A ride to Hampi had been pending since our failed attempt in 2010. This time, we finally had a chance to go through with it. The plan was to start on Thursday night, ride all night and reach Hampi by morning. I had packed by bag on wednesday night and went to office early on thursday excited to start riding later in the day, but my excitement was short lived. I had some important office work which had to be done on friday, so i had to back out. The rest of the group had left on Thursday night according to the plan. Friday morning, 9am, i ride to office and leave all thoughts of Hampi behind. My work was done by 11:30am, and the biker within me started wondering if i can make it to Hampi by midnight if i started now. The biker eventually won, so i informed that i am leaving early, headed home, picked up my bag (which i still hadn’t unpacked, probably because i knew deep down that i would ride on friday), and started riding towards Hampi on the hot friday afternoon.
Day 1
I left at 12:30pm, so getting out of the city took forever. The heat and humidity made me wonder why i left the air-conditioned office to ride alone for 800km, and if it was really worth the discomfort and risk. But then, images of the stone structures kept me motivated to carry on. I got out of the city by 1:45, and took my first break at khopoli at 2:15pm because i was hungry and thirsty. A cold drink and some snacks later, i felt charged up again to ride as much as i could while the sun was up. When i ride alone, i don’t feel like taking breaks, which was a good thing on this ride since i had a lot of distance to cover. I managed to ride nonstop for around 300km before the fuel gauge made me stop at 5:30pm. I took this break as an opportunity to stretch a little, and i also clicked a picture of the setting sun.
My target was to reach kolhapur before it gets dark, have a snack and coffee at McDonalds, and then cover the last 300km at night. The sun was setting fast, and i was still 80km behind kolhapur, so i rode on. As the sun set, the sky turned a nice shade of orange, which made me stop for a few more pictures. I was using my cellphone cam since the SLR was packed in my bag.
I reached kolhapur a little after it got dark, but since i wasn’t hungry i didn’t stop. The night ride had now begun. Since NH4 is in a good condition, riding at night is not a problem. I usually find a fast moving car and follow it to cover distance quicker. I rode for another 150km and took a break for dinner at 8:30pm, 50km before belgaum. The dinner was crappy, so i left most of it and continued riding towards Hubli which was still 150km away. Hubli was where i had to get off NH4 and take NH63. I was still on target, and happy with my pace so far. I reached the Hubli exit at 10pm, and asked around for directions to the city. A guy on a bike told me to follow him, and guided me to the bus-stand. The rest of the group had reached Hampi in the evening, but the place had a very poor cellphone network, so i coudln’t get through to any of them.
I was considering staying at Hubli for the night, since it wouldn’t make sense to reach Hampi at 2am, clueless about where they were staying. On inquiring about places to stay, a few people told me that i can go on to the city of Gadag, 60km from there, which falls on the route to Hampi and has a lot of stay options. I took their advice and continued on the road to Gadag. I had covered 640km so far, and i was starting to get tired. To make matters worse, the road to Gadag was a single lane highway with lots of speedbreakers, which aren’t very comfortable when you have been sitting on the saddle for 640km non-stop. It was just 11:30pm, and Hampi was 100km away, but all these factors convinced me to stay at Gadag and cover the last 100km in the morning. It was difficult to find a place to stay, but i managed to find one shady looking lodge, which had a small room with a dirty bed and an attached bathroom for 200rs. I was too tired to search for other places, so I crashed there for the night.
The lodge owner told me not to park my bike outside, since it is not safe. He asked me to bring the bike inside the lodge. I brought it in, he said it’s still not safe, and asked me to ride it through the corridors, and park it right in front of the door of my room. As if that wasn’t enough, he even asked me to put the handle lock on just incase. that kinda freaked me out, and i woke up at 4am to check if my bike was still there.
Distance covered ~ 700km
Day 2
I didn’t sleep much the previous night. i woke up at 6:30am and woke up the lodge owner to ask him to open the gate so that i can take my bike out. I then hit the road towards Hospet, where the rest of the group was staying. Hospet was 90km from there, and it was a nice single lane highway with windmill farms and sunflower fields along the road.
