Ride to Warangal

Date: - 31st Oct 2009

Route: - NH202 Hyderabad - Warangal - Hyderabad

Time:- 0630 to 1410 [7 hrs 40 mins]

Distance :- 345 kms

After a long hiatus from my riding trips, finally found a well deserving weekend off on 30th October. I had already decided the destination for my next ride and that was Warangal(… what is that???). It is only famous for its NIT and nothing else. Maybe I wanted to confirm this universal fact. By the way, it is also supposed to have a Fort and a thousand pillar temple(people make a big issue out of nothing..)

I sleep early on Friday night so that I can catch some good sleep before my ride. Saturday morning I wake up damn early – thanks to the bedbugs in my bed – I see that clock says 0415. Cursing the bedbugs I open my laptop and see that a live show by Iron Maiden named "Death on the Road" has been downloaded. Start watching the show. Next I look at watch and its 0545!! Man. I am late. This is what Maiden has done to me again and again. Make me forget time. A quick bath and a glass of milk and I am ready to go.

Leave my house at 0630. As usual I am always excited before my ride begins.Warangal highway is at other side of city. I prefer taking Uppal ring road instead of traversing in narrow lanes of Nampalli and Koti. Just near Warangal highway someone gives me wrong directions and I am almost 7-8kms ahead on the junction to Vijaywada. Ask the directions again and I take a U-turn. Don’t miss the Uppal circle this time and by 0730 I am cruising towards Warangal. Roads are quite empty for a NH. Catch a glimpse of Bhongir Fort on the way. It is built atop a big hillock. Don’t know its significance. Need to surf net for that.

I try hard not to rip through. But guess my instincts don’t allow me to. Soon bike is doing 110+ and I set my top speed of the day at 122kmph. But I did that with the help of a road with slight slope and that too with me fully ducted on tank.

At about 80kms from Hyderabad, find an unusual site on my left. The time is approx 0830. Two small hills, they seem to be wearing out on account of very old age (maybe thousands of years). Fortunately I find a detour that I feel that will lead me towards those hills. Take the detour and some photo session for my baby. I never get bored of these snaps.

The curious keeda inside me leads me inside the kutcha road. I can find no sight of any living creature. I go inside for about 5 kms and still no signs of getting any closure to the hills. I stop for one more photo shoot. Get off the bike after putting it on side stand. Hear a thud!! I look back and my bike is kissing the ground. Am still puzzled why it fell down??? I had put it rightly on the side stand. Don’t know, but some cynical feeling sinks inside me.(Maybe I am nervous because of all this loneliness and this bike falls for no apparent reason at all makes me more nervous) I take this as a sign to make a U-turn and head back to where I am supposed to go – Warangal . Lift my heavy Rosie with lot of effort (thank God there are no saddle bags.) Check what’s the damage. The leg guard has gone into its favorite position … inside where it is not supposed to be. Pull it out with some effort. Gear lever is just saved from breaking it seems. Not able to put my bike in the gear as it has also gone inside. But good news is that its not bent and just slipped inside. Do some hara-kiri and then finally its working. No more damage!!! Take the snaps and then head back to highway.

This is where bike fell down and I gave up chasing the mountain(in the background)

Civilization!!

Now no more timepass giri as clock is almost 0900 and I am still so far away from my destination. Get into top gear and start ripping.. Non stop I reach Hanamkunda at about 1015 hrs, the sister twin of Warangal @ exactly 170 kms. Make way to Warangal through crowded streets. Start asking locals for directions. Then I realize this is not Hyderabad and almost nobody knows Hindi. People want to help, but they just can’t. Also I start getting many weird looks because of my riding gear. Take off the gloves and the knee pads. Finally find a guy who knows Hindi and he tells me the route to temple as well as fort.

I really wanted to see 1000 pillars inside one roof. I thought it would be huge. But that was not the case. Most of the pillars are broken and it is after that I think Archaelogical Survey of India declared it as a monument of historical importance. Such a shame!!! I hardly spent 10 mins at the temple as some renovation was also going on.

The 1000 Pillars Temple.

