THE LONGEST TRIP

Mumbai to Cochin 

The trip was planned a month ahead. This has always a dream come true moment for me, though I had dreamed of many trips that I wanted  to go many a times, they never happened   due to many reasons that occurred during the respective times. This trip was planned out of an idea. The plan was to travel from Mumbai to Cochin on a Royal Enfield 350 classic passing through Goa. The trip was planned out to last for a week passing through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, and finally to reach Cochin in Kerala.

I had my exams during the time hence all the planning credits goes to my travelling companion and my friend Shahabas Mohamed. It was initially his plan to travel from Mumbai to Kerala by bike.
The plan had a sudden change when we had decided to change the travel span to just 2 days . Shahabas had to reach Kerala in 2 days’ time as all of his friends were arriving in Calicut in a couple of days. I wasn’t a very big fan this turn of events, but with half a mind i agreed  to his requests, thus by reducing the a weeklong trip to 2 days of travel.
As planned before the trip was to happen on the night my exams were over. I came back to my room from my exam centre and packed the rest of my luggage and slept for a while. Then we woke up by night had food and started the travel by around 1 am in the morning. Shahabas was telling his prayers before he got in the bike, which made me pray too. I have never travelled this far in one stretch on a bike. Though I am not a religious type, the fact that I had to travel almost half way across India to reach my destination made me pray.

After our prayers we mounted on the bike and started the engine. It was Shahabas who was riding and I was behind with the bags. The sky was very clear black sky, as it was summer in Maharashtra, we could see the clear sky to a long distance without hindrance. There was no one awake at this time of the night. (I guess i would have heard the night owls singing if i was a poetic person back then).
Thus we left our apartment complex to reach the roads. The immediate plan was to reach Pune that was around 120km from our place. We rode along the old Mumbai-Pune highway as the new expressway did not allow the travelling of the bikes. It was all dark around us only the light of the bike lead us forward and the only sound I could hear was the sound of the lone vehicle on the road. We rode on this lonely path for a while, and then we turned on a road that connected us with the Mumbai – Pune expressway. This area at this time of the day does not have much of checking; hence we could pass through the area without any trouble from the police. We expected an empty road but were faced with a road full of trailer trucks on the way to Pune. It was hard for a bike such as ours to pass unhindered through the area. It was so full of traffic that we decided took a reroute into the old highway and reach Pune through that way only.

The alternate route leads u through some very beautiful sceneries and lush forest like areas. This went on for a while. We were starting to enjoy the beauty of the place when we started noticing that the road that we were travelling started to narrow down to small pakka roads and to katcha roads with many gutters. It didn’t take us long to realise that the road we were taking was the wrong road –“The Google maps did it again”-the road ended facing a river which confirmed our doubts.
The view was beautiful, it was almost early morning when we reached this place that is after about 4 hours of travelling. This is where we decided to take a rest and think of the alternate route to reach Pune. The camera was free so we took some photos and checked on where we were led astray. We recalculated the routes and headed again to Pune this time on the right path. We reached Pune at around 6 in the morning.

The tea was refreshing. Due to the earlier mishap we lost some precious time that we are to cover up on the way forward. We are to pass through Kolhapur to reach Davangiri by night fall. We left Pune by around 6:30 am and this time I was the one riding the bike. So I gave the luggage to my friend and mounted on the front seat to start the engine. Thus we Pushed Pune behind us and headed towards Davangiri.

Unlike the earlier road that was good to ride in. This road was wider and smoother. The bike reached its limits many time roaring through the asphalt. But we tried to reserve our strength as it’s a long way from here to home. This time the road was clear, the sky was clear and the air was cold. The landscape around us was dull because it was summer but for now it’s still cold from the morning time. We passed through endless landscape of dry trees and grass and free roads. The time went by swiftly and we reach Kolhapur in time for lunch. Shahabas remained reserved and did not have much as he said it’s bad for travelling. Even though I knew what he was telling is right, i was too hungry to listen to him. I then went on to eat a stomach full. We both had a juice and got on the bike to ride again convinced that the next stop will be only in Davangiri.

