HAMPI TRIP (15, 16 and 17th August) few extended it till 18th too

I was in a situation wherein the biker in me was forcing me to care a damn about the results and go for a ride, and the other side of me forcing me to get the bike RC and then go for ride. Thats me, raghuveer 1 week before the Hampi ride. I had lost my Bike RC sometime back and though i tried the legal way of getting it done, nothing seemed to work. Then i caught hold of a agent and he kept me coming back to him like i was running behind a lawyer in a civil court. The day before the ride the agent told me that he would not be able to give the RC on time(before i was to leave for the ride) and would take few more days. I had to take a decision. Hampi, for some reasons had always been a ride which i wanted to do and was postponing for some reasons or the other. And then, no matter what i decided that i would go ahead...if cops check....i would weave a story or follow the good ol' system of "money" treats for them. I went and filled Rs 500/- worth petrol and then had the pollution check done(which had also expired a month ago). I was all set to go.

We were to start on 15th Aug early morning 3:00AM. After a hectic day at work i reached home at around 11:45PM and then couldnt actually sleep. Switched on the TV and watched Netra Raghuraman win the Khatro ke khiladi show and then went to bed at 2AM. It had been just an hour when my alarm screemed in my ears and i woke up to start off for the ride. Packed my stuff, called Vikas(collegue at office you was my pillon) to make sure he is ready. I picked him up and reached the meeting point at around 3:30AM and Saurabh joined me there. Folks please dont mistake but saurabh had not come for the ride but just to see us off. Pramod, Deepu, Abinash(Nash) and Priya(accompanying Nash) also joined us and we had a quick tea and deepak was the lucky person to hone the role of a cashier for this trip. Handed him 500 bucks per each person and waited for Phani to join us. Phani, of late has been one of the most regular riders and its great to see him have so much passion for the same and participation too. He was actually working and came direct from work and managed to steal 2 days of leave for this trip too. Since Phani was getting delayed we moved on slowly with Pramod staying behind to wait for phani and both of them were to catch up with us on the way.

Soon we were moving along well on our bikes(Nash &Priya, Deepak and Vikas & me). It was drizzling a bit and we decided to continue as it didnt bother us much. we had hardly gone a few kms that we noticed a huge traffic jam ahead of us(the b'lore highway is under construction, 4 lane, so one stupid truckker created a mess. After wasting almost 30-40 min on a road which shud have taken 15 min we somehow managed to wade through the traffic and halted for a tea once we escaped from the jam area. After tea, we started towards mehboodnagar and a small village after that was our breakfast point. I realized in all that commotion my ear ring had fallen off. Now i was prepared to get some sound beatings after returning back home. It also gave us a chance to witness a flag hoisting cermony(15th Aug). we then headed off towards raichur and once we crossed that i started to doze off on the bike(mind u i was the one driving). I stopped to wash my face and deepak offered red bull. Energized with the energy drinks we moved ahead and reached sindhanur for lunch. The place was more of a Bar than a restaurant. Strange enough on a dry day, it was running packed. We managed a different section and then a good meal. I dozed off for a power nap and woke up soon to drive ahead. Vikas, Phani and me stopped in between for some break(near manvi) and then moved on and all the riders met again at Ganagwati. We checked with a cop for the best way to reach hampi, but were not interested to follow the route he gave us. Meanwhile in all this riding from morning, adi, one of the ave riders had started off a day in advance for hampi and had booked rooms for all of us. He kept on messaging and checking on us from time to time.

The ride from raichur till gangawati was very good and i must comment that KA govt does maintain the state highways of atleast this part pretty well. The traffic was also minimal so it helped. The road from gangawati to few kms before hospet is something which i wud not froget for a long long time. It was the most beautiful and lovely roads to drive. With curves and passages through rocky hills and sunflower fields all round with lots of greenry around the place as a biker u cud ask for nothing more in life. Once we crossed that area, which was for around 20-30kms, the nightmare started. First the roads all of the sudden from Katrina kaif look alike turned into an ugly, pimpled vamp. and then the tungabadtra dam flood gates were open and people had flocked from the entire karnataka state to see that(atleast it felt that way seeing the huge crowd and the almost 3-4kms of the traffic jam created because of that). after struggling thru the same we somehow managed to complete again a journey of 10-15 min in 40 min of dust, pollution, honks and maddening crowd. Hampi was another 20 odd kms and i was struggling to drive because of the tiredness. Soon we reached hampi and adi was waiting for us to guide us in.. The security didint allow us to go in with the bikes and asked to park in public parking and take the bike later to our guest house. We walked to the decent enough rooms(thanks to adi for booking these for us). The place had no mobile conectivity so no one to call and tel our safe reaching news. We shared our experience for the day and then after tea(which was literally too much to drink, felt like almost 300ml...) we freshned up and went to pick up our bikes. We then went for a ride among the ruins except Nash who decided to go back to guest house and catch some sleep(we went to small town nearby to pick beer actually). It was almost a full moon and we swicthed off the lights of the bike and rode in a straight line, it gave an errie feeling at the same time was thrilling. we picked up some beer and on the return pramod took some snaps of the bike in the dark with parking light on. I didnt even know my vehcile had parking lights, it was a enlightment session to me.

