"Sometimes you find yourself in middle of nowhere;
and sometimes in middle of nowhere you find yourself"
This is very famous quote in riding, but its very true
with every word. It almost 200 kms I already passed,
my wife called and asked about my whereabouts. I
understand the feeling of family, when you ride first
time so long on bike..
I didn't tell my family about the route I was taking, I lied
to them said I am going through Vizag, which is much
more safer than the route which I selected.
Everything was going smooth till now.. 700 kms ride for
a rider is like 8 to 9 hours of riding, so calculated my
time and route accordingly. I thought I must reach
Araku Valley before evening. I was riding perfectly as
per the time I had calculated, I saw the sign board of
Bhadra Chalam 50 kms far from my location.
It was almost 11:00 am in the morning and I had to
stop for a natures call. So I pulled over at one dhaba
on the highway to freshen up and a quick tea break.
With the quick tea break, I resumed my ride, I was
feeling bit fresh, as sun going above on the head,
weather was heating up, but still I was enjoying, I could
see fields of rice both the sides of the road. The way I
was riding I thought I will reach Araku Valley in proper
time before evening..
I reached Bhadra Chalam, I was searching for the
petrol pump, coz I didn't want to take any chance..
what if that facebook friend must be right and there will
be no petrol pump ahead for many kms, anyways I
filled my tank full and took two extra bottles of petrol
with me, usually it's not allowed to carry petrol in
bottles and it's not allowed for petrol pumps to sell it in
bottles but in remote area like this petrol pump guys
sells petrol in bottles with some extra bucks, they also
know there are no petrol pumps ahead for at least 300
kms.
I asked petrol pump guys about the route of Araku
Valley and they said I am on the correct route but still
set up the map in my mobile, hung it my mobile stand
on my bike and started journey, I remember my friend
saying there will be almost 400 kms stretch of Ghat
after Bhadra Chalam in a way to Araku Valley.
Usually riders enjoys Ghats the most, they like to lean
and ride with every curves of the ghats, so I was too
excited for this but this was my first ever ghat
experience, anyways, I could see the mountain ranges
approaching towards me, it was 12:30 noon when I hit
the ghats.. few kms of ghats were very smooth but
then the road test started for Shaurya, road was getting
more and more shittier and pathetic, I was literally
searching for roads in the midst of pot holes, suddenly
my speed got down to 20 km/h from 100 km/h, I was
having the off road experience and my Shaurya was
literally telling me, take me to the decent road.
I started feeling moist in the atmosphere, I looked up
and I could see clouds taking over the sun,