New Year's Ride : Gokarna - Goa

Click here for more PIX
Pix by varun

Had been 4 months since i had a multiday outing on my bike. n things were not working out. New year approaching and really din wanna spend at home watching salman khan dance on TV. Many rides were being planed. Sanjay offering me 2 day ride to belum caves. But me wanted a 3 day and long one. Arun with kamal and pradeep left for gokarna on thursday morning. I could start till sat morning as hadda be in the office. Thought would do a solo till gokarna on sat. Raghu was interested to join if i was goin. Santhosh was also interesed on starting on friday. So told them to carry on as i was still not sure of making to the trip. Santhosh and Raghu also start on Friday morning. I do some shopping on friday morning for essentials to carry, duplicate keys, tubes, bunjee nets and also a foot pump. Vicky calls up in the evening and would like to hit the road too. N sujjested we leave on friday evening itself and cover sum distance. Finally by 8.45 after patafying our families we decide to leave in an hours time. PraveenS very much interested but dropped out at the last minute due to parental pressure. Most of the gyes were returning on sunday and me very keen to extend till monday as arun had promised to extend by a day if he had company.

30th Dec 05
home Odo - 26408 Trip - 0 10:35 pm
All set start of my ma home to meet vicky at devegoda petrol pump. I was goin to my friends place to stay the night and start of in the morning. (Dats wat i said home :D). Vicky show up after few mins and its the just the two of us on the move.

Devegowda petrol pump 26413 5 11:15 pm
After refueling and encashing we start of from the pump heading towards nelamangala. we where wearing the just the regular gear and little did we know of the biting cold awaiting us ahead. Pass through the empty streets and of the city and get to nelamangala.

31st Dec 05
Nelamangala 26449 41 12:15 am
Have a round of tea a small chat and off we go towards the 4 lane highway. Ohh wat a start. Nice rip. But all the while me little conservative on opening the trottle as had the clutch plates recently and din wannna pressure it as i was warned not to ride full throttle continuesly for some time. Used to go till the top and back down. Vicky doin the lead business. At the other end of the toll gate, vicky stops saying nows the deviation, we could go to Goa through hubli of the New years blast. After discussion we thourth to head to gokarna any way negotiate with all the ppl (supposed to ready gokarna by 11 am) and head to goa together as it would be more fun with the numbers. Head towards arsikere, and the temp falling gradually. The Roads were pretty good with the center line painting done recently, reflecting well. We could maintain good speeds past 95. Now the cold was gettin harder. Have ridden in night before but this was too much. pretty unevent full ride till arsikere. Giving us doubts of riding on.

Arsikere 26592 184 2.25 am
Reached Arsikere all cold and a bit numb. A gyes sellin coffee in flask was very welcome. we have 2 rounds of coffee each. with our hands shivering in cold. Legs pretty cold too, with my nose at full steam. Contemplating whether to continue of stay. But decided to carry on till shivmogga as we thought we do find bettor place there to rest. 2.40 am start off again. But the temp was unrelenting and it got only worse as and when we entered a straight strech with trees, we were blasted with cold gust. pretty unverving. and now on the roads getting pothetetic. The bunjees on the bag coming off quite a few times because of the bad terrain. Finally wore the bag on ma shoulders till the roads improve. Now loosing out the fun and the road still being repaired continues bad. This was slow prograss being almost bumped of quite a few times. Nearing shivmogga the roads smoothen up we have sum burst before we stop in the city. Dats it no more riding for the night. we are done with.

Shivamogga 26700 292 4.25 am
Finally find a lodge and wakeup the keepers for a room. Who wanted to make sum quick buk by lending us the room unaccounted. we like wat ever just let us rest. nice big room for 200 bux and take sum sleep. But disturbed quite a few times by the attendents wishing us to leave for their manager not to find out about the issue. We like get lost we needa sleep. Managed sum sleep and got up 8.30. vacate the room and look for break fast. Me gettin a bit nostalgic as had stayed at shimogga for 4 year sum 18 years ago. Give update home. Expecting good roads ahead. Leave for gokarna by 9.50 am. The weather all nice and warm and we do sum spirited riding till we approached some curves. this is where i loose vicky as i take em a bit slow. Been a long time since i ate some twisties. The clutch plates work being good was getting lot of torque on the curves. The NH 206 last time i visited with moonie and sojish an year back. Now the roads have been made up and super smooth giving much confidence to lean at will.

