Cycling – Pune to Tirupati – 1,017 kms / 6 days – 26^th to 31^st Jan 2023

 

Background – Long cycle rides were on my mind since one of my good friends, Satyajit, had been to Goa. When he mentioned about Tirupati ride, I got interested but was not sure of my ability to cycle almost 200 kilometres every day for 6 days. However, like all other adventures, I decided to jump into the water and then later figure out how to swim. You cannot wait for all ideal conditions to culminate. Chetan Kothavade, our deputy group leader, was very supportive and gave me the confidence to venture into the unknown.

 

Preparation – I signed up just 20 days before the ride flag off day. Until then, the max I had cycled was 60 kms. To prep myself, I did two 100 km rides before going away to Delhi for a scheduled work trip in the same week when the ride was scheduled. The other part of the preparation was buying appropriate gear for the ride like Bib shorts, jersey, accessories, spare tube, puncture kit etc for the cycle. When I finally packed my luggage and handed it over to our back-up vehicle, it was certain that I will be there at the start line at Saras Baug the next morning.

 

Pic - We dropped our luggage and decorated the back-up vehicle on 25th. We will not be seen in jeans and t-shirts for the next 6 days.

 

Day 1 (Jan 26^th) – Home to Modnimb. 195 kms

 

Left home at 3:30 am for Saras Baug. The riders and other well-wishers had gathered for a see-off. Was happy to see familiar faces from our Thursday Sinhagad hike. After our group leader, Ganesh Agashe, did a small pooja, we were off to Modnimb. A couple other cyclist had joined us up to Yavat. We left Pune city limits in high spirits to reach the breakfast point almost 75 kms away near Kurkumbh. There, we learnt that Snehal had two successive flat tyres immediately after starting. I also was told by Dr. Rakesh Jain and Chetan that my front wheel is not running as freely as desired requiring more effort to pedal. So was the case with rear wheel. Post breakfast ride got a little demanding. We stopped for lunch inside Indapur town where we had a nice thali complete with fruit salad. Post lunch ride was tough. We took 3.5 – 4 hours to cover the last 50 kms in burning sun. I was feeling sleepy around 4 pm from the fatigue. Had black coffee.

 

Pic - Flag off at Saras Baug

Pic - Passed Bhigwan, winter home of Siberian Flamingo's

Reached the hotel at Modnimb at 5:30. Had fast-n-up recovery tablets. We covered 195 kms in 13 hours. Good start. After a quick bath, laundering the days cycling gear, I went downstairs worried about the wheels’ problem. The experts in the group – Dr. Rakesh Jain, Ganesh Agashe, Chetan Kothavde, Mahendra Bhide, Snehal Shingre, took the cycle on to the operation table. After almost 45 minutes of effort, the problems were almost resolved. I felt relieved. Dinner was good. We returned to an overflowing washbasin in the room which had soaked all of Chetan’s belongings. Butala Kaka, our 3^rd roomie, moved to neighboring room because of the water mess. We crashed into the bed at 1030 – 11 pm with a wakeup call for 3:15 am.

 

Pic - Expert surgeons at work fixing my cycle's wheel problem.

Day 2 – Modnimb to Gulbarga (or Kalburgi). 188 kms

 

Morning session was wonderfully fast. Largely rolling terrain on the highway in the dark. We stopped for tea break first and later for breakfast 60-65 kilometers at Sudha Idli inside Solapur town to relish on the spongy idli’s, typical dip vada’s and bread butter. I realised my diet had gone up 3x of usual. After wasting time finding a good coffee, we got on the saddles heading towards Akkalkot. This patch gave us our first real challenge. The cement road in an arid geography with the morning sun beating down on to us made it a tough ride. As if this was not enough, there were strong head winds and decent uphill patches. Luckily no ghat’s though. Some of us took a detour to Akkalkot. After Akkalkot, a turn took us on to a small state highway towards Vaghdari, Aland. 

We stopped for lunch at 1:30 pm. I charged my headlamp. Mahendra Bhide again did some work on my front wheel to free it up completely. There were a couple of killer climbs. I could feel my exposed skin on arms, legs and face getting charred. Today’s ride was much tougher than yesterday’s. My cycle chain got disengaged in the middle of nowhere. Girish Kulkarni helped me fix.

 

Pic - Somewhere between Solapur and Akkalkot. Ashok treated us to much required limbu-paani. This cement road with headwinds was just a trailer of what was in store on the 4th day. 

Pic - A doctor and policeman are important pillars of the society. Dr. Rakesh Jain with a policeman at Aland.

