bikerfas

It feels always good to be back on what you really love doing and I felt the same and the much needed break to refresh myself from the usual focus points around me. Was been quite away from rides for a short stint and was eagerly planning for a big one, but before that I should prepare self. That’s when a ride to Yelagiri was planned by my mates and I made sure that I clear up the situations around me so that I am not missing this one as the last point Calimere ride. Confirmed my presence for the ride a day before the ride and was setting for the ride Saturday morning.

Friday morning, I figured out my front tyre was leaking air for some weird reason which I still haven't figured out and the bike wasn't turning the way I wanted, so headed right to a local mec and fixed the issues temporarily hoping that I wouldn't face anything major in ride the next day.

Late Friday night, preparations for the Ride began first by borrowing a camera from my friend, headed to home to free the memory card to fill up photos of the upcoming ride. Luckily I had washed my jacket a week earlier so that right in my sight but my knee guards and the spares cables for my bike were missing. With not much to relax before the ride and it was already late in the night so wanted to Give a miss to search for them (made sure of myself that would keep all my riding gears in one place).

Saturday Early Morning would have slept for couple of hours when the alarm rang conveying that it’s time to ride. Chill water bath in the morning gave me enough refresh for the ride and soon I was geared up and feeling the fresh morning breeze through my ventilators. Met up with Sudharsan (zaphod) near chrompet and rode to the CTC our starting point of the ride. Sriram and sunny had already reached there and were waiting for us; totally 4 of us are riding as Rajesh and Rajiv wasn't able to join us. All 4 after a small catch-up with each other started to roll, and sunny went ahead of us to fuel up his ninja. We joined him near the next bunk and proceeded ahead to find ourselves struck in a traffic till porur and opened our throttles as soon as we found some clear road ahead. It was Sriram leading me and sudharshan; Sunny rode to give his ninja a breather; we were soon out on free (which we thought) NH7 and were stopped by Sunny for a coffee break. We refreshed ourselves with strong coffee, meanwhile sriram checked with Kiran (Electric Goat) who is supposed to meet up at Vellore. Informed him to be at Grand Krishna hotel which would be our next stop for Breakfast. We were once again back on rode to enjoy the free ride on NH; sunny zoomed ahead of us and we were negotiating the office buses of some BYD company - man we were pissed off with their riding as there were many of them and all riding covering up the entire NH. Somehow we squeezed ourselves in the gaps between them and once we overtook we were soon cruising in 80's which I felt pleasant enough to be back on group ride. We were couple of kms before Vellore where we saw sunny waving from side of the road for halt - so that we aren't missing our breakfast point. Kiran was waiting for us there and once the initial intro is over we gobbled up some idlies and coffee, fag and a customary click before the hotel - and we were soon riding back in the highway. With a thought of grabbing briyani at ambur for lunch; but later we decided that it early for lunch so finalized to have lunch in yelagiri itself.

Our stop for coffee



Our Breakfast Stop




After riding for couple of hundred kms in NH, the different SH and the Ghats was welcome change. Watching all 6 bikes rolling uphill and taking up the hairpins one by one was awesome and soon we halted at hairpin 10 to get a glimpse of the town below and some clicks of the group. After the pictures we moved ahead in search of our accommodation at YMCA Camp - why I said in search of is that we were really searching for the camp. When enquired with a local, he guided us to ride all along the road at the end you will find the camp. We kept on riding through yelagiri and couple of times confirmed with the locals whether we are in right direction and finally we reached the camp to know that it’s actually at the end of yelagiri itself. Camp was really cool, calm and surrounded by trees all around and the guesthouses neatly spaced between themselves. Sunny quickly completed the formality of filling up the register and took 3 rooms and crashed in. here I got to mention about the rooms for the amount we got the rooms were of high standard, neat and clean. Soon we settled ourselves and gathered in a room to chat and discuss about lunch and rest of the day. Sudharshan became our entertainment of the trip when he started with his new hand sign 'F**k ya' and his secret of his beauty without taking bath.

