Roadtrip Day 1: Bengaluru to Hospet

All is well that ends well, even if it did not start well :)

At first, I had planned to stay in Hampi, primarily because of availability of campsites there. But later I changed it to Hospet (or Hosapete after renaming) as I figured my brother in law’s close friend Rakesh lives there. I called up Rakesh & soon destination got changed to Hospet. Hampi would also turned out to be a detour of around 20 kms back & forth. Not that it matters that much, but then I wanted to treat this place as pitstop & dint intend to explore it anyway.

I was up early (by 6 AM). Packing for a 2 month long roadtrip was a new task for me. Offlate, any new work starts making me anxious. One of the reason I wanted to do this roadtrip is to have such moments often & be consciously aware of these anxieties. The first thing I did was to get onto the drawing board & started writing the stuff I wanted to carry. I made 4 categories - warm, regular, rain & misc - & started listing items under them. The list of warm clothing was long & I knew I would not need them anytime soon. So I decided to pack them up in a separate large polythene bag. Packing was done by 8 AM. I was still jittery by the thought that I would have forgotten to pack something but then I decided to be aware of the feeling & put it aside.

By 9 AM, wife & I were loading up the bike. It looked as below

While I packed stuff, wife was on her standup call, where she ended up announcing about my roadtrip & people wishing me luck. It was a sweet gesture from her :).

I also realized that the backrest for rider that I got custom made for my bike’s seat, is a tad further behind. Wife suggested to put a pillow to fill up the space between the back & the backrest. The travelling pillow hack worked well as you can see in the image above.

At 9:30 AM we were at Dakshin Cafe, our favourite hangout for breakfast. Our friend Amit & Arun decided to join us there & bid me farewell too. I finall started by 10:30 from the place.

While starting, wife & I had some disagreement around which route to take. I did not want to spend money on the nice road & wanted to take Kadrenhalli inner ring road, but the former route was a few min shorter. I realized that this is probably the last time in at least coming month that I had to listen to her, so I decided to give in :).

As soon as I started the ride, Jyoti (an ex-colleague from Locus) called me up to wish me luck. I took the call while riding. Thanks to the phone holder & ear phones plugged in with the phone on it. I also realized later that setup is pretty nifty to keep checking the path, listen to music on the way & not miss out on any important updates, especially requests from friends to meet enroute. I do not switch on navigation as it hogs battery big time, rather I feed in the destination & keep checking the route by unlocking phone once in a while.

15 min into the ride, I realized that I have forgotten my sleeping mat. I was on Kanakpura road still. Called up wife & she graciously agreed to bring it to me while I wait on the road. I wrapped it on the tent & tied up in the place of tent. I was concerned of the space but the optimization turned out nifty.

It was good 11:30 by now & I was beginning to get a bit concerend if I have started too late on my first day. Although google maps showed 5 hour route, I am a slow driver & I wanted to enjoy the ride. I decided to be aware of this anxiety, acknowledge & decided to carry on with the ride :).

The Indian oil petrol pump just before the Nice road junction had provision for pollution check, which I did not hestitate to use. I realized it is something I should strike off my to-do list to keep it light.

The ride through NICE road to Tumkur road was usual. Nothing eventful. One good thing I realized that as a biker, you do not have to pay toll. So that is some saving for me :). Also, I noticed these ‘fancy’ cafes that had openend up on this route. Two cafes/restaurants that caught my attention were - Namastey cafe - which should be around Nelmangla (please check it on Google map) & another is Anand Vihar (or was it Ananda, not sure). Both these places looked like worth stopping. But since I was already delayed in my trip, I did not.

Around Hiriyur, I figured the left fog lamp that I had put on my crash-guard is now dangling. The nuts had come out & the bold had also fallen (somewhere). I took a service road detour & found a 2 wheeler garage. The guy suggested to buy the nut, bolt & washer from the shop on the other side of the road. I did manage to find the right size & fixed them on the fog lamp myself, with the help of nut driver that I borrowed from a mechanic of the shop with a slight apologetic/shameless request :). Only later (on the Day 3), I realized that such jobs should ideally be done by experts. Especially in India where we have such expertise available for cheap. More on this later.

This stop delayed my travel by a good half an hour. I reached Chitradurga by 4 PM. My brother in law had studied from Chitradurga & everytime we pass by the area, he insist on stopping by at Aishwarya Fort restaurant. So I decided to follow the tradition & stopped by for a tea. This is the first time I had to leave all my luggage on the bike & the parking area was a bit far (at least off the sight from the place you sit & order food). The anxiety kicked again. My inner voice said, “It would be fine, nobody gonna steal anything. Anyway, it is all wrapped up under a tent cover so it does not expose much”. I decided to follow the voice & left stuff, went for tea & while I came back, thanked the voice :).

Overjoyed with the success, I started driving with full gusto. I had been to Hospet before & found a few new things this time. One was Ojas hotel (the word that caught my attention is ‘dormitory’ on its board, very few hotels have those). It was also a nice looking new hotel. Then I came across a semi dome like structure (dome like pillars with gaps between them) & a semi-circular covering on the top. I wanted to explore what it is, but as usual, i-am-already-behind-schedule feeling kicked in. The success adrenalin rush has now subsided & I figured that I have not seen board of Hospet for a while. I also remember seeing Davangere written somewhere. I quickly unlocked my phone & switched to the map, only to figure out, I have taken the wrong route (towards Davangere). I also understood the reason behind these ‘new structures’ showing up.

After 7 km odd backtracking, I came back to the Hospet road. Quick time check - it was 4:45 PM. I remember the last time I went to Hospet, large parts of the road were under construction & one side of the road is bearing both side traffic for most parts. Thankfully, all of it was done & roads were great. I also realized that on a bike, you can easily manage to overtake vehicles from the small unofficial bike lane (the shoulder part of the road between the continuous white strip on the left & the end of the road on the left). It was actually much less hassled to ride a bike on highway than riding a car. The downside is - you have limited speed. I found myself riding at 80 km/hr speed most of the time. The vibrations grew significantly beyond the speed & I was worried some other nut/bolt might just unscrew due to vibration & fall off :-D.

Entry to Hospet was pretty scenic. The nearby mountains looked nice in the evening mist.

The first view of Tungbhadra dam (also locally known as TB Dam) as you are about to enter Hosptet, was pretty nice. There is a park as well next to it.

Just after this spot, there is a small tunnel on the road, which I guess is a rarity in India (or at least South India).

I reached Hospet safely by 7 PM. I checked into a reasonably clean & cheap room, which was located in a Kalyan Mantap (marriage hall). It was for 300 bucks & I guess without the local help, I would not have got the deal. Link to the place - https://goo.gl/maps/qi7Ust3shnj7bbi97 . I do not have the phone number of the place.

That was the end of Day 1 for me. I enquired for a good petrol pump & got recommended Reliance one which was around 3km from this place. I filled the petrol in the night itself so that I am ready to leave the next day ASAP.

P.S. Thanks to Rakesh, friend of my brother in law, who helped me with the stay & his friends who gladly accompanied me for drinks & dinner in the night.

There is a Reddy hotel in Hospet from where we got a few non-veg/mutton items. The chops were really tasty. There is also locally available ‘Jilebi’ fish for Rs 70 & it was pretty yummy too. You should try these if you happen to be in Hospet. Just ask any local guy about the restaurant. There is also some ‘tiffin shop’ on the shangbag circle whose idly was touted as pretty good. But I did not feel the same.