Churning out miles.........I am home

7:30 am and I am up, no alarms were needed. Karnataka Express would be reaching Delhi by 10:30am and I needed to be home by 2pm. I let Khatri sleep and the car engine comes to life at 8:15. By 8:30am, I am on the highway again. The day is bright, the skies all lit and no signs of the fog. 20 kms on, I run into fog but its not that dense. Visibility is around a km. At Shahpura, a policeman flags me down. I am ready with my tale but he makes a polite face and asks for a favour, his superior is standing by his side and he needs a lift to Kotputli. Wow!!! We chat and he tells me the history of the Delhi-Jaipur highway. How the earlier highway was a mess with ditches and jams, how tenders were invited and the new highway opened and where all he was transferred all along. But all along, he was too courteous for a policeman. At Kotputli he said okay and was off.
I continued and when Gurgaod was 30, I pulled in at a dhaba. It was 11:30, I ordered some paranthas and curd, called up biwi and broke the news to her. She didnt believe what I told her. It took five minutes to convince her that I was infact driving all the way from Bangalore and the Karnatka Express does not matter any more. Well, the next 2 hours will give people at home enough time to soak in the shock and make my arrival smooth.
I get into Gurgaon, keep following signs for Delhi and then Dhaula Kuan. I passed 2 tolls on the way (Rs 21 and Rs 17). But you don't mind the tolls if you get to drive through Gurgaon at 90km/hr. As the toll road ended, I reached a T point, I turn right here and hit Dhaula Kuan. At Dhaula Kuan, you need to stick to signs for Naraina and get on to the ring road. Stick to the ring road and be in the middle lane, being on the either of the other two lanes can lead you into tricky situations. Some of the right ones just turn right with no way to go straight. I have no such trouble as I stick to the middle lane. I keep on the ring road till Karnal road, at Azadpur. Here, I tae a left get on to the Karnal road and go straight towards Karnal (Panipat/Chandigarh). The byepass is in a mess and the worst section of the entire route from Bangalore. It takes me an hour to clear past the bye-pass mess.
At 2:15 pm, I am at Samalkha (70kms from Delhi). My brother-in-law comes out to receive me, he doesnt say anything, just smiles. He knows me.
2:30 pm, I have Mishti in my lap, her innocent cute face makes all the journey worthwhile. I am home.
Some decades back, my dad did Jammu to Kanya Kumari, and back, in his second hand Maruti 800. Today, somewhere up there, he must be smiling and feeling very proud. Its all in the genes. Someday, lil Mishti will read this read this story too.