Feeling dejected, I start finding route for fort. As usual, after many a wrong turns, I finally manage to reach the fort and guess what!! There is no fort. The fort has been destroyed long time back (similar to Tipu Sultan's fort at Mysore) and the whole fort has been converted to a part of city. Just in one corner, a small part of fort still stands that is also half park and half fort. I make way through the park towards a small old building that seems to be part of the fort at some point of time in history. Almost all the corners and secluded spots are pre-occupied by the couples. I feel like a fool roaming alone there in the lovers den. Take a few snaps to make myself believe that I was at fort. Eat up an energy bar as I didn’t have any breakfast. Wash up my face and I am ready to head back. .

Finding way out of city is a relatively less pain than earlier as I had marked a bypass from fort to highway in the google maps. Once out of city limits I again wear my riding gear. With Hyderabad reading 120kms, I start off non stop. I don’t even break for water. Keep going on and on. A Santro gives a challenge for a race. Accept it. That guy whips his baby with all the disdain. Whenever traffic comes, I lead and on empty roads he leads. This goes on for a while before he takes a turn somewhere and then there is no one to challenge me. Apart from the train. Oops! Where did the train come from. Most of this part of highway is parallel to a railway track. So I challenge the train. Unfair on my side as the road keeps on zigzagging while the rail enjoys a straight route. Somehow I manage to catch last 2 bogeys and then the road turns and I see train taking off like anything. Reach the Uppal circle and my bum is sore now, as I didn’t have any break since 120kms and almost 100 mins. Still carry on saying a break now will disturb my riding rhythm (as if city riding requires some kind of rhythm??). Trudge through the Uppal ring road but as soon as I hit Secunderabad, traffic hits like a bolt. I drain almost half of my battery only in honking till I reach my home by 1410.

Pune Hyderabad Ride

Date: - 8th Sept 2009

Route: - NH9 Pune - Solapur - Hyderabad

Time:- 0415 to 1300 [8 hrs 45 mins]

Distance :- 547 kms

Again my bike needed a transfer along with me to Hyderabad. Reached Pune on 5th Sep. Immediately gave the bike for servicing and all the marammat thing. Costed me a whooping 3k as bike neared 20k kms in almost an year. And as its a Bajaj I prefer to service it and replace parts as per manual because dont wanna take any risk on highways.

So my bike was ready. This was first time I was gonna sport my brande new riding gear. That means Cramster jacket, gloves, knee pads and my brand new Vega helmet .

Started from my home in Pune at 0415 after saying tata to aai. I left early because I planned to reach Hyderabad early afternoon so that I can attend office as I didnt have a leave for Tuesday. For first 50kms from Pune, road was a 4 lane with dividers. But as soon as it changed to single lane, my speeds dropped to as low as 60s. The upper light coming from oncoming vehicles was making life miserable for me. I had no option but to trail behind any big vehicle that can shadow me from the lights. For some time I was trailing a truck at meagre 40. Found an able ally in a pickup truck that was moving at respectable speeds of 70s. But soon he may have gotten suspicious about a bike following him at a close distance for such a long time and he too slowed down. I had to overtake him anyhow. So I trudged along the highway slowly till the daybreak.

At about 0545 the horizon lighted up and I took a small tea break. Feeling fresh from the break I started to rip the bike.By ripping I seriously mean it. I dont remember any instance when my bike was below 90 when I was on trafficless roads. Most of the times I was 100+.

Reached Solapur i.e 265 km by 0845. Tanked up my bike and also my stomach by sandwiches mom had prepared early in the morning. Well cant miss "Maa ke haath ka bana khaana"

Then started the ultimate part of the ride.

I started at 0900 from Solapur with Hyderabad exactly 300kms. Continuing the high speeds, I averaged almost 75kms per hour and managed to reach my room in Hyderabad @ 547 kms exactly at 1300. So that last 288 kms I covered in 4 hours with only 4 small breaks for water.

Yeah sometimes in between it did get monotonous. At one point of time I almost fell asleep. Stopped the bike immediately. Relaxed for 10 mins by just sitting down and closing my eyes and I was ready to go.

NH9 road condition is not great. But bikes, yeah they wont feel much brunt as they can easily ditch most of the potholes swiftly. Unlike cars that had to bear the brunt of the bad ditches on the roads. Also when a long lane of trucks comes in front of you, bikes can easily overtake and such is not the case with cars as they loose precious time behind stubbornly moving slow trucks.