We headed to the guest house and then started the drinks session with "cheers" to many more rides. Done with that we chit chatted we went for a walk near the river and noticed that the mobile signals were on full here. called our families and were ready to hit the sacks. A refreshing sleep and woke up next day(sat 16th aug) around 8. Came to know from pramod that Nash had left to hyderabad because Priya was not keeping well.Some more buckets of tea(trust me felt for the first time the term cup of tea should be changed in hampi and renamed as bucket of tea) we started for Daroji Bear Sanctuary. We had almost reached the place when a sign board showed that the sanctuary was open from 1 in the afternoon and we had almost 1.5 hrs spare. So we hit a field nearby and started our picture session. we moved on and saw one more beautiful spot with sunflower beds and we again had a small picture session. Done with that we reached the sanctuary and after making 25 bucks a person we went to the watch tower. The way it works out here is visitors stand on a 2 storey watch tower and the forest officials put some food for the bear in the sactuary area near the tower and the bear come for the food. We waited some good 1 hr before we sighted 2 bears. and then after some time it was the whole family which came for lunch. we sighted some peacocks and bear enjoyin food together and then we headed back to guest house. by now each one of us very hungry and we visited a roof top restaura called CHILLOUT. After chilling there for some time and long waiting for the food to arrive, we ventured out and went to the almost flooded river bank. Pramod and Deepu decided to visit the temple, and the rest of us went back to the guest house. In the evening Vikas and me went out to see some of the ruins and returned back and soon pramod and deepu arrived with some booze for the group. few more drinks and food and i was all set to sleep as vikas, phani and me were returning back whereas pramod, deepu and adi decided to spend an extra day at hampi.

I woke up at 3AM and woke others. We were all set to start by 4 and then headed towards kampli which would be a shorter route (60kms less) to gangawati than going via hospet. but as luck wud have it, the bridge near kampli was flooded and we had to return back to hampi and take the hospet route. we wasted 1 gud hour because of this(damn that local guy, who suggested this to us). Also had share of scares, wherein i went into a pothole with the bike but due the speed (100kmph) i managed to come out of it unhurt and safe. Also phani broke his legguard, my chain gave me a scare and the indicator lamp on my fuel tank went off because of the speed breakers. we reached raichur soon with a petrol fill in my bike at manvi and had breakfast there. My bike for this tour gave me a milage of 36-39 and i was not really happy abt it. guess the reason cud be i was with a pillon or i might have put up a lot of weight from the last time i went on ride. We took minimal stops and reached hyderabad by 2 in the afternoon. It was an amazing ride for sure. and a great place to visit. i was able to acomplish a long awaited dream of visiting the place. though for the start i hated the place(the traffic jams took a toll on my brain and thinking) , day 2 actually changed the complete picture. i wud probably visit this place again this time for more number of days. Awesome ride and experince for sure!!!

Link for pics

http://picasaweb.google.com/raghuveer79/HampiRide

http://picasaweb.google.com/adi.nrn2/AvengerHampiRide?authkey=OjTyyw-gfkQ

http://picasaweb.google.com/pramod.munna/HampiRideOn15Aug2008

Karimnagar Trip (by Jems)

