[Photo Feature]: My First Long Ride - 2850 kms covering parts of Tamilnadu and Kerala - xBhp.com : The Global Indian Biking Community

bikerfas · 03-19-2011, 12:16 AM

Prologue

Couple of months back, was browsing through the net and stumbled into the Trip log of a different Spiti and then in Xbhp’s magazine; which in turn was our discussion and we finalized to do Spiti in March. You see there is a old saying “Man proposes God disposes”, like-wise even though Spiti was planned, leaves applied – One of the rider Steve’s health condition didn’t allow him to do touring for some time. Now it was left with me and Ananth to decide on the Trip – but Ananth wasn’t able to take enough leaves, which left us to think/plan for Rajasthan. Meanwhile an Inter-state G2G was being planned in the south same time. Now as the dates were nearing another road block (or I should call ride block), the Rajasthan plan was dumped since Ananth ZMR had some problem which left me no other option to join Interstate G2G. With Leaves already approved, I decided to do a solo for the initial 5 days and join the gang in Munnar. On March 6th, Usual Sunday G2G happened to discuss about the InterstateG2G, I was there to get some info from Steve about the places/which I could take before reaching Munnar. With 10 days in hand and no proper decision on the plan/route ahead I decided to do the ride solo to give myself a much needed vacation J and join the guys at Munnar – Interstate G2G.

My sincere Thanks to Steve and Ananth for the Route Suggestions – even though I didn’t explore most of them but the ride was enjoyable and Sudharshan for his map, Sunny (Sunil) for the cramster saddle bags.

Day 0 – Preparation for the Ride
Since I had service my bike a week earlier, I just changed the Engine oil, then chain service, the bike is all set for the ride. Started to pack the Saddle bags borrowed from Sunny; as the ride is going to be for the next 10 days; I decide to carry enough t-shirt and shorts apart from the riding gear. Packed the SLR camera and P&S camera; charged the batteries. With excitement and adrenaline rush in air tried to get some sleep before my ride.

Day 1 - Chennai – Tiruppur – Coimbatore
With all packed up and the necessary stuffs in reach, woke up early morning to start my ride. Had quick bath in cold water which was refreshing enough from my sleep. First time I tried saddling my bags and was right on one go. Geared up myself, with a customary picture before the ride, I was soon on the empty roads, which were too gobbled up by my machine. As the Day 1 plan is to reach Tiruppur, catch up with Xbhpians and head to Coimbatore to stay in my friends place.
After 80 odd kms, still the sun is hiding behind the clouds; I was feeling much colder and the visibility was low. Later I realized that, its fog all around me – what a beautiful sight to see the fog over the fields and sun rising in my rvm. Took out my SLR, to capture some snaps of the fog and my first sunrise of this trip. From there on, the ride was very smooth riding in the NH with occasional photo breaks and a stop for breakfast. There were birds in the hotel which attracted my attention, tried to click couple of pictures and started to roll back on rode.

Me all geared up for the ride

Early Morning Fog in outskirts of Chennai

SunRise

My pitstop for breakfast

Birds at the Breakfast place

Thereafter the ride was of not much interesting, since the highways are open and FZ lacks juice to gobble up them in speed; but was able to maintain a constant speed of 90’s. With some Photo breaks and a lunch break, I reached Tiruppur by 3.30 pm. Called up karthick and met him up in his office – chitchatted about biking, t-shirt making, my ride plans, etc. He quickly called up cpoimbatore guyz for a small meet up, since being a Monday everyone would be available by 6.30pm only. So we made a delayed start to Coimbatore around 5pm and reached Coimbatore and waiting for the other guyz in their usual meeting point. Soon Ram, Mahesh joined us and later Deepak joined with his RX135. Exchanging intro’s and views/plans on my ride time passed by and Karthick realized it’s getting late for him to get back to Tiruppur. We moved to Mahesh office, to check out G2G t-shirts and each grabbed their one. Time to move; ensuring that we will catch up in the G2G, I started to my friend’s place for which Deepak helped me showing the route. Reached in friend’s house, took a shower to refresh and started planning for the next day ride. Made my friend Hari to take leave the next day and decided to Ride to Top slip and Valparai. With destination for the next day finalized, I lazed for a good sleep.

(L-R) Mahesh, Me, Deepak, Ram, Karthick

Route taken:

sunilg · 03-19-2011, 11:43 PM

Travelogue approved.

bikerfas · 03-20-2011, 01:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sunilg

Travelogue approved.

Thanks Sunil for the approval.

Suru · 03-20-2011, 01:58 AM

Missed seeing you this time due to my shift.. Beautiful pics there.. Awaiting eagerly for more pics and log...

Haroon · 03-20-2011, 02:46 AM

Interesting log and beautiful pictures. I am tuned in.

