Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Travelogues (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/)

-   -   Till The Edge of State (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/88807-till-edge-state.html)

11th sept Saturday Evening i wake up after a afternoon nap wondering what i would do tomorrow which is a sunday. Since saturday was a holiday too i didn`t do much since most of my friends were out of station and i spent the whole day indoors. Thats when the idea struck to me. "Lets ride baby":D

I love driving on the ghats and hence i decide to enjoy the curves of ghat roads of saluru. So the plan was to ride North - West till i touch Visakhpatnam - Orissa Border between Saluru and koraput and head back home. I have done nagpur - raipur- etc. many times on this route in a car but never did it on a bike. And offlate this route is not safe after crossing the andhra border into orissa since its a moist ridden state and passes very close to dantewada (where 72 CRPF jawans were massacred) .

That night i took bike out from the garage and went to the near by fuel station to fill her up. I put in 16.87 ltrs of fuel in it which would give me an approx. range of 550 kms. Anywayz the total distance i will be travelling tomorrow will be 255 kms.

So the next day i start at 6:00 in the the morning and continue to vizianagram on the NH - 5 route which is around 40 kms from my place. (i stay very close to the highway and it takes just 1 km for me to get onto the Highway). After bypassing vizianagram i go further to Saluru and en route click load of snaps. The weather is perfect for riding(Although not sunny). Not too hot not too cold. Just before the ghat road begins i stop for tea and water and then took the ghats head on. It was fun twisting and turning the bike. While climbing of took several stops to enjoy the view and click pics.

The ghat starts from saluru (A.P.) and ends in koraput (orissa) . The roads are butter smooth on the A.P. side but as soon as you see the board " Orissa Welcomes You" The roads literally gets pathetic. It becomes narrow and rocky and very dangerous. The assent is on the A.P. side but the decent is on the Orissa side. This is the point where i stop (THE EDGE OF STATE) for pics and refreshment and then turn around to get back home. I start from this point at 10:30 and made it to my place by 12:30. While returning i didn`t stop for any pics and just headed home non stop enjoying the ride .

This is it guys. The ride was fun, the bike performed really well (All stock and running nitrogen).This is actually piece of cake of the bike since i have taken it to numerous long rides like Vizag- burhanpur (M.P.), Vizag - Chennai(T.N.), etc.( Don`t ask for travel logs since i don`t have any record of it and haven`t clicked any pics) .

Ok now let the pics do the talking. And please do pour in with your comments.

hi Abbas, nice pictures ! the roads look really neat,except near saluru filled with potholes ,the kind of freedom a bike gives is really exciting ( and economical :P)

Stunning sceneries and nice captures. Did the bike give any problems during the trip? Did you do the ride solo?

Very nice captures! Is NH5 not a part of Golden Quadrilateral or NS Corridor?
I thought it was 4-Laned.

Nice Pics!! Ghats are always an amazing experience.
I did a similar trip thru the ghats but it was by train though.
You may enjoy reading this thread if ur keen about ghats..
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...akleshpur.html

@Ampere sir, NH5 is indeed part of GQ which runs from Chennai to Kolkatta. The work completed in Chennai & most parts in AP. Orissa & beyond, are still the same pathetic condition. If I'm not wrong, most of the Orissa's NH5 is not completed.

You are right. I filled in 950 bucks of fuel and still have more than half the tank left. May be another trip is in the offing next weekend.clap:

Yes i did it solo. Well, i had absolutely no trouble with my bike. Not only this trip but the other nine trips which i have done covering close to 11k kms. has been trouble free.

My current ODO reads: 18K +

Yes NH 5 is a part of GQ. However, in the first pic you only see the 2 lanes. the other 2 lanes are beside the greens which is not shown in the pic.

BTW the 3rd pic is the road between vizag and vizianagram (once you get off the NH 5). Its been newly laid out and is butter smooth.

Will surely go thru the thread tonight once i am done with office today.

Yes, orissa part of NH 5 is pathetic. Its worst than your "gaon ka road". Its so bad that we had some serious underbody damage when we were travelling in a honda city. Plus the Medinapur ghat and the interior of orissa is not safe bcoz its moist territory.

P.S. : Caution note to everyone: Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa are not safe to travel specially in the night. Even cops at several checkpost will not let you travel once the sun is down.

Nice pics, Abbas. You've made me feel nostalgic about my trip to Damanjodi a decade ago on my Maruti 800.

I'd heard horror stories of the infamous 'Sunki ghat', but when I went there it was not all that bad----i was told later that it had been levelled in the late 90s.

I miss Vizag becuase it has so many getaways around it, and all of them have great roads.

@Abbas - All of the pictures are good. My favourite is the third one. Good to see some bikers in the forum. More power to you my friend, and do post some more snaps.

Thanks, on one side you got the saluru ghats and on the other you got the araku valley ghat. :)

Thanks for liking the photo. BTW i have posted all my snaps and have nothing to share since posting a teaser and slowly following it up with the rest of the log is kinda becoming a common habit for achieving good viewing of the thread and are not appreciated by most of the BHPians. So thats it guys, i didn`t want you all to keep waiting for anything. the whole thing is served at once for your viewing pleasure.

Thats good stuff Abbas.. Nice to see the good spirit in you.

Nice writeup Abbas and really good pics. Thanks for sharing mate.

Thank you very much. This is my first travellog. hope to travel more and write more.:)

Nice pics. I am sure you must have enjoyed the ride.

Did yoy visit any places in vizag? Any more pics coming?

BTW at present fuel rates trevlling 550kms in approx 17lts is a bliss. :)

Amazing pics specially love the 3rd pic. Good to know that the steed is doing well. The ghats look inviting for a good hard ride in a bike

And really happy to see the entire TL in a single post with the pics. Since it was a day trip, makes a lot of sense to dish out the entire TL in one go. :)