Maiden Voyage: Aluva-Vytilla-Aluva circuit via International Container Terminal Road

I gulped a bolt of panic as I missed the first bus to Aluva at 6am on Sunday the 19^th of February. It was certain that I was gonna be late for my maiden bike trip. I was expecting to be dropped at the bus station on my brother’s motor bike. So I took the apparent time advantage to stuff myself up with a couple of dosas.

Dosa for Breakfast. Special Ingredient: Mother's love

Then, I double checked my backpack for my water bottle, a hand towel, a full-sleeved t-shirt, a 3/4^th shorts and my wallet. I didn’t have to worry about the helmet, gloves and goggles as I had already kept it ready with the bike at the starting point, which was Kerala Ayurveda Hospital at Aluva.

5:45am. My mom woke my brother up asking him to drop me. Only then I came to know that his motorbike was in the service station. The 10min jog to the bus station was a fine warm up but I missed the bus in spite of the effort.

Reaching Aluva at 6:40am, I took the shortcut via the railway over bridge. The station had an eerie calm and enchantment during this time of the day. I couldn’t stop myself fro pausing for a quick snap of the Aluva railway station before resuming the jog.

Aluva Railway Station..still in its sleepy lumber

Surej was already calling me as I reached the starting point. I was not surprised to see him all geared up and in wait for me. Alpho, my colleague seemed to be more excited about the trip than we ourselves were. I was very glad to read out the amazement from her otherwise expression-free face. Surej was yelling out as Pradeep our trip mate was waiting for us from 6:15. I changed my clothes and geared up in a jiffy. The bike tires needed a bit of pumping up. So after all the systems check on my GT Transeo 4.0 and Surej’s Hercules Torrent IC,  we started off at 6:45, 15mins late.

We saw Pradeep waiting for us at the Bank junction. It was very easy to spot him. Thanks to the fluorescent green reflector jacket he was wearing. We shared a quick intro, shook hands and set off. I couldn’t get a good glance of his Schwinn Sporterra as he sped off way ahead of us. God! He is fast. Surej gave a weird laugh a declared “Machoo..Pradeep bhai seems to be a professional.”

Pradeep (up ahead) & Surej

The trail overview.

Since it was our first weekend trip, we wanted it to be kind of a trial run. We were looking for a bike-able road route within 30km range. Eventually we chose to ride an open end trip starting from Aluva, then via the NH 47. We took the entire ‘International Container Terminal Road(ICT)’. On reaching the Bolgatty Island, we decided to ride further to BTH Hotel on the mouth of Durbar Hall Road, via  Shanmugham road and Park Avenue. We stopped at BTH for breakfast. Further, we took the Durbar Hall road, crossed MG road and entered Chittoor Road. From Valanjambalam Junction, we took the South over bridge and reached Vyttila Junction. From here, we caught on a high speed ride along NH 66 to reach Edapally bypass junction. Taking right, we re-entered NH 47. We stopped by to say hello to our colleagues at Kerala Ayurveda Clinic at Edapally. We continued our trip via NH 47 and took a small halt at Ambattukavu for some spicy sugarcane juice. After this point, the group of three waved good byes, Surej and Pradeep riding back to their homes and me getting back to starting point.

The Map 

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The Journey

Bike riding in the early morning time is mesmerizing. There is this early bird feeling that I get. I feel like I have woken up ahead of the day. Catching the dawn break is another beautiful moment that you get on the way. Even if you have seen sunrise every single day of your life, there is nothing fresher and pleasant than seeing one. It is so full of hope and refreshment. If you listen carefully you can hear yourself saying “Today is beautiful and it is mine.”  I got the 1^st sunrise shot somewhere near Muttom. Surej is a photography fiend. He ditched the idea to carry his equipment owing to the weight. I am sure he would have begun regretting that decision the moment he saw the sunrise.

Sunrise

It was not very chilly though. The wind hitting us had a hint that the day ahead is going to be hot. A hint that we all overlooked. We had marked the Beginning of ICT road as the 1^st rally point. I could see Pradeep blazing through the growing traffic far ahead of us and hoped that he would wait for us there. Surej was finding it a bit difficult to catch up as his ride was a mountain bike and also because he was less gravity-defying than us, in terms of weight. As he overtook me, I noticed that his rear suspension was rocking up and down and this itself was dampening some of the effort he was putting on to pedal. Broader tires with lesser air pressure worsened the scenario.

Surej on his Hercules Torrentz IC, entering the ICT Road, Kalamassery

We couldn’t find Pradeep on reaching the mouth of ICT road. We thought that he might have rode off to take the ICT with max speed and hoped that we would meet him at the end of ICT. Actually, he got the route wrong and had already reached Palarivattom! That gave me and Surej to ride more casually, taking pics and chit chatting along the way until Pradeep catch-up.

Surej..silhouetted by the morning sun

GT Transeo 4.0 & Hercules Torrentz IC

Vallarpadam International Container Terminal Road aka NH 966A. I gattu tell you. If you love road biking, you would definitely love ICT. Yeah, maybe not like those Tour-de- France roads but I am just comparing it with average Indian roads. More than the road itself, I particularly like the scenic beauty of the backwaters, Chinese fishing nets and fish farms. 

