Ride to RM: Day 2

Day 2. Monday. 19th Jan. Mulund

An early morning take off was planned, but by the time we were out the door, the clock had crept past 8. We needed to cover a little over 700km to get to Udaipur, and the start of which would be through Mumbai morning traffic. Karthik again helped us out here by giving us precise directions to get to Gorbandar and out of Mumbai. We got a bit of a taste of Mumbai morning traffic, but were thankfully on the outskirts just as it started to clog up. I managed one wrong exit though and did my  drop anchor-waddle back routine again. I wonder where all this practice is leading to.

Breakfast and Fuel were called for as soon as we got on the highway. It turned out to be an affair, longer than we planned and we hit the road again only by about 10:30. Fuel and food stops come with their own entertainment. People checking out the bikes and then the hushed voices about where we come from and why we are dressed like we are going to war. Usually there is one brave soul who comes and asks us the pertinent questions, more often than not, starting with the "how much does it cost?", then moving on to the "what is your fuel efficiency?" and finally to "where do you come from and where are you going?". I even had one guy asking me how much I make in a year! This pioneer then transforms into the local wikipedia entry on us and dishes out the details to anyone else who is interested.

Our answers would of course vary at every location. I was the one underplaying our bikes and Sam was all about giving them accurate and more than accurate specs. Like for instance when they asked us how fast the bikes went, I was always trying to keep our answers around the 120kmph mark, but Sam loved watching their reaction by saying stuff like 160/180/200. I think he even zapped someone by saying something like 50 or 60 kmpl for the "Kitna deta hai" question. This stop was the first, but not the last, where we were mistaken to be from Kerala. Something to do with the number plates, because I am pretty sure neither of us remotely smelt of coconut oil. Or maybe they had seen that we did not like being overtaken!

Next stop was around Daman where we were thrilled to pay much lesser for fuel than back home. Surat was conquered a little later and Udaipur now looked within reach. Gujarat roads, did I mention, are awesome. It is the trucks that make it challenging. Or fun. Post Surat we were pretty much in video game mode. Trucks would occupy the middle lane and were pretty disciplined. We had the lanes on either side to zip past them. But what is one to do when one of them decides to overtake a peer, one at the dangerous speed of 52 kmph and the other hovering around 51, while a third enjoys the ringside view at 50kmph. You of course find a gap and gun it and leave them to their tussle. This of course repeated every few km's, or what felt like every few 100m on our bikes. Can you imagine the conversations at the truck stops? "Man I am telling you, I slip-streamed that Tata truck like nobody's business". "All it took me was 20km to overtake that guy and did I gun it after that." The bus from the movie Speed wouldn't have lasted more than 5km on our Indian roads. That did not deter some of the bus drivers from trying though, so they would be prepared just in case.

I must say though that this was the day I saw more trucks than I have seen in my entire life. We crossed Ankaleshwar and found the mother of all truck jams. A narrow long bridge across the Narmada river funnels traffic into the highway to Vadodra and this is where we were stuck as well for a good 20 minutes. Thankfully we could squeeze our way through, to the utter dismay of the cagers looking on in envy.

The hot day and trucks called for a hydration stop pretty soon. Still full from a greasy breakfast, neither of was wanted to eat lunch. We instead chose to spend some time on TLC for our bike chains. Bikers and our priorities I tell you. This was going to be the start of our 2 meal a day policy. I think we did compensate for the time in our hydration department though. Given our uric acid levels, both of us were advised by our doctor to drink plenty of water and we took that pretty seriously. Which obviously meant you saw one of us pulling over in a hurry every now and then. Gloves off, walk/jump/run to nearest tree/bush/bridge and get business done with. This was sometimes played out at fuel stops too. We would pull up to the pump and one of us would just jump off the bike and run to the washroom. Funny in hindsight, but not when you have a full bladder and find the damn loo locked.

