Pre Ride Planning
So its been WFH for almost half an year and things were starting to open up. I had plans to do the GQ on my new bike on Independence day but unfortunately, lockdown was still prevalent. After following many Travelers from HVK group and TeamBHP, finally decided to travel from Bangalore to Delhi after obtaining all the Passes
I got the Travel passes of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka easily but Maharashtra and UP required a COVID Test to be done. So I did the Test from Thyrocare in Bangalore for Rs 600 and got the necessary passes. Gave my Bike for checkup and changed the Brake pads and Tyres just in case.
The plan was to stick to the NH 44 all along for 3 days with Day 1 halt at Nizamabad and Day 2 at Sagar. Even Identified places to stay, called them and confirmed that it was open. It was the eve of the ride and as usual, I did overpack
Day 1 - Bangalore to Adilabad - 905 Kms
Started from home at around 5am and breezed through till Bagepalli Border for Andhra Pradesh. Surprisingly, No checking or asking for epasses. After entry to Andhra, there was one cop who asked to open my bag to check for Liquor.
Easily reached Hyderabad by 12 pm but couldnt enter the Expressway as it was banned for 2 wheelers. Hence took the road through the city traffic.Roads in Andhra were beautiful going through the hills. The climate was a pleasure to ride. As soon as I crossed into Telangana I was surprised to see even better roads. beautiful flowering trees were planted on both sides of the road making it feel like a grand welcome.
The entire stretch of day was was magnificent and I was able to cover more than 900 kms today. It was the adrenaline of starting the journey as well which made me push extra.
For the Night, I halted at Adilabad which was the last Border point between Telangana and Maharashtra. I didnt want to go through epass checking at night so decided to halt in Telangana itself.
Stay - Hotel New Krishna Lodge, Adilabad for Rs 600
Day 2 - Adilabad (Telangana) to Lalitpur (UP) - 700 Kms
I had a very eventful day today. After the bliss of southern states and a relatively easy day yesterday, today I entered Maharashtra. As soon as I entered, I realised it's going to be tough. Very very bad quality roads. After riding for 100 kms decided this is not happening and pushed suspension 1 point on softer side. While on the break felt extremely sleepy and slept on a bus stand for an hour. This was just 8am and I knew I am not going to cover the intended distance today (Plan was Jhansi). The mod on suspension helped but still was not able to keep up more than 120. Then entered Nagpur and the big fiasco happened.
While in the Nagpur City, I missed the deviation to NH44 and entered NH 547. This NH 547 was the worst of roads with best views around. Later I heard from locals that due to heavy rains, there was a landslide in NH44 after Nagpur and all the truck traffic was diverted from NH44 to this 547. What was worse is there were 3 huge traffic jams with one of them due to an overflowing river and other two due to over turned trucks in the Ghat roads. This Highway is not well equipped for the huge trucks and doesn't have a divider as well.. to add to the misery, the roads had HUGE potholes and going above 40 was turning out to be a challenge.
To safely navigate, turned the suspension to the softest side and reduced psi in rear tyre from 41 to 39. This section between Nagpur to Narsinghpur of 255 kms took me close to 5 hours whereas in the main Nh44 I could've covered this in 2 hours. Plus the strain on legs additional. Couple of Good things about this route is, the Ghat roads and view is amazing. Plus, since I was going slow, I got a very good mileage of around 25
Anyways, once I reached back nh44, I just couldn't control myself. Pushed the suspension up 2 notches and immediately started cruising in 140. The next 200kms I could cover in 2 hours easily. However all those 200 kms it was pouring constantly and everything I wore was soaking wet. Driving in mp and up part of nh44 is very challenging because of so many dogs and cows. In the journey today 3 times abs kicked in due to the dogs and cows.
The roads in MP and UP are top notch and the greens around the highways are mesmerizing.. I could cover 100 kms more than my original plan and reached lalitpur for night halt. Overall I covered around 700kms today in 12 hours with all the sleep break, traffic, bad roads etc. Could've done it faster with lesser strain had I not deviated to the other Highway, but nothing much to be bogged over about.. end of the day body is fine too ride another 1000 kms tomorrow and looking forward for the next day tomorrow!
Stay - Hotel Anand Residency, Lalitpur. Rs 1000
I just love the small town ppl and their mentality.. I told them I'm coming from Bangalore to Delhi and looking at the mud covered bike, the security guard cleaned it with a bucket of water without me telling him... I paid him 100 bucks which he accepted with a wide grin on his pan filled face 😀
Day 3 - Lalitput to Delhi - 556 Kms
Today I reach delhi. The excitement of going home was taking me across the Cow filled roads of UP. I've read a lot about the Jhansi- Gwalio stretch in Teambhp which was under construction but managed to breeze through this stretch easily. Guess the work has progressed afterall.
Once I was nearing Agra, I made a mistake of following the Highway rather than going in the city for the expressway. Realizing this late, decided to take the Expressway in Mathura, for which I had to travel 15 kms inside the city with painful traffic
Once I reached the Expressway, I covered 100 kms in 42 minutes 😁😁 the Taj Yamuna expressway to me was like giving food to a man hungry for a month!
And so I reached Delhi. Stopped for a quick photo in front of Buddh International Circuit
Amazing route, raining all throughout. Highways and mountains fully green. Loved traveling through the lengths of my country especially during the monsoons. Overall it was 2100 Kms covered in 2.5 days. Looking forward to the return Journey through the Western Route.
Edit - You can read about my return Journey from Delhi to Bangalore through the Western Route HERE
Bangalore to Delhi in 3 days, Great! man. Keep riding & be safe..