No many container trailers in the morning..the road is a red carpet for bikers at this time

This is the real F.A.C.T

Surej riding past the Gypsum hills

Bike Lane :-)

Giving the bikes some rest

Who said we are tired?

The route becomes 2 lane after Cheranalloor and also it become more rough and uneven. We came across a lot of ridges and potholes from here till Bolgatty, the end point of ICT. Still, It was a joyous experience to cover it and would love to do it again and again. I can’t wait till they finish the road works completely. However, riding ICT post dusk may not be a good idea not only because it would be majorly occupied by huge container trailers but the road is not lit as well.

Pradeep re-joined us at Cheranalloor. We spent some time on the bridge talking the one thing bikers talk the most:’ Biking’. We shared stories of our own entry to the biking world, how and why we chose our particular rides and all these. To my surprise, Pradeep offered me his ride for a try. I rode it from Cheranalloor to BTH. Man, those road slicks on his Sporterra were awesome! I could easily reach speeds of 40+kms range on plain roads.

Finally!! Pradeep caught up.. :-P

I wonder why there is such a big gap between the 6th and 7th chainrings..?

Pradeeps Sporterra donning Gatorskin road slicks

Pradeep gave us some very vital advises. I was keeping my seat post a bit lower than my recommended height since I was experiencing mild wrist aches. I had to do this since the handlebar could not be raised. He told me that tilting the handlebar a bit forwards will cure this problem. It sounds pretty promising. I should try to do that at the earliest. He also gave us some intel on bike accessories and online purchases. Both I and Surej are not big fans of online purchase yet. But Pradeep has certainly increased our confidence on this regard.  He asked us to check out www.wiggle.co.uk and decathlon.

Talking bikes

Talking bikes contd..

The ICT road is full of such scenic backwater viewpoints

Vembanad Rail Bridge..The longest in India

At Bolgatty junction, 2 guys in a motorbike stopped in front of us and took some photographs. I thought it would come in the front page of a leading newspaper tomorrow. Nothing of that sort happened. We had a small confusion as we reached Bolgatty. Taking right, we could explore the Vypeen Island, particularly the LNG terminal and the beach. But we also wanted to have breakfast as we were starving. So we decided to head to BTH.

Which way to go? 

On the way, we met Vishal, a kid from the locality who was training for a mountain bike event held somewhere at Kozhikode. He kept on asking us: “Are you guys doing cycle rally? I love cycle rally!” It somehow sounded very funny. 

“Are you guys doing cycle rally? I love cycle rally!”

The watchman at BTH was also very curious. He liked Surej’s bike very much. BTH was good refreshment. Good food, neat place, modest pricing. Actor Biju Menon was lucky enough to see us there. We relished on masala dosa. Pradeep also got some sweets for home.

Subhiksha indeed

Pradeep's BTwin Handlebar bag..Ingenious logo,right?

Roadeo Transeo and Sporterra.. tethered together.

The day got warmer as the sun climbed higher. I started to sweat profusely. It was then that we learned a serious lesson. Start as early as you can and get back or rest during the sunniest times. At least that would be of some help for us beginners. Another lesson was regarding traffic rules. We found that being cyclists, we are allowed and sometimes even expected to bend some traffic rules. A policeman at Kadavanthra junction asked us to just pass by and cross over a red light. He observed that we would cause a big jam once the green light is on.

Its gettin' warmer, sonny.

Evading traffic is another fun thing to do. It is at this point that you feel a lot of jealous eyes falling over you. As the traffic was inching forwards in the Vyttila junction, we were tearing the road apart. NH 66 was also adrenaline hungry. The smooth roads, fast motorists and blazing Pradeep far ahead also ushered me into power pedaling. It feels great when a fellow motorcyclist looks with an offended bewilderment as we overtake them.

I hit an 80km/hr here..kasam se!

A curious motorist started asking me questions while we were waiting for the green at Edapally junction. On hearing the price of these bikes he exclaimed: “Wow! That is almost the price of my motorbike. But I understand the cause. Can you tell me where I can get these kinds of bikes? I would like to take up biking myself”. I couldn’t get the lad’s name but I hope he joins us someday soon.

We got off the saddle for a bit at the Kerala Ayurveda Clinic at Edapally. We met Dr. Prajeesh and Baburaj there, refilled our bottles and had a small chitchat on bikes, what else. Prajeesh is yet to get completely convinced. He is checking on us to see how long will we pursue this ‘madness’.

Prajeesh is yet to get completely convinced

The halt at Ambattukavu for the sugarcane juice was literally a life saver. I was getting thoroughly exhausted, mostly because of the dehydration due to increasing heat and also because I was running low on sugars. They also squeeze some lemon and ginger in the juice which adds up as a spicy tinge. In short the drink was energizing and delicious. 

Sugarcane juice break

We rode the remaining 4kms with a new found vigor. I got a call from Surej who was behind me asking to continue to the starting point as he planned to go home directly. So me and Pradeep said kudos. He expressed his wish to get involved in more rides in the future. A route including Perumbavoor and all is already in his mind. So we might plan up something of sort soon.