On 22 December 2018, me and my wife started a motorcycle ride. On Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) highway network. Route was simple, Mumbai-Chennai-Kolkata-Delhi and back to Mumbai. This is our story…
22 Dec 2018:
We started early morning 4:30 am from Mumbai. Crossed Pune by 9 am. Roads were under construction from Pune to Satara. Satara to Niphani has good roads but we encountered traffic. Roads get better in Karnataka. We had lunch somewhere near Niphani by 1 pm. Belgaum to Davanagere we were cruising on high speeds as the roads are like expressway. It’s a section where you can make up for lost time. After this we encountered lot of under construction patches and single lane road. We reached Chitradurga by 9 pm. Had a delicious Dal Khichadi for dinner. The roads are again superb till Bangalore. We were above 100 kmph in the dark road, almost throughout. I heard a lot about the ring road of Bangalore, it is a bypass to Bangalore City. It turned out an absolute waste of toll money paid. We reached Hosur at around 1:30 in night. This was our longest ride in a day, till date. We covered 1052 kms in 21 hours. Our target was 18 hrs. We lost few nuts from saddlestay and number plate, which slowed us down in between. Also we took more stops than expected. We had a booking on Airbnb for stay. Almost entire ride we had booked in advance on Airbnb.
23 Dec 2018:
After a tiring ride on earlier day, we decided to wake up late. As our next destination was Chennai, we had around 7 hrs of ride that day. After an awesome breakfast/lunch by 12pm at a roadside hotel we headed towards Chennai. Roads through Karnataka are just delight to ride. Somewhere around late afternoon we entered Tamilnadu. And reached Chennai by 7:30pm. Had a good sleep in our comfortable Airbnb stay, with our awesome host Amma who cooked Sambar Rice for us on a short notice.
24 Dec 2018:
It was a long ride day. Amma made delicious Idly for breakfast. We started a bit late by 8 am. After navigating through morning Chennai traffic, we started our journey towards Vishakhapatnam (Vizag). There is plenty of greenery on both sides. Somewhere at Mid-day we entered Andhra. This part of road is filled with greenery. I also noticed Andhra has lot of water bodies than any other state in India. We saw a lot of waders in fields. The roads are not that fast after Guntur. Some bad patches restricted our speed. We crossed Vijayawada by 4:30 pm. At a petrol pump I noticed that our saddle bag was touching the silencer. I pulled the bag up and … There it was, the hot silencer had put a big hole at bottom. Removed my bungee cord and tied the bag for time being. Later as we didn’t find any solution and time to repair bag, bungee kept compay till the end of trip. In the eastern side sun sets very early. Blue hour starts by 5:00 pm and within few minutes, complete dark. Sunsets in eastern part of India are beautiful. The size of Sun gets bigger and with less pollution it looks pure and round.
Next towns Eluru and Rajahmundry had slightly bad roads. It got difficult to judge road conditions after dark. Though our LED headlight was enough to light up the night but it’s the incoming light. By now we were ok with night riding. In South India, though it was dark but we never felt scary. We had a nice Uttapa for dinner by 8:30 pm at a road side eatery. After dinner the road was lonely and much darker. By 11 pm we reached Vishakhapatnam. We passed through huge industries as we entered. Second shift might have been over so the buses were dropping people to there home. At11:30 pm we reached to our Airbnb stay. It was a Christmas Eve. The town was still awake. We were seriously tired and sleepy. Today we covered 907 kms in 16 hrs.
25 Dec 2018:
It’s Christmas and rest day. We woke up a bit late in morning. Got fresh and ready to explore Vishakhapatnam. But first we had to do some fixing of burnt saddle bag and increasing cold. My double layer gloves couldn’t stand up against the cold winds of early morning and late evening. We searched for bag repair vendor but it was Christmas holiday for everyone. We decided to tie a bungee cord on the burnt side and courier rain gear to Mumbai. After lunch we headed towards Bajaj service centre for hand guards. Got a KTM hand guard fitted on the bike. They helped a lot in North cold. Quickly rushed to RK beach for the sunset.
I always wanted to see the sunset on east coast. This was my first time on a east coast beach. I liked it but I’ll always prefer a sun setting in ocean. Vizag waters were deep turquoise with contrasting khaki sand. A clean beach and lots of people as it was Christmas holiday. We spent a good time on the beach and enjoyed local delicacies.
26 Dec 2018:
We left Vizag at dawn. Got a perfect field and fog sunrise picture. New hand guards were a blessing in this cold morning. We stopped for breakfast at a dhaba place for a delicious Chole Puri. The road was great in morning. We crossed some dense green areas before Chilka lake. As the road is nearer to the Andhra and Odisha’s coastal line we saw numerous waders. By midday we passed Chilka. And by evening 4-5 pm Bhubaneshwar and Cuttack. After Cuttack the road is not so good. At Balasore we were in pitch dark. Cold started increasing. Overall road conditions in Odisha were disappointing. After dinner, roads were better and the cold too. At Kharagpur we took a fuel stop. The petrol pump guy told us it was raining here in last week so the mercury dropped a bit more. Wrooming through truck traffic we reached Kolkata by midnight. Kolkata was asleep. City roads are really bad. Mumbai folks made songs for bad roads, if they see roads in Kolkata they might just get an attack. In a no man’s lane of New Alipore, we found the place. Some 850 plus kilometres covered in 17 hours.
