Me and my friend (Mr. Satanic Saint for you) decided to GO GOA!!
Been waiting for the 23rd eagerly and as usual could not sleep the previous night. I had planned the luggage much in advance and was all ready to leave in the evening itself.
Ma Luggage!
23rd.
I stayed in the office till the afternoon and then both of us met up and it was destination Shimoga for the night. The ride was pretty much bland except for the totally screwed up stretch between Birur and Bhadravati. This is by far the worst stretch I've seen (the previous winner in this category was the Shivanasamudram stretch). We over shot our arrival time by almost two hours and hence reached Shimoga by around 9:30 (where as we touched Nelamangla by 3:15 in the noon). Stayed at my grand parents place for the night.
24th.
Got up at an ungodly time (3:30) in the morning and hit the roads by 4:15. Dark as usual and unusually chilly, we maintained low speeds since neither of us could bear the biting cold. Caught up with a bus that was maintaining good speeds and this gave us the warm up for the trip ahead. God help us when we go to Leh ;)
From the Sharavati Viewpoint
Once we crossed Sagar the entire stretch till Ankola was a ghat section. Roads are very good, comfortably wide and you will definitely enjoy this stretch. Not very demanding, and there are absolutely no hairpin bends at all (for ones who dislike ghat sections). Good sweeping curves, nice elevation at some places and since it was dawn, we felt good with the extra light after riding for three hours in virtual darkness. We stopped for break fast at a small hotel before reaching Honnavar.
We had planned to cross into the Goa border by 9:30 but we were still at Honnavar, post dosas. We hit the roads and stopped at Ankola for fuel (a bad thing to do, since the fuel rates just after the Goa border drop by approx Rs 6 per liter for any brand).
This was the first time that I felt the need to REACH the destination rather than to enjoy the journey towards it. The Wednesday flea market @ Anjuna kept calling me (don't know why) and there was a sense of urgency which was definitely a contributing factor for things that waited ahead of us.
We crossed the Goa border and some where after Canacona the unthinkable happened. I was a part of a supposed accident that too involving a local person from that place. Going into the details is futile so I'll keep it to a minimum. We were roughed up before being taken to the police station (I made the worst mistake by requesting my friend to stay near the bike fearing that they would damage it and then, try to show that as evidence against me for the accident. He tried to help me out by staying there and faced the ire of the local people till a cop got there and asked him to get into the station). Endured the mental torture till 6:30 in the evening. The person ended up with stitches on his feet and minor injuries. Above all there was not even one scratch on my bike except for the break pedal that had taken the entire impact and bent into my foot rest. Left the police station at 7:30 and were poorer by approx 1500 bucks. It was dark and I was insisting that we get to Baga whereas Saint thought it fit to stay some where after Margo (given that our accommodation was not confirmed in Baga). He agreed to get to Baga after I insisted that I wanted to get as far as possible from this place (it could have been one of the best khichdi anybody could have had in case they managed to open up my head that evening). The entire time I had looked up to him for some courage and reassurance and I did get them in plenty. Was'nt it for him, I would have endured a torture of a
totally different and worse magnitude. At one point of time they were hinting that I would have to stay back at the station in the night :))
Got the break pedal hammered at a garage and rode to Baga where we ended up in a small room paying an insane price of 700 (thanks to my urgency again). The view of the moon lit sea at Baga was the only solace for the day. I was transported to another world for once since this was the first time I got to watch the calm sea reflecting the moon (coolcoolcool).
25th.
The next morning was totally different though. I did look at the previous days debacle as an experience never to be forgotten and as a lesson learnt for any future trips. Saint ignored all my apologies laughing it off as a mistake thats supposed to be committed ONLY ONCE.
Had breakfast, checked out of the insane room and checked in to a much more saner one @ Rs 400 per day. We then left to explore North Goa and first went to the Aguada Jail which unluckily was not open that day. Then the usual fort Aguada and then two more beaches (with very forgettable names). Came back to Baga, got ready to take a dip in the beach and headed out to Anjuna. Had lunch (and our first beer in Goa). Took a stroll in the beach looking at the gore gore choris. Only some wore clothes :D
Spotted my speed boat from a place after aguada jail. Who the hell gave him permission to get ma ship to Goa?
