Pune to Kanyakumari solo bike trip

First hault of the trip after travelling 670 Kms from Pune to Chitradurg. No site seeing today, excitement starts tommorow.

Had to leave Banglore national highway and travel by state highway towards Mysore. From Hiriyur to Mysore the entire road is covered with Coconut, banana and betelnut farms. The symmetry in which betelnut trees are planted looks amazing 😍. Here in south every small shop has big bunches of banana tied outside. Had never dreamt I will visit Mysore palace on a solo bike ride 😇. The palace is huge and magnificent, loved it. Also there was a flower exhibition which was real beauty in its own. In Karnataka I could easily communicate as I know a bit of Kannada. I can't read any south Indian language, each alphabet seems to be a big/small jalebi 😂😂. Avoided use of GPS to the possible extend and approached people nearby so that I could communicate with people over here.

With a gradual pace, I had entered the rice eating states, had rasam and rice for lunch in Mysore.

Left Mysore around 3pm for Sultan-Bathery, it was my today's halt. It's around 125 km from Mysore. On the way there is a Tiger reserve forest Bandipur-Wayanad. This is my first ever visit to Kerala and guess what Kerala gave me a moist welcome with heavy rain showers 😁. But this made the forest look lustrous and magnificent in evening light around 5.30 pm. Saw some deer and also an elephant. Seeing an elephant in a forest was the first time, trust me it's really thrilling. Couldn't click pictures, but yes captured a video in GoPro. The whole 40 km patch of jungle was full of goosebumps, excitement, thrill and fear 😇😇😇😍😍😍. In the mid forest itself there was a board "welcome to Kerala", so in 2days travelled 2 states. Can't speak Malayalam so I am some how managing here in my butler English "I go, you come" 😂😂. But people are cooperative where ever I went. Today traveled a total of around 400 km to reach Sultan bathery, yes having some back aches but that's ok, no pain no gain 😇

Morning was bad today, while trying to adjust GoPro on the helmet i broke the mount and bumped my head on the entrance gate 😬😬😬. Some how decked up my bike with bags, finished breakfast and started for my journey enroute Cochin.

My head was paining and was worried about how am i going to shoot without the mount on the helmet. After travelling about 2km had to feed my bike. The guy at the fuel station enquired about me and asked me "how is Kerala, do you like it?", I just forgot everything I was worrying about 😊. Never had anyone anywhere while travelling asked me this question. With a happy face I again started my bike.

This was the first time I ever saw tea plantations, I just asked a localite to confirm "Tea plantation?". Repeated the question for 3 times, finally he said "no no no that is tea plantationo", so I had missed the "o" from English accent of Malyalam 😂😂😂. Trying to speak Malyalam is like twisting your tongue to the every possible extent 😂😂. Also Malyalam letters are more circular than Kannada, in short fatter and circular jalebis 😂. But people were humble enough to greet and welcome.

The next 35 km were just awesome, tea plantations, betelnut trees and cloudy weather. It just made my day. For travelling ghat section of 35 Kms I took 2.5 hrs. My eyes, GoPro and phone were effortlessly trying to capture every little thing 😍😍. From yesterday I had been seeing different shades of Kerala. The ghat section in Waynad upto Kozhikode is just mesmerising 😍 and should be done atleast once in a lifetime. Forgot the bumped headache, broken mount bla bla bla 😬😬.

From Kozhikode to Cochin around 170 kms it's a single road so the travel was not so good, my butt had already given up and my clothes were wet due to humid climate. Today did a total of 272 Kms. As soon as I entered Cochin at around 5.15 pm the scenic sea coast with sunset, Chinese fishing nets and dockyard just again made me forget my bodily pains 😊. To reach Cochin fort had to take my bike through a Jetty boat, was 1st time experience getting transported in a Jetty boat 😊. Finally GPS Baba took me to the room i had booked 😊. Cochin fort was ruled by Portuguese. Here places are all set for Christmas celebrations and most of the tourists are foreigners. So the environment was just like Goa and lighter on pocket 😍. This was luckily the best time to be here. Met a European guy who was also on a solo trip for 3 weeks in India, had some genuine conversations with him, was good meeting him. Tommorow will explore Cochin fort area and leave for down south 😊😊😊

When you do something you like you don't need sleep for 8-9 hrs, all you need is a deep sleep which I am getting from couple of days 😍. Got up at 3am and somehow fixed the GoPro mount with Fevistick and dual side foam tape on the helmet. Well, that again came off at the end of the day but yes lasted day long, that's enough 😊.

Today my travelling distance was a bit less so had some time in the morning to explore Kochin fort. Being ruled by Dutch, Portugal and British there are many heritage sites here nearby.

I started with the beach, it's actually not a beach, there are many Chinese fishing nets placed which look too good to be clicked 😍. Yes you can see big cargo ships sailing around from the port as well.

Also the Jewish town is also a worth spot to visit.

Grave of Vasco da Gama is here, basically it's a church some 500 years old. Dutch palace built by the Dutch for a Maharaja is good to watch 😊. There is a Ayyapa temple inside the palace.

After visiting all these i left Kochin at around 10.30. The whole city has a major Christian population, and hence was decorated with Christmas trees, walls painted with santa saying merry Christmas etc 😊. After travelling for around 70 km I reached Allepy, the city of house boats. Had seen them in movies and pictures, but yes was delighted to capture them 😍. Here boats are also used for internal transportation. Roamed over the city for an hour and left for next journey towards Varkala beach which is around 110 km from here. The last 20km road from Kollam beach to Varkala beach is just adjacent to sea which makes ride even more soothing. But doesn't sooth my butt 😂😂. Moving on, reached dormitory at around 5.30 pm, named "Short Giraffe", as the name suggests it's a super cool place to hang out with a super cool host Arul. Got to know they have a chef and we can have food if we want there itself 😍. Today got to know they had a Barbecue plan, in no time i said "I'm in" 😊. Most of the dormitory roomates are foreigners; a thing I noticed these people greet as soon as they make an eye contact 😊 My rear side suffered a lot of pain today but this place made me feel really comfortable. Made a total of 1600 km so far 😎.