27 Dec 2018:
Today’s route was a bit different and challenging. We started a bit late by 8 am. Roads of West Bengal were fantastic. Just after midday we stepped into the most hostile land of India, Jharkhand. We met with worst road conditions of our entire GQ circuit. There are no clean and good restaurants/dhabas for a good 200 km stretch. We had to settle down on fruits for lunch. We stopped couple of times in market to purchase bananas and other fruits. Eyes looked at us felt scary. I didn’t wanted to take risk of stopping at these crowded places so we ate the fruits at a lonely stretch, in between villages. By evening 4 or 5 we crossed Jharkhand border and felt an instant relief as Bihar was far less hostile. Roads in Bihar are good but we had to be extra cautious of cattles, stray dogs and other drivers. By 7:30 pm, in the dark, we entered in Uttar Pradesh. I expected somewhat better road. The roads are good but they’re building hell number of flyovers. After every 2 kilometres a diversion slowed us down. A diversion means keep left on broken road with invisible speed breakers. At this stretch I wished if I had extra lights. With hungry stomach we reached Varanasi by 9 pm. At our guest house near Assi Ghat, we had Maggi noodles for dinner and called it a day. It took us 13 hrs to cover 687 kilometres.
28 Dec 2018:
This was the second rest day in our trip. Varanasi was on the top of my street photography wishlist. Though we had very little time to spend here, this was more of get to know Baneras day. It’s a very vibrant city. Not just colours but peoples, ghats and the Ganga river amused us. I still managed to click a few shots on the ghats. So next time when we visit Varanasi, I should keep at least 2-3 days in my camera bag.
29 Dec 2018:
Left Varanasi by 7 am. According to my research from here till Mumbai, roads will be much better and I was right. This part was also coldest in GQ circuit. We had an awesome breakfast of Dal Fry and Roti at a roadside dhaba. Till 12 pm I was freezing in my 2 gloves and 5 top layers. Hand guards fitted in Vizag were huge saviour. Somewhere at midday we crossed Kanpur. This was the longest flyover we got. It runs throughout the length of city. We crossed Kanpur by 100-120 kmph on odometer. Later we stopped for lunch at dhaba. Had a wonderful Dal Roti and subji. It was our lucky day I guess. By evening 5 pm we touched Lucknow-Agra Expressway. This road is a heaven for riders. Rs 80 for toll was spent on the best road of our life. It was dark and we were fast. If I have to compare this expressway than it is much better than Mumbai-Pune Expressway. We reached Agra by 8 pm. Got some dinner before finding our Airbnb host for the night. Our lucky day continued as we reached at our stay, Col. Sharma’s palatial house. Colonel welcomed us graciously. The carpet area of his living room was equal to my Mumbai’s house (figure of speech). After some chatting, we landed on a spacious bed. It was a good riding day with 615 kilometers in 11 hrs.
30 Dec 2018:
With warm wishes from Colonel, we left for The Taj Mahal. The plan was to take glimpse of Taj from Mehtab baug, across the Yamuna river. It didn’t worked. Due to the famous North Indian thick fog forget Taj, we couldn’t see the river only. Plan for today was a bit stretched so we decided to fog it… there’s always a next time. We were on the Yamuna expressway till Noida. Again one of the best highway patch. Reached Delhi in no time. We took a circle to India gate and headed to Jaipur. For lunch I thought we’ll get a good dhaba after the city. We were crossing Gurugram but no sign of a dhaba. There were few fast food joints and lot of liquor stores which we were not interested in. We usually stop at a place where our bike is parked nearer or visible to us coz it was loaded with stuff. Finally after deserted Gurugram we touched Jaipur highway and stopped at first dhaba. As always the paneer of North India was just too good. Rotis just melted in our mouth. Later a good patch of tarmac carried us to Jaipur by 6 pm. We changed quickly and rushed to the Johri Bazaar for shopping.
After a lot of days we drove on superb roads throughout the day. In our lovely Airbnb stay we decided to wake up late tomorrow and reach Udaipur. We spent 8 hours on the best highways covering appx 500 kilometres.
31 Dec 2018:
Last day of the year. We were excited about today’s breakfast at Samrat. A small eatery in opposite lane of city palace entrance. Tandoor Chai, kachori, fresh Jalebi, Samosa… No need to say I had everything. Our saddlebag were heavy due to last night’s shopping. So we couriered all the shopping home and left Jaipur by 12 in the afternoon. The roads are good here with less traffic. Topography turned dry and aried. Taller trees have been replaced by small bushes and thrones. Flat tarmac for long kilometres was surrounded by sand, well mostly.