Meeting amit and starting the ride in ghat section



Sriram, Kiran(Electric Goat) , Zaphod


At Viewpoint near 10th hairpin





At YMCA Camp waiting for the room keys





Our Room



Conversation went on like that soon our tummies started growling for food. As we hadn't ordered for lunch in the camp we got to ride back to the town and found a Tandoori Hut near the Lake and ordered for Chinese(fried rice’s and chicken side dish). Fried Rice was good, Schezwan Chicken was ok and the Ginger chicken was literally like soup with chicken pieces. Soon we were busy attacking the food. After lunch, a short fag break and picked some drinks, water and snacks for the evening since nothing will be available once we are back to the camp. After returning back to the room and chatting, meanwhile sunny received the message that Ananth has started from Chennai and will be joining us by evening. Sriram, Kiran, sunny decided to take a nap and me, Amit, zaphod decided to venture out and take some pictures.

Lunch at Tandoori Hut









We rode out to the town and tried capturing the places in the best possible way, also enquire about swamimalai a possible trekking option with we later decided to give it a shot the next morning. After some shots we decided to go to the Ghats and try some photography. We reached a particular section where we were surrounded by tall trees and could see couple of hairpins between the trees below. When we were taking photos we saw Ananth coming up and he too stopped and some short discussion, couple of photos and we were back on our way to the room.

Photography at the camp









Roads between the trees



Tall Trees





Road which we took uphill



Ananth



Sunset shots







By the time we reached the room it was past 6pm and sunny was just woken up by a bite from a killer mosquito. Later part of the evening went by with our general chat on riding, the upcoming Munnar ride, general safety and with our entertainer of the ride sudharshan. Meanwhile the Camp guy rang our door bell to inform that the dinner is ready. Now we thought the dining hall will be in the same building where the rooms are, but actually they were couple of blocks our guys who didn’t bring their floaters had a hard time walking in bare foot. The entire place is a typical camp and the dining hall is right at the end - we had chapatti, Dal, Chicken, Rice for dinner. After we filled our tummies it’s time to wash the plate which we had to do which a new experience. We slowly strolled back to the room and chit-chatted till 11.30pm or so and moved to sleep as me, Amit, Zaphod planned to do the trek meanwhile others would be sleep well.

Me, Amit Woke up at 6am and left for the trek. We parked our bikes near the tea-shop at so called base of the swamimalai and started our trek. Initially we walked through the small lanes which gave to an empty barren land and at the end of which the real trek starts. With much excitement we started climbing the hill, here and there stopping for photographs. I had taken Ananth's cam to get a feel of handling SLR and it helped me to get some idea about taking pictures using them. Soon the trek started to take its toll on us as we weren't prepared a trek with no water and trekking this hill with the unruly terrain which was mostly on stones and the roots of the trees made it really tough for us. At one place I decided to stop and return back, but Amit encouraged to do the trek and in one place Amit was able to do me in turn encouraged him that somehow we will complete the trek. But in one place both of us were exhausted and decided to return back to keep this trek to achieve next time when we come here.

Photography and Trekkin attempt in the morning




Contrasting Nature



Look at the angle which we had to trek



Broadest place of the trek route


Narrowest place of the trek route


We somehow managed to reach the base and picked up our bike and rolled on to the lake for clicking some of the pictures. After getting some natures into our memory cards we returned back to the room and directly to the dining hall (as it was already half past 9 and they serve only till 9am, anyway since we were only souls there seems like they kept the hall open)to gobble some poori and chenna and we were soon joined by Ananth, Kiran and sunny for the breakfast. We all went back to the room where Sriram and Sudharsan we already set for the return ride. I took a quick bath and got ready n geared up. Soon others too geared up and zaphod went to settle the bills, meanwhile we lined up the bikes for a photo and soon zaphod joined us and we left the camp to our next stop near vaniyambadi junction where Praveen said would be waiting for as he is returning from krishnagiri.

