Ride to RM: Day 13

Day 13. Friday. 30th Jan. Manor 

Friday the 13th. The day the spooks come out of the woodwork, so I better get home by nightfall!
I decide to play it by ear today. I let the traffic and roads decide how far I get today and stay over wherever I am by dusk, and make a final push to Bangalore tomorrow morning. But first I need to find a way around Mumbai.

The friendly guy at the reception tells me that my best shot is to take the first left after getting out of the hotel and get on the highway to Wada. "Wada se right marne ka, phir Bhiwandi, Thane aur Panvel. Bilkul Shortcut hai" were his precise words..  Now the stroke of luck was that the place I was staying at was on a service road, and if I was on the main highway, I would have definitely missed the turn to Wada.

Bonus for the morning was cool weather and twisties. Yay! What better way to start the day than to make well intentioned attempts to scrape off a few mm off your foot-pegs.

Bhiwandi was waking up as I entered the town and had to make my way around the locals. This is where I got on to the highway from Nashik to Thane and found myself on the road to Panvel in a jiffy. Spotting the Panvel to Pune highway was easy, all the while casting an envious look at the cars that got to enter the expressway.

From here on it would be pretty much the same route that we had done on day 1, but in reverse. Breakfast stop was at Lonavala, where I did the tourist thing and got some chikkis. Now it remains to be seen if it will be a single day delivery of chikkis to Bangalore! A sumptuous breakfast and I was ready to take on Pune traffic. Thankfully it was not as bad as on the way in. Kept myself entertained by trying to spot all the landmarks that I had noticed on the same highway 2 weeks ago.

It looked like this would be another day in the other extreme of hot weather. Multiple stops for inlet and outlet of water would be called for, and all attempts were made to combine them with fuel stops. I crossed into Karnataka somewhere around 2 PM and started thinking that I may be able to make it to Bangalore after all. I would anyway not push and make a decision as I got closer to dusk.

The roads were excellent and keeping up a good pace was not going to be a problem. Given that it was still a weekday also meant lesser traffic. A quick stop for water and Electral just outside Belgaum and a fuel stop a little later. Next hydration stop was close to Davangere and again combined with a quick fuel stop. It was around 5 and I knew I would have to make a decision soon. The next big town was Chitradurga and I postponed my decision until I made it there.

By the time I got to Chitradurga I started feeling a bit of the exhaustion of the day's ride thanks to the heat. Took a longish break on the side of the highway, felt better and evaluated my options. The air was cooler now and I knew that if I took it easy I would still be home in another 4 hours or so. On the other hand I could check into a hotel, and start early the next day and still make it by breakfast. Thoughts of sleeping in my own bed won the debate in the end. So, made the call home and told the wife to expect me home tonight. I had also made up my mind that if at anytime I felt like I was not concentrating, I would look for a place to stay the night.

I reduced pace and took it easy from here on. Tumkur was when the exhaustion really hit me and I knew that I had crossed 1000km on a single meal and that would not do. Pulled into a Kamat and did the needful.

Getting into Nelamangala signals the home stretch. A quick debate on taking the route through the city or the NICE road. It was close to 10 pm and I knew cops would be out checking people for drunk driving, given that it was Friday night. Chose the NICE road and it was just a little before 11 when I made it home and got to see Shub and Amaaya. Happiness at being reunited! With the adrenaline still kicking I managed to get to bed only by around 1 am.

It had been the longest day of riding for me. Ever. 1100km in all. I am very very thankful for the guys who engineered the Ninja seat. I hardly felt any pain in the backside. unlike on the other bikes where after this long in the saddle, you hardly feel your backside!

Wonderful ride overall and can't wait to get on my next ride. Planning of course, as usual, happens when you are still on the road, and now to see if I can make it materialise.

Ride to RM: Day 12

Day 12. Thursday. 29th Jan. Sheoganj

7 am saw me out of bed and ready in a jiffy. Our accommodation was taken up in desperation last night and I was keen to clear out as soon as I could. The original plan was for the 2 of us to ride to Palanpur, grab breakfast and then part ways. But, Sam's bike needed some looking into and we decided that there was no point in me hanging around until mechanics in this town decided to open their shops. So I would head out and Sam would sort out his bike a little later, and then head to Mundra.

My target was to get to Mumbai or as close to it as possible. That was a little under 850km and I knew there were stretches of traffic and detours to be negotiated after Ahmedabad.  Crossing Ahmedabad would in itself be no mean task.

Rajasthan roads in the mornings are pure bliss. Empty stretches of tarmac invite you to do things you normally would steer clear of, especially when going solo and with another days ride ahead. Restraint stepped in, after some good fun times, in the form of a detour on some bumpy roads.
Some km ahead I pass the turn off to Mount Abu but then I will need to make that visit on another trip. Today I am a man on a mission to get to Mumbai by nightfall.
Motoring on for a couple of hours, and getting across the border to Prohibition land, I was at Palanpur, for a quick fuel stop and the worlds worst Vada Sambar. I knew I should have stuck to Aloo Paratha! It was a mistake to go weak in the knees on seeing a South Indian menu.

I make quick work of the breakfast and even quicker work of answering questions from the inquisitive manager. Since last afternoon we have not off the GQ, but the roads have been drool worthy.

