Road Trip: Bangalore to Trivandrum in a day

I knew it was going to be tough.... riding 800-odd kms in one day is tough... In the end, I made up my mind and went for it... Did Bangalore to Trivandrum via Wayanad 819 kms in 19 hours. Some memoirs from the trip.

HOW IT CAME ABOUT

My dost Arun Gopal had requested me to bring his motorcycle from Bangalore to Trivandrum. Ah, like the diary milk shots ad "Manassil oru ladoo potti"! How about riding it to Trivandrum! The build up was eventful. The bike's gear jammed in 4th... got it repaired... then I lost the key at my office parking!! Luckily found it the next day from security. Now my mind was split on which route to take. Sensible option was via Hosur-Salem-Coimbatore-Palakkad-Ernakulam-Trivandrum. But its all monotonous highways. So I opted for the more adventurous Mysore-Wayanad-Thamarassery-Thrissur-Kochi-Aleppey-Kollam-Trivandrum. 

AND OFF WE GO....

3AM, 10th of November... the alarm buzzes in my ear... its chilling & foggy outside and I push the bike out of the parking... Its 4.00AM when I hit the Nice Ring Road to Mysore. My breath inside the helmet fogs the visor for a few seconds and it keeps repeating. The sun peeps through above the sugarcane fields as I reach Mandya... 

I stop for a tea and munch on a Snickers. Kilometers later, I can see the towering St. Philomenas Church in the distance. I stop to pray at the church and spot make-up artist Pattanam Rasheed there. Then a comical incident happens... I see many people having tea from a guy. I go and ask for a tea. When I'm about to pay for the tea, he is stunned... He asks "Are you not here for the film shooting??" I stare at him wide eyed  and  then say "No". Moments later we share a laugh....

Its 7.30AM as I reach Mysore. My usual hotel at Mysore is 'Hotel Mysore' near Jagmohan Palace, from where I have my breakfast. After taking some snaps of the Mysore Palace and we make our way to Sultan Bathery in Wayanad.

FZ had performed well, but I wonder how it will fare in the ghats of Thamarassery. At Gundlupet, I stopped to take in some water. The Bandipur reserve forests  were up ahead... To slow down vehicles, the forest department has dug ditches in the road, instead of humps! There were black lines formed by screeching tyres  under sudden braking, which suggests many a driver was caught unaware! I happily used this as my marker to know when a ditch is up ahead :)

The huge bamboos suggested I'm close to civilization again, nearing Muthanga.  I reached Sulthan Bathery by 11.30pm. Sulthan Bathery got its name back in the 18th century, when Tippu Sulthan drove the Jains out and used the Jain Temple as his battery! It's getting hot now... I'm sweating inside the jacket of mine. The road from Bathery to Kalpetta is a back-breaker! Along the way, an accident involving a jeep had occurred... it was sickening to see blood splattered across the broken windscreen and the clotted blood on the tar. A reminder of how a little miscalculation, frustration or  lack of concentration, can make it all go horribly wrong. With that reminder in mind, I hit the Thamarassery ghats. Narrow at places and with trucks and cars jostling for space, its not the most enjoyable of ghat roads to ride on!

Stomach was grumbling as I finished the ghat section and reached Adivaram. I settled my slightly aching bum on the bench of a small roadside hotel and had tasty meals along with fish fry. After asking the hotel owner for directions, I rode towards Thrissur via Kuttippuram. Stopped to take a few snaps of the Bharathapuzha river (Nila) nearby to Kuttippuram bridge.

Fatigue was setting in as I reached Thrissur by 6 pm. I rode to the Swaraj Round in the middle of the town, found an empty bench in the Nehru Park and dozed off for half an hour. Back on the bike and we hit the NH from Mannuthy onwards. Next stop was at Vytila for some thattu dosa & beef roast from a roadside "thattukada".

From there on, it was a non-stop 240 km ride to Trivandrum via Aleppey and Kollam. My bum was paining, wrists felt weak and fingers numb from all this riding. I reached Trivandrum by 11pm. At  home, my father and mother were not impressed (as I had expected). But Amma after venting out some anger on me, did serve me a delicious dinner. So let me wind it up with this quote:
"A mother's love is patient and forgiving when all others are forsaking, it never fails or falters, even though the heart is breaking"

PS: A big hug to my buddy Arun Gopal for letting me dish out this punishment to his motorbike :)

Thanks for reading,

Visakh.