Ride Report: The India Ride Expedition

Day 23: As we turn our attention to the week ahead, our India Ride Team has begun a new and exciting phase of our journey: The Southwest Coast. Known for it's fertile soils, and plentiful oceans, the coastal journey offers our team a chance to connect not only with farming communities but also fishing communities as our journey continues towards the southern tip of India. After spending the last week cruising on the modern expressways that connect Nashiki-Mumbai-Pune-Kolhapur, we've been struggling with the challenging road and traffic conditions on NH17 heading south from Goa. While sections of the road are in decent enough shape other sections have offered some of the worst conditions we've seen since our stint in the mountains nearly 2 weeks ago. Gravel and potholes coupled with fast moving trucks and passenger buses make for "interesting" riding. While the team completed a big 377km today from Goa to Mangalore, we were left mentally and physically shattered from the journey. We'll have a similar distance to cover tomorrow as we are aiming to be in Kerala by tomorrow late afternoon. Wish us luck.


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Day 24 + 25: These last two days of our journey have been the most challenging days of the India Ride. We've struggled both days on the National Highway 14 which runs south along the western coast of India. Colin and Ryan have now nicknamed this road: "The Road of Doom". The road in which we are talking about manages to twist and pass through almost every town along the coast brining in to play every bicycle, rickshaw, passenger bus and truck on route; we were lucky to maintain an average speed of 25km/hr, and that was when we were not stuck in road construction or intense traffic jams. Needless to say, beyond the traffic the scenery has been lovely, but we've been so focused on the road each day that the landscapes are being missed; and it's leaving our team exhausted and searching for those incredible Nashik, Mumbai, Pune expressways that we got so comfortable on last week. Ryan had a particularly rough day has he, "hit a wall" around 530pm and needed to have a nap on the side of the road before continuing on; as you'll see in picture #3. The roads in India are both physically and mentally challenging, and the traveling is taking its toll on the team. As our team nears the halfway point on our journey, the times are indeed challenging; but we have so much exciting traveling and adventures ahead of us that in many ways The India Ride has only just begun.

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Day 26 + Day 27: To say that our team has struggled through Kerala province would be an understatement. This has, without any doubt in our minds, been the toughest week of traveling for all of us. The journey south from Pune to Goa and then in to Kerala province has led us to one of India's most densely populated provinces - which means that there are more trucks, more tuk tuks and more crazy buses trying to run us down on the roads. The term "defensive riding" takes on a whole new meaning. But with all the challenge we've faced it's been incredible to see how Kerala mixes both a Communist provincial government and a mainly Muslim population; and how have the state feels more like something out of the Middle East, in a tropical setting, and offers just another example of India's brilliant diversity - no matter how tough the traffic is we'll be leaving Kerala with feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction from our journey here.


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A beautiful view in Udaipur, Rajasthan - also known as the city of lakes.

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The team has seen many full cars of passengers and even entire rooftops on busses full of people. However, this was an interesting way to hitch a ride on an expressway averaging about 60km/h.

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Ryan dealing with heat exhaustion and Colin dealing with his food poising. This little bit of shade was like an oasis in the moment for the brothers.

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A very busy bridge that was taking overflow traffic from an accident on the expressway. The less room might have actually made things better for the team as no passing was possible.

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A view of the lush green valleys near Nashik.

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Storm approaching, time to put on the revit rain suit.

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On the road into Sula vineyards in Nashik, a view of the beautiful lush green moutains.

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The Mahindra Bolero support vehicle taking in the sights and beautiful colors of Nashik.

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The excellent Cabernet at Sula!!

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Ryan and Colin taking in the view from the Wine Bar at Sula Vineyards.

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Ryan and Colin prefer their REV'IT rain suits, but this is also one way of dealing with the rain. I'm not sure if it's advisable or if it works but it's an effort that should be commended :)

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Some woman waiting for the bus in a heavy rain storm.

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A healthy reminder of the dangerous roads in india.

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Mumbai traffic - the start of a very long 2km.

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Mumbai

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Ryan getting scared by a dog in Mumbai. Bringing back some bad memories of their travels in China.

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a quick stop on the way out of Mumbai quickly turned into the thing to watch for the locals.

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Traffic in Mumbai

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The statue for an India festival being taking to a celebration.

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Ryan and Colin getting shown around the new amazing Mahindra factory just outside of Pune.

