Sir and Pandit Akhilesh. 
Finally on saturday morning i left pune at about 8am.This was another 850 km slot that i have to cover awesome road we can actually see kilometers of straight road on this highways ..All straight roads were tempting me to try to reach another top speed point but somehow i controlled myself as bike didn't got serviced i didn't increased about 120Kmph and kept riding 300Km i stopped at petrol pump and again started riding.

last 500Kilometers left

Next stop was at mile stone showing bangalore 500Km took a photo and uploaded to facebook i didn't even waited to see upload complete notification. After this point i was like watching my odometer again and again. Now i wanted to cover it as soon as possible. My eyes were watching for the milestones showing be left kilometes, it was not even 60 -70 kilometers, and i saw a rajasthani dhaba Nice Army green color gypsy was parked in front of dhaba and i slowed down to get some food here . i had nice lunch here and continued ride. I was riding and only feeling was to end the journey as quickly but it was long distance. i  maintained my speed between 100 to 110 kmph. and kept riding Later at about 4:30 i again stopped at a punjabi dhaba of Shri Satnam Singh for a steel glass full of tea. Wife of satnam singh was shouting on the dhaba workers in punjabi. Another old babaji was cutting some vegetables on caned bed. I was feeling as in some punjab village. 

Welcome to Sajjanpur

Awesome had little chat with satnam singh and told him about my journey. He gave some more blessings along with instructions to ride safely. and i continued riding . Finally i was at bangalore at 7:30PM tweeting at some traffic signal at yashwantpur.. I was feeling Happy and satisfied with the journey. Someone has suggested me not to stop at bangalore and keep your ride continued upto Kanyakumari. but Bengaluru was enough for this time .. वैसे भी अब कन्याकुमारी कितना दूर है , किसी रविवार को हो आऊंगा  ;) 

Ride to Bimakali Temple, Sarahan #trip2

I was eagerly waiting for weekend to have a ride. Friday evening i finished my office work and started for shimla at about 6PM. There is a short-cut route from nahan to Shimla via Kumarhatti but road is getting renovated and is badly damaged (got to know from #trip1), and also it was ride with my headlamps on so i chose to ride via chandigarh which is better highway road, all packed with clothes i reached Shimla at about 9PM. Met my brother Ankur at Shimla University Campus. We both then went to IGMC area to have nice dinner and there we had lot of chit-chat along with nice food.  Reached back to Ankur's house after dinner and took rest, Ankur decided to join me on the ride. I came to Shimla undecided about destination, i just want to go to higher himalayas and enjoy the cold weather. Ankur told me about Bhima Kali Temple about 180 Km from Shimla. 

Warning up the machine at Shimla 3 degree Celsius

Next day morning we got up early at 8AM (yes that's too much early at Shimla). and starting our journey. Crossing Sanjauli, Dhali in shimla we were on National Highway 22. Next came the most dense forest of Asia. forest has dark green full of devdaar trees. narrow road inside jungle was taking us to higher attitude. We did not stopped and keep riding last night i had gone little pain at right hand knuckle and hence i was not feeling comfortable with the gloves. I gave gloves to Ankur and continued without gloves, after few kilometers i adjusted with the temperature and cold was bearable without gloves, atleast it was better than to little sweet pain. We crossed and beautiful village fagu and headed towards Narkanda. Narkarda is situated at an altitude of 2708 meters. We could see the snow/ice on the road sides. though i was wearing 6 layers of clothes but at this place i was feeling cold on my chest.

The Route

Ankur Stopped me at a village after he saw an Alto. I don't remember now but car was having a fancy number. it was his friend's car, met his friend, This guy warned us to be careful from the ice patches on the road, from this place we have to go down to Rampur town situated on the bank of river Satluj, many portion of this road remains in shadow away from the sunrays, which makes that portion refrigerated. Rolling down from this place we stopped at North View Dhabha for breakfast, near to Kumarsen. Had a black tea along with couple of Aloo paranthas. Being prime apple belt of Himachal raods are nicely maintained in this area. Also this area is constituency of Congress leader Virbhadra Singh. Rolling down the road we reached Rampur.