Churning out miles.....Day 3

The alarm rings at 5:30 am. I do some calculations and decide its okay to pamper myself with some more sleep. 6:15 am, I cannot sleep anymore and am up. Khatri repeats the same story again. I am ready at 7:15 am, think of Mishti, biwi and all the cautious faces at office and pray really hard and honest.
7:30 am, car ready, tea and faafde breakfast later, we get on the highway. The deserted highway of the night is suddenly overcrowded and slow moving now. There are a lot more diversions and jams. Progress is slow. We finally manage some premium petrol at an Indian Oil pump at Rs. 51.69 a litre. Corsa returned some 15.18kms/ltr on normal petrol and the AC on. The speeds needless to say were 3 digit.
The first 120kms from Surat take 3 hours. I am drained in the traffic. To make it more worrisome, Jaipur has shifted 300kms further in the Sun. At night we calculated it to be some 770kms. Its now is some 1000kms and I am worried. We have not touched 1000kms in the last 2 days.
10:30 am, we reach Vadodra.
10:56 am, we get on to the Expressway to Ahmadabad. NE-1 is a dream. Its got rails on both sides and is absolutely straight. The toll is Rs. 72 and it is just to little for the experience it offers. The trucks and most of the vehicles stay away and the six lane highway offers too much space.
As soon as we get on the expressway, Khatri wants to stop for a pee, food and fags. The toll collector had told us that there's a Reliance A-1, 60 kms down the road. But Khatri is restless, he wants to get down and pee immediately. The expressway is inviting and I press the pedal. Khatri jumps around the first ten minutes and then looks into the speedo, we are doing some 140 kms/hr, he no longer moves, all his urges are left behind somewhere. I switch on the headlights, shift to the fourth gear, the engine grunts and I floor the pedal again. The needle goes past the 150 mark. Khatri is on a one track, "Paahji.......paahji......paahji.......paahji". People keep giving way as they see the headlights in their rear views, Farhan shouts "Rock on!!!" and we go past 160 and Khatri just manages to take a pic. Then, I decide to drop it off. I shift back to 5th gear. 120km/hr looks like 60 now and all cars look like they are crawling. We continue to whizz past them. We do 60 kms in 27 minutes. Ohhhhh, what a feeling!!!!!
Khatri no longer wants to pee but we still stop at the Reliance A-1. All three of us refuel. Corsa gets the clean Reliance petrol at Rs 48.59 a litre and air check for the tyres and we fill in idlis, samosas and bhajjis. The stopover costs 30 minutes and we are on the highway again.
Now just before the expressway ends, there is a exit for the Ahmadabad bye-pass. Khatri has misplaced the toll chit and while looking for it at 100km/hr, we miss the only sign board for the bye-pass and miss the exit. At the toll, we convince the collector that we had paid the right toll at the entrance and then regrettingly enter Ahmedabad city. But, somehow, we realise that we are on the wrong road, take a right at one of the cross sections in the city, keep going straight till we get to the ring road again. Google maps did help again, but half an hour is wasted.
Some 20 kms from Ahmedabad to Himmatnagar are double laned, then you get on to the toll road again. The traffic is light and the towns sparse again. Jaipur is some 650kms away. Its already 2 and the noon Sun is beating the tarmac. The AC is pressed on, the heat is shut out and the speedo continuously shows 110kms/hr. I am dead worried about the lack of time and stop listening to Khatri's blabber. Its a race here on. Karnataka Express is pressing on!!!!
2:25pm and we enter Rajasthan at Ratanpur. The road is still smooth but its a ghat section. We still are at 90km/hr and we manage an exceptional 80km an hour average till Udaipur.
At 5:00pm, we turn right to get on to NH76 to Chittaurgarh. The board reads 102kms. 6:00 pm and we enter Chittaurgarh. This stretch is I believe was the best road of the entire route. The traffic was non-existent and we hardly had to break. We dinot cross 115-120kms/hr anywhere still managed to do a 105 kms in an hour. But Chittaurgarh doesnot have a bye-pass and we have to go into the city. Khatri wants to take a break again. He is desperate, but so am I. He finally makes me brake at a small dhaba. He just has aaloo parantha and tea to offer.

It takes him 30 minutes to get the parantha in shape. I take a 10 minute nap and clean the windscreen. A 40 minute break and we are back on the highway. Its jammed, dusty and filled to the brim. Somehow, we get back on the four laned road again and break at Indian Oil pump. A Qualis comes and bangs us, from the side, at the pump. We get into a fight. He sees the Punjab number plate and threatens this is his area and then starts acting funny as we get on the highway. He keeps slowing down, lets us pass and then cuts past trying to hit us. Well, we stop at the toll naka, get to the police, they give us an emergency number, take down the idiot's number and tell us there is nothing to worry. We get on with munching miles.

We mistake and enter Bhilwara and waste a precious 20 minutes. Its almost 8 pm and Jaipur is some 250 kms away. We press on. I am fatigued. I call it the highway factor. After continuously loooking at the highway for hours, there comes a time when you can't concentrate any more. I want to stop and take a nap somewhere. I tell this to Khatri and he switches off the stereo and starts his commentary. He mimicks my director, manager and who not. He recounts his college life, funny instances, jokes and I am fresh and alert again.

Somewhere around 9:30 pm we hit the queue at the Kishangarh toll naka. Its a long queue, takes some 40 minutes for our turn to come. 20 minutes later, we stop for a quick tea. Khatri smokes as I tell Biwi that the train has hit fog bigtime and is going to be late. Fog does start coming on to the highway.

Sometime around midnight we reach Jaipur. I want to carry on, but Khatri's company ends at Jaipur, I will be alone from here on and I am tired. I decide to stay at Jaipur. Khatri says that he will stay with me and move on in the morning. This Khatri, after the initial jitters, has been most amazing. He stuck with me throughout, kept me entertained and even though getting down at Udaipur suited him most, stuck with me till Jaipur and then instead of getting on with his planned stop with friends at Jaipur, stays with me at the hotel. Amazing!!!!

We find a place to stay at Bikaner road on the Jaipur bye-pass and at 1 go about looking for a place to eat. Khatri only wants shahi paneer. The whole town is shut, the roads are deserted, hardly any soul in sight and then a miracle happens, just 100m from our hotel, a small shop is still open. We get amazing, shahi paneer. I eat 4 rotis inspite of no hunger and Khatri who looked like he would devour a lion, had just 2. Rs. 70 for the dinner and we get back and hit the mattress. I had decided to start late the next morning because of the fog at Delhi. Again, I sleep well.