Jog crossing 26804 396 11.25 am
Come the jog crossing and there i find vicky waiting for me acompanied by a sig. Should we visit jog?? naa no water any way would be just waste of time. This time i decide to stick to vicky's tail. and there we go a wonder ful session on the NH 206 twistes. Its much easier with a lead in the twisties. Wow this is wat we came for, pretty undulating tarrian leaning to the max. Have gala time after so many days. Take a brief pitstop at the Sharavathi valley view point. As we near honnavar i could see the roads are now widened up. The narrow and scary road before was much more enjoyable. We get to honnavar and think of calling the gyes from kumta.

kumta 26886 478 1.15 pm
Take a long break for juice and snakes and trying to get hold of the gyes supposed to be at gokarna by now. Vicky again sujjestin to hit goa and wait for them their. But being so near we decide to go the gokarna and do the conferance there it self.

gokarna 26915 507 2.25 pm
Gokarna it is again reached quite at the planned time. would have been the same had we started early morning 4 am, not now atleast we got sum rest in between. We go the See bird resort and ask of the where abouts of a Fiearo gye, who thinks gokarna is his farm house. The hotel gye said there were 2 gyes for sure on bike and they have left for om beach. We decided to head to om beach have lunch and cool off as we wait for gyes. Yeah the dredded 8 KMs road which i remember from the last time i had come to the place with 6 inches stones littered on the paths. but not this time ans the road was flattened recently for easy movement of vehicles. probble lying proper road. but once dat happens the beatty and seclusion of the place will be hamperd for sure. Vicky himself had visited this place quite a few time and i was following the lead got in to the parking space and wat i see. i got a brown new jacket now with vicky pirellis kicking up lot of dust. sure wasnt as dusty last time. guess it was flattining of the trail the culprit. There we see varun's thumper. well hello, had hint dat he to be travellling there but now we know. Lot of other bullets were parked there with bit carries welded. Guess hard core travellers on the bullet. Go to the Namaste hotel and still no sign of the gyes. Get a call from arun, still long way away as they had sum problems with the bike. Santhosh and Raghu still the idugunji temple. well now vicky cajoling me for goa and i thought why not always wanted to see new years at the goa. was 4.45 and we thought of having a stoll on the beach before leaving. N there varun spots us from under a shades of the tree. Had found himself and his friend a nice place on the beach. we join them for sum chat and loosing enthu to hit goa. With the pretty sunset impending we decided to stay at gokarna for the night hoping there do be sumthing special for the new years. pic some spot on the rocks to watch the sunset. Vicky dearly missing his SLR. After the sun set we leave for the resort and decided to come back and spend the night on the beach. Go far from each other to avoid the dust. At the resort in varun's room and here comes Raghu and santhosh after the pooja at idugungi temple. Arun on the from murudeshwar after the sunset. Thought of having the dinner the resort before goin to the beach. These buggere eat quite a lot of our time. 9 pm and still at the table waiting for the dinner. Nothing special seem to be cooking for the new years. Bye the time we have dinner and arun with kamal and pradeep show up all tired. We chat for some 10 mins and thats the only time we all 9 are at the same place. They decide to stay at the room so does santhosh. While varun, his friend, raghu, vicky and me head for the beach. Thought of goin to paradise beach for the night but the trek was not possible at night time and no boats were available. Walk along the beach in the dark to find a nice place to occupy. cool and calm which i would love any day but its the new years eve for gods sake wheres da party. not this time, this place no different than any night except for a bit more number of people.

1 Jan 2006
put our mats at a place. we had whisky too and raghu the non drinker for my company. orderded some snaks fromt eh nearby beach hut. there we lay on the beach exploreing the galaxy with the milkey way clearly visible. Vicky arranges for sum fire wood and voila we have bon fire too. Then its new year 2006. could see some fire works goin of. Pick our places around the fire to retire for the nite. Its gets pretty cold later on and the fire is must. Poor raghu who din gt his jacket was most of the time near the fire. we exhausted our wood but there was another group lookin for a fire and they had wood and put em at our place for the rest of the night. now dat conviniant. Try to catch up some sleep. had slept only 3 hours the previous nite also. 6 am varun, his friend and raghu leave as the wanted to reach bangy the same day. Vicky still in two minds whether to stay of not for monday. we both thought of the checking out the paradise beach. For which we needa do a 4 km trek also called the golden trek. Vicky pops up saying how bout we go to goa any way. Hmmm... dat gets me thinkin. Now we start the trek and could see the golden dry grass along the path guess so the name. had to go on many rocks through thick vegetation. many times on narry paths of 1 foot wide. over the side it do directly drop to the sea below. walk catuiously. pass half moon beach. Its just a tiny beach with some small vegetation fields. continue and get to the paradise beach. with the sun still not up it was pretty comfy to do the trek. This place mostly dominated by firangs. pretty place and secluded. we drop on the sand till the sun light up. Ok i said we can go to Goa wat say. But being just the two of us still in two minds. Have a break fast at the paradise beach. Watching the firangs do all sorts of crazy things, mimicking monkeys, hiding behind rocks and shooting at some group who came hehe. and would run to the huts when one of the gyes shoots back. hehe. have a garlick sandwhich. Which was so garlicky dat i could taste garlic for the next two days in my mouth. we took the boat ride back. Vicky arranging for a extra long boat ride with some extra payment. Now this was fun we have a good boat ride on the sea and head for om beach. 11.30 already. Reach the room to be greated by arun and gyes. They were goin to paradise next. we finally decided to hit goa by evening spend the night there and start of in the morning to make a one day run for bangalore.

