South India Coast to Coast ride - 1975 kms, 7 days, 3 states - Dec 2012

[satz]

Originally Posted by naveenroy

Are you from India? Or maybe settled in the US?



Thanks for the support! I will be continuing on the journey today :)

I am from chennai, moved here around 10 yrs ago. i did alot riding there and now here. i remember my kawi 175 was a big engine then ,now seems like you get bigger bikes. I also had a suzuki shogun , 21 bhp and it was the fastest thing on 2 wheels .... :-).

[naveenroy]

Originally Posted by Haroon

Nice narration and good pics Naveen. Brought back memories of my somewhat similar ride back in Dec 2010 starting/ending in namma Bengaluru.

Keep it coming.

Woohoo! Thanks for the support Haroon! Your bike ride in Europe with your wife along - awesome stuff. Guess I read it in Team-BHP.

Originally Posted by satz

I am from chennai, moved here around 10 yrs ago. i did alot riding there and now here. i remember my kawi 175 was a big engine then ,now seems like you get bigger bikes. I also had a suzuki shogun , 21 bhp and it was the fastest thing on 2 wheels .... :-).

Yes, those awesome bikes. I had a Suzuki Max 100 R and it awesome for its time. Thanks for your support too!!

[mav1234]

Good one Naveen. Keep them coming.

[naveenroy]

Thanks for all the support guys!

On this day, I didn't ride any long distance. I was chilling out at home and wanted to get the Galfer brake pads fixed. The ASC (After Sales-service Center) had asked me to come at 6 AM to get it fixed. I was a little skeptical that they would be open at such an unearthly hour but was there by 6:30 AM. And true to their word - they were open! But sadly, their CBR technician was away and I couldn't get it fixed that day. I later on found out it was something I could have done myself.

Anyways, it was a good day relaxing and having some great home cooked food.

My dad was already asking me to stay longer and ride on direct to Bangalore after 2 more days at home. This is the problem with staying at home. :)

I leave you with an awesome view of the morning sky from my room at home.


IMG_20121227_061839 by Naveen Roy, on Flickr

[naveenroy]

I'm kinda getting bored of writing up this report but will persist and finish it. Just a few more days to go on the RR.

December 28th dawned nice and overcast. In fact, it started raining at around 6 in the morning. My dad was already anxious that I was riding around Kerala and would be reaching Bangalore only in 2 days. He still wanted me to ride off straight to Bangalore - a ride that I have done before and around 700 kms.

And the rain wasn't helping me either. My mind was playing games with me and making me really unsure. Slick roads, lousy drivers in Kerala - especially the bus drivers. And there weren't any big highways either. The 80 km ride to Trivandrum was one of the most traffucked roads around.

Good that a friend of mine had suggested that I ride till Kovalam beach, take a right and then ride on to Kottayam - a nice state highway.

Around 5 kms away from my home, it started raining. I quickly pulled on the rain cover for my tankbag and carried on. Thankfully it stopped after a while and I was becoming more confident of the ride. Nearning Kovalam, I called up my friend so that I could meet up with him. His wife picked up the call and he never did turn up at the point - later the bugger told me that he was really late and his mornings are really bad. Well....good chance to meet an old friend.

I asked some cops for directions and stopped off at Kovalam beach for a quick pic. The number of pictures that I took on this return ride were very few so pardon me.


P1010130 by Naveen Roy, on Flickr

Had a quick breakfast and carried on towards the road to Kottayam. Very nice, 2-laned road with no median in the middle though. Less traffic and I made good time. Or so I thought.

Roads deteriorated after that and traffic was pathetic. I reached some place past Kottayam and had a relaxed lunch. Reached Kochi beach around 3 in the afternoon! Pathetic.

I scouted around for a room and got some really awful rooms for a high price. Blame it on the foreigners who come and splurge their money here. And at one hotel, I was even treated like some third rate citizen cause they thought I could not afford their rooms. Bastards!

Anyways, made a run to Ernakulam and landed a nice room for less. My friend Jijo called me in the meantime and said he is in Ernakulam also. But sadly, I could not meet him either - we both had network issues with our phones and couldn't call each other. But I didn't mind as I was dead tired. Dead tired.

Quickly had a shower, and a good long rest. Had a couple of beers after that and some awesome beef curry with Parottas - my favourite! Good sleep and was off to bed to continue on my ride the next day.

