Kanyakumari Expedition - The Planning Phase - Part 1

For a roadtrip, the plan ofcourse starts with the route.

Shasti and I wanted to keep the trip as raw as possible. Stick to the highway and use every chance to explore some inroads and villages. Sleep where you can, stay where you can. Eat what you get and live with what you have.

But with the corporate angle coming in, and taking on the responsibility of a charity cause as well, the nomadic approach wouldnt stick it. We had to ensure that we did everything we could to succeed, leave no stones unturned. We were collecting money on the back of this ride, and we couldnt put that trust at jeopardy. And this would be our mantra for the entire planning effort, to not just get up and go, but treat this like a project.

The Route

The thumb rule for the route was to stick to the highways. No digression. Multiple reasons for this: a. We had to finish the ride within the set time, so no time to get lost and explore. b. Amenities and accessibility is better on the highways, help is at hand relatively easily. c. Roads were better d. Predictability was more.

Map: Bangalore to Kanyakumari on NH7

Overall distance - about 650 km +/- 20km

Start:                     Aug 9th, 4AM, Marathalli

First Stay point:      Aug 9th, 200km, Salem (backup - 150km, Dharmapuri)

Second Stay point:  Aug 10th, 170 km, Dindigul (backup 140km, Thannithotti)

Third Stay Point:     Aug 11th, 140 km, Kovilpatti 

Fourth Stay point:   Aug 12th, 140 km, Kanyakumari (backup 60 km - Tirunelveli)

If we ride on the fifth day (Aug 13th) morning, then around 80km on 5th day we will end up with.

The plan anyway was to be at Kanyakumari for the sunrise on 13-Aug.

A few of us were worried about the elevation, however, we dropped from around 960 meters above sea level at Bangalore to sea level at Kanyakumari. So one would assume you just got on the bike just outside of Bangalore and the bike will simply roll down to KK :)

It isnt that simple isnt it. So I pulled out an elevation map. It was promising, but sadly this is the natural elevation, it doesnt count the man-made elevations such as flyovers, bridges etc. It was to prove a little tricky on the trip.

So the route was set. 

The riders and the rides

Shasti had sold his Rockrider 5.0 about 2 weeks before the ride and he had come with me to BOTS to check out some bikes. He fell in love with the Bergamont Helix 2.3, and made an advance payment on the spot. 

However, he had to wait a week for the bike to arrive, which was finally on Jul 31, about a week and a half before the ride.

For the first day ofcourse, my Sira buddy Thenappan was coming too. His initial plan was to come till Krishnagiri and then return on the bike, but all that was to change :) Our company was to prove irresistible :) 

So the final set:

Anand Devanathan (yours truly) - Bergamont Vitox 7.2

Shastisulochan Subburaman - Bergamont Helix 2.3

Venkatesh Kulkarni - Riverside 1

Ramachandran Subramanian - Schwinn Sporterra

Sanath Kumar S D - Trek 4300

Thenappan Meyyappan (for Day 1) - Schwinn Searcher

The Support Crew

About a week before the ride, Partha had a personal exigency due to which he wasnt going to join the trip. It was rather unfortunate as Partha was pretty enthusiastic about the trip. We now needed a car and company for Srini. So we turned to the ever dependable Sunil Kulkarni. We begged, pleaded and kept at it till he relented. He initially wanted to ride but an impending knee surgery meant he was forbidden to ride. So he was going to be in his Scorpio. 

Two is company, three is crowd they say. However, when you are driving at crazily slow speeds, taking care of everything else on the trip while the riders are on the road, a third pair of hands was going to make a stellar difference. And it had to be someone who had the wits and wherewithal to handle the two mavericks. Who better than the man, Kannan Sundaram. He was heading the community initiative anyway and the trip was close to him in more ways than one. So it wasnt really a great task in getting him to be on the road with us.

