Escapism.. Ride to Hampi...

At 4am I woke up.. Question was what to do on the weekend.. The thought of staying on campus was painful. I just wanted to head out. Mind tried applying logic: No planning, no preparation, slept for barely 4 hours, no research on destination or route, putting the panniers on bike will take time, etc etc.. While my brain was trying to convince me, my hands were packing clothes. Finally put a jeans, 2 t-shirts, puncture repair kit and some medicines in my camera bag, tied it to the bike, dusted my riding gear, filled the hydrapack, quickly looked at the route on google and off I was.. The destination was Hampi..
route map
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A short preview of the ride..

Ride out of Hyderabad was slow as bike was not allowed on ORR and alternate route was crowded. Finally I reached the Bangalore highway.. Finally!!
[all photos on day 1 and 3 clicked by mobile] Open road.. Bike speedo reading 3 digits.. Weather pleasantly chilly.. Perfect conditions for a relaxing ride.. After 100 kms, I left the highway and turned towards Mahbubnagar. From there I took the road to Raichur. This was a single lane road running through villages and fields.. At first the road was good.. But soon there was patches of broken road after every few kilometres and speed breakers at the beginning and end of every village. Progress was considerably slow. It was also getting hot now. I took more frequent breaks. Thermal power plant at Raichur I took a lunch break just after Raichur. The welcome drink.. Simple lunch of dhal, sabji, chawal and roti.. The dhaba walla was kind enough to offer a khaat to me and I slept comfortably for an hour. People had crowded around my bike to look at it. I was worried they'll fiddle around so cudnt sleep soundly. Kept on waking up after 5-10 minutes to check. After a broken but still refreshing nap, I was back on my way. There on I took the highway to Koppal. Again good road punctured by patches of potholes and villages.. From Gangavati I turned towards Hospet. Gangavati to Kampli was almost no road.. More like pieces of tarmac in between the potholes. The road was flanked by fields on both sides After Kampli it was better. But how dare you try to drive fast.. Small lake on the way.. Finally I reached Hampi at 5pm, covering 404kms. road to the town.. Next morning I planned to wake up at 5:30 and click the sunrise.. Set the alarm and went to sleep at 8:30.. And guess what happened?? Woke up at 11:30am!!! Not only missed sunlight but also the morning light.. Till the time I stepped out, the light was very harsh and it was very hot.. the guest house walla was considerate enough to cover my bike.. First thing i did was buy a hat and chappals. Walking around in riding boots would have been very uncomfortable. All set for sightseeing.. I picked up a map of the area and decided which places to visit. The ruins are spread over multiple villages but could be covered in clusters. You can walk around each cluster and travel from one to another by auto. You can even rent a bike from the main market. It was funny that the bike shop wallas were trying to sell me the benefits of travelling by a bike. I decided to hire an auto. I only had a day and it was difficult to decide which places to visit and also I dint wanna waste time finding the monuments in the villages. Autowalla took me directly to the relevant places in a set sequence and also acted as a guide and told me the history of monuments. I took me 6 hours to cover most of the monuments I wanted to cover and be there in time to capture the sunset. I let the photos tell the rest of the story. First stop: the Virupaksha temple right next to the main market.. monkeying around allowed.. Kadelekalu temple which has an 18 feet tall Ganesh.. exquisite sculptures on the pillars.. Bird's eye view of the town.. more ruins.. the Sasivekalu Ganesh.. [HDR alert..] Krishna Market.. Krishna Temple entrance.. the beautiful carvings on the pillars.. the Lakshmi Narsimha Temple.. another huge statue.. Badavilinga Temple.. a huge shivlinga.. braving the sands of time.. the underground temple.. Mohammadan Watch tower.. where the time has stopped.. Lotus mahal.. archs at the temple.. lone guardian.. the elephant stables.. more remnants of past.. one of the watch towers of the palace.. Hazararama temple.. closer view.. various incarnations of Vishnu.. writing on the wall.. more beautiful carving.. the step well.. reflecting on life.. school field trip.. base of a palace.. last stop.. the Vithala temple.. the symbol of Hampi.. the stone chariot.. sculptures all around.. the tree seems as old as the ruins.. play of light.. after this we went to Matunga hill to capture the sunset.. the shivlings on the ground.. sirjee please dont eat the sun!!! panoramic view from the hill.. the sunset.. temple on top of the hill.. Ending the day where it began.. the Virupaksha temple.. After the sunset, I got dropped near my guest house. After resting for an hour, I went for dinner to a place called Mango Tree. It was situated near the river. After parking the bike I had to walk on a pitch dark path through some fields with only my phone torch as light. The restaurant itself was open air and totally dark. There were no chairs, seating was on the floor. All tables were facing towards the river and the only light was from the lamps on the table. Nothing much to see as everything was pitch dark. May be better views in the day. But the food was good. While eating I setup the camera to click stars trails but couldn't get a good photo. I was back in room by 10 and tried to sleep. Next morning the hotel walla woke me up at 7. Till the time I left it was 8.. A pretty late start.. On the way back I had planned to go towards Hospet (11kms from Hampi), then take NH63 till Gooty (140kms) and join the Bangalore-Hyderabad highway(300 kms to Hyderabad). So overall it would have been 50kms extra but since I was taking to national highways, my average speed will be better. Good planning, but things never go as planned.. The highway after Hospet was again shitty. Till Bellary i was just avoiding potholes.. Dint expect this from national highway. Just before Bellary, i took the bypass. this was an awesome road.. After bypass there is a railway crossing. After this crossing i asked the way for Bangalore highway and people told me to turn right. Again an awesome road although there were villages after every 10-15kms. After travelling 33kms, i stopped for stretching my legs. I also checked the route on Google maps and realised i had taken the wrong way. I was on the direct road from Bellary to Bangalore which was taking me in exactly the opposite direction that where i wanted to go. Shit man!! i should have asked for Gooty that Bangalore highway. I turned back and reached the railway crossing again. Then i went straight and found the turn for Gooty. The road till Gooty passed through villages and fields. smile for the camera the open road, clear skies and colorful fields.. but in india roads can't remain awesome for some time.. superspeeding bus.. soon i reached Gooty and got on to the Hyderabad highway.. words cant describe that road.. it simply was bliss.. bike was at constant 115kmph.. next 200kms just flew past.. after that i took a long break.. had some lunch and rested for a while.. till the sun set i had around 120kms to cover.. i stopped to capture the sunset.. as i started back i saw 2 bulleteers standing on the side. i stopped to say hi and then started riding with them. they were riding comfortably at around 65-70 kmph. I also rode at the liesurely pace. Infact i was riding on the fifth gear only. 60kms or so before Hyderabad, they stopped for a food break. I dint feel like stopping and so continued further alone. Reached back campus by 8:30pm and hence ended the 950km ride.