And yes, the 1k kms barrier still remained. We just did 930 kms. Well what can I say, tomorrow is a new day, though with just around 350kms to go.

Tips:

Drive safe and within your limits. In the longer run, reducing stops helps more in increasing average distance per hour than over speeding. So on day 1, I was taking a break every 2 hours. Early on day 2, we started taking breaks every 3 hours and then every 200kms. On day 3, we were breaking every 300 kms.

Be very cautious off funny movements on the medians between lanes, especially in Rajasthan. Most of these creatures trust you with saving their lives!!!

Keeping the headlights on even during daytime helps. The people in front vacate your lanes well in advance and you do not need to slow down and honk endlessly.

Road conditions on NH8 after Baroda are fabulous. The road is four-six lane through out and traffic becomes sparse after you enter Rajasthan.

Beware, about the exit for the Ahmadabad ring road towards the end of the NE-1 expressway from Baroda. It just vanishes in a second and there is no way of getting back to it again. Similarly, at Bhilwara, at the Y junction, the right side road leads into the town and the left one is the bye-pass. The instructions on the board are a little confusing.

Even the smallest of dhabas in Rajasthan and Gujarat serve fabulous stuff. So feel free to stop anywhere.

Goto Final Day (Day 4)

Churning out miles.....Day 2

I am up around 6:15 and hasten things. Khatri is fast asleep. No amount of shouts and alarms move him. I freshen up, bathe and prayers done, I jump on the car. Check the air in the tyres, the engine oil level and water level for the wind shield. The pipe is out again, all water drained out. I refill the water and test the thing again. Its working as of now. I wash the car and all is ready at 7:20. Just then Khatri appears with his luggage. So we hit road again at 7:30.

The google maps are a boon, we do not have to stop and ask anybody for directions. We join the highway again and Khatri wants to break his fast. He says, it is urgent. We pull in at a small dhaba. He has nothing but upma and tea. He fill in and hit back the highway. Belgaum is 85km from here.

The late morning traffic is still lazy, the road is winding but good and we pick up speed. At 8:30, we cross the place where all huts/houses are painted with the Airtel advertisement. Khatri cant take a pic at 100kms per hour. In fact, all through the trip, he failed to take a single good shot from the moving car and I dont want to stop. I wanted to keep my date with Karnataka Express at Delhi on the 4th morning. With just 430 kms on the first day, and another 2100 kms to go, I was beginning to get a lil worried.

The speed keeps hovering around 100 and with no stoppages, we enter Maharashtra around 1030 am. Pune is 225 kms from here. We stop at a MacDonald's and it is the most expensive meal of the day. They only have small 500ml water bottles, that they sell at Rs 16 each and for that too there's a queue. What a pity!!!! I drop the idea of getting water after 10 minutes in the queue.

I start looking for a petrol bunk, but the ones near the towns are off the highway and the ones on the highway either do not have petrol at all or only have normal petrol. After driving for 30 kms in reserve, I ditch the idea of getting premium fuel and fill 10 litres of BP normal petrol.

Petrol in Maharashtra is cheap as compared to Bangalore. At Bangalore, Shell, I paid Rs 56.45 for a litre. Here it is just 48.50 a litre for the normal. The air pump again is out of order :-).

The Corsa returns a 16.3kms/litre, with 3 figure speeds and the air in the tyres not proper. I desperately want to get the air check done.

At 11.55am, we cross the Taswade toll plaza. Its Rs. 47 for the next 60kms. At 12:45pm we pay another 25 at another toll plaza. Another Rs 14 as toll and we are at Pune. Its 1:30 pm.

Google maps start working once again, no need for stopping for instructions. I again start looking for petrol pumps, and almost 20 kms later find one BP outlet.
This one is huge but as usual does not have premium petrol. I do a tank full on normal petrol. 43 litres and Rs 2100 later, the air is checked. All tyres had 35!!!! They could have burst. I get the air to 30 in all and we grab some chips and water and move on. 3 kms later, we are on the dream express way. Everyone is excited. At 3:40 pm, we pay the Rs 140 toll to Mumbai. We break for a Vada Pav and a quick nap at a wayside eatery. There is a huge rush there and the food is bad. This is the first eatery on the express way. There was another one some 30-40 kms ahead,which looked a little promising. Anyhow, we are happy to be on the dream express way and the Corsa is consistently doing 120km/hr+, but the swifts and the skodas keep on overtaking us at breathtaking speeds. I am tempted to floor the gas pedal, but the thought of my 1 month old daughter keeps holding me. I had decided to drive in my limits and keep it safe.