Road above the Hydel Power Station

I had been to this place before also but that was car ride to visit power generation plant. City also have Asia's Largest Hydro Project Nathpa Jhakri Power Corp. at Jhakri and also have world's deepest Surge shaft at shah 22 K.M. away from Rampur. Whole hydel project is built inside a mountain, from outside no one can judge road is crossing over a 5 story building inside a mountain. It was awesome view here. one side giant mountain and other side deep green coloured river satluj. after Rampur we again started climbing up the mountains. Road was broken and many places with signboard showing spots for landslides, these patches are normally not repaired frequently so tarred road totally vanishes for few hundred meters at these places. After reaching jeori we got out of the national highway and starting climbing Sarahan hills with a narrow road. we were crossing the apple orchards but beauty of these trees were lost because of off season, trees were only having hanging dried leaves. 

2 Wooden towers of BhimaKali Temple

Crossing the Camp of Indo-tibetian border police we were finally reached sarahan. people at these place were wearing green color himachali cap similar one former CM Virbhadra wears. Reaching here i learned that bhima kali temple is ancestral temple of Raja Virbhardra's Family. You can see the picture temple is built of pure wood and iron sheet on the roof. Temple comprises of two tower shaped multi-story building, one tower remains closed from public visitors and is only opened for Raja Sahib once in a year during particular time as told by purohit in the temple. Even in the other tower major part remains locked and only opened for pooja. we can see the deities from the small windows. Basement of this tower was closed with a sealed locked. this was treasure hall of the temple. for sure this will have huge treasure inside. After some photography here and there we settled at Hotel Shrikhand by HP Tourism department for nice lunch. 

Ankur at Hotel Shrikhand, Sarahan

 It was 3PM by we finished lunch we have to travel back to shimla which was 175Km back following is the picture showing the shimla mountains from bhimakali Temple.

Narkanda Mountain from Bhimakali temple, Sarahan

You can image the chillness of the roads we have to experience while going back. and also wearing gloves was still a pain, i tried to ride with hand gloves while starting back from sarahan, but removed them after few kilometes. Better to bear cold than the pain. We kept riding to cover max distance in sunlight i was riding with a target to cover Narakanda without headlamp on, but with all the curves it was impossible after kumarsen light were on and we kept riding. Now it was becoming difficult we needed a same shadow area i mentioned above was about to start, Ankur needed a break he told as he was tired of seating on the back seat. we stopped at small shop and had nice ginger tea along with hot pakoras. After this road upto narkanda was little dangerous. sides of the roads were frozen. Narkanda was coldest spot we crossed, we thought to ride directly upto shimla after break from Narkanda, but coldless couldn't allowed us we again took a break from the dense forest and had another ginger tree. the Dhabawala was kidding said, "aap pahle customer ho jinne chai mangi, loki taan Rum lende hain", (you are first customer asking for tea, all others asks for RUM). We were back at Shimla at about 8PM. We contacted another friend Raghav parked bike at his house and climbed to Ridge for nice dinner. Lot of talking and experience sharing and back to Raghav's House for sound sleep.

Next morning got up at about 9 and got ready for return journey to Nahan, Ankur was accompanied with me upto Parwanoo to spend time with Ketan, while going back we were stopping at many places and shooting some videos following is a clip i made from those videos

Stopped at RE Solan for general check-up, the mechanic adjusted chain little bit, rest all things

were fine. Had lunch with Ketan at Parwanoo and after little rest i continued my return journey to nahan. i was at home at about 9PM. I wanted to go to higher attitude craze of bike was pumping me regularly to plan another ride during Christmas holidays from from this ride i learned it is not right time to go on higher attitudes. Snowfall can anytime block the roads and keep me struck at any place. Also it was after a long time and i was enjoying winter at my home. Staying at South india from many years i might have lost the immunity to bear the coldness during snow time ;) 

Oh i made this blog very long .. stopping it now. Will be back soon with some other stuff on my blog, probably my next BULLET RIDE.