The sun was at its peak and it was hot everywhere, even the road was radiating heat. The dull landscape was glazing with the hot sun on its top. We left Maharashtra to reach Karnataka border. Karnataka was so hot at that period of time that we had to make many stops to drink water. Thankfully we had seen many people selling coconut water near the road as the shops were so far apart. We could barely find a shop within 15 km radius sometimes. This was also the time when my back started paining so much that I had to convince Shahabas to stop the bike so that I could walk for a while, once this started happening frequently we started to switch the driver seat every hour so that our backs did not sustain much damage. The pain was further reduced when we put two towels over the seat so that it provided extra cushion. This went on for a while; the pain helped us to cope with the heat as we were distracted by the pain to notice the heat outside. The bike was stopped mainly to change the driver and to have a quick sip of water to keep us from dehydration. By night time we had reached Davangiri where we had dinner with Shahabas’s friend.

The dinner at a nice restaurant means a good cushion to rest your backs ,ac to cool the environment and less rush as the rates are higher that the places around. All the luxury was well enjoyed and we said our good bye and went on the road again.

This time I was tired and sleepy from the heavy meal I had in Davangiri. I gave up the role as driver and sat on the back of the bike to take rest. Soon I realised that Shahabas was as much as tired as me and we both need a proper nap as 24 hours had passed since we left our apartment in Mumbai. There was no refreshment centres nearby to have a coffee to boost us up or a small shop that had water to wake us up. At this moment we were struggling to keep our eyes open, when we saw a light on the road not far from us. We went there to see a tea stall near a bus stop. We ordered tea, had a couple of them each still was feeling sleepy hence decided to sit on the bus stop for a while. It must have been around 3 am guessing by the darkness around the area. The only thing that we both remember after this was waking up with a bunch of people around us sitting near us in the bus stop. The sun was about to rise up, we checked at the time to see that it was nearly 6 am. The sleep was deep hence we didn’t not remember anything.

The first thing we did was to check for the wallet and mobile phone and then ran to the bike to check the rest of the stuffs. Thankfully none of the stuff was stolen. The fright did wake us enough; we were ready to travel after a tea from the same shop. This time we felt fully charged. This is the first time I noticed that how beautiful the area surrounding the road was. There on the ride was through pleasant pastures and green village roads. The roads were long but the trip wasn’t tiring for me. After about 3 hours of travelling we reached the Irriti forest which marks the border between Karnataka and Kerala.
 Shahabas was on the wheels and we were going in to the forest when suddenly in one turning the bike started to move to the centre of the road, on the opposite direction a jeep was coming straight towards us. Suddenly the jeep turned and went into the side of the road crashing into the hedges, that is when I realised what has happened. Shahabas who was riding the bike slept off while riding the bike and lost control. We waited for the driver to emerge from the jeep, luckily he did and we went away as fast as we could. What could have been a fatal accident just went away.

Then I took the wheels giving Shahabas the bags and rode through the lush green Irriti forest till we reached the town of Irriti. Here we were so hungry that we stopped at a tea shop and had our breakfast then went on rest of our journey. While we reached Kannur I was tired and was permanently taking the back seat instead of riding the bike.

The Kerala roads were filled with the traffic hence the movement became slow than the rest of the states. But we were at the end of the journey hence was desperate to reach our destination. Deprived of sleep our senses were shutting down. One more attempt to reach Calicut faster by Shahabas nearly caused us an accident in the Calicut town but, this time not by his fault but the fault of the other driver.

The senses were getting thin. By the time we reached Calicut we were half asleep and riding the bike. We reached Calicut town around 9 AM and was getting confused of which way to reach our friends place. We were getting confused with the map which we had, maybe we had jumble up in the address, we don’t know, only thing we knew that we were going in circle around the same place. Shahbas knew the place very well, but he wasn’t thinking very straight and was not able to remember anything properly at this point. Then suddenly we took a turn which he suddenly remembered, turned out to be in the right direction. Within ten minutes we reached his place and officially concluded out trip.

One hell of a trip it was. Through the mountainous terrains of Maharashtra to dry plains of Karnataka to the Konkan coast of Calicut. It made us realise our limitations and our powers. But most of all the experience we gained was humongous.The only regret that remains till now is that we don't have enough photographs to add to the memory.

Almost 1900km within 34  hours 3 states –one brilliant experience ,I have but just one person to thank the most my dear friend SHAHABAS MOHAMED ,and last but not the least the prayers of all my dear friends that were with us during the trip . LOVE U ALL …