4:30 pm and we are on to the Sion-Panvel expressway. Mumbai always looked scary to tackle. I am a lil nerved about the directions, but this guy Arpan Diwanjee, in Venkat's words, is a very good boy and the directions he has given just second Venkat. The directions he gave on the mail are spotless. We regularly pass all the landmarks he pointed out and run into crampy roads.
I am worried but stick to Arpan's directions. We keep following the Sion-Panvel Expressway and then leave it to hit the road to Thane and continue to Airoli. At 5:15pm, 2 toll plazas later, we enter Thane. We take a right at the third flyover and come on the Gorbunder road. Its straight to the NH8 from here. Think of it, having crossed Mumbai, without having to stop for directions anywhere. I am mighty please with myself and am filled with gratitude towards Arpan. Thanks, sir!!!

At 6:08 pm, we hit the NH8. The road is in a bad shape. A heavy dust haze settles on the road ahead, the water jet stops working again, traffic is heavy, dusk is fading into the night and the air is humid. At times, I am almost blinded. I try following one of the speeding Swifts, but the all those guys are high on adrenaline and I decide to be sane. I cannot do 100 km/hr with a haze in front. I struggle till a Kamath on the way.

We take a long break at Kamath. Its almost 5 hours since the last break, this is pleasing. I buy a quick fix at the Kamath shop and fix the water jet once and for all. It did not bother us again. A couple of idlis and a strong coffee later, we are back on the highway. It is 7:35pm. Khatri wants to stop at 10pm, I want to push till wherever. After the break, I am fresh and Surat is some 220 kms away. I also call up Arpan and thank him. I also call up biwi and tell her that I am about to board the train. It starts at 7:30 pm from Bangalore and reaches Delhi at 10:30 am on the third day. We also meet one of the daredevil Swift drivers at Kamath. The guy is well over 45 and he has a family with him. Why on earth would you want to drive crazy with your children in the front seat. I cant and will not do that in a lifetime. One side of the Swift is testimonial to what I say. Guys drive safe and in your limits, especially when with a family onboard and then you never know, the guy coming from the front might have a family by his side. Lives are too precious to waste on blood rushes.

From here on Khatri starts making his notes in Hindi and his writting even in the moving vehicle is exceptional.

Khatri is hungry and wants to call it a day at Surat. At 10:30pm, I quietly bye-pass Surat. Khatri realises this ten minutes later and feels cheated. Now there are no hotels or dhabas on the road and traffic is thinning. Finally at 10:50pm we see a secluded almost closing restaurant by the road. We pull in. We had the best food of the trip here. We had a Gujarati veg curry and daal tarka with Bajra roti's. Amazing food. The bill is just Rs. 105, I give a Rs. 50 in tip. Both the waiter and me are happy. The place is Shree Krishna Park. Khatri gets into a talk with the dhaba owner and both of them suck each others brains out. I quietly come back to the car. I clean the windscreen and am ready to go. Khatri appears ten minutes later and is mighty pleased with himself and says, "choos liya usko". Kisne zyada choosa, this will always remain a mystery to me. I didn't hear the Dhaba owner's side of the story. Khatri has written some 2 pages on this encounter. Interested souls can leave their contacts for more details.

At 11:30pm,some 10kms further, we call it a day. The place is called Pacific Inn. At Rs. 675 a room, the place is expensive but Khatri is adamant. I give in and we settle down. Khatri says Jaipur is just 700kms away and I calculate on the Eicher atlas and come up with 770 kms. It looks very manageable and but I decide to start early. I set the alram to 5:00 am and shut my brain, Khatri is still talking.

860 kms with almost 16 hours on the road!!!!!

1k kms a day appears so distant. But, tomorrow is a new day

I slept well.



