Date: 23rd August 2007
Trip: Hyderabad to Tadpatri
Rider: Me... yeah, alone.
Ride: Enfield Electra 5S KS drum brake 0 days old
This is the story of a trip that was not conceived in the love to ride, the craze of adventure or the call of the wild. This is the story of a trip with the soul purpose of saving one more day of casual leave.
I had dreamt of owning a Bull for long and it was after one year of toil as a civil engineer with Larsen & Toubro Limited that I finally mustered the pocket power you need to own this beauty. But with the moolah came the trouble. I was posted to Tadpatri. To people whose hobbies don't include studies of Naxalite infested villages in Southern Andhra Pradesh, Tadipatri, is a Naxalite infested village in Southern Andhra Pradesh. My company is building a cement plant there and this made me 250 kms away from the nearest dealer in Chitoor which was opening on 31st August. Thus I decided to come down to Hyderabad, buy the bike and then take it to Tadpatri by the only mode of travelling befitting the Bull, riding it.
It was 10:00 am when I practically woke up the showroom guys and rode away on the Enfield. After weaving out of the Hyderabad morning traffic and reaching the highway asking "Kurnool Highway ekkada?" to a million people I realized how excruciatingly painful this trip was going to be. I couldn't push it past 50 kmph for the first 500 kms and here I was 37 kms old and an open highway lay out in front of me.
It was after riding about 78 kms on the highway that I came across a Reliance petrol pump with an attached eatery. I pulled over for a late breakfast. You should have seen the parking lot.
Truck... truck... truck... Innova... truck and then a shining Magic Green Electra with a temporary registration plate. I should have kept a count of the number of heads which turned in unison as I pulled into the parking.
The ride was uneventful for most parts. The road was good but extremely dusty up to Kurnool. When I had started, I was in jacket, t shirt, jeans, boots and helmet. By the time I was entering Kurnool 300+ kms I was in t shirt, boxer shorts and sandals. The shoes were hanging on either sides of the rear tire like saddlebags, tied together over the seat with their laces. The jacket was spread over the tank to reduce heating and my jean was tied around my neck. The helmet was sitting on my lap. The whole combo along with Ray Bans did look cool I guess.
After Kurnool the scenery changed. The typical reddish brown Andhra countryside suddenly turned greener and I was suddenly on a thinner stretch of the highway, engulfed in a cool breeze and surrounded by sprawling fields of sunflower. I shifted into 40 kmph and was just sailing through it. I was enjoying it so much that I even forgot to click a snap!
It was around 6 o'clock in the evening when the tall cranes and structures of my site became visible, silhouetted against the setting sun. The ride was over. On the very first day my Bull was 450 kms old, sounding a matured thump over other new bikes, and resplendent through a dusty coating. I was back at my site, to my work with cement, concrete, labour and contracts but this time with a good friend, whom I know would stay with me for years to come.
Cheers!