Day 1 : 29 Under 30. A ride to 29 state capitals and 5 out of 7 Union Territories of India.

Day 1:

Target: Bengaluru-Hyderabad-Amaravathi-Vishakapatnam.

Kms Planned: 1227 (Crazy isn't it?)

I kept the alarm for 4 and went to bed with all the stuff packed for my trip by about 10 as the next day  as going to be a hectic one. As the alarm rang, woke up at 4 am, got ready , kissed my kids as they  slept, said see you soon to my wife, loaded my saddle bags and drybag on the bike and left home by about 5 am. Being a Sunday, I saw many riders at various points on the Bengaluru-Hyderabad road, met a co versys owner Abhishek Singh opposite Esteem Mall near Hebbal Flyover.

As the roads were amazing, it took me not much time to cross the Karnataka-Telangana border. By about 9:10am, it slowly started to drizzle and the drizzle started to get heavier as I moved ahead. So just before Gooty, I stopped for Breakfast. I had an Onion Dosa my favorite and a cup of tea. By the time I slurped it, the heavy drizzle had subsided so I got back onto the saddle and took off.

Rain rain go away

The yummy onion dosa

I reached Hyderabad by about 1pm, where I was meeting another Versys owner Ashish Hegde near Mc. Donald's which is situated just on the Highway.  I reached the meeting point and called him and he was quite quick and reached within 5 minutes of me calling him. We then decided to look for a Biryani Place rather than eating some Burger and fries.

Twins parked for lunch break

Waiting for biryani with Ashish Hegde

Biryani tasted better than it looks

Happy happy after eating Biryani

As we entered the hotel it was so hot and the sun was shining in his full glory. We ate our lunch and Ashish led me to the road which would take me towards Vijaywada. I also had asked Ashish to purchase a travel guide to the North East India (Praveen K.M had advised me to purchase this book which in future proved out to be very useful) which was available nowhere else but Crosswords Hyderabad.

We started off from the hotel by about 2:30 pm,just 5 minutes after we left the hotel, it started raining "Cats and Dogs'. I was anyways prepared to ride in rain but and told Ashish that he could wait for the rain to subside before he rode home but he said its fine and rode me till we hit the highway. I then bid good bye and continued my onward ride towards Amaravathi through Vijaywada.

 After riding for about 30 kms, the rain stopped and the sun got brighter. Since I had ridden about 30 kms in heavy rain, I was all drenched inside out, the bright sun was more than welcome sight for me. I rode towards my next stop, the roads were absolutely amazing and the surroundings were green as far as my sight could reach. This scene was short-lived as the rain started pouring down again 30-40 mins later till I almost reached 30-40 kms before Vijaywada.

I reached Prakasham Barrage by about 8 pm. I had to cross this bridge to go towards Amaravathi. I followed GMaps and the roads thereon were almost empty and almost non existent.  In between there was a road which was well laid out for about 5 kms . The lights of my bike and Moon were the only lights for miles. However I finally managed to reach Amaravathi. I then filled fuel at a local petrol pump there and moved towards Vijaywada. I reached Vijaywada by about 10 pm. As I was drenched in rains for more than three hours or so, I thought I had to modify my plan of proceeding to Vishakapatnam and instead halt for the night at Vijaywada.

An image of Prakasham Barrage.(Taken fro Internet) Credits to the owner.

I was looking for a decent place with parking for my bike. Most of the hotels were charging nothing less than INR 2,000 per night and others which charged INR 1,000-1,300 had no proper parking for the bikes. I finally found a Gujarati Guest House which had an Air conditioned Dormitory, the only problem was parking on the street. There was a school next door and I heard a few guys sitting there and discussing. I thought of taking chance and asked them if I could park the bike in. They were more than happy to let me park in and were surprised to hear about what I intended to do ie 29under30. They clicked quite a few photographs with me and the bike and assured me that my bike along with the stuff on it will be safe. They then instructed the security guard to take care of the bike. I thanked them and went into the dorm. I also ate a couple of Rotis with Dal for the night.I had bath and went to bed with an alarm at 6. Here comes the surprise. The AC Dorm cost me INR 200 for the night.

Weather: Clear sky from Bengaluru till Andhra border. Medium to light drizzle till Kurnool. Bright skies till Hyderabad. Post Lunch: Hyderabad to Nalagonda-Heavy rains. Nalgonda to Suryapet-No rains. Suryapet to Paritala-Heavy to medium rains. Paritala to Amaravati & till Vijaywada-No rains.

Route Taken: Bangalore-Ananthpur-Hyderabad- Suryapet-Prakasham Barrage-Vykuntapuram- Amaravathi-Tadikonda- Vijaywada.

A short video of day 1 https://youtu.be/sNfDjGsx7eY

Road conditions: Awesome till Hyderabad. In Hyderabad congested (Needless to mention) and moderately good with occasional bad patches. Hyderabad to Prakasham Barrage, awesome roads, beyond which it was mix of bad and no roads till Amaravathi. On the way back, took the highway and that road was awesome. 

Kms Done: 930kms

End of Day 1. Goodnight. See you tomorrow.