Mumbai Bye-pass :

(With inputs from Arpan )

As the expressway ends continue on the highway, this is the Sion-Panvel Expressway.Keep going straight. After approx 5-6km you will come to a flyover which will show Thane as straight and left for Mumbai/dadar/Vashi. Landmark - right side u will see Glenmark pharma glass building, Bajaj dealership,Hyundai dealership. DONOT go on that flyover (the flyover starts from the left side of theroad) and continue going straight. There will be another couple of flyovers turning left for Vashi. Keep ignoring them and keep going straight. You will leave behind the highway and come on to some what crampy roads and suburbs. Keep on going straight towards Airoli. You will see Reliance city on the right side. Keep going straight till you come to this signal where the left turn is to go underneath the railway tracks(this is after a petrol pump and the board will say "AIROLI") take that left and follow the road (one circle will come) then you will cross airoli sea bridge, and then a toll naka (Rs 30) after the toll naka, you will come to another intersection under a flyover, turn right to come on to the Eastern Express highway to wards Thane. You will come to one more toll naka (Rs 30), cross the toll naka and you are in Thane. Keep going straight and take a left turn underneath the third flyover (Ask anyone for Gorbunder road if in doubt) once u take a left you are on gorbunder road. Follow the road for 15km and cross 1 toll naka (Rs 15) and immediately after you cross the toll naka you will have a main signal where you need to take a right. This puts you onto NH-8 from where you head to delhi !

Tips:

• Keep the toll ready and keep the change ready or be ready for toffees.


• NH4 after Hubli is great and you need to stay awake and be alert.


• Do not wait for Petrol to get into reserve, there are not many pumps near towns as you keep taking bye-passes and the ones on highways won't have the premium petrol and would be shabby. Pune bye-pass is a classic example of this. There is just one rundown Indian-Oil bunk at the start and the next one is some 15kms away just 3kms before the start of the express way.


• There are plenty of options to stay on the highway once you cross Mumbai and some good ones too. This stream of hotels continues till Surat. The amazing bit is that every third hotel is named Hotel Decent (Jab We Met aftermaths???)


• Check the state of wipers, even with no rains, you need them to be in perfect order to drive at night.

Goto Day3

Churning out miles.....Day 1

So, 2pm by the clock, we start. The outer ring road is all jammed and we drag. At 3:15, we cross Neelamangal but Bangalore traffic still follows us. Its 3:30 pm and we stop for lunch at the Reliance A-1 dhaba somewhere between Neelamangla and Tumkur. Its a strict no-no.

Don't waste your time here. Its is no longer run by Reliance and offers awful quality of food. We had roti with chana masala. The roti was old and so was the curry. Khatri had his fags and it almost cost us Rs 200 with avoidable butter milk thrown in. Stay away.
The roads are mostly crowded and patchy till Tumkur except a 32 km toll road patch (Rs 11.50). I havenot seen so many trucks in all my life as I see in the first 80 kms. At 4:15 pm, at Tumkur, beware, the broader road goes towards Shimoga and you need to take a right turn onto the dusty narrower road. We missed this and realised this quick and in time, came back and got stuck in another jam on the right road. So, 1st 3 hours go by and the trip meter shows just 83 kms. I start getting worried. I had planned to touch Kohlapur today.

It was a 629kms from Bangalore.

At 6:00pm, we take another break, the sun is going down and we have just crossed the wind mill farms on the hills. Its a Rajasthani dhaba and Khatri is more than happy to be at 'home'. A tea and some air in the tyres later, we are back on the highway. The air in one of the tyres was 25 while the others were 35!!! I felt a strange retarding force holding the car back all the way to this place. After the air check, the car feels more like the Corsa I have known. The drive is smooth now. Light is quickly fading now and

Chitradurg is another 16 kms from here.

The condition of road from here to Ranebennur is no big secret. The next 110 kms of the double-laned National Highway are sprinkled with diversions, rough patches, 1-5 feet of ditches, reckless bus drivers and too many trucks. The entire stretch is under a dust haze with coming head lights adding to the confusion. I start wondering about the wisdom for a Mission Chandrayaan when mortals have to ply on such roads. I mean you cannot turn a blind eye towards the common man and spend billions and send a man on moon. Beats logic!!!!

Anyhow, as Amir Khan wonders with Preity as to why people fall in love, we start falling in love with the roads. Miracuously, the road becomes four laned again and we start munching miles again. And just then, we see a big BP pump with a ghar restaurant. I decide to stop and have a try at what looks like the last shot for a decent dinner. Its already 9:10pm. I have a water jet for the wiper to fix. Its not throwing any water which is a cause for worry with so much dust on the highway. We pull in at 'Ghar' and order thalis. At Rs 40 each the thallis are worth it. I finish off mine quickly and attend to the water jet. The pipe was cut and had been given a hacky fix by the service center guy. The pipe keeps slipping of the nozzle and thus keeps draining out the water too. I push the pipe back on to the nozzle, alls well.

