Day 4 : 29 Under 30. A ride to 29 state capitals and 5 out of 7 Union Territories of India.

Day 4:

Raipur-Ranchi-Jamshedpur

Kms Planned: 730 kms

Today again as usual, I got up at 6 freshened up and set out by 7:00 am as I knew the road till Sambalpur was butter smooth and that I could cover that easily in about 4 hours. I had covered just about 60 odd kms and suddenly I saw a dog in the middle of the highway laying hurt and vehicles were zooming left and right to him while the poor little fellow lay crying in pain waiting for some big vehicle to come and crush take him to heaven. 

I parked my bike and went to check why nobody did anything while it lay crying for help. As the dog was quite hurt, nobody was willing to go close to it fearing it would attack. I could not leave the dog there to die. So with the help of a tea shop owner nearby, I got a big bamboo stick and tried to push him off the road and ensured that he wasn't further hurt or killed. He attacked and bit the pole a couple of times (Thank god I did not dare to go too close to him). Finally he got off the road and ran away limping into the woods. Hope he recovers. I then thanked the guys and moved ahead. 

Video of me saving a life: https://youtu.be/_VfGly-FmkY

The sun got brighter and no one was happier than me cos more than 50% of my last 3 days, I had ridden drenched in rain. 

By about 11 I had early lunch as planned before Sambalpur. I crossed Sambalpur by about 12:30 noon. I then rode towards Rourkela. Just outside Rourkela, I spotted a Service center where I checked if they could repair my horn which was non functional as it had sucked up water big time.  While I was speaking to the SVC guys who were not being helpful, a guy rides in and asks me what the issue was. I tell him the issue and he says that he would like to help me. This guy was Kallol Thakur from Rourkela. He then took me to a mechanic. The guy tried repairing it but since it had sucked up water big time, he was not able to repair it. Even after trying hard to repair it for about 20 minutes he was unable to fix it & he did not take the money when I offered. Even on insisting he just said I would have taken the money only if I had fixed it. I have immense respect for that mechanic because in spite of him being physically challenged, he was running a very good bike repair shop and has such values. In the hurry of reaching destination, I did not click photos with these beautiful people.

Till Rourkela a mix of good and decent. The roads  on the outskirts of Rourkela were in pretty bad shape. After crossing Odisha and into Jharkhand, the roads went through forests mostly (Koel River Valley) . Roads were in good shape but were single road, after Torpa all the way till outside Ranchi roads were quite bad. 

In the jungles of Jharkhand-Koel River valley

Wherever I went, the rain followed me. I finally reached Ranchi by about 7:00 pm. Decided to call it a day as did not have energy to ride another 130 odd kms in the dark and on unknown roads. Stopped by Dolphinoes restaurant for dinner near the Ranchi Airport. Finally checked in into a hotel and retired for the day.

Belting at Dhoni's city. Chicken Manchurian, Dal & Rotis at Dolphinoes 

Raipur-Rourkela-Ranchi

A small video of Day 4: https://youtu.be/pBcwIYHMiNo

Road conditions: The roads were amazing till Sambalpur. After Sambalpur too the roads were decent not very bad but around Rourkela, the roads were pretty bad. Once I entered Jharkhand, initially the roads were amazing but later the pain started. From Torpa onwards till about 10 Kms before Ranchi, the roads were in a very bad shape.

What caused the delay: Bad roads around Rourkela, A stop to check the horn which wasn't functional. Bad roads from Torpa to Ranchi.

Kms Done: 649 kms

Good night friends. Time to jump into the bed & snore off.

Destination tomorrow: From Dhoni's City to Dada's City.