I am looking to cross Ahmedabad by lunch to give myself a good shot at getting into Mumbai by evening. The roads ahead go from 4 lane to 2 lane and back to 4 lane. Traffic is sparse and I am able to keep up a good pace. Close to Ahmedabad I get to tolled roads. Of course tolled roads are no problem on a bike since pretty much none of them charge you for usage. Interestingly I saw many cars evading the toll booths. 500m or so before most toll booths in Gujarat you will see cars(local and not local) suddenly peeling off to a service road from what seems like a semi legal cut in the barricade. You keep wondering whats going on and are surprised when you see them making a return to the tolled road 500mm or so down the road, again from a slightly illegal looking cut in the barricade. Funnily I did not see such evasion in any other state. I wonder if the collections are enough to turn a blind eye to the truants.

After what seems like a pretty short time, I am at the Ahmedabad ring road and get directions from a cop on how to get on to Vadodara, and have to remind him that I need to get on the old highway because they don't allow bikes on the expressway. By now I have gone from a cool morning in Rajasthan to a hot sweltering mid morning in Gujarat and I am sure a very hot afternoon is to follow. I am sweating bullets but decide to make a stop only after I am well past Ahmedabad. I don't want to spend any more time than necessary in the city. I must have lost quite some water as I got out thanks to some bumper to bumper traffic just as I got on to the highway to Vadodara.

My next fuel stop sees me shedding a layer in an effort to get more comfortable in the heat. After many days of protecting me, the rain gear is the first layer to find its way back in the luggage. I am conscious of the need for water intake and don't shirk on drinking lots of it.  Many many kilometres of bumpy roads later I find my way into Anand where I have some excitement to ensure I am awake. I am in the town and a bike pulls up in front, out of nowhere, as usual. As I grab at the front brakes I suddenly realise that a polythene cover is caught under the front tyre and I can feel the lack of traction. A quick release and touch on the back brake keeps me upright and not ending up with what looked like an inevitable appointment with the tarmac. With enough excitement for the afternoon I make an uneventful exit out of Anand(all the while making happy jokes in my head) and get to Vadodara.

Owing to the bad breakfast in the morning I start getting hungry around 3pm. I was planning on sticking to the 2 meal a day plan, but that was not going to cut it today. I needed to stop, hydrate and lose another layer. So I pull into one of the many restaurants that dot the highways in Gujarat. They tend to be much cleaner and efficiently operated than the ones in neighbouring Rajasthan. I ask for quick service and am very pleasantly surprised when my Paneer tikka masala and rotis show up in 5 minutes flat. A good tip was in order. Gujarat has been an eye opener in the way the locals carry about their business. From evading tolls to efficiently run businesses to the industrial areas to the truck traffic.

Hydration involves downing a full litre of water laced with Electral, which is a cheap and easy source of electrolytes. Sam & I have found this to be the most efficient way of keeping ourselves going when on the long stretches. It is our usual practice to split a litre of this, but today I would need one for myself.
Here is where I run into this father & son duo who took a keen interest in the bike and me. They were locals and had lots of questions which I, as usual, try to evade or get away with short answers. As I don my gear, they start giving each other a running commentary of what I am doing and why I am doing it. They speculate how much my gear costs, where I can get it, etc etc. Weird duo!

Ankaleshwar has the usual truck traffic backed up for miles and I have to pay my respects to the gods of traffic jams for about 15 minutes before I am blessed with good roads. I encounter the Gujarat truck traffic that induces you into video game mode. It reminds me of the hand held games we had as kids where your car must avoid all vehicles on a 3 laned road and the longest distance you go without hitting another vehicle determines the winner.

By late evening I find myself crossing Surat and craving for a tea. I give in and also stock up on a red bull just in case I do want to ride a bit into the evening. I am toying with the idea of staying at Surat but then decide to carry on until Daman to take advantage of the remaining daylight.

I make it to Daman as the sun is dipping below the horizon and decide to pull over,  and weigh my options of a place to say for the night. This is when I miss riding with company. Finding a place to stay is much easier with 2 people involved. Of course I have missed Sam's company the whole day. The last few years most of my riding has either been solo or with a group of 2/3 like minded folks. Anyway I digress. Solo riding merits a whole prose piece by itself.

A quick look at the map tells me that I am some way from a beach. My idea of Daman was sitting close to the beach and sipping a cold beer. With the heat this afternoon I could most definitely use one.  The practical thing though, would be to carry on and not have to "waste" time in the morning in getting back to the highway from the beach. That way I might even consider getting to Bangalore by tomorrow night. Practicality won and I motored on with darkness creeping in. The evening cool air as usual helped me get a second wind and I pulled into a fuel station around 7:30. A quick call to the wife and I decided that Manor would be the place for the night. Checked out a couple of hotels around the place and decided on something with an AC for under 1000 Rs. The first thing I did was hit the shower and then started planning the route for what could possibly be the last day.
A call to Sam confirms that he has made it to Mundra, though after a couple of scares of the chain almost jumping off, given that he could not get his bike fixed. The sprocket most definitely had to be changed.

I was still 1100 km away from home. I am keen to avoid getting into Mumbai and need to find a way around it. Stopping where I did,  turns out to be a stroke of luck as I find out the next morning.
 I drifted off to sleep with thoughts of being home and in my bed tomorrow night.