KK Expedition - Day 2 - Sun, Rain and some Pain.

Read Prologue, Planning 1, Planning 2, Day 1 for prequels

It was a fairly cool day. Drizzle outside, people stirring and tossing around trying to wake up to face the day’s challenge.

Thenappan was already ready by 6:30 AM as he had to go back to Bangalore. He bid his goodbyes to everyone, and was on his way into the drizzle and the cold breeze.

Start of a new day - Raring to go

VK, Shasti, Me, Ram, Sanath

Our first concern that morning was the Scorpio. The concerns were burnt when the mighty Scorpio came in blistering at 8:30 AM. It was Go for us, and we lined up to take the day on. The bags were readied to be loaded into the beast later, and we had best wishes from other residents in the serviced apartment. With love from strangers accounted for, all we now needed was breakfast :)

Roll to Namakkal

After a hearty filling within the city, we decided to roll on to Namakkal for the next big break. The morning was serene, with no winds whatsoever. Ram was steaming on with renewed energy and after his show the previous evening, we were happy playing catch up.

Sanath decided to carry on at his own pace, and Shasti and I rolled on with VK and Ram just behind us. The first 25 km were done in just under an hour. It was around 10:30 AM, and the sun wasn’t still fully awake. I had a status check with the car boys, who were just starting after their breakfast. We had a juice break 11 km from Namakkal, just after which the Scorpio caught up with us. 

Fresh fruits awaited us, and Kannan was loving enough to even peel oranges for us. With tears of happiness in my eyes, which probably had something to do with the orange juice that was sprayed, I stuffed the fruits in. It was difficult as usual to stop Ram and drag him on to continue, but after some energy spent on this alone, we were off towards Karur.

Fruitman Kannan

Banana, Orange - Colours represented on Ram's T Shirt as well!

Testing Times

The roads from here on were ‘rolling’, with the climbs longer than the drops. The sun was on its duty earnestly, and was beginning to slow us down. We kept trudging on – it was around 12.30 PM, Shasti had raged on while I was pacing VK and Ram. VK had developed discomforts and he couldn’t point it but was slowing down. His otherwise handsome face was clearly showing the discomfort, and Ram was beginning to tire. I decided to stay ahead of them a little so they can try catching up with me. In a few minutes, I had lost them.

I moved on a couple of kilometres to find Shasti resting in a shelter that made up a bus stand. Anything that could offer a bit of shade and rest was a glorious sight, and I joined Shasti in stretching the limbs. It was the day after Ramzan and a group of Muslim boys were enjoying the holiday. They stopped to satisfy their curiosity about two seemingly lost souls, they were quickly on their way though after wishing us well. Amidst these interruptions I slowly realized it was more than 20 minutes now and I couldn’t see the two guys who were just about a couple of kilometres behind me.

Rupture Ram and Vigorous VK

We found out Ram had the first puncture of the day, and his second in the journey yet. While he was on to it along with the support crew, VK had another type of pressure building up threatening to burst into a puncture. He finally realized he had indigestion that was causing him problems and the urge had built up to an unbearable degree. Shasti and I were blissfully unaware of these developments and once I called in to get the updates, I decided to go back to check on them.

Puncture #2, Day #2, Sunil and Kannan helping out Ram

Whose hand the dirtiest?

I caught Ram just a kilometre behind, and on the way forward again we found VK and the Scorpions at a petrol bunk. VK had a look of relief and was ready to roll again – we figured not all the noises one heard at the bunk then was of flowing petrol alone. At this point, we had already had a break of about an hour in all.

Crawling till Karur

We were about 30 km from Karur, and about 110 km from Dindigul which was our planned stop for the day. There was growing anxiety about reaching the destination for the day, but we chose to ignore these for the time being.

First concern was lunch. We were told of a place about 5 km from where we were, and we rolled on. The Scorpions located the restaurant for us, which was more of a modest dhaba. We weren’t very keen on variety and ordered some meals and curd rice. It was about 3 PM and we decided to rest here for a while.

VK was fully drained, and needed some catch up time. We gorged on some Kulfis after the lunch, and lazed around till 4:00 PM. Sunil had a false alarm about the Scorpio’s clutch again, however it helped that the ‘restaudhaba’ was strategically located just next to a Mahindra service centre! Sheer luck or divine coincidence!

Karur was around 25 km from here. The sun was on its retreat, and the clouds were looming in. VK was completely dehydrated and we decided to give him a 10 km break. He was bonking with low sugar levels as well, and needed some sugar shots. Kannan offered to take on the handlebar till Karur and quickly took the opportunity to flaunt his lycra.

River Full! Water Water everywhere!

Trudging along....

Kannan ‘Nayakkar’ Sundaram

We stopped 10km from Karur for a small break and were met at the bus shelter by highway patrol. They were curious about the bikes and asked us the routine questions. Kannan was on form today and silenced them in one sentence. For the uninitiated, the sentence sounds very familiar to one of the most famous lines in Tamil Cinema.

