KK Expedition - Day 1

Read previous posts for the build up to the ride

Aug 09th - In the darkest hours of the night, when the world around me was deep asleep, the long relaxing weekend already begun for them, some of us were up and about. For in these darkest hours, shone the brightest spark in us...

We all had different reasons to embark on this journey. And none of them was to prove anything to anyone else but to ourselves. That life still holds some excitement for us, and we can indeed skip the monotony if we chose to. And do something no one, least of all us expected ourselves to do. And hence to prove we were still alive, we were still kicking and we will rock our worlds anyday!

At 3:00 AM I woke up before the alarm did, and put it back to sleep. Dressed up, accepted wife's good wishes, said a silent bye to the kiddo and got to the bus stand by 3:45 AM; Sanath was a little late. Thenappan called me from his loo (yep), to tell me he was going to be a little late too - because of what is anybody's guess! Thenappan was going to ride till Krishnagiri and back, as of 3:45 AM.

Ram had already reached the HAL police station - I am sure they were now pretty used to seeing this figure so early outside their premises at such wee hours so frequently, they were probably already following Ram everywhere to check him out.

All of us except VK gathered at the Marathalli bridge. VK was a little ahead and waiting for us at Kundanhalli gate. Sunil and Srini had come to see us off. Ashish Jha had also woken up in the wee hours to wave us off.

The Kick off

It was 4:20 AM now, we were all getting ready to kick off. Just then a Qualis stopped next to us. And the driver was pretty excited to see us - a few moments of staring later I realized it was the same guy we met in our training ride the previous weekend at Shoolagiri.

So he asked us "Where to this time?" and I said "Kanyakumari". And he said "No really, where to this time?". And when I said "God Promise man, Kanyakumari" (the best way to impress upon Indians that you are being truthful) he was pretty incredulous still. He and his customers all wished us well and waited for us to kick off.

After the customary clicks, we were off at around 4:45 AM. VK joined us along the way, and we were now off as a bunch. The plan was to meet the support crew at Adyar Anand Bhavan at Shoolagiri, at 7:30 AM.

At the start line, L to R: Shasti, Thenappan, Yours Truly, Sanath, Ram

We rode at a comfortable pace to warm up, reaching Attibele at 6:20 AM covering 32km in 1.5 hours. This was our first break, taking in bananas, a hot cup of tea, some homemade chikkis that VK got. After a bit of stretches, we were off towards A2B. Ram had already started ranting about his craving for Pongal and vada at A2B. We all had a theory about Gastric Levitation, but thats for another time when we need to be more technical.

We had a status check with the support guys, who hadnt even got off the bed at this time. We had our doubts already about seeing them at A2B at 7.30 AM. This was the start of a long festive weekend, and it showed! The tollbooth at Attibele had such a long queue in every booth, it went right over the Attibele flyover! We wound our way past all the stuck cars and eased through the tollbooth, much to everyone else's chagrin :)

Food Food everywhere, but not a bit to eat

The weather was something to savor! The perfect temperature, with a little bit of cross breeze. We attacked all the small climbs and took all the flyovers from here. After Hosur, it was all downhill, and we were clocking a good pace. Reaching A2B at 7:50 AM we had the most depressing sight, pushing Ram to tears nearly.

The queue at the counter extended beyond the entry door, winding up even outside of the hotel. We had to search for space to park our bikes among all the cars!!! It was the same at the McDonald's and other restaurants at the previous petrol bunk. There was no way we would waste our time in the queue to oblige Ram. So we quickly found a tea vendor nearby, had some snacks and tea and off we were again. Krishnagiri was just 30km from there, and given its all downhill, it would take us around 45 mins to an hour.

We rolled on, reached Krishnagiri by 9:15 AM. The support crew were wiping out plates of pongal and vadas at A2B at this time, having had the luxury of spending some time in the queue. Ram was wild, so we got him to a restaurant in Krishnagiri near the Anjaneya temple - we were filling ourselves up when the Scorpio arrived.