Me relaxin after unsuccessful trek attempt



Forest on the either side of the route





Path taken



Walkway at Lake


Lake at Yelagiri



Boating Area on the Lake





We started our downhill ride and I stopped to click the group in front of me but wasn’t successful and so joined them soon at the tail. In few sections of the Ghats it was awesome to see the group riding and strongly decided to get a helmet camera to capture the rides like this. Soon we reached the junction where Praveen was waiting for us near tender coconut shop. Guyz filled up some tender coconut to cool them. We bid bye to Amit who will take the Bangalore route and we took the Chennai route to stop at ambur to pick up briyani for lunch. The return ride was quite fast and soon we were in ambur Star briyani packing up some briyani’s and parotta’s for lunch deciding that we will have lunch somewhere under the shade of the tree on the highway. After some kms we had our lunch break under a nice shade of a banyan tree. After a long break, discussing about the munnar ride and the route to be taken, we started to roll back on the highway. Soon we were nearing Vellore and Kiran parted from us and now we were 6 of us riding as group maintaining speed of 90’s was really good as we kept on riding for some 60 odd kms continuously after we found a decent teashop with shade for us to give a break.



A light moment








Ananth and Sriram sharing their Parotta's








Refreshed with some badam milk, tea and some 15 minutes of rest we all were back on the road and decided to re-group at venkateshwara engineering college. This time ninja’s flew past us and we were on our own speeds and re-grouped to bid byes to each other and I started my boring ride back home via the Chennai bypass ripping up the bike and reached home with Happy and Clear mind

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New Riding Gears

'11 - Yelagiri|10 Day Ride |Thalankuppam| Ooty Ride
'10 - Kolli Hills| Tri-State G2G|Vedanthangal
'09 - Vellore|

ksatish

nice ride guys.. nice pics too..

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thegame0012

Nice ride there . I missed it but feeling great seeing all the pics. Thanks for the pics and write up !

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Nishant Kumar

Ride, eat, sleep...repeat.

TVS Apache 150 (Sold) | Bajaj Avenger 200 (Sold) | Yamaha R15 (Current)

Tour : Point Calimere | ECR ride for Breakfast | The 'Rich' city of Ruins - Hampi | Kuttralam Ride

phanikar

Nice pics guys

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Work life balance is like air fuel mixture
Life is too short for traffic, take the highway...........

n_aditya

Nice pics and write-up.

Whoa, the ninja although just a 250, looks like a supersports bike in this pic. Awesome click.

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Go Green...

Only Amit...

Another neat writeup Dinesh...Keep it up

I did my return ride to B'lore in 2 hr n 5 minutes (Hosur in 1 hr )...what a ride that was !!!

I loved every bit of the ride, wish I could come and join you guys for the 5 day Munnar ride

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A weekend in God's own country
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pushkarb

Great pics guys. We did the same ride two weeks ago and some of our shots look similar!

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bikerfas

Thanks Sathish, Nishant, Phanikar.

Thanks Aditya.

Thanks buddy! do join for the munnar ride man

Thanks Pushkarb!!

__________________
New Riding Gears

'11 - Yelagiri|10 Day Ride |Thalankuppam| Ooty Ride
'10 - Kolli Hills| Tri-State G2G|Vedanthangal
'09 - Vellore|

SriramEfunds

I thank all of you for responding to the Yelagiri ride, though Rajesh and Rajiv could not make it in the last moment.

The trip was fun filled though it was a small group ran to the hills. There were few surprises on this trip, first it was YMCA which defied my imagination when I entered the room that was given, neat, clean and decent and it was right value for the money. Ananth joined the gang in the evening. Third was Bikerfas-Dinesh demonstrating photography skills.

Hey Dinesh, it was a wonderful write up and the pictures have come out well. Don't wait, get your hands on DSLR soon!!

Thanks to Dinesh, Sunny, Sudarshan, Electric Goat-Kiran, and Ananth for making this trip memorable.

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'Get your motor runnin, head out on the highway'

ZMA-R 2011 | RX 135 1998 | RX100 1993 | Unicorn 2005 - 2011

SOL Helmet Review

October 2011 Ooty Ride | March 2011 - Munnar Tri-state Meet | October 2010 - Point Calimere | August 2010 - Horsley Hills | June 2010 - Yercaud - Tri-State Meet

Only Amit...

Cha!
In my managers word "I dont have any accountability"

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Fox bionic protective jacket for sale !!!
PM me for details.

If you think you don't need a helmet, you probably don't have anything in your head to save...
http://oomphians.wordpress.com/
A weekend in God's own country
Monsoon ride to coorg-mysore
Horsley Hills