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3 bikes, 3 men & an 800 km coastal ride from Bangalore to Mahabalipuram

11th September 2024, 11:23 by Ananth Iyer

We rode for approximately 800 kms without any agenda other than riding our motorcycles and completed our ride of Bangalore-Mahabalipuram-Bangalore all hale and hearty.

BHPian Rhik94 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Hey Everyone,
I have been contributing to a few threads sporadically but here goes my first full blown travel report out of the Assembly Line. Do let me know if you have any feedback to better my posts going forward.

One dreary Friday evening, Turbonath, Justwheels and I randomly planned for a One-Day ride to Mahabalipuram. A huge shoutout to them for being such amazing sports in making this one-day "no agenda" ride a beautiful success.

Quick Intro of the riders and their machines:

Turbonath (Atreya) on his 2019 Kawasaki Ninja 1000 aka Ikigai:

Justwheels (Debashish) on his 2022 KTM Adventure 390:

Rhik94 (Sarthak) on my 2011 Honda CBR 250R:

Atreya and I had been itching to ride for a long time and quickly decided that the upcoming Sunday we would do a day ride to Mahabalipuram and back. While Atreya wanted to test his newly acquired DJI Osmo Action 4, I had fitted a fresh new set of Apollo Alpha H1s and wanted to run-in the tires. Soon we had a third member in the plan and Debashish too decided to join us on this ride.

Prepping the motorcycles the night before:

The route we took was Tin Factory-Kolar-Chittoor-Kanchipuram-Chengalpattu- Mahabalipuram. This was the default route as suggested by Google Maps and we did not deviate much from the same.

On June 16, 2024, sharp at 5AM, the three of us set out in the darkness with a single agenda in mind, "Ride to our heart's content". We quickly crossed KR Puram market which was delightfully less chaotic than usual and set our sights towards hitting the open roads. As we crossed the Hoskote toll plaza, the three machines settled into a happy purr, and we were at Narsapura in no time. Initially we had decided to stop at the quaint little CCD at Narsapura for an early morning shot of coffee but very conveniently all three of us forgot to stop and kept riding. We were witnessing a splendid sunrise and the three of us collectively just wanted to keep on riding into the horizon.

We encountered slightly heavier than usual traffic and after riding for a little over an hour, we reached Mulbagal and stopped for a cup of tea.

Tea stop at Mulbagal:

Hereon, traffic cleared up considerably and we were cruising at pretty good speeds.

The trio cruising blissfully:

Once our stomachs started growling for food, we pulled over for breakfast. We had steaming hot idlis and dosa. The piping hot dosas were yum and even better were the accompaniments of chutneys that were served.

Resuming from our breakfast stop:

Having filled ourselves up, we geared up and started riding towards Kanchipuram. This stretch of road had quite a few diversions but nothing too bad. We had to wait on the shoulder on a few instances to let oncoming windmill blade bearing trucks pass safely.

Me pointing at the only right way to go:

By this time, the day was getting warmer gradually, but we pressed on till we reached the junction of Chengalpattu. At this junction we stopped for a breather under the shade of a flyover and rechecked our bearings towards Mahabalipuram. Incidentally we also spotted a test vehicle of the now launched Mahindra Thar Roxx while waiting at this spot.

Debashish and I discussing the just spotted camouflaged vehicle:

Once on the move again, the heat started making its presence felt. To make matters worse, we got stuck in the city traffic momentarily. The combination of the heat and traffic made Atreya fret a little as the Ninja 1000 was not having any of it and its temperature reading kept rising. Luckily, the roads cleared up soon enough and we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere next to an under-construction flyover. We approached a few locals to guide us and that is when we got to know that the under-construction flyover is the new bypass that is being built. One extremely helpful gentleman asked us to follow him so that he could show us the road that led to the main highway. We followed him at a snail's pace for the next 10 minutes dissecting the city and eventually got back on to the highway. We continued riding on the highway for the next 30 minutes before stopping for a hydration break. The Tamil Nadu heat was belting us and a water break had become necessary.

The Motorcycles taking a breather:

At this point, we were about 40 odd kilometres away from the Shore Temple at Mahabalipuram. We decided that we would first visit the Shore Temple and then look for a lunch spot. The idea was to find an eatery next to the sea and have a lazy seafood lunch. As we reached the parking premises of the Shore Temple, we found ourselves amid utter frenzy. This was to be expected since not only was it a tourist spot but also a Sunday. We were hesitant of parking here and decided to head to a restaurant that we had spotted on our way. Once we had parked our rides we entered the restaurant premises. The first blast of air-conditioned cool breeze was enough for us to unanimously agree that we will spend some time here before venturing out. Soon this agreement transpired into a very detailed discussion whether the visit to the Shore temple was worth it in this heat. We spent about an hour bouncing off ideas while blissfully sipping a tower of Madras cooler. Now Debashish and I have been to Mahabalipuram multiple times so the visit to Mahabalipram was mainly for Atreya. Atreya justified that rather than us visiting each of the POIs he would have more fun sending his drone and experiencing the aerial shots of the city. Talk about laziness and how the heat changes plans!!!

The God-sent Madras cooler:

Once we were done gulping down the Madras Cooler and other titbits, we made our way to the lunch spot off the coast. Ikigai had its fan moment here as a bunch of curious onlookers wanted to know all about the green monster. Once Atreya had patiently answered all their queries, we made our way navigating through the narrow lanes of Mahabalipuram and reached Searock Restaurant. Initially finding a spot to park our motorcycles was turning out to be tricky, but the restaurant folks very graciously arranged for a spot in the adjacent property.

The Searock restaurant is right next to the coast with the view of the Shore Temple in the background. It is so close that tables right next to the windows get a generous mist of sea water every time a big wave crashes on the embankment.

The pretty looking windowside tables:

The allure of this restaurant was mainly due to its proximity to the shore though the food was great too.
We had reached around 1 PM, just before most of the lunch crowd walked in. We were promptly seated at a table and our brains went into overdrive trying to figure out what all do we order off the menu. We pounced on servings of prawns and satiated our desire to have sea food.

Butter Garlic Prawns:

Ghee Roast Prawns:

The day's fresh catch:

In a typical Sunday afternoon fashion, the place was bustling and there was a fair amount of waiting to be seated. This meant that our plan of having an idyllic lunch was out of the window (no pun intended). We had an amazing lunch, trying out various seafood items and each one of them were extremely tasty. Once we were too full to even move, we dragged ourselves out of the restaurant and started clicking photographs of the beautiful Bay of Bengal and the Shore Temple in the distance.

View of the coast:

The Shore Temple in the background:

Soon after, Atreya brought out his drone and started taking shots of the entire coastline. He has also uploaded the video on his YouTube Channel by the name of "The Noisy Firefly".

Aerial shot of the coast:

Aerial shot of the Shore Temple:

Trip Video shot by Atreya

It was around 3PM now and the sun was in no mood to show any mercy. We decided against riding back to Bangalore immediately and instead made our way to a place where we could sit and relax on the beach for a few hours. Soon enough I found a spot in the Hotel Tamil Nadu property where we parked our motorcycles under the shade of trees and sat on the beach enjoying the sound of waves crashing.

View from the beach: