Ride De India 2017! Three Local Bikers Cover 11,000 kms in 43 days
Mangaluru: A long bike ride covering a distance of 11,000-km in 43 days from Mangaluru – Kashmir – Kanyakumari was not just exploration of places but also taught lifetime lesson on adjustments and minimising the expenditure and saving money, said three bikers from Mangaluru. Varun Aithal, Manojna M and Denzil Rose set out on a bike ride after their engineering graduation before joining work, to explore the places and know the culture and tradition of different places. In fact, Varun and Manojna did not know each other till three years ago. It was a fascination for the bike ride which brought them together. Later, the trio formed ‘Wanderers on Wheels’, where they would set out short ride very often. Aithal said “I have been documenting all my trips and uploading it on YouTube so that people will know the culture and tradition of each state and beauty of the country. It is an attempt to showcase the beauty of India to the world as well.”
The following details are what the three bikers revealed to Team Mangalorean:
The ride got delayed by a few days. It was supposed to start on 1st Aug. 2017. However, after facing all the obstacles, we were able to start Ride De India 2017 successfully from Mangaluru on 5th Aug. 2017 at 4 pm. We just wanted to start the ride so we didn’t care if it was evening. Once the ride starts, we knew we could solve any problem that would come our way. It’s only that push that’s needed to start the ride.
The route went something like this: Mangalore (Karnataka) > Murudeshwar > Pune (Maharashtra) > Mumbai (Maharashtra) > Vadodara (Gujarat) > Ahmedabad (Gujarat) >Ajmer and Pushkar (Rajasthan) > Jaipur (Rajasthan) > New Delhi > Amritsar (Punjab) > Ramban (J&K) > Sonamarg (J&K) > Kargil (J&K) > Leh (J&K) > Khardung La – Highest Motorable Road in the world (J&K) > Nubra Valley (J&K) > Pangong Lake (J&K) > Keylong (Himachal Pradesh) > Manali (Himachal Pradesh) > New Delhi > Agra (U.P.) > Sagar (M.P.) > Nagpur (Maharashtra) > Hyderabad (Telangana State) > Bangalore (Karnataka) > Mysore (Karnataka) > Bandipur National Park (Karnataka) > Mudumalai National Park (Tamil Nadu) > Ooty (Tamil Nadu) > Palani ( Tamil Nadu) > Kodaikanal (Tamil Nadu) > Rameshwaram (TN) > Dhanushkodi (TN) > Kanyakumari (TN) > Kochi (Kerala) > Ernakulam (KL) > Mahe (KL) > Muzhappilangad Drive in beach, Kannur (KL) > Kasargod (KL) > Mangalore (Karnataka)
Phew.. such a big list. It was more tiring writing this than riding through all these places! Hope I didn’t miss out anything! We covered a total distance of 11,000 kilometers in 43 days. We rode through the Highest Motorable Road in the World – Khardung La Pass which is at a height of 18,300 feet. We visited Wagah Border parade in Punjab and it was amazing! Apart from that we even visited places like Pangong Lake where the movie ‘Three Idiots’ was shot and various other movie spots. They provide tents for staying in Pangong Lake. It costs anywhere between 700 – 2000 depending on Off/Season time. There’s an attached toilet in the tent which you can access by opening a zip in the tent! After 10 pm they turn off the generator and there’s no lights till the next morning.
The view of the sky in the night was enchanting. You can see stars that you’d only seen on movies. What an experience it was. Words won’t do justice. Also, the mountains that surround us while we ride through Ladakh are humongous! Indian Army was very helpful throughout the route. Whenever we stopped to ask directions or enquired something, they offered us tea and were very happy to see bikers come all the way from Karnataka. We were also successful in doing Kashmir to Kanyakumari which is a dream for many bikers apart from Leh – Ladakh. In between the ride, Manojna Athri, one of the three riders had to write an exam in Bengaluru. So we had to take a deviation to Bangalore, stayed there for 2 days and he wrote the government exam.
An exam between an All India Ride – How crazy is that! We also went to Dhanushkodi where you can see Sri Lanka if you use Binoculars. If we keep writing about the trip, It’ll never end. So we’re making blog posts about Day 1 to Day 43 of the ride in detail. (Day 1 and Day 2 are already out. We’ll update the remaining soon.) We’re also making videos of everything in detail and uploading it on our Youtube Channel: WandererOnWheels.
So here we are the three riders-Denzil S Rose, Varun Aithal K from SJEC and Manojna Athri from Srinivas College of Engineering. We started a riding club called Wanderers On Wheels – 2.5 years ago and we’ve been doing quite some rides since then. Having some plans for the future as well. Peace out!