[Watercat]

Cool ride report . . . . .

Last time i was in that area was 1985 . . . . . .

Went through Pondicherry, and rested in Kovalam Beach with amoebic dysentery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Brings back memories . . . . . :)

Last time to India was 1990 to visit Rajastan . . . . . . .

Looking forward to another trip to India for a moto adventure.

[naveenroy]

Originally Posted by Watercat

Cool ride report . . . . .

Last time i was in that area was 1985 . . . . . .

Went through Pondicherry, and rested in Kovalam Beach with amoebic dysentery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Brings back memories . . . . . :)

Last time to India was 1990 to visit Rajastan . . . . . . .

Looking forward to another trip to India for a moto adventure.

Thanks for your kind words! Wow, your last trip to India has been a loong back. And the roads would be totally different from the time when you made the ride around to Pondicherry.

[satz]

i bet kovalum has changed a bit . my father was posted there for 3 yrs when he worked for BHEL and i had quite a few chance to visit.

got to say , coming from chennai atleast the scenary was green .
chennai was dry when it comes to weather and good lookinng women.

[Pete_Tallahassee]

Thanks for bringing back the memories. I did ship the VW bus to Sri Lanka from Rameshwaram, stayed there six weeks then shipped back. Drove up the east coast to Kathmandu and sold the van. Hitch hiked to Delhi and flew to Europe.

Looks like your adventure is coming to an end. I'll keep an eye out for your next one.

[naveenroy]

Originally Posted by satz

i bet kovalum has changed a bit . my father was posted there for 3 yrs when he worked for BHEL and i had quite a few chance to visit.

got to say , coming from chennai atleast the scenary was green .
chennai was dry when it comes to weather and good lookinng women.

Hahahaha, yes Chennai was dry - actually I thought the whole of TN was dry

We'd travel to Kovalam or Trivandrum for some eye candy.

Originally Posted by Pete_Tallahassee

Thanks for bringing back the memories. I did ship the VW bus to Sri Lanka from Rameshwaram, stayed there six weeks then shipped back. Drove up the east coast to Kathmandu and sold the van. Hitch hiked to Delhi and flew to Europe.

Looks like your adventure is coming to an end. I'll keep an eye out for your next one.

Wow, thanks for catching up on the trip again. Wow - so you did it through the ferry that existed between Rameshwaram and Sri Lanka? Its all washed out now.

Yes, lets hope I can write up another trip soon - planning Leh Ladhakh.

[naveenroy]

Yes, Perundurai.

You might ask me why. Here's why...

My interim plan involved riding from Ernakulam to Valparai and then settle for the night at Pollachi. This didn't work out so I decided to ride on to Bangalore the same day. This would have been a distance of around 540 kms. Jijo and other friends had warned me that the Palakkad stretch was a little bad. Little is an understatement.

I started off in the morning from Ernakulam - after a nice breakfast. Roads were decent - a little too much traffic though. Reaching near Palakkad - or was it just after that, there is road work going on. As in a 2-lane road is just one lane now. And everybody wants to speed up. In fact, I nearly got swiped out by a speeding car coming in the opposite direction. I don't remember how long this bad road went on - but it seemed to go on for a really long time. Ratlling the bones. I somehow decided at that time that I would break the journey somewhere past Coimbatore and then ride on to Bangalore only the next day.

Adding to this - I got a bit of brake woes. I am not sure if it was my mind playing tricks on me or the real thing - I felt I was loosing some grip on the brakes. And this was also coupled with the bad sections of ghat road where I had to constantly hold on the brakes.

Well, I can only say that I was glad once the roads became fine. This was just after the toll-booth past Coimbatore. There was a spot of rain and I'd actually stopped to see if I needed to put on my rain-cover.


P1010132 by Naveen Roy, on Flickr


P1010133 by Naveen Roy, on Flickr

There was still road work going on but at least it became nice and smooth. I reached Avinashi around 1:30 or so in the afternoon. Very hungry and tired, I stopped off at some road side restaurant and had some awesome fried rice and chicken. I was just too tired to ride for at least an hour. But this at least energized me and I pushed on.


