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.