We enter Hubli at 10:30 pm and it takes another hour to find a place to park our butts. 9 hours on the road and just 430 kms to show for it. Its cruel, I decide to take an early start the next day, but Khatri wants to take it easy. He drinks his adha and we talk. He says that he has been wanting to see all the places on the route to his hometown, Jodhpur, in Rajasthan. This, he says, is his chance. We sleep off somewhere post 1. Tomorrow is a new day.

Road Conditions:

NH4 is very crowded from Bangalore to Tumkur.

NH4 is double laned between Chitradurg and Ranebennur.

Decent eating places are far and few. Do not wait for the next one.

Most of the petrol bunks, I crossed did not have the air pump working. You will have to rely on puncture shops.

Goto Day2

Churning out miles.....The build up

"What!!!!", said Ravikant and then he went on to lecture me on how much my 1 month old daughter and my wife loved me and how they needed me by their side and so, why I needed to keep my natural instincts in wraps all my life and do saner things in life. But then, life is not about compromising always and Frahan Akhtar's voice would repeatedly prick me into going for dreams you have been seeing with your eyes open. "Zindagi milegi na dobara", he says. So "Rock on!!!".
My wife bears testimony to all the hours I spend on the Eicher atlas and how I can rattle off distances between towns in a flash. All these years, the hours spent studying the atlas and reading travelogues had only being adding frustartion to my life and rust to my Corsa. It had come to a point that I was just plain unhappy with myself and so this drive had to happen. Wifey had made me pledge not to go on rides, but as a safe option she had reasoned, "But, obviously you are 'free' to drive whereever you want" and so I had the loophole in the law which could be exploited.
So Bangalore to Panipat it was going to be. The Corsa needed to see the light of the day. I brought it out and parked it at a local garage with instructions to ready it for the long haul. Next thing, I started looking for comapnions, Chamoli was already lazying at home in Dehradun, Ashutosh had just come back, Pradeep's parents were away and then I asked the most unlikely guy sitting next to me, Hitesh Khatri. Khatri happens to be from Rajasthan and is always bubbling with enthusiasm. He agreed at the first go............and lo, everything was falling into place.
The plan was to start on the 2nd (Jan, 2009) afternoon and hit Delhi on the 4th Morning. It was a little aggressive but looked achievable to my inexperienced mind. My earlier experiences with long hauls were almost next to none. For years I had been reading about people on my bike group, Bike Nomads (BN), comfortably doing 1000+ kms in a day on a bike, I had a car 1400cc car which could safely do 3 digit speeds. So all looked so logical. The plan was to avoid MP and the Hyderabad route, do the extra 500 kms and go through Pune, Thane, Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Jaipur and Delhi. NH4 and then NH8 all the way.
On the 31st, Khatri coolly backed off. He said, his mother was ready to pay for the airfare and its a strict no from his family. I was devastated. I knew this was not his mother but some busy minds at office who termed this journey as insane and a road to heaven. They said it is very unsafe and not a drive from one cross-section of the city to another (which they do twice a week at odd hours, all tipsy)!!!! I reasoned and he dismissed. Surely he couldnt let down his mom. I spoiled my entire day cursing everybody in sight. Finally I reasoned that I cannot let all the frustration to set in again after having already seen the Sun at the horizon and that my dreams should not be dependent on others. So, I decided to start early on 1st Jan itself, preponing the trip by a day. This was a masterstroke, I can safely say this now, in hindsight and you will find out later. I spoke to couple of friends on BN and they said do it, even if alone. I had the confidence now. I remembered that one guy on BCM touring did Mumbai-Leh all alone on his Pulsar 200 and he gave me immense confidence. Buddy, whereever you are you gave me immense inspiration, a big THANKS and this drive is dedicated just to you.
Arpan, helped me with directions through Mumbai. Venkat, gave contacts in Belgaum. Z-Tech motors' Manoj got the Corsa ready, I made available information about the roads from blogs and Eicher Atlas was ready. I also downloaded the Google Maps application onto my mobile, this was another master stroke. Got GPRS Rs. 140 a week package activated on my mobile. The clothes were packed and all was ready at 830pm on the 31st Dec,08. Then, the phone started ringing, it was Khatri. I ignored him and he persisted and messaged. Finally we talked, he was drunk and ready for the drive!!!! I said, I can't trust you any longer and I have preponed the trip and am starting tomorrow. He said that he will come, just delay it by a few hours. I get tempted for company and relent. And so, all is set.

