My First Long!
Date ~ 30/12/2008
home - itpl ~ 30
itpl - channapattana ~ 117
channapattana - home ~ 77
TOTAL - 224Km
Four days ago my body suddenly decided to mend its sleep cycle and I've been sleeping at "night" and waking up at around 4 am (cool, eh?).
It was a boring early morning. Had to do fix that. Subba had just returned from a spiritual conf and wasn't having any fun at the office. What do two bored buggers do? They decide meet up for lunch and go half way to mysore to meet another bored bugger arriving from the other side.
subba & i (b'lore) >>> Coffee Day (c'pattana/maddur) <<< gk (mysore)
Subba showed me the NICE road. My flying machine touched 112Kmph (personal best). I never ever dreamt that such an empty road existed in bangalore. It was a bikers dream road except for the toll gates were we had to lighten our wallets for burning rubber on their tarmac and a small unfinished stretch which made us lose our way and go round and round and round, but eventually rejoin the smooth tarmac.
This road eventually joined mysore road and we were off to beat time as we had promised gk that we'll be there by 5 pm, but ended up 30 minutes late in the end. Sorry Gecko!
Apart from the NICE road, nothing was significant on the way to maddur.
Because of gk's confusion about which coffee day, we had to head back around 5km!
Fed ourselves some delicious cake and samosa with hot coffee.
Then, all of a sudden gecko changed colours (pale whitish) - he had scared himself to death for misplacing his bike key! Time flew by, things cooled down, gecko regained his colours, the sun set, and stars took over the night sky. It was time to part. There was a slight problem. Unlike gecko, we didn't have sweaters or jacket to shield ourselves from the biting cold weather! Still, subba and i set out undaunted into the night to return home 70km from this town.
On the way back, we were up for a surprise. Our orange flying machine needed some fuel, but the greedy fuel pump had cleared out their stock and closed down as there were rumours of price drops. Fear slowly started to grip us as we zoomed past empty fuel pumps one after the other. We were scared about having to walk and push the unicorn half way. Fortunately, luck was on our side and we found a friendly fuel pump who hadn't run out of petrol! Eventually we realised that the "out-of-stock-fuel-pumps phenomenon" was restricted to channapattana.
The rest of the journey was not so eventful apart from the usual clueless buggers crossing the roads almost missing getting hit by a speeding vehicle. This made us wonder about the purpose of their life - was it to just squished to death in the middle of the road like bugs on windshield? - how did they survive this long? - does god really exist and care for them? Big questions, no answers! :-o
We drove at a decent speeds (60-70kmph) even with the biting cold. Every time we passed a truck or lorry, we thanked it for the warmth instead of cursing it for the dirty smoke. Eventually i kinda became numb to the cold. It bothered me no more (Prolly subba was not that comfortable).
There was one more exception to the uneventful journey. We slightly lost track of the road at NICE road - mysore road intersection because of all the construction work and the darkness. They change roads almost every other month! Weird city i live in.
The rest of the rest of the journey was the usual inner roads of bangalore - so many potholes, dried up lakes and ponds in the middle of the road. (Suddenly made me remember why our city cannot afford to have a batman - it's the roads and traffic! No chance in hell he can drive his batmobile here without squishing a lot of bystanders to a bloody death, or batman falling into a ditch. ;) )
Finally made it back home after dropping subba at his place. I was expecting to feel like a battered soldier with back pain and sore muscles, cough and cold and all that crazy stuff, wondering if the drive was a complete waste of time, fuel and energy. Nah, I surprised myself! It was simply a splendid biking experience, one that i enjoyed thoroughly.
I WANT MORE!
PS: Happy New Year!
2 comments:
Hey congrats on your first long trip Shazo!
btw, you didn't mention the strange smell coming from your bike as when you guys landed at Coffee Day! ;) Some explanation on that perhaps?
After that meeting, it gave me a reassurance that we're just over an hour (albeit at 80kmph) away from each other, so it becomes easy to attend an SOS call like "dude, I'm going mad here sitting at home, see you in an hour"
Yeah there was a mixup with the location, i had come about 15km ahead than agreed, i was hoping to see some foreign cars and bikes there, that coffee day is famous for such sightings, especially on Sunday mornings.
I was honestly scared thinking I'm stranded with my bike and no key in the middle of the highway! You guys had a scare with fuel, but i had filled for 200 bucks just before i left and it took me back home too! :)
I remember you guys asking me, with a surprised look, why I'm wearing a huge jacket over a sweater! Guess you found out later ;) I was equally surprised to see you guys in only tee-shirt/Formals. May be B'lore is warmer cause of the urban jungle and the pollution?
It was nice meeting you guys too! should do it more often! :)
Happy New Year!
Thanks Gecko!
That smell.... um... was... *cough* my bike on fire *cough* (literally!)
You see, my bike is not tuned for highways. It has a lean mixture - great pickup and power in cities - overtakes silly college students riding pulsars in the middle of the road (like an ass) and stationary karizmas with extreme ease! But this is not suited for highways. Highway riding demands a rich mixture (this reduces the pickup and all, but who cares about that in highway!).
Bangalore too is chilly at nights. Just that I had expected to reach home before the sun set! The only place warm at night is next to the exhaust of a lorry! :-P Soon after Sankranti, summer weather is expected to set in. Then we'll all be cursing the heat! At least then, i hope, I'll be able to sleep peacefully in my sweat than with all kinds of wool on and still wake up with a blocked nose.
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