After Breakfast, Ready to roll

Ram getting some help from Srini

Stretchhhhh

A little bit of goofing around later, we were on our way by 10:00 AM. We had covered 94 km in around 4.5 hours, which was pretty fast by our standards. This was the crucial moment for Thens, who thought over it for a looong time, which was around half a second, and made up his mind that he was going to continue riding till Salem with us and not return from Krishnagiri. He was enjoying the ride and our company so much that he decided it was worth taking his wife's wrath on.

The sun was peeking out from behind the gloomy clouds, making up its mind. It decided to be benign for sometime. We planned  to stop every 45 mins from now on, have a small break, recover ourselves a bit and continue. Sanath however started falling behind keeping his lower gear combination and spinning like crazy. To each his own, so we kept treading along at a good pace.

While Shasti and I borrowed dupattas, Ram was the most ingenious of the lot. He used his old lungi as head gear. Many jokes did the rounds about his creativity, but as this is a public forum I am bound not to reveal.

Anyway, this wasnt a brevet or a race, so we did take some time out to enjoy the scenery, to play around a little bit, generally just have a good time.

For a little streching...

Itching to get on the bike...but, not for now we said..

I had burning hot lemon tea in the middle of the day, thanks to Mr Kannan

We hit Dharmapuri (the Hogenekkal cross roads) exactly at 1 PM. Exactly and precisely and accurately. The temperature was rising, and we planned to get some lunch down our systems now. The support crew *chilled out* for a while before joining us for lunch.

After a longish break that involved stuffing quite some curd rice in us and some stretching, we hit the road at 2:00 PM. The sun clearly decided not to be friendly anymore. The 10 km from here to get out of the town to join the highway was consistently brutal, with a mild upward incline all the way. But having replenished, this wasnt really backbreaking, and the much anticipated Thoppur drop was yet to come.

We reached to Thoppur toll, to find the car guys parked after the toll. Apparently Ram had a flat around 6km before the toll, just next to a puncture shop. Sheer luck, or shady coincidence. After drawing flak from the puncture guy for removing the wheel himself (doesnt go well with professionals who dont like the know-it-all attitude that riders display), Ram got it fixed and was trudging ahead.

We continued ahead, and reached the Thoppur drop. One of the sweetest descents - long winding roads, mostly kept away from the headwinds by the hills, we were careful not to overdo and kept the speeds just below 50 kmph. This place is famous for its monkeys, and this day 8 more joined them for the fun. After this descent, we took a smallish break downing some juice and chikkis.

We were now 35 km from Salem. Our destination for the day. VK had some newfound energy and sprinted for a while along with Shasti. Thens and I took it easy rolling on nicely. About 25km before Salem, we decided to wait for the guys to catchup, so we can enter Salem together. We found a small temple on the other side of the road, and settled for a small nap. Which ofcourse didnt happen as we were chatting away all the time. It was around 4:20 PM and the sun was settling down.

We waited till 5 PM, called up Kannan and decided to move on as they were still around 8km away trying to match pace with Ram, which was proving to be quite a task! :P The break didnt do VK any good as his muscles started to seize. We moved along at an easy pace till around 10km from Salem city. I hit the accelerator then, as I was tiring a bit. I didnt want to lose focus so made called upon whatever "reserve energy" that might have been in me reaching the '5 road' junction at 5:30 PM. Once VK, Shasti, Thens and I regrouped, we made our way through the traffic towards the Collector's Bungalow, near which was the service apartment we booked for the day.

Rocket Ram

VK at this point had a bit of a scare with cramps and exhaustion, but he pulled through. We found the apartment, and when we were just entering the gate, Ram called me asking for directions. He was at the Salem toll, around 14km behind. I asked him to come till 5 roads and then give me a call.

We went to the second floor, surveyed the room, decided on the order of loo-usage, and began the wait for the Scorpio inside which was all our stuff. Ram called again to tell me he was at the 5 roads junction! Hardly 25 minutes and he had covered around 8 km!!! I was dumbstruck literally, and slowly managed to tell him we were only another 6km away. I had hardly put the phone down, and I get another call from Ram now telling me he was at the turn towards Yercaud. It must have been 30 seconds for all I know, and I was now in shock. He was only 2km away from us now. At this point, we theorized that Ram must be in the Scorpio and trying to fool us. To cross check, I called Kannan up, and they were now nearing the toll booth following Sanath!