Last night was like a night out with friends, did not feel like spending the night with starters at dormitory. Only the host and I were Indians and rest of the guys were from Europe, Philippines, Siberia etc. The host had arranged a barbecue and we were having a gala time. Roasting all stuff and sharing our views about life. The place itself was off beat and chill out place 😇.

In the morning got up at 6.30 and went for a walk at the Varkala cliff beach. Different on its own. On the cliff there is a helipad and down the cliff there is a beach. You have many water sports activities here. And most importantly it's less crowded. It's near to Trivandrum airport around 50 km. Returned to the dorm in an hour had breakfast and a power nap. I was not willing to leave to place as the place itself was too good. But had to stick to my plan 😎. Every state has its own movie stars, in Kerala I didn't see a single Hindi movie poster. Mostly I saw posters of Malyalam movies and the Megastar Mohanlal in it.

Today asked a rickshaw guy direction to go, he said something in Malayalam, I was like "No Malyalam" 😂😂. He laughed and said "straightu straightu" 😂😂😂. After crossing Trivandrum had to take state highway as the national highway is under construction. As soon as I entered Tamil Nadu there was a poster of Rajni which was placed by a fan club. In south movie stars are celebrated more than real life hero's 😂. Finally reached my 1st destination Kanyakumari 😍, the southernmost tip of India. My hotel booking was cancelled for some reason and had to again search for hotel. Somehow got a room, here in Kanyakumari rooms are not given to single person due to many suicidal cases. I was just wondering why would anyone come here and suicide 🙄. Took a shower and had my lunch at 3pm. Went to see the temple and monument of Tiruvallavar. It's just awesome and on a small island standing tall in sea 😍. Clicked some pictures and moved further to Sunset point. There are huge rocks in this area it looks scenic in the golden sunset light. Here you can experience both sunset and sun rise 😍. Met a family from Maharashtra, we both were delighted to meet eachother 😊. After travelling for around 1614 Kms in 5 days through 3 different states finally reached my 1st destination, felt like an achievement and a dream come true 😍.

What a day to begin and end with. Started with NH44 national highway, after almost 4days got a chance to ride on a national highway again. The weather was a bit cloudy but cool enough. So covered a patch of 100 Kms in 1.25 hrs 😇. This patch of 100 Kms had lot of wind mills around, looked really nice 😍. Again had to take state highway, but guess what the state highway was too good. No hilly area and no traffic, covered 300km in 4.5 hours and reached Rameshwaram at 1.45 pm.

The Panbam bridge on the sea, what a way to enter the island city 😍. The rail bridge connects the Panbam island to mainland India and is the 2nd longest after Bandra-Worli Sealink. This bridge stands on the Palk strait and as per wiki had been build in 1914. The rail bridge was the only transport until 1988 when the road bridge was constructed. The sea view from the bridge itself is a beauty. Riding a bike on this bridge gives you goosebumps 😍.

Straight away went to Dhanush Kodu which is 22km from the main temple area. It is a straight road until the land of India ends which has sea on both sides. But riding on this road makes your mind calm 😍. One thing I noticed, didn't feel humid in Rameshwaram even though it is an island, strange 😇. Saw the temple, an architectural master piece 😍. Actually my plan was to have a stay in Rameshwaram, but I was done with my lunch and all locations at 3.45 pm itself. So better than staying I opted to reach Madurai today itself which would save my 1 day, 173 km from Rameshwaram. Yes had to travel in dark for almost 1.5 hrs but that was a calculated risk 😊. Today I covered a total of 373 km. A milestone achieved in life to travel the southern tip of India on a solo bike ride 😇😇😇. So officially started my return journey today itself 😊. Uptill now covered 2087 Kms.

Early in the morning had darshana of Mennaxi Amman temple in Madurai 🙏🙏🙏. Had been there wearing shorts but here you have to be there in pants otherwise you are not permitted inside. So again had to go to the dorm change and come. The temple is completely made in stone and the sculptures are just awesome. There is a mandapam which has 1000 pillars which is just awesome. The idols, Gopuram and the entire structure is just an amazing piece of art 😍.

Had my breakfast, the traditional southindian dosa and filter coffee and started my journey towards Banglore. The weather was cloudy and cool in my entire national highway uptill Banglore. Reached Bangalore at 7.30 pm travelling a total of 414 km from Madurai. So no much site seeing today and tommorow.

Will start heading to Pune tommorow morning. 😊😊😊😊

Final day:

Left from Banglore at 6.30 am and reached Pune at 8.15 pm. A total of 857 km covered in a single day, one of the highest for me 😁. Didn't click a single picture today as I wanted to cover Banglore-Pune in a single stretch.

You don't need a superbike, biking accessories, much money, language to communicate, etc all you need is guts to step out and explore 😇.

This trip gave some experiences to cherish for lifetime.

Had never dreamt end of 2018 will be such a blast.

Having a long ride is not just racing your bike to its limits but is to control your machine and mind to reach the desired destination safe and sound 😇.

By god's grace didn't face any accident and health issues during this dream journey 🙏🙏🙏.

Last but not the least my bike for really being an Avenger in true sense for a whole strecth of 3400 km and not troubling me an inch 🙏🙏🙏

https://youtu.be/8DMPNTdmKhg