So my take is that this route is doable by car as well as bike in 9 hrs considering road conditions. If the conditions improve, it maybe done in only 8 hours by car I guess. Need to try that too..Maybe next time

Pune Nagpur Pune Again

But this time I took my brand new Chevy Spark. This time I wasn't alone. I took my mom along as wanted to show her how does it feel during a long trip on road. Well she was not complaining as she was sleeping all the time in comfort of AC with stops whenever she wanted.

Stats:-

27th June 2009

Route: - Pune - Ahmednagar - Aurangabad - Jalna - Mehkar - Karanja - Wardha - Nagpur

Kms :- 710

Time :- 0915 to 2130

2nd July 2009

Route: - The above route reverse

Kms: - 716

Time: - 0830 to 2100

Just the difference that coming back I took the so called Aurangabad by-pass which must have saved me at least 20 mins at cost of 6 extra kms.. I dont know but whenever I do trips which are not related to sight-seeing I am rather particular about timings. So be it..

Up the Irons : Flight 666

Saw the documentary "Flight 666" in Inox today. This film depicts the legendary world tour conducted by Iron Maiden during which they covered 45000 miles and did 23 concerts in 21 cities all across the world (except Europe) in 45 days.
Iron Maiden got their own Boeing 757 customized to carry tons of music instruments as well as the hell lot of speakers, amplifiers and all the stuff along with 70 crew members which includes the band as well. And the most stunning thing is that the band's lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson was also the one who piloted the flight which has been rechristened as Ed Force One.
The movie shows how it is when the band is on road. What sort of compromises they need to make once they start touring. Right from performing the show even when down by fever till braving an injury so as not to affect the schedule of the tour which may cost a bomb.
Also the band members provide the insight as to how do they feel when they face the audience like us. The most humbling thing about Iron Maiden is that in spite of being such a successful band all over the world, they always give their best. Their spirit shows that they are not at all interested in making big bucks but just to enjoy their music and give their faithful fans one hell of a show. That is why Iron Maiden is so famous all across the world inspite radio never played thier songs, neither do music channels used to support the band during their heydays. It is just because this band has been touring consistently since thier inception and still believe that live shows are the ones which should be used to reach out the fans. It took almost 30 years for thier own country UK to realise what Iron Maiden really are and finally in 2009 they were rewarded with the Best British Live Act award.
But as humble as they are, Iron Maiden dedicated the award to thier audience. They are as good as any normal person like us are. They dont think themselves as celibrities, just a bunch of musicians who want to make amazing music and nothing else.
What truly shocked me during the movie was the amount of fan following that Iron Maided get in Latin America. People there just worship Maiden, just like our very won Sachin is worshipped in India. For them Heavy Metal is religion and Iron Maiden are Gods. It was really amazing stuff to watch.
One more amazing thing which has amazed even the band members is that more and more young people are turning towards Iron Maiden which is rather surprising because IM is quite an old band now. This shows that Iron Maiden's music is their for long......very long.

All in all a great documentary movie which has provided us Maiden fans of all the inside stuff that goes on behind the stage. I really dont care if this movie at all gets any recognition or not, anyways neither any of the band members nor any true Iron Maiden fan across the world would care a damn for the award. But thanks to this documentary, I have started to respect Iron Maiden much more than ever.
Up the Irons!!!
Forever a Maiden Fan

Semi Ashtavinayak Ride

Date: - 4th April 2009
Route: - Pune -Daund - Siddhatek - Theur - Pune - Khopoli - Mahad - Pali - Khopoli - Pune
Distance: - 485 kms
Time: - 10 hrs

Long weekend!! Pre-planned that will be going out to Matheran for two days along with my parents in our new cage "Chevy Spark". On Thursday night, get a shock that trip-plan needs a change and finally decided that will be going to Mahabaleshwar for one day trip on Saturday.
Now I am left high n' dry. With nothing to do on Friday with a holiday.
Suddenly I remember that I am supposed to take my mother to Ashtavinayak (a set of 8 Ganesh temples in Pune/Mumbai/Nashik area which are considered highly important from religious point of view) in coming month. So I decide to get my P200 to some temples before I take our cage there. I did some homework on the maps through wikimapia on Thursday night.