Watch from 4:45 to 5:00 for Kannan's Inspiration

Kannan’s now world famous sentence came out most naturally - “Naalu peru kasthapatta dhaan, ezhai kozhandaingalukku sappadu kedaikkum na, andha naalu peru naangala irukkom” (if four people need to slog it for poor children to be fed, then let us be the four people) – It is worthy to note that the policeman didn’t have any further questions to ask.

Another one asked us though – about the costs of the bikes. We usually undervalue the bikes so the conservative onlookers don’t conclude we are overly crazy. However Shasti was in his elements, and only the truth would flow out of his mouth – so he said “Sir, that is 28,000, this is 35,000 and that is 25,000”. The policeman almost asked us why we would ride all the way to Kanyakumari to collect money, when we could have as well pooled what we spent on the bikes for charity and taken the days off to sleep at home. However, he turned out to be a dumbstruck gentleman, and all he could manage was a wide-eyed expression of incredulity. We left them to digest some facts, and carried on towards Karur.

Skies beating down

It had by now started to drizzle, and we upped the ante to cover the next 10 km in 25 minutes. We reached the diversion to Karur town, and stopped for refreshments. Ram joined us soon, and while we were chit-chatting, we noticed the Scorpions rush past. We called them to turn back and join us.

By now the drizzle was heavier, and we decided to play it safe by putting all our frills into the car and it was just us and the bikes now. We started at around 5:30 PM and we’d just covered a couple of kilometres when it started beating down from the skies.

Heavy cross winds played along and in a matter of minutes the most conducive settings had deteriorated to the most challenging. I was pretty pumped up though and all of us were actually relishing the challenge.

The Scorpions were parked a little ahead and they provided the flip side of the coin. They tried putting some sense in us about the dangers of riding on the highway just after dusk, with visibility that let us see till the outer limits of our paunches. We decided to take a break till the rains abated, and found shelter in a workshop.

Skies opened up

In search of shelter...Notice Kannan in his lycra??

While we were waiting for the rains, our plans needed to be revised as it was amply clear that we weren’t going to make it to Dindigul on time. Though riding in the dark was an option as we were equipped material-wise, it wasn’t still the sanest thing to do. We decided to ride till Aravakurichi, the next big village 30 km from Karur and about 45 km from Dindigul. Our Man Friday in TamilNadu, Shasti came to our rescue in quickly planning our stay in this remote village. We cancelled our bookings in Dindigul, blocked a modest place in Aravakurichi, and we also ordered our food already. We weren’t going to reach the place before 9 PM and since there were no McDonald’s or Subways here, we had to order well before 9 PM for our food to be arranged for. We didn’t care where it came from, as long as there was something nice and hot to eat when we reached.

The rains showed no signs of abating soon, and after a good one hour it mellowed down to a drizzle again. Ram had left us for a ride alone and had already covered around 6 km before we started. We reached the diversion to Aravakurichi on the highway, at around 8:30 PM. We still had 7 km to go to reach the village, and we had to traverse through what looked like a mini forest. At this hour and the drenched state we were in, we had no adrenaline left to explore our way into the unlit interior roads and decided to take a mini-van ride offered by Shasti’s friend.

We loaded the bikes, and had an eerie ride to reach the village. We were given three rooms in a lodge that had around six, and we were the only patrons for the night. Our food had already arrived with big bottles of Fanta and Coke.

Geyser – means what?!

The people around were extremely accommodating and appreciative of the fact that we were embarking on this journey. We got the warmest of welcomes, however the same couldn’t be said about the water that we were to bathe in.

Having spent almost 4 hours in torrential rain, which at its most tender was a continuous drizzle enough to fill a bucket in an hour, we had imagined Jacuzzis with foaming steamy water, with aromatic candles lit all around as the most fitting end to the day. What we had to settle for – was cold tap water.

This is when the simplest differences in lifestyles give us the most profound perspectives in our lives. Kannan asked one of the lodge-keepers if they had a geyser. And the reply he got was something I will remember for a long time – “Geyser – appadina?” (Geyser – means what?) This was August 2013, just a month before Apple would release its most dramatic product in plastic casing that can be afforded by even the modest BMW owner, and here was a man who didn’t know what a geyser was and still was pretty satisfied with his life. Ignorance is bliss they say.

It just hit us pretty hard. Without another word, we just went about freshening up.

I took the initiative of cleaning the bikes while the other folks cleaned themselves – Kannan and I went down, washed the bikes quickly, and sprayed the bikes with degreaser and left it to work its magic through the night.

After a good stretching session with Srini, I joined the folks for a really hearty dinner. A couple of drinks later, I was ready to hit the sack at 11.30 PM.

The longest day yet was just around the corner. We had to start very early to cover our deficit in the plan, and reach Dindigul as fast as we could. Sleep wasn’t something I had to wait for, and before my head hit the pillow, I was deep in sleep-world.