12.30 pm we start off to goa and boy oh boy wat a road especially after karwar. Awsome high speed twisties. Never been on twisties with 30-40 feet width of road. Could take them at high speed. 90 seems pretty slow on them. This strech made the whole trip worth it. Both leaning to max 90+. Found ma bike good for 2nd and 3rd gear twistes but is in asking for 4th5th gear twisties. Build of a speedo of 100 enter the curve slowing donwn to 80-85 but does not pic up the speed soon. Bit fraustrating but gotta do with wat i have. Enter goa border and with some number entry at the check post. Now we have some hight speed twisties at goa side too. Wow this was fun trying out different techniques we were discussing in the groups. Hanging off and all. This time was also look far ahead of the curve and gave much more confidense in cornering than before. It was like a new toy in the kids hand. nice really nice. At a brief juice stop vicky says lets try out each others bike onthe twisties. He get on my bike and takes of. I start he p180 and damn good pickup does small wheelies before i move. but the steering why doesnt the bike turn?? felt pretty hard on steering especially riding my bike jsut before. was riding slowy at 50 thinkin how am i goin to catchup with vicky now. But only short while after i find vicky standin by. Says ur bike is scary with the slightst handle movement the bike leans so much and hard to control. hehe dats the monuvarability of the CBZ. Switch back and ride hard. Now we oberser the Goans ride rashly with car don move in straight like at at home. We were warned of this at the check post. Then on its narrow roads from margoa to panaji with alot of traffic. with every car trying to overtake the next one. funny this behaviou leave somuch space ont he left side of the road dat we could easy go past them from the left side though risky. But the goan roads are pretty clean and good. Seemed out of the county.

panaji 27115 707 4.10 pm
Finally in panaji and take a break. Vicky takes sum pix of the tyres which were freshly scraped off on the side due to the twisteis, showing only half centimeter of the tyre on either side not touched on the roads where as vicky was literally running on the edge of the pirally pattern. Too bad the fone got currupted and we lost the pix. :(. Baga beach is the destination but we thought of visiting the augoda fort before dat. Not much impressive comparing to the bekal fort. now head to calangut where baga comes next. Baga is reached and no place to park our bikes lots of ppl already there. sum how manage to find sum place. Could here the music blarning fromt he shakes. finally we hit the baga beach. n wat a site. the whole beach is lika big party floor. Now i see wat vicky was trying to picture about the place. The beach was full of best of the desi pretty girls. With great music from the shakes. Had cots and matterss along the beach with plenty of water sports goin on the sea. we get in to our bermuda and tshirts and stroll aimlessly. Cursing ourself not to come the on the newyear's eve. would have been much more vibrant. Find a nice table at one of the shake with a vantage point ;). With crazy stuff of coming all the way in bike, also wanted to try the drinks as i wanted to check wat these boozers rave about. Bacardi breeaser to start with. Nothing but a bad tasting orange juice. alu gobhi paratah and paneer, ahh nite getting bettor and party seems no end. Post dinner we head for the ATM to draw sum cash and see if we could manage a room. Highly unlikely it was and we don have a room and beach it is. Went to vicky's fav zanzi launge bar. Tried out taquela. OK i confess i got drunk for the first time in life. it was nice feeling but with dizzy ness. it wore off in 45 mins and he said i do need to take more for it to continue. wat crap i do feel the same again after 1 hour so i stopped there. With vicky saying he would take something lite as it was warm there and its gettin cold on the beach. He tries out some thing new call malibu and dat gets him drunk a bit. Again we storll on the beach. Vicky barrows a kinetic honda from a drunk firang and rides on the beach pretty extatic. hehe. And trades it back for his shawl tooo. All the while the party on the beach still goin on with dance floors full and great music blaring.

