Bangalore – Goa –
Mumbai – Bangalore
I had heard a lot
about NH4. From a long time, I was thinking about going on a long bike trip. It
all started before Diwali last year. I was planning to go home (Mumbai from/to
Bangalore). That’s when it struck me, that I can use this opportunity of
fulfilling my craving of a long bike ride. So I was reading all I could find on
web about the trip. I found some interesting blogs where people have done it in
a day or two. Determined with all the experiences people have shared, I started
to plan for the trip.
Since I haven’t ridden solo long distances, I thought of involving some of my friends in this. One of
my friends agreed. So we decided to go for this. During that time, my bike had
some tyre problem and I had to get it replaced, so I couldn’t make it during
that time.
The next window was in
January. We had a holiday on 14th, so we zeroed in on that weekend.
Now this time we were initially four people, but then one guy backed out. So finally,
there were three of us. We had discussions on the route to take. One option was
to go to Goa on day one and then the next day to Mumbai. I wasn’t too inclined for
this, since I wanted to do the whole thing in a go. At last, the final route
was selected as Bangalore to Goa – day 1 and then Goa to Mumbai – day 2.
Finally, we were all
set and we decided to leave early morning on 14th Jan. We were three
of us and had two bikes, one thunderbird 350 and the other pulsar 200 NS. We
had put our luggage and tied it the previous night to keep the morning free. We were up by 3 and started around 4 am. When
we were around 15 kms into the journey, the luggage started getting loose, so
we tightened it properly and moved forward.
Day 0 - start |
Within 40 minutes, we were out of the city and cruising at around 80 –
85kmph. The weather was nice and on top of that there was scarce traffic and
full darkness. It was pure blissful riding. Then suddenly, a slight turn came
and I accidently thought of roadside soil to be a cemented pavement and bam! It
was an uneven surface, I hardly managed, but came back quickly. It was around 6
and we were searching for a petrol pump (I didn’t top up the fuel tank the day
before). It was hard to find a fuel station, thanks to the darkness. And when
we finally found one, the sleep deprived attendant refused to give up his sleep
that early, but fortunately the other bunk was nearby. One thing to keep in
mind here is to top up your tank the day before and carry some emergency fuel
with you.
Soon, it was dawn and
we could finally see the sun rising on the horizon (one in very very long
time). It was beautiful. The scene was breath taking. The rising sun, the
slight chill in the air and a vast expense of NH4 in front of us. The purpose
of waking up so early and giving up on our sleep had paid off. Now thanks to
the daylight, we were making it around 100 – 110 kmph. We crossed Chitradurga
around 7:30 am. We took our first break here, and had tea and biscuits. We were
easily able to maintain 110 kmph, sometimes touching 120. The other bike
(thunderbird) was not able to keep up: P, so we had to wait for it to catch up.
We stopped for
breakfast around 9:30 am at a dhaba, and had our usual masala dosa. Started
quickly after this and by around 11 am started towards our destination for the
day. This time, we also topped up the emergency fuel can and tied it, but only
to find after some time that fuel can along with our slippers which were tied
to it had fallen of somewhere. Some guys gave us the fuel can, but the slippers
were gone: P. Goa was still around 170 kms and we were hoping to complete it in
around 3 hours. The initial stretch of road was nice. The double lane road was covered
on both sides by thick forests. Then came the nightmare, the pathetic road
started giving us a very hard time. It was too bad, with construction work going
on at some places. This was the only area, which made us feel horrible. Then we
saw a sign indicating Dudhsagar falls, some 18 kms to left. Daunted by the
existing road, we did not dare to go there (expecting the same road conditions
will prevail there and because of lack of time). The ordeal continued for some
more time, and then finally we entered Goa.
Once we entered Goa,
we could see lots of petrol bunks near the border (maybe cheaper fuel was the
reason). The other thing was very flat, polished roads. The Goan roads were way
better than the Karnataka ones. Also at some places, road widening work was
going on. With around 40 more kilometers
covered, we had reached Panaji. Scenes at Old Goa was breathtaking. We stopped
at a church and then near a river, where some barges were passing by (these
scenes made all our tiredness go away).
We reached our room at around 5.30, which was conveniently located near Vagator beach (we chose the place, because of its proximity to Goa-Mumbai highway).Man! That feeling of achieving your target of the day, its priceless and soul fulfilling. Rested for some time there and had our dinner at a nearby café. Then roamed on the Vagator beach for some time and boom, we were done for the day, only to start the next leg of the journey the next day. We had around 6 hours to start yet again, so slept soundly to make full use of it.
The barge I was talking about |
We reached our room at around 5.30, which was conveniently located near Vagator beach (we chose the place, because of its proximity to Goa-Mumbai highway).Man! That feeling of achieving your target of the day, its priceless and soul fulfilling. Rested for some time there and had our dinner at a nearby café. Then roamed on the Vagator beach for some time and boom, we were done for the day, only to start the next leg of the journey the next day. We had around 6 hours to start yet again, so slept soundly to make full use of it.