Back on the road and we found ourselves at the Vadodara-Ahmedabad expressway, but the cops at the expressway would not let us get on it. Some stupid rule about 2 wheelers being dangerous on the expressway. This meant taking the older highway, which we find is full of diversions thanks to the construction all along the way until Ahmedabad. A long hot afternoon in store for us. Looks like the God of good roads left us to our own means every afternoon.

As we closed in on Ahmedabad, we realised just how big the city is. It has more than 1 ring road and loads of construction everywhere. Gujarat and Ahmedabad are truly booming. Lots of big cars as well. Getting to and across Ahmedabad was quite the task. Our average speeds had come down drastically and by dusk we had got just across Ahmedabad and on the highway to Udaipur. Fuel and food were called for. A dhaba was located and we sat ourselves down for a longish break. We had the world's greasiest Aloo Paratha's here. Cut up like pizza slices, just smaller. 3 kids came by, I think on their way home after school, and were so enamoured by the bikes and bikers. It was fun watching them make up stories about us and just having a wonderful time. They were our only audience not interested in the mileage and cost of the bikes!

En-route, at a fuel pump is where we met 3 more kids, or rather overgrown kids. Sam had disappeared in search of a rest room, while one of the kids pulled out the stops on a third degree interrogation. He wanted me to pull a wheelie, tell him how much money I make, what company I work for, etc. Boy was I happy to get out of there as soon as Sam showed up. Dusk meant we started our search for a place to stay put for the night, but found something decent, with secure parking, only about 80km short of the Rajasthan border. This was after a few failed attempts. some places looked a little shady, but at one we were refused a room outright! I am attributing it to the 3 weeks growth of beard and the way we were geared. That was a first. Never been refused a room before.
It was tempting to push on to Udaipur but we figured we'd rather get some good rest and get to Udaipur the next morning.

Today btw was the day we clicked absolutely no pics. It just had not occurred to either of us. 

The Ride to RM

A sunset. A gorgeous gorgeous sunset. A sunset so awesome that we stop to click pictures of it. What's so special you say? Well, the last time one of us clicked a pic was a few days ago. The two of us were so happy riding our bikes all day long that the camera was the last thing on our minds. This time it was different though. This sunset had to be savoured. Standing still. A couple of drinks(Tea! The only brew we were allowed thanks to our doc) and we rode into the sunset. It was still a gorgeous sunset at a 100 and beyond. Rajasthan roads were meant to be blitzed on. And that was our sincere and whole hearted attempt.

The long long ride from Bangalore to Chandigarh and back had started more than a week ago. Our odo would show 3780 before we would call it a day, of which 750 was to be done today. Riding into the sunset I kept thinking of the next 2 days. 2 long days of riding another 1800km, that I would be doing alone. I am sure Sam was thinking the same, with him going solo to Mundra. But for now, we  enjoy the sunset.

Day 1.Sunday. 18th Jan 2015. Bangalore

Sam & I had decided on an early start, which meant the alarm went off at 4 and I was out of the house by 5. That should see us starting from Sam's house by 6am max. Shub and Amaaya were up, as were my in laws who were going to be helping Shub out with me being on the road for the next 2 weeks. I am so thankful that we have a good support system and I am even able to think of making such trips. Well, it was Shub who planted the idea in my head initially, so I am thankful for that.
The basement saw a quick photo shoot of geared up bike and biker, and I was off. I would meet Shub in another 5 days in Chandigarh, and that was to be Amaaya's first flight, hopefully of many more to come.

The 6am departure was achieved. I was astride the Ninja 650 and Sam on the KTM390. We were used to each other's riding styles and that meant our first break would be when we hit reserve on the 390. But, thanks to my miscalculation we had to stop when I hit reserve first. I was all smug that I had the bigger tank and better mileage and had skipped visiting the bunk last evening. Thankfully we had done about 120km by then. So, our ride plan was going to be simple. At all times ensure we are visible to each other. Once fuelled, ride until the 390 hits reserve. Food and hydration stops to be combined with fuel stops. Stop at dusk and no night riding unless it is to look for a place to stay. Apart from the first day, we stuck to 2 meals a day which meant more riding time. Yay!

