Tour of Eastern Ghats - Day 2

Stretching properly on day 1 helped. But not pampering the bum started showing the effects. So care was taken to get the rest of the ride days behind the bum while avoiding the pain in the ... :D
The day starts with Krish's coffee for most of us.

Ready to roll!

I must thank Prabha for staying up late the previous night to ensure that our bikes keep rolling smoothly, and Krish for waking up early to prepare coffee. Both of them sacrificed a few hours of their precious sleep so that we, the riders, get to enjoy the rides in every possible way.
Plan of the day - Day 2, Sun 01 Sep 2019 : Maredumilli to Narsipatnam, 144 km/186 m
Before the tour, my father was a little worried about the 186 m part of the ride, since he thought that it would be difficult to ride 144 km in 186 minutes. I told him that 'm' stands for meters in elevation gain, and that this is the least elevation gain on a given day compared to all the riding days.

Pose strong even if you can't ride strong :P

Coming back to the present day, Krish came up with a proposal of visiting a waterfall (Pinjarikonda waterfalls) with a detour of 3.5 km (7 km extra mileage for the day) as he read about it and the promising reviews last night. The only caution being that the place should be approached carefully. With yesterday's mileage miscalculation, everyone was not worried about the extra 7 km and we decided to visit the waterfalls. We were told to take a turn after a place called Addatigala. Since we won't be having network coverage for most part of the ride, I downloaded the route on my phone to be on safe side. We got the luggage into the truck and posed for the pic with fresh faces and legs before the ride started.

Breakfast stop

Dev's bike unfortunately had to take rest for the rest of the tour, but Gokul offered his bike to Dev. Gokul made the bold choice of riding the single-speed (the spare bike which Prabha briefly rode yesterday) for the rest of the tour.
We started rolling after 6:40 AM and as soon as we were warmed up, we saw a mighty reservoir to our left side after about 6.5 km and stopped. Krish too pulled over to take some pictures.
We started moving after a brief stop and again stopped at Rampachodavaram for breakfast with 10.5 km covered. We had very nice authentic South-Indian breakfast of idli, vada, bajji, dosa etc to our heart's content, and of course ended the ritual with Tea. For Dev, Tea (or chai/choi/soy based on how intensely he loves it) does the magic and makes him ride with a smile no matter the distance or elevation profile.

The smiles say that everyone enjoyed the food

We thanked the breakfast joint folks and started riding.
Prajwal and Sam picked up pace and were leaving us behind. Gokul was trying to catch them up and I decided to sprint a bit and act as a launchpad for him. I ran out of gas a few meters behind the lead riders and that was enough for Gokul to join them.
Soon after, with about 16 km covered, we took a left turn and roads became narrow, but more beautiful.
Dev was riding alongside me when we were approaching Addatigala, about 45 km of riding. We asked for directions to ensure that we are on the right track and kept moving. Massive banyan trees on either side of the road were a sight to behold.

Banyan tree canopies

49 km into the ride, we approached a place called Paapampeta. I told Dev that 'paapam' in Telugu means 'sin'. He thought paapa meant baby girl, but I told him the difference between the two words. And I told him jokingly that the English translation might mean 'Sin city' ;) We both laughed at the thought and later I told him that even though 'peta' could mean city or town, it would mean village in this context.

Narrow but beautiful roads

Right after crossing that place we reached the spot where we need to take a detour for the waterfalls. I wanted to have a cool-drink but the shops were not having any stock. We waited for a while for all the riders to arrive. The fast riders (and of course Dev) had some tea. In the meanwhile, some enthusiastic kids were thrilled to see our bikes and the villagers enquired about our tour and bikes. Even though some of them mentioned that the waterfalls might not be that visually appealing at this time owing to less water and also because of a powerplant construction, we still chose to explore it. 

 The road to waterfall was broken at places and waterlogged at some points. But we overcame the hurdles and went on to explore what's in store for us.

Waiting for others to arrive

On the detour riding to waterfalls

After reaching the place, we felt that it did not look like a waterfall, nor did it look like we need to be super careful, but it did feel like we would be totally safe if we got into the water. What I saw was a gate kind of thing about 7-9 feet high across a wide stream with the land totally dry on either side of the stream. While others arrived, I got down into the sand and went downstream alongside the banks to see if there is actually a waterfall in the place. I came across a spot where the water seemed like it wants to be called a waterfall. Anyway, I was excited at the sight of a waterbody, and actually happy that it is not a big waterfall, as I didn't want to venture into wet lands and get spooked by leeches. I waited for others to come to where I was, but nobody showed up. I headed back to call others to show them the waterfall.