Goa to Mumbai
So the second leg of
our journey started at 4 am, the next day. We tied the luggage and started
around 4:20 am. It took some time to come on the highway. Then it was smooth
ride. The road was 2 lane and it was dark, so we were riding slowly. The
incoming vehicles with their high beams on, were creating some problem. Then
the road turned into a four lane standard highway. It was awesome to ride on
this compared to the two lane, and I was thrilled and hoping the road will
continue the same way. But to my displeasure this affair ended and again we
were on a two lane road, riding slowly
and safely maneuvering large vehicles on blind turns. Then at one turn I
misjudged a parked truck to be on the left side of the road, when it was on the
right side and thought the road is from right of the truck and then suddenly a
large Volvo bus was gushing towards me. Even though I was able to see the end, thankfully
the bus driver maneuvered and I too was able to avoid the collision. For the
next half an hour I was riding extra carefully and was behind the other bike.
After some time, it
was dawn and the visibility improved. It was way better to ride in this way
than in the utter darkness on those roads. Then we had breakfast at a roadside
dhaba at around 8 am. Started quickly and we were moving around 60 – 70 kmph on
the curves. At some places it was foggy, which was mesmerizing and the view was
surreal, the thick forest, fog and the roads through that.
Three of us and fog |
It was around 10 am
and because of some unforeseeable reasons, we had a delay of around 2 hours. It
was around 12 noon now and we had still around 350 km to cover. Then Chiplun
came quickly and we had our lunch there around 1:30 pm. Around 250 km more and
we would be home. Because of the two lane road, we weren’t making much progress
and to add to that, there was incoming traffic at blind turns. The situation
was not very rosy (earlier we had thought of completing this at max by 4 pm).
Now we didn’t stop anywhere and our bums were feeling the pain. Whenever there
were straight roads, we were doing all we can and this way we made it to Panvel
around 7 15 pm (too long, I know). Now here I was riding alone and the other
people on the other bike had my phone to see the route and thanks to the peak
hour traffic, we kind of separated. Now this was really frustrating (we realized
the importance of gadgets, we have become too dependent on them now a days).It was
very hard to convince someone to give his phone to make a call, but somehow I
managed to place a call. Finally at around 8, I was home. Got some usual
scolding and then it was peace. We could feel the pleasure of fulfilling the
day’s task.
Mumbai to Bangalore
After staying home for 2 days it was time to return. The final leg of the
journey was much anticipated, being the longest. It was exciting to think that
we would cover 1000 kilometers in a day and that too with not much of long
distance riding experience. It was around 4 am, when we started. We started
slowly and kept moving on Mumbai – Pune expressway.it was very cold on that day
and the cold was making it difficult to ride at higher speeds. Instead of
taking NH4 i.e. old Mumbai – Pune road, we sticked to the expressway because of
the weather and difficulty to find the route and to ride again on two lane road
in this time of the day.
We quickly reached Lonavala.
The trucks had to make extra efforts to keep going on these sections and we
could smell their tyre burning. On
riding further for around 45 minutes, we could see Pune approaching. The dark
night was slowly passing, paving way for the dawn to arise. At some point we
saw a small fire being lit by some people to shun away the cold. We too joined
the fire and brought some papers to keep it burning. It was only after like 20
minutes that we left. It seemed to be bliss during that time, especially
because of the cold.
We crossed Pune and
the sun was well above the horizon, the cold had subdued and the going became
better. The roads were good at this point. We were riding around 85 – 90 kmph, may
be 95 sometimes but below 100 at all the times. Satara passed quickly and we
had our breakfast after Satara. The view was breathtaking. One particular thing
I noticed was the traffic on Maharashtra side. The traffic from Pune to
Kolhapur was bit heavy. Refueled and lubed the chain in Kolhapur. Once you
cross Kolhapur, the traffic is very scarce and you can see the next 2
kilometers with barely 1 or 2 vehicles.
After Kolhapur,
Belgaum crossed then it was around 2 pm that we stopped for lunch. It was 2 pm
and we still had around 500kms to cover. Started quickly after lunch and the
roads were in very nice condition and the traffic as usual very scarce. So the
riding was joyous. But may be because of the heavy lunch, I was feeling very
sleepy. One thing was loneliness, despite the fact that the other person is
sitting behind you, the helmets and all make it very monotonous. Sometimes it’s
just the road and you, riding along. During such times, I would sing anything
or make up some story in my mind. One more riding session and we were in Hubli,
stopped for tea here. One thing was, we were taking many breaks (and those
seems to be only way to give some rest to our burning bums: P).
We had ridden for
around 1 hour and it started raining. The rain god was not very cooperative with
us from here onwards. Stopped in the shed of a stopped truck when the rain
become too much. Started again and this time stopped for refueling near
Harihar. It was around 6 pm, time to switch on the lights again. It became a
little bit slower during night, the reasons being light glares or insects. We
continued steadily and crossed Chitradurga. It was around this time, we were
again welcomed by the rain. Stopped at a fuel station for some time. Every time
we were stopping, it was becoming more difficult to get down because of the bums:
P and legs being in same position for so long. Reached near Tumkur around 9 30
pm and again the rain. Stopped again somewhere and then continued when it
subdued. The rain ate much of our time. Better to pack your raincoat and sheets
to cover luggage and yourself during such long rides. Finally reached home
around 11:00 pm.
Day 5 End - 2279 kms |
We were tired like soldiers returning from
war, but we had done this, with no experience of long rides. The feeling of
accomplishment was all over. If someone asks me, whether I am ready to do this
all over again. I would be like, Hell yeah!