Our destination for the day was to be Mumbai and we planned to find a place to stay around Panvel. That way we could bank on an early morning traffic free ride across and out of Mumbai. There was some talk about Daman being our stretch goal. Best laid plans and all that.

Fantastic roads and good machines meant we were making ground pretty fast and lunch was a local restaurant at Kolhapur. Breakfast had been a quick affair some 100km short of Hubli. We had foregone the tempting idea of "Benne Dose" at Davangere in the interest of covering more ground and both of us were averse to stops that were not really mandatory. Sam & me could hardly help extrapolating this and got hopeful that we would get beyond Mumbai by nightfall. Maybe Daman. Who knows, Surat even! Like cricket, life and running; we find out that biking is also a great leveler and anti-extrapolative(if that's even a word!). 

Pune weekend traffic was something we hadn't planned for. Boy did our hopes plummet. The closer we got to Pune, the nutcases on the road kept increasing. We were on the "Mysore road" of Maharashtra. Only worse. By a factor of crazy.

I had lost hopes of Surat and hopes of Daman too. It was around 4:30 in the evening but I was ready to tell Sam that we find a place and get off the road and let these crazy people pick off each other. We could make our way around the carnage tomorrow morning. But this would mean more km tomorrow and we wanted to put as much distance between us and Bangalore as possible. Ok, that made us sound like fugitives, but given our pace people were wont to come to that conclusion.

Here is where we had the good luck to bump into a fellow biker, Karthik, astride his KTM 200, who was heading home to Mumbai after spending the weekend in Pune. Where else, but in the shell petrol pump in Pune. A couple of red bulls were called for though, given that we had a couple of more hours of riding ahead of us and our day had started around 4am. Red Bull worked better than expected. Sam's bike developed wings. I had a hard time keeping up with the Katoom boys who managed to throw their bikes around corners, people, cows, cars and everything else that occupied the road from Pune to Mumbai. Soon we found ourselves on the Mumbai-Pune expressway. A portion of this, close to Lonavala, is open for bikes and Sam's bike pulled out its wings again. I remembered Karthik telling us earlier that the exit was a concealed one and if you missed this one, then you end up in Mumbai, on the expressway, where you of course met cops rubbing their palms in glee at the "fine" they could get out of you. Designed on purpose me thinks. Anyhow, I see the exit a tad late and have to drop anchor, and waddle my way back to the exit and get on the gas to catch up my fellow road warriors. I am expecting the katoom boys to be twiddling their thumbs and going "what took you so long". 1km goes by. Nothing. 2km. Nothing. 3Km. Nothing. Ok this is not good. First day of the ride, its getting dark and my phone has already shown signs of going dead. So I decide that I must have taken the wrong exit and head back. What do I see? 2 singles's racing at me. So, its my turn to say "What took you so long".

Pretty soon, we are in Panvel and it welcomed us with a massive traffic Jam. Which now meant that the Ninja went into territory that it was not really built for. The narrow strips of dusty rocky patches that passed for shoulders. We stop at the first hotel we sight and it is called Night Queen or some such thing. More hotels and similar names. This is not going to work, so off we go towards Mumbai and take up Karthik on his offer of crashing at his place for the night. Which means another hour of riding through Mumbai traffic, which was actually more peaceful than Bangalore traffic.

We end the night by buying dinner for Karthik at a nearby restaurant he recommends. A beer and some food, we are ready to hit the bed.  Its almost a 1000km since we started our engines this morning, which feels like ages ago now. We hit the sack, dreaming of getting to Udaipur tomorrow. If we do manage, then we decide to reward ourselves with a break of a day after 2 long days of riding.