I did not want to get into the water and hence Saint enjoyed the wet part of the beach and me the dry one with my new camera (one reason why I did not want to get wet). Spent the entire afternoon and sat out to watch the sunset (well almost...it was a blurred horizon above the sea at the other side of the world).
Ended the day with a decent dinner and some beer and bacardi breezers sitting on the cool sands of Baga, plus the moon gazing.
Waiting for the sunset.
Do I need to say anything?! What a shame, its just a breezer :(
26th.
Got up early. Washed up both the bikes and once Saint was up, we checked out asap and hit the roads towards South Goa. This time our only destination (thanks to my demands again) was Bogmalo beach beside the airport. This was etched in my mind cos it was the first time I had seen 'blue water' during my goa trip in the engineering days. I could not get into to water then, and I definitely wanted to do that today.
Hummmmm bluuuuuuuuuu ??? :(
The water was not blue but what the heck! It was very clear (lot less muddier) and the crowd was very small in nature. Both of us enjoyed a dip and stayed at the beach for three hours or so.
We left Bogmalo towards Karwar. The mile stones kept counting down to the place of the accident two days ago and I could not stop thinking about it. Passed by the place and reached Karwar!! My oh my! We were back in Karnataka! I was back in Karnataka!! My mood totally changed for the good.
Partners in progress.
Our destination for the night was Om Beach near Ankola. We stopped at as many places as possible. Every beach being different in its own kind (less crowd, no crowd, beautiful view of the sea etc). The festive atmosphere and the happy go lucky crowd apart, we have beaches that are very close to where Goa is.
After stopping at every pretext, it was a race against the setting sun and towards the finishing line waiting at Om Beach. We reached there well after sunset and it was getting dark quick. We managed to get the last of the shacks there and felt lucky when we saw huge number of people coming later and asking for shacks. It was a very good experience and again a first for me.... I had dinner ON the beach with the water splashing barely 1 meter away from my feet. Simply awesome.
Salty food?
Four tigers and a crowd of sheep :)) [One tiger in the pic and the other tiger taking the pic]
27th.
Could not sleep the previous night because of ONE guy who was drunk and high on dope. Maa behan ek karke kisi ko gaali de raha tha ki puchne par woh banda ne ganja nahi diya... He was so pissed that he was really pissing all over the beach and to my knowledge he got a lot of gaalis from kannada crowd, bengali crowd, english crowd and one language which I could not understand. What a achievement!!
I got up at 5. The distance between the shack and the sea water is just a matter of meters. Took a chair and sat on the beach gazing at the line of blue lights that were suppossedly the ones on the walls of huge ships. Did a lot of star gazing too.
By dawn I could see the beach waking up and once Saint was up and ready, we thanked the guy at the shack for the good experience and headed towards Udupi with destination Kudremukh in mind.
Hot hot mangalore side and cool cool Om Beach.
We did the usual by stopping at many places, enjoying the not so famous / nameless beaches and then reached Udupi at 4:30. Once we en quired the route and headed towards kudremukh Saint's bike started making scary sounds of the chain about to fall off the sprockets. Luckily this happened just meters ahead of a Bajaj service station. The problem was attributed to the weak chain guard (since it had been cut up to accommodate the sexy wide profile tyre). Once done with it (the chain guard removed and tied up to the sari guard) we headed to a junction where if we took a left we reach Shringeri and the right was towards Kudremukh). The darkness and the uncertainty regarding the accommodation made us choose the left and we reached Shringeri by 8. Got a decent room @ 150 for the night and were sound asleep by 10.
28th
Fed the huge fishes some mandakki offered my prayers to the Gods of shringeri and choose the Shringeri - Chickkamagalur - Hassan - Bangalore route.
Temple at Shringeri.
Like the honnavar ankola route, this Shringeri - Chickkamagalur route is very scenic and has good roads.
Picture postcard of Chickmagalur (well if I was not present in the pic).
Took a lot of stops to get to absorb the calmness and freshness of the entire stretch.
The cool twisting Shringeri - Chickmagalur stretch
Once we crossed chickkamagalur, we hit constant 100s for the entire stretch till Hassan. Not one soul in sight, the visibility extends to half a kilometer from your bike and so you can speed without any thoughts of unforseen dangers (to a larger extent).
