Gurpratap and I have now travelled over 1.15 Lac km together. Our riding temperaments are synced, and our tastes are alike in many things.
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After much contemplation as to whether I should turn right or left outside my gate for direction to pull a week-long ride during the Diwali break, I decided to turn right and head down to my beloved South.
Day 1 Oct 26: Pune – Solapur – Vijayapura – Hospete – Tumkur / 800 kms
Gurpratap on his Ducati Multistrada V4S and I on the Kawasaki Ninja 1000 began the ride at 5.15am from Pune, all bright eyed and bushy tailed.
The weather was cool and we made most of these conditions to reach a little short of Solapur by 8am without breaking a sweat for some nashta and chai. I had noticed that decent restaurant options begin to disappear post Chaturthi restaurant at Kurkumbh on NH65.
A little later we got onto the Solapur bypass and after making a fuel stop we began heading towards Vijayapura or aka Bijapur on NH52. It is uncanny how roads in any direction dramatically improve once outside the state of Maharashtra. Between Vijayapura and Hospete there are frequent speed-breakers but they fortunately formed a pattern and could be anticipated due to them being located at intersections. There are hardly any fuel pumps and restaurants on this stretch. Past Hospete and till Chitradurga the roads are excellent, and this is where I was able to unleash the power of the Ninja to oscillate between some unmentionable speeds. I was amazed to see how quickly we had reached Chitradurga and was surprised to see that my claw bag was still attached to the bike.
We had stopped for lunch at Hospete and headed to Tumkur for our overnight halt.
We reached our destination for the day at 3.45pm and stayed at Sadanand’s Highway Inn which is located at the outskirts of Tumkur and just off the highway NH48. This hotel ticked off all the right boxes wrt safe parking, excellent hospitality, good food and a bar and most of all a Upadhya Ruchi restaurant within the hotel premises with some really outstanding filter coffee. We spent a comfortable and relaxed evening here, talking about the journey so far and filled with thoughts of what lay ahead.
Day 2 Oct 27: Tumkur – NICE Ring Road – Hosur – Salem – Dindigul – Kodaikanal / 540 kms
The ride began early at 5.30 am from Tumkur and despite the hour being so early there was a fair amount of truck traffic on the highway. There are a couple of diversions till NICE Ring Road, and all this made the going slow and tedious. The NICE Road is truly a boon for travelers moving further South and I can’t imagine what journeys would be like without it.
Being a Sunday, there were the usual lot of bikers out for a morning spin towards Hosur and other places. Our customary stop at A2B Hosur and a couple of filter coffee’s and dosas later we began to feel the South vibe. These are a few pictures from the various fuel stops.
The highway was busy till Salem as I recall but the traffic keeps moving. The morning began getting warmer as we further moved southwards. At Salem we stopped for a break. This restaurant has some nice motorcycle art displayed at the counter.
Shortly past Salem we were treated to the stretch of tarmac between Karur and Dindigul. Amazing to say the least and I would like to congratulate the state government of Tamil Nadu for constructing the best roads in the Country. Everything was perfect, the quality of tarmac, embankments and gradients, signs, and most of all the beauty on either side. The Ninja relishes these types of roads, and this Ninja put up a splendid show, to say the least. I will always remember this part of the ride. As mentioned before, when these speeds are done, the distance just evaporates, and we reached Dindigul at 1pm for the legendary lunch at Thalappakatti that we were looking forward to right from Pune.
The Menu
Kuchi Mutton
Moru Moru Prawns
Gad Bad Icecream
After these gastronomic delights and our stomachs heavily leaning on the tank, we made our way from Dindigul and shortly hit the climb up in the hills. The heavy lunch forgotten, the twisties bought a smile to my face and our general demeanor lifted and happiness set in. The weather began getting thankfully cooler and we stopped along the way for some bonhomie and to take in the sights.
We reached our stay Four Views Hotel in Kodai which was very scenically located. A couple of kilometers before, G-Maps had pulled us into super steep terrain which was tricky to maneuver through and was some experience for bike and biker.
Some spectacular sunset pictures taken from the hotel.
The evening was spent around a bonfire, then catching up on the replay of the Thai MotoGp which we had missed during the day and a light dinner of sandwiches.
I thoroughly enjoyed petting these dogs around the bonfire.
The temperature had plummeted to 12°C, and I snuggled under the blanket, tired, but with a grin on my face.
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