At 7 we reached our Airbnb stay. Got freshen up and headed towards a nearby mall. After a delicious Italian BMT sub we headed back to our room and crashed early in bed. Everyone was celebrating outside, we slept like logs. Today we covered 434 kilometres in 6 hours.
1 Jan 2018:
Left Udaipur just before Sunrise. A new year, new experience and a new challenge of finding dhaba for breakfast. Everything was closed. Perhaps they might have slept few hours ago. Later we found one. A delicious one. Today’s plan was to reach till Vadodara and if we’re not tired and still left with time, we will continue till Mumbai. From Udaipur one should take Godhra highway till Vadodara. As usual, Google map showed us a shorter route which was shit. Somehow we touched Vadodara at 2 pm. Cancelled our Vadodara booking and decided to head home. We had a delicious Gujarati lunch and now started a high speed chase to home. This route is familiar, demands speed, precision in navigating traffic at high speed and the tarmac is smooth. Reached Mumbai at 9 pm, covering 726 kilometres in 13 hours.
After 6,155 kilometers, 11 days and 12 states, we completed Golden Quadrilateral ride on our Dominar 400. Clicked some pics at Dahisar toll Naka. We entered our building with a big surprise welcome. Our family and building people gathered to welcome us at the gate. We were not tired after 13 hours of ride. We were proud, satisfied, stoned, happy…. lot of emotions. In one trip we witnessed almost the whole India. The greenery and colourful temples of South. Wetlands and small jungle patches of Andhra and Odisha’s east coast. Not so friendly parts of Jharkhand and Bihar. Incredible hospitality of Uttar Pradesh. One of the finest expressways of our country get you pass through the Capital city. Bushy, sandy, beautiful Rajasthan and Gujarat led us to west coast.
These connecting highways through megacities are not touristy. They form a backbone for transportation in our country. States like Karnataka, West Bengal, UP, Gujarat have built excellent roads. The Sunsets and sunrises we witnessed while on road were amazing. I had least expectations for a good picture and every time I’ve been surprised.
During food and fuel breaks people approached us with curiosity. Some checked out the loaded bike and were amazed to see Maharashtra registration. It started many conversations. Many helped us with navigation and timings. Some dropped their jaw after hearing our route plan. People are usually nice throughout. In Andhra, we were having brunch at a roadside dhaba. Masala Dosa and it came with a red garlic chutney and I so much loved it!!! I somehow managed to ask him to pack some for me. Though it was not for sale, he instantly prepared it fresh and packed for us.
Speaking of food. Hummm. We absolutely enjoyed it. Except few restaurants we survived on roadside dhabas/eatery. Sambhar rice, Dosas of South India were deliciously different and pure than Mumbai. Breakfast at a dhaba in Andhra was a special experience. All the local workers were picking up tiffin for their day and we were feasting the same laziz Chole Puri with them. Lunch at SFC food hub Vizag, Dal Khichadi at Chitradurg, Breakfast at a dhaba in UP, Paneer subji at Gurugram dhaba, Kachori and Jalabi breakfast at Jaipur…. such a delicious journey in one tour.
We’re not the only riders to complete this Golden Quadrilateral route on motorcycle but, yes, one of the few. To complete the circuit one requires experience, focus, precision and planning. I had this route in my wishlist for some time. After switching from RE Bullet to Dominar 400, I started thinking of rides which were out of our league till now. I opened my wishlist and GQ was perfectly fitting in the holiday season. A route plan was made. It started from south coz I wanted to keep good roads in the last patch of our ride. I planned two rest days at Vizag and Varanasi respectively. After one long day, next day was short ride. Couple of weeks before we booked Airbnb stays till Udaipur. We covered maximum 1,052 and minimum 322 kilometers in a day. Some days we rode 21 hours and some days just 6 hours. We used to leave by 6-7 in morning everyday and reach to destination by 8 to 12 in night.
We knew that we will be spending really long hours on the bike, so we were prepared. For a few weeks we followed yoga, walking, stretching, etc. to be enough fit for the ride. To protect bumps and lower back, we bought air cushion seats, which literally saved our asses. The ride was most tiring on Kolkata to Varanasi route and best on Agra to Jaipur (via Delhi) route. Another major concern for us was Safety. We bought a good quality (LS2) helmet for pillion. Riding jackets, gloves, knee pads, balaclava, etc. were purchased for added safety. To carry luggage we bought Saddle bag from Dirtsack. I changed my engine oil to Motul for better performance…. and it’s a long list…
Riding is a joy. There’s no satisfaction like covering kilometers and fighting against winds. I enjoy every process of riding . Pulling clutch, shifting gears, acceleration, braking, shifting lanes, overtaking, leaning in a deep curve, high speeds, cutting traffic, broken roads, ghats. … No matter what bike, I love riding.
Now, GQ is done, next …
…
More travel pics at: https://www.instagram.com/yogesh_pilankar/
windnoise 
Really impressed with your trip and the blog! Proud of you both.
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Loved reading it!!
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