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Chad trying to get a good shot of Ryan and Colin being amazed at the level of logistics and technology involved in a modern car factory.

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A local mechanic completely taking apart an Enfield.

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Colin watching attentively to try and learn more about the Enfield as a local mechanic in Pune works on his bike.

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A short cut turns into a dirt trail in the forest. Short cuts are never easy but at least this one offered some enjoyment and great scenery for the brothers.

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Chad going to all extremes to get the best shot of Ryan and Colin cruising through some beautiful scenery

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just had a look at your live tracking can see you are at the most south part of india thats cool keep up the good work and i am wacthing you .......

Quote:

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Originally Posted by prince666

just had a look at your live tracking can see you are at the most south part of india thats cool keep up the good work and i am wacthing you .......

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We love the live tracking site - the technology is going to put in our helmets down the road and if you crash emergency response are notified of your location. The southern most tip of India was incredible and a beautiful spot.

thanks for following!!!

Day 28: Today marks the HALFWAY point in our motorcycle expedition and television production known as: The India Ride. When you embark on a long and challenging adventure, it's important to set smaller attainable goals along the way. These smaller targets will help build confidence amongst your team and instill a sense of achievement along the way, and keep that ever-important feeling of forward momentum. With reaching our halfway point today, we've accomplished a huge milestone in our journey. We hope you all have enjoyed the first half of our adventure. Today our India Ride Team rolled in to Kenyakumari, also known as the Cape of Coromin, which marks the southern most point of India. Today, we arrived with just enough time to watch the sunset on the Arabian Sea (to the west). And tomorrow morning, we'll wake up facing the Indian Ocean (to the south) and tomorrow afternoon we'll begin riding north for the first time along the Bay of Bengal (to the east). Needless to say, to be surrounded by three immense bodies of water is something very special and arriving here today has been very uplifting for our team after what has been a very challenging week.



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Day 29: You might be asking yourself, how did we spent the first day of the second half of our India Ride? The answer is: we woke up early, got through a fantastic breakfast, and then crushed a quick and easy 253km from the Cape Coromin to Madurai on what is easily one of India's best roads - National Highway #7; which has now been re-named by Colin and Ryan, and is now to be referred to as: "The Pride of India". We think, and we are biased, that countries should take great pride in the quality of their roads; and NH#4 from Pune and Bangalore (last week) and NH#7 from the Cape of Coromin to Bangalore (this week) are stunning and make for effective and safe passage. And since clearly all good roads lead to Bangalore, that's also where we are headed, but not after a quick stop to visit the Shi Meenakshi Temple in Madurai tomorrow morning. As our India Ride team moves from the lush jungles of Kerala province, we've now entered the desert badlands of western Tamil Nadu province and during that process we've gone from wet and sticky 33C to burning hot and dry 36C all in the space of about 24hrs. Once again, the contrast of physical landscapes and temperatures that a traveler can encounter in India are staggering, and the main reason why Colin and Ryan choose to ride motorcycles on these adventures is because only on a motorcycle can you truly feel and appreciate all of these nuances and changes in your immediate environment and surroundings. Only at that moment can you truly appreciate the beauty, and the harshness, of what you are encountering.


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Day 30: Today the India Ride Team spent their 30th day on the road with an "off the bike" visit to the Shi Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai. It was the second Hindu temple we've included in our visit and it was an incredibly impressive temple with immaculate sculptures, pillars and two very unique temple halls. Our team were amazed with the crowds as nearly 15,000 to 20,000 people visit per day, and the faithful line up for hours in to order to visit the main temple halls. And with this temple visit our team marks a shift in our adventure in India. We are going to be putting the cultural visits on the back burner and begin looking at "modern" India again as our team is set to visit Bangalore and Pudducherry over the next 4 days. Be sure to watch this space tomorrow for an update on our Bangalore visit locations. We hope you'll be able to publicize those dates and locations in a hope that we can bring out as many adventurers and friends as possible.


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Day 31: The India Ride team is moving, and I mean really moving! Today we covered the 440km from Madurai to Bangalore in a breeze thanks to the fantastic National Highway #7 - What A Road! The Team was just reminiscing that just a few days ago we were stuck in Kerala province averaging about 20km an hour in grinding traffic and stuck in small villages, but today we really flew (averaging about 80km/hr) on a brilliant modern expressway. We even had enough time to stop for some coconut juice at one stage.



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