This week end I went on a long ride [really long] with my bike. Within a span of 2 days I traveled 903Kms [nine hundred three Kilometers]. to visit Belum caves (‘Belum’ means ‘Hole’) about 320 Km from Hyderabad. The ride was a good excuse for burning rubber.
The ride was organized by Wanderers-The Royal Enfield Fraternity of Hyderabad. The rides objective was to meet other riders from Chennai and Bangalore at Belum as the Madbulls ( Chennai Bullet Club ) had their anniversary. RTMc, 60kph and Bike nomads come together to share the passion of biking, multi orgasmic throttle pleasure, enroute bliss and also the pleasure of seeing the clear night sky with stars carelessly thrown into it.
On Saturday 1st March I with 3 other fellow riders Govind (from Satyam), Vikash (from Infosys) and Vardhaman (Businessman) started from Hyderabad at 6:00am. Life in Hyderabad was just stirring and it was easy to negotiate city roads. Soon, the dusty smoke filled city roads gave way to clear, twisty, curvy highways which saw all our bikes weave together in synchronous bliss. The thump of our engines were declaring our passion for these magnificent machines.
From then on, it was clear open roads, the red ball of fire clearly visible in the rear view mirror - getting hotter by the minute and waiting to splatter its molten “warmth” to the already parched land.
We stopped at places to have breakfast and sugarcane juice. We rode at a speed of over 80Kmph and even touched 110Kmph occasionally. We road with our head lamps on so that the rider just in front of us can identify that it was one of our team members. The roads of AP are pretty good and hence we could clock high speeds constantly. My bike got a punctured tyre but fortunately it was in a small village and mechanic was not far off. We faced bad roads after Betumcherla towards Belum caves which was almost 50 Km from Belum caves. We reached Belum Caves at 4:00Pm traveling 343Kms and found other bikers already present there. The Madbulls Came at 4:30. In total there were 32 riders with 30 Royal Enfield bikes. We stayed in the APTDC hotel at night, there was not enough beds at the hotel consisting of 2 dormitory rooms, so some of them slept in a tent brought by one of the riders. I disliked the food served in the Purnami restaurant in Belum caves.
We went Inside the cave which is 3Km in length (about 2Km is open for visit). The entrance of the cave is a hole in the earth on a flat land and one has to come down through stairs. The cave was formed due to the river waters flowing through it for thousands of years. The cave consisted of beautiful formations of stalactites and stalagmites. The ceiling of the cave was smooth and consisted of holes of 30 cm in diameter; these were formed due to the whirlpools inside water. The cave was warm inside and air was pumped inside it for oxygen supply. At some places the ceiling was not even at the height of 3.5 ft and hence we had to crawl and at other places it was at almost 15 ft. Water was still dripping from the ceilings at places. The walls contained marks of water level over the years. I took a lot of pictures inside the cave.
Out of the cave, all sweaty and feeling like the best workout ever, we were soon feeling the pang of tiredness of riding, gliding and sliding ! BUT, that was all taken care of after a shower and the majaa of meeting and making new friends happened.
The night was amazing with clear night sky, with the stars thrown into it in a disarray of beauty, cool breeze that seems to caress you ever so light, friends whose laughter takes you into a parallel universe of no worry, no headache, no heartache, liquids that give you that buzz that a smile plasters your face, food that stops the rumbling in one’s stomach, a bed that lets you attain nirvana — this explains the post evening session. After a long time I saw the clear star studded sky without any sigh of high rise or communication towers.
In the morning of 2nd March we started from belum caves at 7:00am and decided to go to Hyderabad via Srisaylum. Total expected distance 450 Kms. The ride was really enjoying as the road was really out of traffic and we went miles through valleys and beautiful landscapes , sunflower fields and Banana gardens. We stopped at many places on the road, lined up our bikes and took pictures. People in the villages waved at us and we waved back. We had breakfast at Betumcherla and lunch at Doornala.
We rode through the Ghats and the view of the surrounding was fascinating. We rode through the jungle road passing by a tiger reserve; I don’t know how many tigers are there. We could only hear the thump of our engines in the jungle. The only animals we saw were monkeys. At places we had to go off-road as roads barely existed at those places. While riding through the Ghats one bike (unknown rider) which was in front of my bike met with an accident. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I was saved. On the way to Srisaylum my fuel got finished and I went on reserve for 8Km before we reached Srisaylum where I refueled my bike. The view of Srisaylum Dam is worth taking up the long tiring Journey. The view of the Ghats (hills) was awesome. Every single turn brought a beautiful view of the Ghats and the valley beneath it. We stopped at many places just to take pictures. The sun was setting down and it gave wonderful reflection of light over the hills and over the valley. I can never forget them. We left Srisaylum at 4:45pm towards Hyderabad which is about 190 KM from the dam site.
While we were ridding among pitch darkness through the jungle road we were given a chase by a Bajaj Pulser bike and we chased it back hitting speed of 120 Kmph and more. There was absolute darkness allover and we could only see that part on which our headlight fell, everything else was under cover of darkness. On the way to Hyderabad (we nearly reached Hyderabad) we reached a crossing from where we were misguided by locals and started riding on the Bangalore highway. After driving for quiet a while we had a doubt that it was the wrong way and when we confirmed that, we came to know that we have already ridden more than 25Kms. The next route to Hyderabad was through Shadnagar. We reached Shadnagar at 9:30Pm and still Hyderabad was ONLY 48Km from that place! We were tired and also angry with the locals who misled us. My muscles were fatigued and I could hardly hold the clutch properly, even braking was also late due to the cramped right leg. On the top of it the highway was only single lane (the other lane is being developed) and vehicles were coming from opposite direction at high speed with headlights at full beam. Finally we reached Hyderabad at 11:00 pm almost 16 Hrs after we left Belum traveling 556Km on a single day.
It was one of the most strenuous adventures I have ever had , but it was a mix of pleasure, the will to explore new lands, test our riding skills and above all friendship and brotherhood. This ride also marks the deep respect that we have towards our bikes , they are like our brothers , friends and a companion who has the ability to take it all .
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