So after a period of uncertainty and a bit of mild panic, things were settled. And the mild panic wasnt at all unjustified, as we found out during the trip. We became so heavily dependent on these three guys who literally were our caretakers, was it not for them, we'd have definitely struggled tremendously to realize the collective dream.

The car: Scorpio

The Support Crew:

Sunil Kulkarni

Srinivasan Venkatakumar

Kannan Sundaram (not a great online presence, not even on FB I say!)

Just so the readers can put faces to the names, here are a couple of pics.

L to R: Ram, Myself, Sunil, Kannan, Shasti, VK, Srini

Second from Left: Sanath, Second from Right: Thenappan

The training

About a month prior to the ride, I had a vague training plan which involved biking, and some amateur gymming and swimming thrown in. 

But when you truly want something, you attract the right people to help you achieve it. VK got us the support of Suraj Melurraman, who is in the Admin department at our office. 

I hadnt met him personally, and VK arranged for a brief session with him for the group, around third week of July. In walked a young lad, as lean and upright as a nail, with such a broad smile it covered his face.

For a moment I was taken aback, as I really didnt know about his past experience and I thought it was a joke, making us learn from someone at best my age, worse if he was younger - I mean, what sort of credibility would this boy have. 

Turned out, he is an Air Force veteran - a paramedic, having served for more than 18 years, took his retirement in 2008 and joined the corporate world. Which makes him pretty elder to me :) And he touched upon briefly on his career and his experience in adventure and endurance sports. When those words came out of his mouth about his experience, my lower jaw must have hit the floor. I was an instant fan. I was going to be clay in his hands.

He graciously accepted to train us for the next 10 working days. This was bootcamp. I loved the ring of it immediately. What made it even more appealing was his promise to break us, to kill us during these 10 days, so we survive the 4 days of ride. We all signed up for 7 AM trainings at our office gym.

The first day was not bad at all. It was a Friday and we were stretched for around 2.5 hours of gymming which included an hour of running. It was tiring, but no way breaking me. My body was holding pretty well, was impressed with myself to say the least :) So when we were done, I was cocky and told him this was bearable. And he said "Ofcourse, this is your first day, so we only did 30% of whats in store Monday onwards". I ran away as quickly as I can.

What we learnt during these two weeks was what saved us on the ride. Suraj taught us specific exercises, On the ride stretches, First Aid, Emergency responses etc. I did my first 8km run (my previous best being 5km) during this bootcamp. 

Its hard to believe for many that the ride went without a single disabling cramp, a single accident or muscle pull or anything of that sort. We stuck to his instructions to the T, and my body took all the beating and abuse with such ease, it gives me tremendous self-pride. All down to this man.

Apart from this, there was ofcourse the training rides themselves. We did a 85km, a 40km and a 130 km during the two weekends before the ride. Not much to write home about, but they did serve well in bonding and improving our group dynamics.

Logistics

Shasti was incharge of booking our stays - he had it all covered. He was surprised at his influence in TamilNadu himself :) So many people had come out to help us out with the stay, he was a happy man. And we owed a lot of people already.

Shasti also collected emergency contacts and such information from all, put them all in a nice list, gave us each a printout that we could leave with the family. This also included the details of where we were staying, the contact numbers of the hotels etc. This went a long way in putting the family at ease.

I called SRS travels in Kanyakumari for the return journey with the bikes. They helped greatly in arranging for a smooth experience, and I got ourselves tickets for 3 people and 5 bikes in the 9 PM Volvo from Nagercoil, the night of 13-Aug. The rest of the gang would return in the Scorpio starting whenever they wanted, but being on time on 14-Aug to collect their bikes from the bus stop :)

Srini was our designated photographer. He got his Rs 40k camera with lens options, one of which was Rs 1,00,000. No kidding, thats what he told us, over a hundred times to make his point. Probably the most carefully handled equipment on the trip, even ahead of our bikes, was his lens :P

What remained were our packing checklist, Bike prep, bike maintenance bootcamp. Details of which -- To be continued.