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Mumbai to Kerala & Kanyakumari on my BMW R1250GS: A 3,800 km trip

14th February 2025, 10:34 by Ananth Iyer

The round trip was about 3800km , Both the motorcycles did not miss a beat or give us any kind of mechanical trouble.

BHPian cjt2012 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

The riding season is on , so soon as we stepped off the ship both Varun and I decided to do a longish road tour on the bikes. Since we both work on ships , at the first opportunity to ride we take it. The last long trip I did was to Bhutan from Mumbai in 2024, (you can read that account on this forum) We were looking forward for another trip.
I personally don't like to plan much for a ride, so Varun did most of the route plan. I often say a Road trip is about the adventure and thrill of the Journey and not just about the destination.
We were two of us ( Varun Langrana - Age 36 - 2023 BMW R1250GSA and myself Clement Thomas- Age 49 - 2017 BMW R1200GS ); A few days before the trip we had a short meeting on the route and the places we would like to cover during this trip and a WhatsApp group was made.

My bike is generally well kitted for long trips, The bike was serviced at BMW Thane in Dec 2024 where the valve clearances were checked and shims changed as required ,oil changed , coolant changed , K&N air filter was cleaned, Cardan shaft removed and greased , Cardan Oil changed , Checked torque values on all crucial nuts and bolts and Tyre pressure checked. The Brake pads were not changed since they looked to be good enough

I have both Aluminium Touratech Panniers and Soft Luggage, but i prefer the soft luggage basically to manage the weight ( Panniers tend to be heavier)

Some very essential generic requirements on the motorcycle are as below:
1. USB Charging port 12V (My bike has 3 USB ports)
2. Aux Lights
3. Headlight guards / protectors
4. The Connected cradle to accommodate the phone is a very essential requirement when using Phone for Google map Navigation.
5. Ensure you have good set of riding gear, this is non negotiable - I was using Klim Adventure Rally Pro Jacket , Klim Badland Pants , Rynox Gloves , Scorpion AT950 modular helmet, I prefer a cotton t-shirt inside in the heat.

Other equipment's carried were : Qubo Bike Cam with loop recording charged by the bikes 12v USB port, This is a fantastic piece of kit and its real value for money, essential tools, a Spuncture Puncture repair kit, a compact air compressor (12V supply from the bike), a jump starter , Cable ties (very important), straps, bungee chords, Essential first aid and medicines, Spare Brake pads front and rear, Spark Plug set, key fob spare battery, Emergency key.

Throughout the trip, only regular fuel was used on my bike.

Odometer Reading before setting off

Bike set up for the trip

Day 1: 13.01.2025 Mumbai (MH)- Chitradurga (KA) : 820km

We decided to start a little early and set off at 5:30am , made brisk progress towards Pune and stopped for breakfast somewhere near Shirwal around 8:30am, with good roads on NH48 we were making good progress passing Satara around 10:30 and onwards towards Karad , but soon after Satara the road diversions started and so did the morning traffic which increased quiet a bit. The diversions were there almost every 4 to 5 km which was very annoying and also setting us back in time. For the most part the roads were decent , we were making steady progress and we passed Kolhapur around 12 noon, with a few breaks in between for water, tea and tanking up.

Tea Break near Kolhapur

Lunch stop was soon after Belagavi around 2:00pm after which we pushed on, Soon after Belagavi the roads became very good and it was an absolute pleasure on two wheels, at some point the NH48 becomes AH47 passing Dharwad, Hubballi, Devagiri, Davanagere and by round 7:00pm we were on the outskirts of Chitradurga. We checked into Hotel Ravi Mayur which is a very basic hotel to spend the night.

Day 2: 14.01.2025 Chitradurga (KA) - Kanyakumari (TN) : 850km

We started from the Hotel around 7:45am tanking up on the highway soon after setting off.
The roads (AH47) continued to be excellent and we headed towards Tumakuru and onwards to Bangaluru, as expected we did face some traffic on the outskirts of Bangaluru. We took the NICE ring road ( paying a Toll for our bikes ).

After Bangaluru , we took the NH 44 towards Kanyakumari, passing Hosur and stopping at Krishnagiri for Lunch around 1:00pm
Post lunch , we again made rapid progress with excellent roads in Tamil Nadu continuing, soon we were passing Dharmapuri, Salem, Dindigul, and by evening 5:00pm we were at Madurai where we decided to stop for tea and some refreshments, we had done 350km from krishnagiri to Madurai in 4 hours. We were hoping to reach Kanyakumari by 8:30 or 9:00 pm.