On 3rd April morning 0630 I set off for Siddhatek on Solapur Road.
No sooner than I cross Hadapsar, I just get a rude morning alarm on the highway.
"A slow trailer moving in front of me. Being the single-lane road, can't overtake from right side as I see a long line of trucks coming from opposite side. Decide to overtake from left hand side. While I am overtaking the trailer, hear a huge bang and see debris flying all over me from the truck on my right. I don't understand what is going on. See the trailer wobbling and I get shit scared because there is a almost 5-6 feet pit on my left. I rev my throttle to get out of this as soon as possible.. anyhow. Again hear the bang on my left and again some debris flying over me. This must have lasted only for 5-10 seconds, but seemed like an eternity to me.
Finally cross the trailer. Get my bike on the left side of the road after some 100m and look back. The trailer had stopped. The truck driver either had lost control or went asleep or must be drunk. He had hit, I think, 3-4 trucks sideways coming from opposite lane one by one. The driver side windshield was shattered to pieces. I couldn't make out the condition of driver. But I don't think it was serious as the truck was quite slow. See people gather around the
spot. I am just numb for a couple of minutes and keep on looking at the sight before me. I made out that the debris that fell on me must be some stuff from the load the truck was carrying."


After some time I gain my composure and start off to Siddhatek. A good 100 km from Pune towards Daund.
Clicked some snaps on way to Siddhatek. I am not that good of a photographer. Just always keep on trying ;)

Bridge just before Siddhatek temple

Pune Solapur Road

Reach Siddhatek by 0815. Dist. covered :- 110 km.

Now next destination being Pali near Mumbai. For that I again need to go back to Pune. Start back for Pune. Reach Hadapsar by 1030. The curious keeda inside me leads me to the Pune bypass from Hadapsar via Saswad road. And I end up in Chandni Chowk by a good 10 kms long route but traffic conditions still same. Disgusting.

At 1100, I am at the the common tapri we all BNers hang out at before heading for any ride towards Mulshi. Have a cold coffee which is anything but cold.

Dist. covered:- 230 kms.

If I have to go to Pali, I need to cross Tamhini ghat. The roads arent good and its getting quite hot. My home is just kms away and I almost leave for home when I decide that I will go via NH4 and Madh Ganpati temple. I am happy because I just love NH4. Soon I am hitting triple digits. In meantime, take some snaps of expressway as seen fom Old NH4 near Khandala ghats.

Reach Khopolo by 1245. Dis. covered - 312 kms

End up at Madh Ganesh temple which is just 1 km from NH4.

Its damn hot and I drink whatever I can lay my hands on - Limca, coconut water, sugarcane juice on the way.

Start searching for the way to Pali temple. Stop for purchasing a water bottle and ask the shopkeeper for directions. He says"Go straight. You will hit a bridge and then take first left."

I again hydrate myself as its very hot and start for Pali. Soon I reach the bridge and then head for Pali. After sometime I notice that the roads are really good and somehow I didn't expect such good roads for Pali as its not even a state highway. I see the signboard reading Penn. Shit! I am on my way to Alibaug and I forgot to take that left after the bridge. I am almost 15 kms ahead. Take a U-turn and come back to that bridge and there I notice a left heading towards Pali which is now at my right. As expected road conditions deteriorate. Pali is 33 kms. Make to the Pali temple. Start back to Pune. Again decide to skip Tamhini ghat and come back via same dear NH4 route. Take a small break for some refreshment

Time:- 1415 . Dist. covered :- 377 kms

First time I think about getting my snap. Somehow manage to get it, happily munching on the Horlicks energy bar. The energy bar is a recommendation from my side. It substituted for my lunch.

The water from the bottle is so hot that I would trade it for a hot bath on any chilly morning. Don't even want to taste it, but have no option as heat is at its peak.

Head back for Pune. Soon touch NH4 and am off to home sweet home. Surprisingly I don't at all rip off and happily cruise on 70-75. Maybe I subconsciously want a good mileage from my bike.

On the way in between see a patch of land on my left and decide to test my photography skills, again failing miserably.

Reach home at 1640 clocking 485 kms.