Route:
Bangalore-Tumkur-Hubli-Belgaum-Kohlapur-Pune-Thane-Daman-Surat-Baroda-Ahmadabad-Udaipur-Chittaurgarh-Kishangarh-Jaipur-Delhi-Samalkha (Panipat).
Follow NH4 to Thane and then NH8 to Udaipur. Shift to NH76 to Chittaurgarh and then from Chittaurgarh NH79 to Kishangarh. From here get back to NH8 again till Delhi. From Delhi its NH1 till Samalkha, Panipat.
Distance as per atlas is 2577.

Goto Day 1

Six voyagers and the same road

Hit the road when the bike's hot..........thats a common biking proverb n we did just that. Bangalore-Ooty-Wellington-Bangalore was all about a lot of cherished dreams turning into memories.
Six of us, on five bikes, had all the pleasure.
So here is the first hand account for an adernaline high.
Sathish, the dude on his Pulsar 150cc.
Ashish Chamoli, the veteran on his Avenger,
Ashustosh and Gurinder, the Royal Enfield bearers,
Yogesh, the pillion getting a run-in
and the novice, yours truly, out to 'Avenge'...................... ......and the blood rush began.

It all began with me acquiring an almost new Avenger from a firang, and I suddenly rediscovered a part in me that was all lost in the race for higher packages. And there I was threatening all sorts of people for accompanying me on a trip. On one of these threatening sessions, I met Ashish, Chams to the rest of the mankind. He agreed to accompany and arranged a reluctant gang too.

I was soon to find out what seperates the world of bikers from the rest of their brethren.
It was decided that all of us meet at the MG Road HP bunk at 7pm sharp. Of the five, originally on, only three of us, the dude, Chams, n urs truly, made it there at sharp 8pm and the rain decided to join us from there on, to fillin for the rest. So in maddening traffic, horns blaring, rain playing spoilsport and moon playing hide seek in the clouds......three bikes and their bikers set off. We stopped at Shell to quench the bellies of our dream machines and waited fruitlessly for rain Gods to have mercy.
Alas, there was none and off we went again. Chams leading the way, with nothing in sight, the speedo constantly touching the ton and urs truly fearing for his life. Suddenly all the despair of my beloved not with me vanished. It was my bloody life at stake!!! Poor Sathish, scared of being left high n dry in wake of a bike failure, religiously followed the belligerent Chams. This Chams must have been an Aussie in his previous life.

Finally, we stopped at the Biryani house near Kamath, drenched to the bone, for some biryani. Poor me a veggy by choice (pyaar ke liye sab chod diya ;-) ), had the good old daal chawal as Chams and our dude finished plates of chicken curry in no time and lo we were back on the road. The rain finally stopped and so did Chams passion for speeeeeeeed. I guess he is a filmy sort of a fellow (Remember all those 'aag lage tan man mein jab paani barse hai' songs). Suddenly the roads were empty (it was 11:30 in the nite) and dry and the Avenger rose like pheonix from sleep (may be it was to do with the all pure Shell petrol burning in its belly) and we did the rest 100kms in 90 mins flat.
As the clock rung in 1, we entered Mysore and so did the rains. So all three of us, singing feeling wet wet, roamed around the deserted Mysore streets looking for a certain ?@#@@&%%? road.
Finally, we checked-in at Anshu's den @1:30 and by 2:00am, I had made the supreme sacrifice of my mattress for Chams' cushions. So I was on cushions, the dude on the Sofa and Chams comfy on a huge mattress. I must confess at least now that I had a hard time falling sleep on those cushions.

With practically no sleep and some 150kms under my belly and no sweet talk from wifey, I was up at 7:00. And only then did I find what sort of stuff these bikers are made up of. It so happened, that Ashu who had slogged till 2 in the night to finish off some work at office, Gurinder paahji who had waited for the rain to stop till 2:30 and had managed to get up at 4(!!!!), had started for Mysore at 5 am to catch up with us.........I cant think of myself ever doing that. N this is when Yogi joined in.......riding pillion on the TB, he was to get his run-in.

So after a quick breakfast and Guri's quick burst, all the bikes were lined towards Gundaplet, throttling towards Ooty. The road was great, the Sun merciless and our baked bodies did good work of the distance on the all hot bikes and by 12:30 we were ready to take on the 'mights' of the hair pins.

