Ladakh Ride Day 2 – Varanasi to Agra

We woke up around 05:00 AM, freshen up and cold started our motorcycle. The initial plan was to stretch till Delhi for that day which was around 800+ KM. We started at Varanasi around 06:45 AM. It was too much traffic while exiting Varanasi. The road till Handia was under construction and a lot of diversions. This 90 Km till Handia was pathetic. We literally got frustrated.

As soon as we entered Allahabad bypass we again started to regain our charm, roads were great. But few sections had a bumpy patch. We took a tea break after crossing Allahabad bypass and enquired about the road condition ahead. They told us that this road is newly constructed and we can maintain a very good speed.

Our goal was to reach Kanpur before 01:30 PM and with the great road condition, we reached Kanpur bypass bridge around 01:45 PM. By then, we were already in reserve fuel, no petrol pump had card acceptance. So we decided to move forward and fill a few kilometers later. Kanpur city bypass bridge was of 23+ KM. And, we got tensed if I run out of fuel what should I do?

Luckily crossed Kanpur city bypass bridge and found the same Indian Oil fuel pump where we refueled during Kolkata – Nainital trip. Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350 has a massive 20-liter tank and to my surprise, it took 19.88 Litre. I was feeling crazy at that time. We freshened up and started again to chase kilometers.

This time our target was Agra, we have to reach Lucknow – Agra expressway (Gotkur) as early as possible. The road was good to maintain decent speed but the sun started to set in about an hour and intermittent traffic forced us to think again where to stay.

By then, deciding that day’s destination was a little bit tricky as we need to reach Amritsar the next day and from Agra, it was around 750+ KMs.

Last 30 KMs (from Etawah to Gotkur) we had spent an hour due to bad traffic and little bit tiredness. Once we reach India’s best expressway, we immediately boosted up. This is the best road I have ever ridden, be it quality or safety. Each and every safety aspect has been maintained properly. We got speed lanes, pitched tarmac, empty and beautiful butter-smooth road.

In approximately 45 minutes,  we crossed 65 KMs and halted after a toll booth to decide where to stay.

Finally, we decided to stay in Agra and leave for Amritsar tomorrow by 04:00 AM. The inner ring road was well lit up and eye-soothing too. We slowly entered Agra around 08:15 PM and started to look for hotels. Few locals started prompted “Do you need a hotel?”.

We stopped in a hotel and one of them convinced me for an AC room for Rs. 1000 near the TDI mall, we went to that place (Hotel Prashant Palace), got a very good underground parking. The room was clean but the washroom needed more cleanliness. We ordered some food and the food was good, not great.

Downloaded offline maps for Delhi- Amritsar. We put all our devices for charging. Set an alarm for 04:30 AM before we sleep. Discovered our SJCam’s 32 Gb memory card was malfunctioning even lost all the footage.