I didnt quite believe any of them, and I had just put the phone down again and Ram was entering the apartment, sweating and panting like a greyhound. I decided I must be delirious and hallucinating now after the 210 km ride. We all were quite literally short of words because braving the traffic, exhaustion and every other thing thrown his way, Ram had literally rocketed the last 25km in an hour, best part of which was inside the city in the dark.

Ram was capable of some miracles and we were just given chapter 1 of this lesson.

Mighty Scorpio comes down

We settled on a wait for Sanath and the Scorpio guys who were pulling him along, while gulping down a few coffees each. Around 30 minutes later, we were told the guys are less than a kilometer away. I went down to greet them, and was waiting for the car to turn into our lane. It did, but it was so painfully slow that I thought they were pedaling inside it for fun. It was a few moments later that I realized it was being pushed!!!

Apparently the guys were driving so slow for so long, they'd blown a pipe inside and the clutch oil was leaking and hence was jammed. We all gathered and gave them a hand in pushing the car till the apartment. If I have to recollect every emotion on Sunil's face so far during our acquaintance and point out the troughs and peaks, this moment was the saddest I've seen him. He'd bought this car from someone just a month back, and was so in love with it - his face was just like a thin layer of packing foil covering a volcano - such a futile attempt to contain his grief.

We started reacting well after a few moments of dwelling on our misfortune. The guys found a 24x7 workshop, had the mechanic come over. This guy told us they had to take it back to the garage and the car would be back at 3 PM the next day latest. There was no time to mull over the repercussions on our schedule at this moment. It was going to cost a bomb as well. Kannan, Srini and Sunil went with the mech to the workshop to drop the car and check out the place and in the meanwhile we were freshening up.

Morality Vs Practicality

We had all assembled in the hall after freshening up and ordering dinner. Sanath pulled Thens along for some late night shopping, for God knows what.

And then the inevitable discussion opened - What do we do now?!

I am wired in a way that when I have planned out something very passionately, it has to work that way and I wouldnt take alterations so easily. My family has a love-hate opinion about this aspect of mine, and I was deeply aware of this side of me. So in my mind, we were still leaving at 4 AM next morning as planned, and the support guys would stay back and get the car when its done with.

VK took a strong objection to this, and wasnt going to leave the guys behind - it wasnt right morally.

Ram felt this way too, and Shasti was open - he would take it anyway it turned out because he wasnt being so rigid about it. Such flexibility was missing in me, and this discussion went on for a while, where we covered the entire range of possibilities and our responses to them.

I did see reason in VK and Ram's point, but a part of me wouldnt accept it. I wouldnt delve into the details of my reasoning and long story short - I gave in finally to starting late. I had a long face for a few minutes while I mulled over this turn of events - this was the right thing to do anyday, and I had to bring myself around and reset my mind to the new plan. The guys were understanding of my conflict and allowed it me those moments of introspection. This is precisely the reason I was going on this trip with these guys - we had bonded pretty well and these moments of unrest quickly melted.

The guys returned leaving the car at the garage and Ram conveyed the new plan. We all settled down for a few drinks and slowly the knot in my head was beginning to unravel. I was now perfectly alright with the new plan - when the best call of the evening came for Srini. The mechanic called to inform that the car will be available by 9 AM latest and he is pulling all stops to get it ready. Literally overjoyed with this development, we ate, drank and made merry. I was back in command of my head, we regrouped and decided we will start at 8 AM.

Relaxed after sorting things out

I had a big lesson for life, and I was seeing how the agenda is not everything. People are. We called them support staff for ourselves and when the turn came for us to show some support, I couldnt back myself. In many ways, how this situation was handled was a big step for me - and reinforces that when you do the right thing, circumstances turn around to be right for you!!

I went to sleep with a light head - the sort of deep sleep at the end of which you dont remember where you are and why you are there!

Day 1 - done.