The Grand South India Ride: Prologue

A big dream always starts with a small idea…and so it started for us. A common passion drove us...MOTORBIKES and Travel. It all started with a wild ride to Koynanagar and few years back. Then we kept on riding. The thrill and endurance going up with every ride. Koynanagar, Diveagar, Alibaug, Tapola, Goa, Amba, Vijaydurg, the list goes on. With so many big and small rides done we decided to do something big now…something we had never attempted.

It all started in September 2016… 5 riders, ready to test their limits, decided to set out on a dream route. The die was cast…the pieces started rolling. And thus “The Grand South India Ride” was born.  Here I would like to say one thing, though we actually set on the road in December, the ride started for us long before that...right from the planning.

Planning a ride has 3-4 main aspects:

1. Exploring for interesting and thrilling routes and debating on which will be the best. And later finalizing the routes
2. Once the routes are finalized, we then need to explore the area for places to stay and to visit during the stay. Google maps has made these tasks so easy…sitting at your desk you can explore the world, find places of interest, thrilling routes and with the satellite imagery you can actually get the feel of what you may experience
3. Parallely we also need to gear up for the ride. Every kind of ride calls in for some special requirements. We have to check the Medi-kits, the bike repair kits etc etc.
4.  Also the bike needs to be maintained and made fit for the ride

The maximum distance that we had traveled in a day, so far, was around 450 kms., mostly within Maharashtra, or at the most Goa. Usually with the kind of roads we have here, it took us nearly 12 to 16 hours for this distance. Now we had a mammoth distance in front of us..almost 5000 kms. and limited time, just 9 riding days...550 kms each day. As per our plan…day 1 was going to be the most testing day..

We all were thrilled and equally skeptical about the above calculations. But then we also had a strong resolve to do it. ‘Attempt and Achieve’ was what we decided.

All things were in place now. And the day finally dawned…