It all started as a ride back from Inchira after a meeting with a close friend deciding on things for our next ride out in the coming two weekends. I would never have imagined that some 20kms ride back home, all in the rain will kindle the fire to ride even more and I would end up riding some 900kms in 24hrs, with brief stops for food, water and other things.
After the discussion on going out of Bangalore in the coming weekends and some booze, I reached home around 10pm all drenched and socked to the bones by the rain. But, as all Bulleteers know, once bitten by the rider bug, you just cannot stop the urge and the surge to ride even more. I got fresh and packed a few things in my bag and around 2am started off. I was not at all sure to take which direction, North or South. Finally I decided to head South towards Hosur. Filled the tank of RE to its capacity near Attibele and headed further South.
In an hour`s time, I had crossed Hosur, after negotiating some late night traffic at the Karnataka border check post. It seemed that it had rained pretty heavily in these areas. I reached the CCD beyond Hosur near Shoolgiri. Bought some black coffee and sat pondering over what to do next. I was really skeptical of the black coffee because the last time I had it in such a scenario (on my Madhumalai trip); I fell asleep only to wake up after reaching there, some 3 hours later. Anyway, second cup also went down my throat and then packed a few biscuits from CCD and decided to head little further to Uppal beyond Krishnagiri and see the sun rise there. That place has some awesome sights along the NH7 and one of the best sun rise scenery. It was a slow ride all along and some 90 minutes later, around 5am, I was at the Krishnagiri flyover. I stood on the flyover with my RE only to realize that I have forgotten my camera :(. I missed the chance to snap one of the best sunrise pics all along. Anyways now the question was, whether to head towards Chennai or towards Salem… Finally went to a tea stall just after the flyover, sipped some really nice and hot tea and decided to continue further towards Salem. By that time, I had already covered 150 kms without even noticing it.
After riding for another 1 hour, I started to feel hungry and decided to have a really early breakfast by my standards and stopped at Thoppur. After having some idllies and couple of nai roast dosas and couple of coffees, I sat in the hotel veranda, on a chair pondering again, which direction to take, either go towards Salem or head towards Mettur. Skies were still hazy and clouded even though it was already 7.30 am. I crossed Mettur and headed towards Bhavani, passing through one village after another. The road till now all smooth making the ride all the more pleasant. I had already refueled at Mettur and again stopped just after Amapettai. Last time I was there, when the bus I was traveling on from Trichur had real bad break down and we all were stranded there for some 6 hours. I knew the place quite well, even though small. I sat at a tea stall and started a small chat with the owner there, who also owned some sugarcane fields in the vicinity. After a while he took me to the place where they made jaggery by heating the sugarcane juice. The entire place smelled of molasses. I also had some freshly made jaggery there. That really was an awesome experience. Some 45min, after loafing around the place, I bid farewell to the tea stall owner and took the right fork towards Gobichettipalayam some 30kms away. The idea was to head towards Gobichettipalayam and then to Mysore via Satyamangalam some 90kms away from there.
After reaching Gobichettipalayam and inquiring about the state of the road connecting Gobichettipalayam and Mysore, I decided against it. People there told me that the road was in a real bad shape. Now with this knowledge, I decided to head towards Kovai/Coimbatore, some 40kms away. It was already 11am by the time I reached Kovai. I straight away headed towards RS Puram, my favorite locale during my college days. Every time I ended in CBE, I would come to RS Puram, especially to this Rajasthani restaurant. After a scrumptious lunch and a short nap there, I thought of heading towards Trichur and stay overnight at home and return next day. I thought I would take the Monday off, but then by the time I crossed Ukkadam and reached the toll, I took the first left that took me to Pollachi by pass and then further to CBE by pass road. I decided against going home and headed towards Salem on the NH47. It was already 4pm in the evening by then.
After riding for some time, I felt my phone vibrating only to realize that there is a Metallica concert in Bangalore today and I am supposed to go there with my friends and they are waiting for me. What the heck, now what to do, hmm... may be next time. After crossing Avinashi, I stopped at a tea stall and messaged my friend that I am not going to make it to the concert. By the time started off again, it was 6pm. I decided to do a quick drag on the 4 lane NH47 after Avinashi all way to Salem and have dinner there. But to by disappointment, it started to rain and hence my progress was slow. By the time I reached Bhavani, it was already 9pm and I was dead hungry. I stopped at an Anand Bhavan sort of a place and couple of dosas and coffee and waited for the rain to subside, so that I can head further.
By the time I started again it was 10pm some 300kms to go to Bangalore. Initially I started of slow on the wet road and slowly gained up pace and was doing some 70kmph steadily. I crossed Salem by 11.30pm and reached Thoppur by 12am. I stopped again at the same hotel at Thoppur where I had my breakfast earlier. The owner recognized my and was surprised when I told him that I am heading back to Bangalore. After a quick coffee, I started off again; my next stop was the CCD at Shoolgiri some 100kms away. I rode nonstop for 90mins or so on NH7 and reached the CCD around 1.30am.
By now, I had started to feel the stress and the tiredness of the ride; I had already done some 750+kms. A quick 15 minute nap did wonders and I was all raring to go the last stretch nonstop and then as my luck would have it, my dipper bulb got fused. Armed with only upper head light, I started off again and rode till Hosur. There I was stopped by some cops, they wanted some quick money. As all my papers and things were in place, they let me go with a heavy heart. I entered Karnataka around 3am. By 4am, I was home all tired, but rejuvenated, refreshed all refocused. Well, what started as a small ride to subside my hunger of riding a Bullet ended up being a nearly 900kms ride, in 24 hours. It is by far the longest that I have ridden so far in a day.
So finally the route that was taken was
Bangalore -> Hosur -> Krishnagiri -> Thoppur -> Mettur -> Amapettai -> Gobichettipalayam -> Coimbatore -> Avinashi -> Bhavani ->Salem -> Krishnagiri -> Bangalore.
I tried to sleep but could not, so woke up and started writing this page. It is the first time in all these years that I have tried my hands on writing a blog sort of a thing, recollecting my experiences all along my journey. In a way, I found this soothing, recollecting everything and penning it down. I hope, I can continue doing so in future also and I hope I would break the barrier of riding 1K kms in a day someday :).