Near Madurai

As we started from Madurai, the weather took and unexpected turn and it started pouring down heavily, we decided to press on with the ride , I changed the ride mode to RAIN and we continued our ride, As if the rain was not enough of an issue; thing were soon going to become nasty, at around 6:30pm the TPMS on the bike started blinking orange and the rear tyre pressure dropped from 42 to 35 and soon it dropped below 30 when the TPMS started to blink Red, At first , I thought that the heavy rain is causing the electronics on the bike to play up, which was definitely not the case, one glance at the rear tyre and it became apparent that it had a puncture. I contacted Varun and we pulled up at the nearest Petrol pump, careful inspection of the tyre revealed a 5 inch long thin steel rod embedded in the tyre, after managing to remove the steel rod, out came the puncture kit and we tried the repairs, however the air was not holding as the hole was larger and a single insert was not sufficient.

Since the festival of Pongal (Which is the biggest festival in TN) was going on everything in Tamilnadu was shut, so were the puncture shops, luckily the petrol pump attendant had the number of a puncture shop owner, he called him and within 20min the guy came to help us, I filled up air at the puncture shop and rode the bike to the puncture shop , where he removed the thin insert and put in a larger insert , this repair worked.

This whole episode set us back by about 1 hour , it was already dark, it was still raining heavily and we still decided to continue to ride to Kanyakumari.

We had an uneventful ride from there to Kanyakumari and reached around 10pm.

Since Pongal was going on, the Hotels in Kanyakumari were overflowing with people, and we did not get any rooms at hotels near the sea, However about 1.5km before Kanyakumari we checked into "The Coral Kanyakumari" which was a relatively new hotel, it was a good hotel with good food.

The Coral Kanyakumari

Day 3 - Day 4 15.01.2025 - 16.01.2025 At Kanyakumari

The Hotel was very comfortable and we were able to get good rest and also explored the places of interest at Kanyakumari, like the Swami Vivekanada Rock, Thiruvalluvar statue, Sunset and sunrise point, Vattakottai fort, Mathoor Aquaduct among other sites.

Some photos from Kanyakumari

At Vattakottai Fort

At Mathoor Aquaduct

Kanyakumari and its approaches are peppered with Wind turbines as it is considered as the best location in India for harnessing wind energy, these massive machines can be seen all along the highways on approaches and its a truly majestic sight.

Day 5 : 17.01.2025 Kanyakumari (TN) - Munnar (KL) (Via Kovalam) 380km

Set out from Kanyakumari at around 8:30am and headed to Kovalam and took the very scenic coastal road, Parked the bike at the common beach parking and rented a beach chair for an hour , enjoyed the nice sunshine and the white sand beach before heading onwards to Munnar.

At Kovalam

Roads in Kerala , while they are very good are mostly single carriageways (even their highways) and as such quiet dangerous, not to mention Google maps on a few occasions taking us through some very narrow rubber plantation roads before linking up to some road, the route led us from Thiruvananthapuram , Kilimanoor, Ayoor, Kottarakkara, Pathanamthitta, Ranni, Pala, Thodupuzha , Adimali to Munnar. Kerala is a very beautiful state with natural beauty like few other places on earth (its little wonder that its called God's own Country). Reached Munnar about 8:00pm ,We stayed at Silver Blooms homestay , it was a decent place however food was not available at the location and the owner would bring us the Breakfast in the mornings.

Lunch Stop on route to Munnar

Day 6 - 18.01.2025 - At Munnar

The Homestay at Munnar

We explored Munnar and near by locations of Top Station, The route is very scenic with Tea Gardens on both sides of the road for some time and then dense forest , the roads were good until Top Station, but then the road became non existent and it started to rain, This made the mountain trails very slippery and both our bikes got bogged down in slush and slippery mud. It took tremendous effort to bring both the bikes out from the slippery mud with the help of another rider who was also stuck in the same predicament. The whole experience was very tiring and scary since we were alone in that area with overcast skies , heavy rain and sticky slippery mud with two big bikes bogged down.

On Route to Top Station Munnar