The all famed hair pins were in fact gr8 fun. Fun, coz I saw so many vehicles rolling back instead of going upwards, ha hah ha. I wonder what will they do on steeper inclines of Himachal, Uttranchal!!!! But my beauty from Bajaj, did it in style, whereas Ashu's famed TB had to stop twice gasping for breath (chi chi chi........that too with a 350cc belly).

Finally after waving at all the monkeys on the way, we were in ooty and the rains..........ooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh again wet wet wet. The first thing we did was to buy rain jackets. Chams figured out that he had been carrying one all the time (I told u na these bikers are a different race all together!!!). So with rain suddenly starting to pour in buckets rather than in droplets, the two sardarjis had a quick Gujrati thali each while the rest again devoured some chickens.

With all the things bathed in freshness, Ooty looked all the more green and suddenly so more inviting and off we went looking for a certain Hotel Riga in Wellington. I was very keen on this Riga place, having read the gr8 lonelyAztec's blog on IndiaMike, and was adamant on staying there. Whereas Guri wanted to stay away from the crowded Ooty. N the rest of the fellows cudnt budge the determination of the two SARDARS and had to drop in with us!!!!

Now I must tell u how right LonelyAztec was,
this place Wellington is entirely different from Ooty. It still is quiet with absolutely no shops n commercialisation. It is so sleepy and fresh. Hotel Riga sat on top of a hill overlooking the typical small town railway station and what cud be better than the gates closed for the toy train to arrive. And lo behold I had the great darshan of the chaiya chaiya train (run on some bio diesel).

The hotel had another surprise, the receptionist awakened me to the fact that it was tourist season and the rates and gone to 1500 per room. N then began the hour long bargaining session, we bargained and they reasoned, and finally the 2 rooms were ours @1100 per room with an exxxxtra mattress thrown in each.

After some refreshing rest while pulling each other's legs, we finally hit the bazaar for some food and booze. I had the most memorable Kerala Parontha and Omellette in the restaurantless Coonoor market. This shack was right in front of the bus stand, a shady place but the service and food good.
I liked it but, Guri decided not to enter the smelly place and instead shared a table with another 'gay' (strictly means happy) tamil friend at another restaurant. After having filled our tummies to the hilt and no luck with booze, we returned to our hotel only to find that the bar there doesnt serve liqour but they said u can get ur own and drink in the bar!!!!!!

Well nite was chilly for a blanket and I got up more than once to check when the sun wud be out.
N when the sun came and temperatures became normal, it was again time to hit the road. After lots of photographs in the Hotel garden, the bikes smoked the air again. We went straight to ooty, had breakfast at a roadside shack and hit the botanical garden straight away. My recommendation is, if you are not a botany student and dont like seeing crowds, dont waste your time here.
Courtesy 3 hours wasted at the garden, we had no time for anything else and so it was time to start the descend again. So back to bikes.

We started back for Bangalore around 12 and courtesy an early start, this time the ride was leisurely, interrupted every now and then with delicious coffees. I forgot to mention the coffee was awesome through out the trip. U stop at any place and u can be assured that the orange tea and coffee wud b gr8. Enjoying monkeys playing and elephants strolling, we reached Mysore at 3:30pm.

The next 1 hour we spent waiting for biryanis at I dont know which restaurant. I hope Ashu wud put in place's name.
The biryanis were ok and the service......pathetic.

Finally we hit the road (again in rain)
at 5:45pm and once out of Mysore, Sardarji did a Mr. India. The guy just vanished. Havent seen him since then. I later heard about all his daredevils and discussed it with my good friend Venky. He told me that boys always ride fast and men always want to enjoy. That certainly clarifies things. I guess at 29, I am a man and he a boy. And being a man means a lot of responsibilities (read EMIs, wife and kids), and driving slow!!!!!

We broke the journey again a number of times and finally stopped at Chadigar Panjabi Dhabba (no there is no spelling mistake!!!) for coffee and final ok tatas. That was the last time I saw the rest on this trip. The man finally entered home at 9:30pm.

The odo read 588km and I was looking forward to another trip. Nooooo I was never tired.
I will do the trip again with my best friend, my great companion, my soul mate and my beloved and smell the freshness in the air again, and enjoy the smile in her eyes (which I missed so much on this trip.).

LU motu.

More pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/29172863@N00/sets/72157600113007591/