Goa awaits Trivendrum & Bangalore

30th Sep:

The day starts when I hear Jayan's voice, I check my watch and its 8:30 AM, enuf of sleep I should get up now. I wake up Vaas and Parvez, and we order tea.

It rained heavily in the night, the bull is totally soaked with water. We clean our bikes and put the saddles on to the steeds.

Odo reading: 11188.2 kms.

All set - Lets go to Malpe beach. We pass through the market and the roads are broken in most of the places - this is some kind of a hint on the roads to come.

Mostly its green and beautiful. Some parts are filled with the stench of rotting fishes making me to hold my breath, the stench gets over soon and I breathe again.

The drive gets over soon & we park our bikes in front of a beach resort and click a group snap. This is the first group of riders from Bangalore.


The beach looks good, and Parvez wants to take his ZMA to the beach - To the Bulleteers its a strict no-no. Who the hell will pull out the bull if it gets stuck!!

The beach resort is not open so our plan of having the breakfast on the beach is nullified. Jayan calls Jay (Silver bullets) and the update is that TVM guys will take around one more hour to reach Udupi.

We go back to Udupi and after finishing our breakfast it is decided that the ZMA guys go to a Hero Honda service center and get Parvez's ZMA's oil leak problem solved. Rest of us proceed to get out of Udupi and then stop some 20 kms ahead to wait for TVM guys and our ZMA guys.

Plenty of time it takes to travel on NH17 Mangalore - Udupi stretch, evident from the time its taking for TVM riders to cross that stretch.

We wait & relax!

Jayan explains to us, Rookie bulleteers, about the fundas of carb settings and oil pumping mechanisms. I find myself like Jayan in biking terms, I also find my POVs in perfect sync with him - be it riding or be it about the maintenance. I find that bulleteers are more interested to go down the technical details than the riders riding Indo Jap bikes, I was somehow in this tech category even when I rode my CBZ. Anyways no generalizations - let rider/biker/ other words take care of that.

CBZs are awesome. Bullets are mesmerising.
If you don't know what I mean, ride a Bullet and find it out for yourself.

If you are an adventure junkie and want to have a wide option of potholes to choose from, then Mangalore Udupi NH 17 is the place to go! Choose from all the shapes and sizes, I bet you can't manage to miss one in any case!

Finally TVM riders negotiate their way through these potholes and reach us at around 1.15 PM, a round of Hellos and some discussions on Jay's Iron bull 500cc.

From now till Goa it will be 13 of us riding together. Jayan is the spot for the rest of the journey.

Ripping session starts, and though it is supposed to be one group we automatically divide in two groups - The rippers (Jayan, Parvez, Shashi, Me & Jay) in the first group, and the other 8 in the second group.

Smooth roads now and the rippers blasting at 100 kmph + speeds.

Jay slows down, but we carry on with our pace - only to stop by Marwanthe beach. The road divides the Arabian sea and a fresh water river.

Couple of photos. Jay's Machismo looks even more beautiful with the Arabian sea in the background.


And wait for Jay and the 8 other riders to reach.



Hard to say a No when a solo picture is in the question :)






If one is not pressed for time then Marwanthe beach is a perfect place to sit and relax, also turtle bay is nearby and is a great tourist attraction.

I will come again here sometime later to spend some time. Only to chillax!
A great and distinct thump signals the arrival of Jay. Couple of minutes later everyone from the second group catches up with us. Tea time.

And then we carry on.

Rain starts.
Stop.
Wear the rain gear.
Carry on.

Ghat sections start and I remember Vaas's telling me about the "dog-sized" cows - I see couple of these "dog-sized" cows and nod at the word. They are hardly able to match a scooter seat in height.

Uneventful smooth journey.

Rain stops.

Spot stops.

Great scenery.

Photo time :)

After the first day's 430 + kms I thought I had got iron butts.

Fool!

In today's 100 kms journey I realize that my butts are as ordinary as others' :) Aching!
Thank God I am not riding my CBZ! Otherwise some other parts would also be aching now!

This Butt/Cig break gets over and its almost evening now.

Ghat section ahead, it starts getting darker and Moonie replaces Jayan in the spot position.
The ghats are amazing, and riding on these ghat roads is a fulfilling experience. Moonie leads perfectly through the glare of the oncoming lights.

We reach Karwar - Tea/snacks/Cig/Butt break. I call up Nav, Pune and Hyd guys have reached already. Our ETA (Estimated time of arrival) changes from 10 PM to 11:30 PM. Rocky has also reached Goa, with his family and Shankie/Gaurav are somewhere near Honnavar. Gaurav had an accident, he was doing 80+ speeds when suddenly a monkey jumped in front out of nowhere. Shankie says Gaurav is fine, bike's fairing/handle shattered - they'll be continuing on 1st after getting the bike repaired.

We proceed to Goa, and from Madgaon its Babu in the lead. He was brought up here so he knows the roads very well. As we reach Panaji, roads become amazing! Painted and smooth.

Calangute is some 30 kms from here, can't wait to get to the hotel, its already around 11:30.

We reach Calangute, and just in front of Cafe coffee day on the baga beach road a group of nomads greet us ;)

At home now! Odo reading 11548 kms. 359.8 Kms, broken butts scream the desire to rest. But we are in no mood to waste time. Its time to rock!


Proceed to Baga beach, and see one "Kamasutra Bar & restaurant" - very very sexy! Get inside! Spend the rest 4 hours in there, boozing gossipping and eating.

Time to get some sleep now. 4:30 AM.