Got bored of speeding at above 100s and settled down to 70 - 90 Km/h and we went to Shravanabelegola. Suddenly got conscious that I had a saddle bag and it would be impossible for me to climb up to see the Gommata Statue. So, headed back to the main road and reached Bangalore by 5 in the evening.
Since it was a Sunday, we did not face any traffic problem in Nelamangla and both were back home by 6.
There were a lot of firsts in this trip. Some were good and some were not. But the trip as a whole was a very good learning experience and we did have a lot of fun and variety. Almost everyone back in the office en quired whether I was tired, but only I know that the energy this trip has given me can keep me going for another couple of months at breakneck speed without any signs of strain.
WHAT A TRIP!! The 1700Km of experience is something we could not have got on any other mode of transport. We had dreamt of breaching the 1.5K mark and wow, did that in ishhtyle!
Could not recover from the hangover. Felt like taking the bike and heading out somewhere to get back to normal life (good way to get over a whiskey hangover is to have another peg in the morning). Going through the photoes and videos shot, was part medicine to solve the problem and then once on the hot seat in front of the computer in your office, you are back to the ...... what I call..... 'the grim realites of life'.
Travel Statistics.
Route to Goa
Bangalore - Tumkur - Tiptur - Kadur - Tarikere - Birur - Bhadravati - Shimoga - Sagar - Honnavar - Kumta - Karwar - Canacona - Margo - Panjim - Calangute - Baga
The only bad stretch is --> Birur to Bhadravati
Pleasent stretchs --> Honnavar to Karwar
[B]Route back from Goa[/B]
Baga - Panji - Vasco - Margo - Canacona - Karwar - Ankola - Kumta - Honnavar - Murudeshwara - Bhatkal - Kundapura - Udupi - Karkala - Shringeri - Chickmagalur - Hassan - Bangalore
The stretch with sea on one side and the river (/backwaters) on the other --> after Kundapura before Bhatkal
Good winding stretch --> Shringeri to Chickmagalur
Dream ripping stretch --> Chickmagalur to Hassan (better than Hassan Bangy / Mysore Road, perfect for an unobtrusive drag)
Mileage while going --> approx 742 Km
Mileage while coming --> approx 1038 Km
Ma Bike: P180 DTSi Black
Price Rate Liters
200 54.40 3.68
500 54.40 9.19
150 54.17 2.77
500 47.90 10.44
200 52.20 3.83
200 52.20 3.83
Total 1750 33.74
Total Mileage: 1779.7 (reserve to reserve)
Avg / Liter 52.8
Saints Bike: P150 (the one before DTSi was out and the sexy rear tire and nameplate)
Price Rate Liters
950 53.5 17.76
300 46.5 6.45
450 46.5 9.68
150 53.5 2.80
Total 1850 36.69
Total Mileage: 1700
Avg / Liter 46.3
Approx total expenditure / head : FUEL + Others = 1850 + (2750/2) = Rs 3225 /-
Spares Carried: Clutch cable, Accelerator cable, Chain links, Fuses, Brake Springs
Some important observations:
a> Calculate the amount of fuel required to get to the goa border and add two liters. Tank up in goa and do the same while getting back.
b> Lot to tell regarding what to do and not do in the police station. More on this next week, once I get it right after consulting my lawyer friends
c> Check for chain tension once a day while on such a trip.
d> Scream or yell out a song if you feel sleepy, this really helps
e> Both of us preferred casual riding v/s so called endurance runs. Though we enjoyed the thrills of speed between the Chickmagalur - Hassan stretch, we got bored with ripping at 100s since you tend to concentrate more on the road and don't have time to look around. We have learnt it the hard way that we have to factor at least 3 hours of extra time to our destination due to our affinity to stop quite often (when the destination is approx 400 Km far).
f> Have a chain lock with you to safeguard your bike in the night
g> I had given my spare key to Saint and he had done the same thing. Just in case of an emergency.
h> Divide the money into two and either keep it in two different safe places or do a similar thing wrt the key (as above).
i> Keep an eye on the rpm at every gear. You have to take care of your bike too, red lining does not help. If you prefer a casual riding style then atleast change at decent rpms and not very high rpms. Let the throttle be as gradual as possible (its not a quarter mile drag to Goa you see....)
Thus ends the beginning of a new chapter where we both shattered the first barrier and are already aiming for the next one. Anybody joining in?!