25 kms before Kalburgi, at around 5:30-6 pm, I was feeling completely exhausted from the climbing in afternoon sun. Stopped for a cup of tea and biscuits. Rushikesh Patil joined me there. We were so elated when the tea stall owner told us that it is an easy descent all remaining 25 kms to Kalburgi. By the time we reached Kalburgi, it was already dark. The hotel was much better than yesterday’s. Same routine, bath, laundry, shaving etc. Our roomie today was Ashok. We stepped out for dinner. After a lot of confusion in searching, Snehal and I ended up in a wrong hotel where we had extremely spicy food. Solapur onwards the usage of chillies in the food goes up exponentially.

 

Day 3 – Kalburgi to Raichur. 170 kms.

 

We started a little late today around 4:30 am. It took us a long time to get on to the highway leading us to Raichur. Our usual morning schedule included a tea break immediately after starting (within 10-15 kms). So we stopped for one and had an unscheduled, additional second stop for some pictures. That delayed us.

Pic - Early morning rides were always more fun. Leaving Kalburgi.

Pic - Photo session break

Stopped for breakfast at Nalwar station. All meals were on roadside tapri’s and dhaba’s. No frills. Had idli chutney and dosa topped with a delicious honey cake from Iyengar bakery. The group was pedalling at an easy pace today. More stops than usual. But Yuvraj and I pulled ahead crossing Yadgir town. We realised we are much ahead of the rest, so stopped at a tapri to cool down. There was a dhaba and heap of watermelons fresh from a nearby farm. Yuvraj and I polished off one whole watermelon. It felt divine in that 35 deg heat. The group finally caught up with us. We had lunch at the dhaba at the same place. When we were 30-35 away from Raichur, I got a flat tyre. Chetan was extremely helpful as always. He changed the tube before we embarked on the last leg of today’s ride. Chetan stopped to meet his extended family at Raichur power station after crossing the Krishna river. I continued moving. Chetan quickly caught up with me. We reached Raichur around 8 pm. Looked for cycle shops to buy a replacement tube, but the size wasn’t available. Reached the hotel. Had a sumptuous Rajasthani thali. Checked-in. Butala Kaka had reunited with us sharing the room with me and Chetan. Bath, laundry, shaving routine followed before we crashed.

 

Pic - Farm fresh watermelons. Divine taste and hydrating too.

Pic - Chetan is fixing the second punctured tyre of the day.  

Since we got on to the state highways, all of us were giving interviews to curious people on motor bikes etc. We didn’t understand the local language, but the answer to the first question was always “Tirupati” without even understanding what they exactly asked. The answer to the second question was “Pune”. That was when the interviewers realized we didn’t speak the local language and immediately changed to broken Marathi or Hindi, at times even English. Rest of the conversation was made up of different questions most common being - How many of you? How long will it take to reach Tirupati? How many kilometers per day? What is the price of the bike? Does it have an electric motor? Etc. 

School children were the best. They had no questions but only broad smiles and waving hands. They were simply happy to see something unusual. We reciprocated our joy of seeing them by treating them with candies from our pouch.

 

Video - Children are cheering us up

Day 4 – Raichur to Nandyal. 188 kms.

The usual morning ride. Many small villages enroute which were waking up. Bhajan’s on loudspeakers, farmers getting ready for work. Serene. We were in Telangana now. The cotton crop got replaced with rice, millets and some other variety. The landscapes changed. 

Butala Kaka turned a year older today. We found a bakery at Gadwal to have him cut his birthday cake before breakfast which was egg dosa, idli and vada’s. With good rhythm we reached Karnool by lunch. 

Girish Kulkarni and I took a wrong exit ending up wasting 10 minutes of time and importantly effort. It felt odd to enter an AC restaurant, Hyderabad chef’s,  after so many days. We had Biryani. We were told to get used to eating a lot of rice here on.

 Pic - Happy Birthday Butala Kaka

Pic - We were now deep inside the land of sublimely delicious idli's

Pic - And of course very much inside the rice bowl of India

Next was the toughest portion of the ride, at least for me. The long climb in scorching sun immediately after AC lunch was a killer start to the post lunch session. This was made worse by a group of college students who were busy making reels on their scooters in the lonely ghat section. One of them asked me to be careful with my phone as the road ahead was lonely. The next 40 kms were extremely painful. Strong headwinds. Arid landscape. Neither a tree, nor a house for kilometers together. No question of spotting a human. We were ghost-pedaling. Even on slopes, the cycle was barely moving despite of frantic pedaling. I got down at least thrice to check if something was wrong with the wheels again. It became a mind game. I came close to giving up many times. 