We started off around 6, with a new rider Pankaj, very enthusiastic rider , along with Saurabh, Abhiraj and Deepak and this writer. Off went through the state highway, and were riding as if we own the road, suddenly a few intruders came into our territory threatening to overtake us, but we FORGIVE them, and let the high-end bikes, which were hardly visible to us to overtake. Had a proper breakfast at APTDC on the state highway and resumed our journey. Happened to stop at Siddhipet Lake which was almost dry, then proceeded to the cave nearby. Then, a cartload of monkeys descended near our bikes and started to admire our 5 bikes. We had our usual photo session at the cave and proceeded towards Karimnagar.At the outskirts of Karimnagar, we happen to stop, then a passerby offered us help about the places to see and even gave his cell no in case of any trouble. Rest assured, we travelled towards the Resvoir, where we became celebrities LITERALLY.Few policeman had come for a training session at Karimnagar Police Training Camp. When they saw us at the resvoir, they wanted to have pics with us. Since, we are all modest and humble Avenger group, we refused, but they begged and pleaded us, so we had to oblige, they had pics with our bike too, then we proceeded towards LUNCH.Had a hearty meal and went to Deer Park nearby, slept in the pagoda till we became pakoda's and left for the city. On the way, we stopped at Shamirpet Lake, rested a while and returned to base camp feeling like CELEBRITIES excited and thrilled

Bidar Ride 2 (Saurabh)

Trip started at 5:30 , after a no sleep night by both of us...meet at mehndipatnam Indian oil petrol bunk...we started roaming at 80kmph towards bidar...route taken was awesome no traffic..from mehndipatnam to lingampally to BHEL..then had at tea at patancheru at 6:00 AM, started roaming again at 80-90-100kmph towards sangareddy..but again my bike fainted...and not allowed me to gain speed more then 70kmph as no oil in engine all leaked due to bad service of castrol guys i cursed then at lot..raghu went with me...we reached zahirabad reliance dhaba by 7:00AM where we meet raghu 2 VP s along with family also coming to bidar fort...(may be inspired by raghu ) in car....we swayed them bye on route from zahirabad to bidar,while we had a smoke...then again raghu went ahead at 90-100 or even more.....i slowly started maintained 60-70 though....reached on time ..as a old story says slow and steady wins the race..(no offense) ..they got stuck due to traffic jam in railway signal..then we started toward fort...we entered like kings... But fort was closed as we reached at 8:30 am ..so we gone towards outer fort to had some photo shots..of rel ems....we went back and saw those car people taking out there big cameras and tripods...aaaa.. they was a huge fire inside both of us due to ..u know what....we also had some shorts inside fort and seen the museum...then we started searching the big too opp...we saw that from a distance then decided to move back ....to gurudwara but as both of us haven't had bath,we saw some college student drawing paintings of fort,had some pics at entrance,we decided to heed back towards Hyderabad..we started at 10:30 am...and then at zahirabad i got my bike repaired..raghu went ahead as he was feeling sleepy...but after getting ( a little fault a loss connection to spark plug in a wire)..repaired i also enjoyed the NH9 with 100 almost for 1 hr...we reached BHEL at 12:00 noon..my fastest drive...we had a lunch at Hyderabad house mehndipatnam...and returned back to home for a good sleep....BIKERS DON'T CRY.....

Bidar Ride 1(by Jems)

Me, Deepak n Abhinash started off at 6:00 with an Irani chai n headed towards Patencheru--> Zahirabad -->Basavakalyan as the route in our minds , but according to the age old saying "The only permanent thing in the world is CHANGE..after we crossed the AP-Karnataka border, Deepak took over as the translator for the small size 3 member group and we decided that Basavakalyan fort would not be worth seeing if we wish to cover the Bidar Fort and resvoir, so we headed towards the Karanjai Resvoir.We spent an hour over there, because we had a nice time out there, a major repair work was goin on the dam and we could notice what exactly was happening, with few members of the Repair work group in orange jump suits learning to swim and dive in the dam and lot more which was way above our head except for the civil engineer Mr Dpk.As we headed towards Bidar, as you can see in some of the pics, the road where we could see from miles together, it reminded me of the song " I walk a lonely road on the Boulevard of Broken dreams", we stopped and took pics. and then headed straight towards Bidar town, where we hogged in a Punjabi mess near the Nanak Zeera Gurudwara, me and Deepak were not in a mood to move and wished to go n take a nap in the Shahpuri Park nearby.Abhinash, forced us to Bidar Fort, once we reached Bidar Fort, we were amazed at the huge fort which laid in ruins except for few places. We had a photo sessions and also had a look at the 2nd Largest Cannon in Bidar Fort. Spent few hours in Bidar Fort with each of us tryin to strike a pose . We just had 2 pit stops while coming to Bidar and while coming back , we stopped at Pedda Poor to have a cuppa tea, and next stop was at BHEL, where we all dispersed .Again,it has been proved that after the Vizag Ride that , number of riders dont matter, Passion for biking does matter