Contemplating whether to get into water

Testing the waters

 By the time I went back to the start point, few of the riders were already taking a dip and enjoying a bath while leaning against the wall of the gate. I too joined them and enjoyed like a kid. We did not want to get out of the water and had to force ourselves onto land. As if we didn't have enough fun, Krish complemented the experience with some hot coffee and Karachi biscuits. We were having a ball of a time but we need to get moving, as it was getting hot, and it was already very humid at that place. We slowly got to our bikes and started moving. After finishing the detour, we again stopped for re-grouping. This time around another shop was open and it had cool-drinks. I quickly grabbed whatever they had, and the rest of the pack that arrived too joined me. We did about 57 km by now.
As soon as we started rolling, we came across a plantation that looked very different. The trees had trunk of palm and leaves of coconut. The locals were harvesting them and transporting the fruits. I stopped to take a picture of the trees and kept moving. We were supposed have lunch at a place according to original plan, but the waterfall ate a lot of time. So we now have to find a place to have lunch. Sam, one of the lead riders, was already way ahead of us.

Let's get wet for real

After about 83.5 km, I see Gokul at a roadside shop and I too stopped. Soon the remaining folks join us. We had some cool drink, chikki and other refreshments. We enquired about nearest lunch spots as it was already 12:30 PM and we got to know about a place about 2 km ahead.
Sure enough, after 85 km into the ride, we found a place to eat in Rajavommangi. The place is very small and had only two tables. But the meals and omelette were tasty. I loved the dal and kept having it again and again. I came to know from a couple of riders who enquired about the palm kind of trees and came to know that the fruits are used to make palm oil.
After having a tummy full of lunch, we headed to the destination of the day - Narsipatnam.
Soon after starting, it started raining.

The waterfalls

The nature was becoming more and more beautiful as we rode.
After riding for 117 km in pouring rain, I reached Krishnadevipeta village (locally known as K.D.Peta) where revolutionary Alluri Sita Rama Raju's tomb was built. I noticed Dev, Somnath and others in a road-side stall. Apparently they were having one more tea break.
Raunak and others joined us soon. Krish too joined us, and made the break even more enjoyable by getting us hot jalebi and samosa to have with the tea. We started moving after the last break of the day.
Nature was so beautiful that photos won't do any justice.
I realised that my Garmin was running out of battery. I wanted to finish the ride before the battery runs out, and I started pacing for the hotel where we would stay for the night.

Busy having lunch

I asked the locals at the outskirts for the directions to the hotel and they not only gave the details, but also accompanied me for some distance on their two-wheeler while I kept riding. After riding for so long in country side with almost zero traffic, navigating through the busy junction after entering Narsipatnam was overwhelming. A couple more guys asked about the tour and I asked them in-turn for the directions in the last leg. I finally managed to reach the hotel by 5 PM while my Garmin was hanging on with 6% battery. I was shown a room for securing the bike. I was about to head to the room and then I thought about the luggage. Thankfully the truck arrived just then and I grabbed my bag to go to the room.
I saw Sam in the corridor and he told me that he was starving, and asks me if I had anything to eat. Apparently he skipped lunch and rode non-stop. I gave him the chikki from before the lunch stop. After going to the room, the first thing I did was to wash the clothes and take a shower, as I did not want to carry wet and mucky clothes for the rest of the tour.
Krish too arrived and got us some bananas. I had some while Sam got a parcel of dosas to eat.
Later I went out with Gokul, Dev and Krish to explore places that serve early breakfast the next day.
We enquired in the bus stand and then had special masala tea in a joint next to the bus-stand. The tea was very good! Gokul told Krish that the scenic views which we experienced so far are no less than any foreign tours that were organized earlier. The only down-side here was the lack of proper food joints and not having enough of them. We then asked at the tea shop for breakfast and dinner places and got some leads. We asked for the breakfast point at the lead we got and they said that we would get early morning breakfast there despite the festival (Vinayaka Chavithi/Ganesh Chathurdhi) tomorrow. We explored the dinner places too and one of them seemed promising enough. I asked everyone else to come over and we had a nice dinner. We came back to the rooms and cleaned our bikes. This meant sleeping a bit late.
The day ended with 145 km of riding and 1310 m of elevation gain.
Tomorrow is supposed to be the toughest day of the tour considering the elevation. Hope I can tackle it without too many issues.