I called Chetan to check where they have reached. I was expecting him to tell me that they are at least 10 kms ahead of me, but to my surprise, they were just a kilometer ahead. I caught up with them and had 2 coconuts to refuel for an equally arduous ride ahead. There were still no sign boards of Nandyal. The next 10-15 kilometers were downhill but again no sign of civilization. 

It was getting dark and my head-lamp battery was nearing an end already. Ashok, who was driving our back-up vehicle was not reachable. Nandyal was now 25 kms away. I was completely exhausted because of the monotony of the terrain and the ghost-pedaling. I decided to wait at a roadside dhaba for the back-up vehicle, almost decided to load the cycle in the back-up van and complete the last 25 kms in the vehicle. No point in riding in the dark without a reliable headlamp. However, one good cup of tea and biscuits lifted my spirits up, yet again today. I hopped on the bike and started pedaling like it was another fresh morning. I must have gone barely 6 kms, that the back-up van caught up with me. I borrowed the head-lamp from Dive Kaka who was in the van along with Tambe Kaka and completed the balance 19 kms like a breeze. I had something hit my eye today. It was to get worse the next morning. So far so good. Dinner was Butala Kaka’s birthday treat today. We finished the day with our usual ice-cream topping.

 

Day 5 – Nandyal to Kadapa. 130 kms.

 

Today was the shortest distance to be covered. No major climbs. Fast morning session, followed by breakfast somewhere midway. Lunch at Kazipet. And abrupt end at Kadapa where we reached immediately after lunch and sugarcane juice breaks. No laundry today because, tomorrow would be the last day of the ride.

Got time to catch up on work emails, phone calls etc. Feeling sad that the ride will end tomorrow.

 

Day 6 – Kadapa to Tirupati. 145 kms.

 

The morning start was enthusiastic than usual. After a relatively easy 145 kms, we would be reaching our destination. We stopped at Kodanda Rama Swamy Temple at Vontimitta, 25 kilometers from Kadapa just before sunrise. It was enigmatic. 

 

Pics - At Kodanda Rama Swamy Temple at Vontimitta

Pic - Lake immediately after Rama Temple

Pic - Destination within reach 

Had breakfast at Nandalur. The road was lined by trees and green swaying fields. We didn’t feel the fatigue at all the whole day today. Either it was the greenery or we had got used to the grind. We stopped at a place to finish the watermelons in our backup van. Mood at the lunch table was upbeat. Last 40 kms to go. 

We started the post lunch ride with a nice, long slope. Chetan called asking me to wait at a particular right turn. Girish, Dive Kaka, Tambe Kaka and I had tea waiting for the rest of the gang to join. The last 10-12 kilometers was a group ride. It was a wonderful feeling. Last 6 days of grind will end in a few minutes. Reached the Madhavam pilgrim accommodation. Clicked some celebratory pictures.

Video - The last mile

 

Pic - Finally.. Time to celebrate.

Packed our cycles over the next couple of hours and loaded them into the back-up van which will get them safely back to Pune.

 

Pic - All done and dusted and packed. 

Checked in. Took a refreshing bath before boarding a train to Chennai followed by an early morning flight back home.

 

Musings – Unlike a car journey, when you move on a bicycle, you see the surroundings without it being bound in a frame - windshield or window. It feels liberating and grand. You are directly connected to the surroundings. No insulation. The food, the language, the costumes, the people themselves change gradually. You don’t feel the boundaries. For example, Marathi gets accented with Kannada gradually when you are approaching the Karnataka border. Once you cross, you hear Kannada with strong Marathi accent which gradually fades as you go deeper inside Karnataka. It is magical.

 

You connect with so many people in a cycle journey which doesn’t happen while driving. Language barriers don’t matter. You can easily communicate with the other person even if both sides do not understand each other’s language. This is when you realise that people are generally well-meaning - irrespective of their cultural, social and financial backgrounds.

 

Food on the road is available in endless variety. Be it local fruits or freshly prepared local fare. All of us could safely eat whatever came our way.

 

Long rides like these are possible on in a group. The impossible becomes possible because of the positivity of the group. All have the same goal. Helping others means helping yourself achieve your goal. The camaraderie that gets built by leg-pulling and fun literally drags you to the finish line.

 

Lastly, while on a bicycle, you get a lot of time to reflect which you otherwise don’t get on a vacation.

 

Hoping for many more such rides. Watch this space.