2500Kms solo south road trip on Bullet. Awesome!

May 19 - 24, 2010, i rode solo on my bullet across these amazing, wide National highways from Chennai - Hyderabad - Bengaluru - Kodai Rd - Chennai, the distance covered came to 2500Kms. Successive occasions in various cities made this road escapade possible, the Happiness am experiencing now cannot be expressed through mere words!

Travelogue:

Chennai – Hyderabad – 688Kms

Hyderabad – Bengaluru – 562Kms

Bengaluru – Kodai Rd – 420Kms

Kodai Rd – Chennai – 410Kms

+ Local travel

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Chennai – Hyderabad – 688Kms (Done in 20hrs, slept for 4hrs; 20:00 – 17:00)

Route:

Chennai–Nellore-Ongole-Chilakalurpet-Narasaraopet-Piduguralla-Macherla-Nagarjuna Sagar-Hyderabad 

Started at 8pm in the rain, was decked up in Duckback raincoat. After crossing Nellore, the rain got heavier and the wind made it near impossible to ride, I was never so thankful for the Bullet being heavy; helped me stay on the road. With a wavering positive spirit, I rode till fear consumed me; near Ongole, I found a bus stop and spent the night there.

In the morning, the view was very discouraging; I had a wedding to attend and self-motivated to move ahead. Left the bus shelter and took-on the cyclone, in about 10kms the cyclone just got worse, common sense prevailed and took abode in a petrol bunk office for 3hrs before the cyclone lessened to ride able conditions. Excellent highway, but take care of the tractors, auto rickshaws that come on the wrong side and plenty of cow, sheep that are happily herded across the highway.

Water-Water everywhere, up and down, had a nice forearm workout controlling the bullet around patches of water near knee depth; managed to reach Hyderabad at 5pm.

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Hyderabad – Bengaluru – 562Kms (Done in 12hrs, 07:30 – 19:30)

Route:

Hyderabad-Badepalle-Addakal-Nakkalpali-Dhone-Gooty-Penukonda-Chikballapur-Bengaluru

The Marriage got over in the wee hours, I had yummy Pongal and crispy vadas and was geared up to start the Blr journey, dropped a friend in Hyderabad Airport.

I had a distant memory of a friend saying two wheelers not being allowed to enter the Arrival/Departure area and I was fined 200Rs, Hahaha!

The journey was event less, had finger licking Roti-Dhal in a Dhaba and with the exception of few expanse with greenery, the Hyderabad – Bengaluru route dons a deserted look from the large scale expansion. The roads are great, wide and inviting.

After this snap, gave the bullet a water wash and a check up with the local bullet serviceman in Jayanagar.

My cousin sister and family had come to Bengaluru and with them had been to Nandi hills (65Kms from Blr), the Ghat road riding was super fun, i was averaging 80Km speed all the way down, for the excitement, you gotta ask my pillion rider, he was all ga-ga-gu-gu.

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Bengaluru – Kodai Rd – 420Kms (Done in 7hrs, 23:00 – 06:00am)

Route:

Bengaluru-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri-Salem-Karur-Dindigul-Kodai Rd

This all night journey took me from the bustling Blr city through the 9kms long Hosur flyover along winding highways as I rode-on and on, on this never ending battle against sleep and fighting real hard to stay awake, but I wanted to enjoy every bit of my Blr stay and night journey was the only solution.

There was this auto rickshaw driver near Dindigul who very clearly explained the route to Kodai Rd. Reached friend’s house at 6, had a refreshing cup of Kapi.

The exhilaration I got standing near one petrol bunk, which was flanked by vast open area, busy even in the wee hours with mostly buses making a crowd, was out-of-the-world.

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Kodai Rd – Chennai – 410Kms (Done in 8hrs, 14:00 – 22:00)

Route:

Kodai Rd-Dindigul-Trichy-Perambalur-Ulundurpet-Villupuram-Chengalpet-Chennai

I had to make the decision to leave for Chennai at 2, as I wanted to reach Chennai by late night, so I can get a good night’s sleep. The heat was sweltering and I stopped every half an hour to have lemon sharbath, it tasted heavenly. From Trichy, it was me against sleep; I twice or thrice veered out of control and was jolted back to reality with the constant Dhud! Dhud! Dhududududud! Reached Chengalpet around 20:30 and was getting impatient to reach home, as were everybody it seemed; rash driving was on the rise.

Reached home at 22:00 and headed straight to bed. No more take diversions - No more watching out for vehicles on wrong side - No more adrenaline rush - No more highways; but in a few months, I will again ‘Leave Home’ (on a bullet).

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