2nd jan 06
put our bags for pillows and try to catch up sleep before the big ride. Up by 6.30 and both in know condition to make the big ride, with vicky still having some hangover and me not having much sleep in three nights. Head to the city and luckily find a room which had just been vacated. Not cleaned too. we like wat ever just wanna sleep couple of hours. Was a nice big room and 200 bux for 4 hours. nice bargain. Crash and 11.30 am by the time we wake up. Go the baga beach again for brunch before the big ride back home. Get lazy at the lunch order omlet toast in which vicky smells fish. err... i eat only the toast. Ogle at many desi babes. Vickty wanting to try sum water sports like banana raft being tugged by a power boat. but we don have time.

baga beach 27134 726 01.45 pm
Now we start for home. Damn it late. we prolly reacy home by 12 in the night. Nobady's at vicky's place so tought of putting up at vicky's place till next morning. Pass the crouded streets and fill fuel. dropped to idea of goin through londa-hubli as we heard of bad roads and head back the way we came. Now we have sume good riding to do don we to start with the Goan twisties. Now pretty confident on the bike opened the throttle more liberally. Gorging on the fast twisties. Remember a particular long 100 degree right turn goin upwards and took it at 95 + leant so much dat i could feel slight slided of the wheels. woooow awsome dat was good. Entered karnataka and another sessions on the fast twiestes.

karwar 27272 864 3.30 pm
in karwar by 3.30 dats good progress with 130 kms in 1.5 hours. take some 20 minut break and head towards honnawar.

honnavar 27360 852 5.00 pm
Doing sum good run with 226 kms in 3 hours. Now this is where things get real slow. Thought at this rate it do take us at least 3-4 am in the morning to reach. Hungry us get lazy on teh food and 6.15 we start. Now we got sum a nice session of slow twistis but getting dark too. make up as much of daylight as possible. Just then we realize how cold it could get and al night run to bangalore may not be possible. Had to take a lot of curves slowly in the dark which would have been a delight in day time. end of ghats and do sum spirited riding. guided by the freshly laid center line paint.

sagar 27448 1042 8.00 pm
In sagar and we fuel up for the rest of the ride. Now its getting colder and din wanna go through the likes of the first night. So we get innovative and start wearing stuff from our bags. we wear 2 pants. i put on 2 banyans the T shirt, stuff a towel through the the sleeves of the jacket and also wrap a banyan around my neck. vicky doesnt even spare the bermuda. All this self packing takes half an hour and we start by 8.40. plan to have dinner at shivamogga. All nice and warm kinda enjoy the night ride and pick up speeds with vicky leading with his 100-90 blup. We do be in shivmogga in 20 mins but not so soon, vicky took a curve a bit first and lost control cos of the gravel and managed to slow the bike to 20s before finally giving way. vicky jumped of the bike took a couple of deep wounds on his palms when he laned. All the extra clothing helped. Just then a family on sumo stop by help in lifting the bike. The bike looks ok except of broken headlamp and bent break pedal. The drive sujjesting to put battery acid on the wounds else would not be possible to ride in the night with the cold. With two drops of it vicky felt too much pain for 5 mins but it worked like wonder. the Wournds dried up in no time and he was ridable again. Stop at one more place get the some metal props at a police check post to straighten the break pedal. This takes lot of time and ETA at blr gets more delayed.

shivamogga 27522 1114 10.15 pm
In shivamogga and still 300 to cover and the night gettin colder. Also as vicky said cops would get interested in the broken headlamp and maight hold us for questioning n all. so we decide to stay the night there and leave early morning by 4. Have dinner and retire for the night and keep and alarm for 3.30 am.

3rd Dec 2006.
4.30 am get wake up bangs on the door. Damn i had set alarm to 3.30 pm by mistake. We get up warm up and start by 5.15 am. Wondering weather we could make it in 4 hours as could be done normally. not really this time. We have a bloody broken strech to cross first before we touch arsikere and its colder dan the night. Already pretty fraustrated at the ride gettin extended to the 4th day. Take it really slow. Stop for coffee. vicky puts he hand on the enjine to warm up. We ride for some time and again stop for sum time. And realize how far the distances we travell. We generally rip and make distances small but with the adverse environment it could be eternity.

arasikere 27631 1223 8.30 am
takes almost 3 hours to cover the first 100 kms. Again we take quite a few stops and pie breaks. Past arsikere we find lot of cold fog when we were desporately waiting for warm sunlight. This whould have been a welcome delight any other time especially when starting a ride. but not this time for us tired and cold self. with vicky literally banging his helmet in dis belieafe. Vicky suspect a flat tyre and now wat and we stop to inspect. pull out couple of nails and tyre looks fine. we carry on rather slowy in the rippable roads. Now see some sunlight and environment warming up and we star to rip hard.

turmkur tollgate 27738 1330 11.00 am
wat bettor way to end the trip with blast. Go full throttle between the 35 km of the toll gates of the 4 lane highway. Then on face shitty bangalore traffice. Such a pain expecially after not being used the vehicles close by since 3 days. We miss each other in the traffic and head home.

back home by 12.15 am with 27814 on the odo and 1408 on the trip meter.

One satisfying ride after a long time especially the run on slow and the fast twisties. we encountered only 150 kms of bad roads of the 1400 odd kms dats a pretty good bargain for fun we had. Would have been realy good had we spent the new year at Goa and had a nice one day run back home on monday but we cant have all can we. This ride was mixed bag with 3-4 groups on the move but only 10 mins together. One more ride i will remeber for long.