We are Priyanka and Avinash. Since 2016 the Highway has been calling us and we have answered it by travelling all across India.
The beginning
It all started when we bought our first motorcycle. The intention was to buy a motorcycle for office commute but little did we know that this step will sow the travel bug in us. Our first motorcycle was Yamaha Fazer 150cc and this was our first vehicle purchase ever, before this Avinash had never ridden a geared motorcycle on open highways, just on inner roads that too under supervision. The first two weeks Avinash would get up early around 5 a.m. and practiced to ride the bike which we named Biki Biki. Yes the name’s so nice you say it twice. Then started the office commute where each day was a learning as to how to tackle inclines, potholes, traffic etc… All of these eventually made Avinash well accustomed with Biki Biki and each day his confidence to ride a motorcycle got better and better. A few months later, it so happened that Priyanka was in Valsad at our relatives place. Valsad is about 160 odd kilometers from home and Avinash had this urge to go and get Priyanka back on the motorycle. Hesitant and nervous we did it, this was our first ever motorcycle road trip and from there there was no looking back. We started dreaming of long rides and that one day we will surely do it. Then one day we took an impulsive decision to ride to Udaipur. We bought jackets, gloves and knee guards and we were off. This Udaipur road trip was the best ever road trip we have ever taken till date. This road trip made us realise that yes this is what we love to do and we want to do this more and more. It did not matter how hot it was, how small the pillion seat was, how we managed without a saddle bag and only two bag packs tied with bungee cords. What mattered was the journey, the experience, the feeling of freedom, knowing that we both shared the same passion for travelling and the immensly growing bond, trust between us and our vehicle.
This is one rare video we ever captured of our ride with our phone and the one we published on Youtube back in 2013 :
More road trips
Since 2016 we did a lot of roadtrips in our car, her name is Linu :
- 2016 : Rann of Kutch = Mumbai – Bhuj – Mumbai
- 2017: South trip = Mumbai – Hyderabad – Tirupati – Madurai – Pondicherry – Rameshwaram -Kanyakumari – Kerala – Ooty – Maysore – Kolhapur – Mumbai
- 2018: Leh = Mumbai – Amritsar – Kashmir – Leh – Kashmir – Agra – Ajmer – Pavagadh – Mumbai
- 2020 : Rajasthan Trip = Mumbai – Mount Abu – Jaisalmer – Jodhpur – Jaipur – Sawai Madhopur (Ranthambore) – Nathdwara (Shreenathji) – Vadodara – Mumbai
- 2022 : Saurashtra Trip = Mumbai – Vadodara – Rajkot – Jamnagar – Dwarka – Beyt Dwarka – Junagadh – Girnar – Gir Safari – Diu – Bhavnagar – Surat (via Ferri) – Saputara – Saptashurngi – Shirdi – Nashik – Mumbai
Highway calling starts
All we knew is that we have to do it, what was unknown is when we do it. The idea of quitting our jobs was terrifying. In 2023 we registered the domain highwaycalling.com, we made an Instagram page too but again the fear of leaving our jobs never let us leave. Everyday we would watch travel videos and just look at each other asking when will we be on the highways. Every day being stuck in office commute for hours we would just tell ourselves, this is not what we want, the city feels like a cage. Starting 2025, somehow the planets aligned and we have decided to quit our jobs and just start, we will see, whatever will happen will happen, we will face it together. Mid January we started buying the electronics, prepared Maxx (saddle bags, mobile mount, servicing), bought riding gears (jackets/pants..) and start of February we were off. We were not even well wersed with the video equipments we bought, Avinash usually goes into all the settings and tries to be aquainted with any gadget he buys but this time we did not have any time for that.
Read more about season 1 here.
Highway Calling 