The Longest Ride

Day 19: 23rd September, 2011
Hyderabad - Bangalore

As promised, Panjakbhai Savla and his team were at the Kutchhi Bhuvan at the dot of 5:30 am, along with their bikes, to accompany us a little way outside the Hyderabad city and we started our journey towards Bangalore at 6.

Our first stop, naturally, was Char Minar. Since we hadn't had any time to visit it yesterday and it was on our way, it was inevitable that we stop there. Just as Gateway of India is Mumbai's identity, India Gate is Delhi's, so is Char Minar Hyderabad's. Even though we were getting late and didn't have much time to spare at the monument, we stayed back enough to admire it in all it's early morning, not yet light-glory. It was simply beautiful! We captured the moment with our hosts and had tea with them before bidding them adieu.

The Bike Riders and their hosts in front of Char Minar

The roads were all super-good here, like expressway roads. So, we moved ahead quite a bit and decided to catch up for all our previous delays. Our goal for today was to cross B'lore. Thanks to the beautiful roads, we didn't even realise how fast we're going and which cities we are crossing. We never had to enter any city. We just went by-passing the cities zooming past them on the brilliant expressways. At around 8-8:30 am, just before reaching Kurnool city, we stopped for a quick breakfast. Just like a few days ago, we could get puri-bhaji and aloo parathas no matter where we stop, here we got idlis, dosas and wadas no matter where we stop. We stuffed ourselves on gorgeous food and moved on quickly.

The expressways here are good, no doubt. But one has to pay a lot of toll for all that extraordinary smoothness on the roads. Luckily, since we were all riding two-wheelers, we didn't have to pay anywhere.

By evening, we were near B'lore. But, when we enquired, we found out that we could not bypass B'lore under any circumstances to go to Madurai. All roads leading to Madurai were through the city. We were apprehensive of entering the city during the peak-hour traffic and traversing it entirely. It was getting dark and it is inevitable that one takes a lot of time in an unfamiliar city on the account of not knowing the roads, one-ways, no entries etc. Thus, coupled with traffic, this increases the chances of getting separated with the group and then having to waste a lot of time just coordinating once again.

The fantastic roads we've been bragging about

Since we hadn't had a proper meal since our breakfast, we decided to eat first and then decide. So, about 20 kms before B'lore city, we had a hearty South Indian thali at Hotel Abhiruchi. It served some of the most delicious dishes we'd ever tasted in a South Indian thali. Near the hotel was a Jain temple, Navgraha Jain temple. This temple maintains a service for travellers to stay at heavily discounted prices. We thought of staying there but finally, decided through majority that we'd best brave the city and move on.

But, as thought, as soon as we entered the city, we were lost amongst all the chaos. Finally, we called Mr. Deepesh Pasad's friend, Mr. Katira, who lives in B'lore. He helped us a lot to manoeuvre around in the city. He first guided us skilfully and  then, brought his car out to our location and took us to Terapanth Dharamsala, the similar kind of cheap, discounted accommodation as Navgraha Jain Dharmasala. Unfortunately, there were no places available there for the night. So, we moved on and finally found some place in a dormitory of Vaishnava Dharmasala, where we crashed out almost immediately. We hadn't faced cold weather since we had left the mountains. But, on this day, in B'lore, we felt a bit of a nip in the air.

And this: Making optimum utilization of the available time and resources. ;)

Highlights of today's ride: We crossed the Andra Pradesh-Karnataka border and jumped from one capital (Hyderabad) to another (Bangalore). Also, today was the longest ride of our entire journey. Hyderabad - Bangalore = 566 kms.