IMG_20121229_135253 by Naveen Roy, on Flickr

Guess that was the only food pic of the whole ride - sadly :(

I reached Perundurai at around 3:00 and going past it, I took an U-turn under the bridge and went into Perundurai town. Good that there is a nice new hotel at the service road - Chinnis. The rates were damn cheap and I was too tired anyways. Settled in and was out like a light.

Woke up late in the evening and walked out for a nice dinner of Parottas with curry and a nice Omlette - made old style on a wood fire. Lovely, lipsmacking.

Settled down for the night with instructions to the manager that I would be leaving early in the morning. My only thought was that I missed the Pollachi - Valparai route. But I have decided to do that sometime soon.

[naveenroy]

Since today was the last stretch - I wasn't too crazy about starting off too early. I'd already tanked up the previous night too. But I'd still woken up at 05:30 and slowly packed up my stuff. It finally struck me that my ride was nearing completion - and that I would have to go back to my monotonous work life soon afterwards. Stark reality.

Planned to have breakfast somewhere along the way and packed the bags on the bike. Thankfully the manager was awake since I had informed him the previous night. Settled the accounts and rode out of the hotel compound - great morning though. It had rained a bit during the night and the roads were clean and the sky looked great. Fresh morning air.

Caught up to the NH and rode on towards Salem. Empty roads and I noticed a couple of long riding bikers - one on Enfield and another on a Pulsar. I let them overtake me as I was maintaining a speed of around 80 kmph. It is a wonderful feeling to ride without any pressure - you are riding alone, setting your own pace and the road is yours to ride. There is no friend who is pushing hard - trying to break the speed barrier, you are not forced to keep up with him. No one asking you why you have a powerful bike and are not pushing it. Inner peace.

Heheh, philosophy aside - I really enjoyed this stretch between Perundurai and Salem. I haven't ridden on those roads before.

I soon reached Salem and decided to stop for breakfast. It was already trafficky and was missing the open roads. Stopped at some small roadside restaurant and had idlis - my staple diet for breakfast on this ride. Started off again and it was a smooth ride until Krishnagiri - where the diversions (for road work) started. Aaaargh - this stretch has become a nightmare with cars and buses and bikes travelling fast, then breaking hard to miss the barriers. Scary.

I reached Hosur and then Attibele - entering Karnataka. It was good to be back home.

I guess I was back home by around 2 in the afternoon.

Thankfully there were no breakdowns, no mishaps throughout the ride. Enjoyable - no incidents to leave a bad taste in the mouth and it all pretty well went to plan. Maybe there was a higher power watching over me.

As promised, here is the final route of the ride - and the days/dates/distances.


RouteMap by Naveen Roy, on Flickr

I screwed up on the numbering in the posts though

Day 1 - 22nd Dec - 300 kms - Bangalore to Pondicherry
Day 2 - 23rd Dec - 170 kms - Pondicherry to Velankanni
Day 3 - 24th Dec - 300 kms - Velankanni to Rameshwaram, Dhanushkodi
Day 4 - 25th Dec - 300 kms - Rameshwaram to Nagercoil
Day 5 - 26th Dec - 20 kms - Nagercoil to Kanyakumari
Day 6 - 27th Dec - 0 kms - Nagercoil
Day 7 - 28th Dec - 300 kms - Nagercoil to Kochi
Day 8 - 29th Dec - 300 kms - Kochi to Perundurai
Day 9 - 30th Dec - 280 kms - Perundurai to Bangalore

All in all, a wonderful ride that I thoroughly enjoyed. Something that I wanted to do for a long time - and am glad that I could do it alone.

This ride report is now complete. Thanks for your support, guys!

[Pete_Tallahassee]

I'm happy to hear that both you and the bike made the entire trip without a breakdown, mishap or incident.
I look forward to your next adventure. Thanks for all the memories.

[naveenroy]

Originally Posted by Pete_Tallahassee

I'm happy to hear that both you and the bike made the entire trip without a breakdown, mishap or incident.
I look forward to your next adventure. Thanks for all the memories.

Thanks Pete! Great to have you post up soon after I finished the RR.

Yup, I hope to write a "Round the World" report sometime! Maybe ride in the US sometime? My sis is there and let me see if I can get my bro-in-law to join up here - he rides a CBR 1000RR.

[sprasad18]

Good write up Roy
Would love join you on the next long trip :)