The first 80km of this road was pretty good, but the last 10km made me realize that i did a good thing by stopping the previous night. There was lots of construction work and lots of diversions which i may not have noticed at night. These 90km took me 2 hours to cover in daylight, i guess it would have taken 3 hours the previous night. I finally reached Hospet and found hotel Malligi where the rest of the group was staying. Calling this hotel good would be an understatement, it was grand. Coming from the dingy little room i stayed at the previous night, it felt nice to check into a clean hotel, with a shower and 24 hours hot water. I freshened up and we headed to the restaurant for a nice buffet breakfast. This was my first proper meal since i started the ride. The breakfast menu consisted of cornflakes, pancakes, idli, medu wada, scrambled eggs, fruits, cake and many other items. And being in karnataka, i couldn’t resist ordering a filter coffee to wash it all down. The best part? all of this was complimentary with the room.
After breakfast, we moved on towards Hampi, which was 10km from the hotel. We took a few stops along that road for pictures.
On reaching Hampi, we bought one of those guide books for 20 bucks, and started following the road, visiting each site on the way. I don’t really remember the names of the places we visited, so i’ll just post the pictures.
Some of the rocks made me wonder how they got into those positions, precariously resting on other rocks. Here are a few pics for example.
We then left from this spot, had a little coconut water and moved on to the next spot.
Om and Ali even climbed up some of the rocks for a better view
After spending an hour here, we moved ahead to the next site, the stepped tank. Not before a few pictures along the road
It started to drizzle a bit now, so we waited a while for it to stop before moving ahead. We then moved ahead to the next site, with a few more breaks along the road.
I tried to capture a few panning shots of the locals passing by.
The next site was the famous stone charriot. Vehicles were not allowed inside, so we had to park outside and take one of those electric vehicles to the actual site.
As we entered, the sky got really dark and it started to rain, but I did manage to get some good pictures before the rain.
By now, it had started to pour, so we spent the next 2 hours inside one of those structures waiting for the rain to stop. It was almost 4pm when the rain stopped, but the sky was still cloudy, so that ruined our plans for evening photography at sunset point. We then moved towards the river, where the only way to cross was to put the bikes on a boat.
We didn’t cross, because the last boat back was at 5pm, and it would be difficult to carry our heavy bikes on that small boat. But we did wait there by the river bank, and i did click a few more pictures there.
We left this place at around 5pm, and stopped near some more rocks, to kill time. There was a small path which let us take the bikes up one of the rocks.
With nothing much left to do there, we started riding back to the hotel, with one short break along the lake.
We had skipped lunch, so the first thing i did after reaching the hotel was to order for snacks. Once again, i am all praises for hotel Malligi. We ordered a delicious chicken sandwich, some mutton kheema samosas, and 2 pints of beer for just Rs 400. I then roamed around the hotel clicking some pictures of the hotel, lit up at night.
For dinner, we went back to the restaurant, and ordered a lot of food and a few drinks while watching the cricket match at the lounge.
We then called it a night and hit the bed.
Day 3
The plan for today was to hit the road early and reach Mumbai as soon as possible. We wanted to start at 5am, but the hotels complimentary breakfast buffet had spoiled us and convinced us to leave at 9, after breakfast. We took a different route while returning, which joined NH4 and Dharvad instead of Hubli. I didn’t click a lot of pictures on the way back, since it was mostly a speedy run with very few haults.
We rode from hospet to hubli non-stop, that’s around 200km, and then after another 2 hour non-stop run, we reached kolhapur by 3:30pm. From here we stopped directly after satara for tea at 6, and then dinner at lonavala at 9, and i reached back home at 12.
Total distance covered – 1800km
Experiences on two wheels 
Wow.. One of the UNESCO World heritage site.
The “Rowdy Rathore “filming started on 10 August 2011. During the shooting, while shooting for a climax scene Akshay hurt his shoulder. The police denied permission for shooting of Rowdy Rathore at the World Heritage Site Hampi.following protests from local activists and artists. The film unit consisting of director Prabhu Deva, actors Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha and 50 other dancers left the site.
Comment by Anonymous — October 27, 2012 @ 4:15 pm
Wow.. One of the UNESCO World heritage site.
The “Rowdy Rathore “filming started on 10 August 2011. During the shooting, while shooting for a climax scene Akshay hurt his shoulder. The police denied permission for shooting of Rowdy Rathore at the World Heritage Site Hampi.following protests from local activists and artists. The film unit consisting of director Prabhu Deva, actors Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha and 50 other dancers left the site.
Comment by Anand Parekh — October 27, 2012 @ 4:18 pm