BTW, what camera are you using? Any image enhancing software?

steveburnside2001 · 03-20-2011, 05:22 AM

hooked on to this thread. do not delay the log and pics

phanikar · 03-20-2011, 12:11 PM

Ah...... finally here it comes .........Waiting more text and lots of pics buddy

.Also can you please highlight the route taken as well.

bikerfas · 03-20-2011, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suru

Missed seeing you this time due to my shift.. Beautiful pics there.. Awaiting eagerly for more pics and log...

Thanks Suresh! Would have been a pleasure meeting you! anyways will sure be riding again will catch up sometime.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haroon

Interesting log and beautiful pictures. I am tuned in.

BTW, what camera are you using? Any image enhancing software?

Thanks Haroon! Used Canon ISUS(i think) 10mp point and shoot; and Canon 1000d with kit lens. For enhancing tried using Photoscape didnt work our as am yet to learn. for now used online tool Picnik.

Quote:

Originally Posted by steveburnside2001

hooked on to this thread. do not delay the log and pics

Thanks Steve. All coming up in a line.

Quote:

Originally Posted by phanikar

Ah...... finally here it comes .........Waiting more text and lots of pics buddy

.Also can you please highlight the route taken as well.

Sure... the route will be updated

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ananth

Soooper Pics. Sorry i couldn't make it and thankfully i didn't make it - My bike is screwed up even more. Awaiting the next set of log.

*Do reduce the saturation a little*

Thanks Ananth. used picnik tool for editing and set everything in auto, i think i got to do some manual changes to. will work on it.

bikerfas · 03-20-2011, 08:24 PM

Day 2 – Coimbatore – Topslip – Valparai – Coimbatore

Woke up leisurely in the morning and made sure that my friend is taking leave

. Soon we both were on the roll, but it was actually around 10.30am and the Coimbatore traffic was full on. We decided to do the Valparai via pollachi. Once we reached pollachi I saw a board stating Topslip 20km to my right and Valparai 60kms to my left. Time was around 12pm, so we decided to do Topslip and later ride to Valparai. By 1pm we reached the check post before Topslip to be stopped by the Forest checkpost guard.
Guard: bikes aren’t allowed in the reserve area

, only 4-wheelers and Bus.
Me: whats the other option we have sir?
Guard: Its time for a bus to arrive which would go till Top slip and there is an another bus which comes from parambikulam which comes down by 1.30pm to Topslip so that we can come down by 2pm.
Me: What if we miss that bus to come down?
Guard: Next bus is only by 5pm to come down and if u miss that then u must stay there in topslip itself.
With all this conversation over, me and my friend decided to take the bus ride since we have come all way, jus to check out the place. It was one hell of a bus ride and a bone shaky one (vibrating like anything). What weird in that bus ride was that there was 10 trays of eggs tied and kept in the bus, in which even one didn’t crack.

Morning View from my friend's room balcony

Road to Topslip

Bus we took for Topslip

Eggs which survived the shaky bus ride

Few snaps from Top slip Bus stop

Forest Guest house and Eco shop - Electric Fenced

We reached Topslip, with the forest guest house on one side and the open landscape on the other side. Kerala border is only 3kms away and we thought of strolling some distance to take some photos and catch our bus back which would take another 20 mins to come (that’s what we were informed). But within 100 meters and couple of pictures, to our amusement the bus arrived much earlier, with no other option we got to take bus ride back down to the check post. With a couple of customary pictures at the check post, we rode ahead to Valparai. Enroute we were looking at any hotel for lunch, but with the heat rising up we decided to have ice-cream (cassata cake, cake slice and a small cup eachJ) for lunch at an Arun Ice-cream stall. Lunch cooled us a bit and we were ready to take on the Ghats of Valparai. Ride was much pleasant, we encountered small waterfalls in the roadsides and in one section of the bridge crossing we could see a huge waterfall (we thought) and our next stop was Loam’s View point. From the View point one could see the entire stretch of Aliyar Dam which was good. After taking pictures of the water body and the buses trying to negotiate the hairpins, we rode uphill negotiating the remaining 31 hairpin bends. Once we reached Valparai, we had some snacks and juice to quench our thirst. After a break we started our ride back to my friend’s home facing the harsh SH traffic and reached home by 8.30pm. Transferred all my photos from my memory card to hard disk and made my memory cards free to capture my ride for next couple of days. After dinner, chit-chatted with my friend for some time and lazed off the day with a good sleep.

Thick Bamboo trees in the forest

KL Bus was much more shaky than the TN's

Reserve forest Roads

Checkpost

On our return ride saw a plouged land ready to get seeded

These roads gave us enough shady ride to beat the heat

Paddy Crops ready for harvest

First stop once we started to valparai

The same bridge from the Loam's view point

Aliyar Dam

Me posing

Tea Workers are busy working

Ant were also busy

My Riding shots

A Different color than Green

One of the awesome hairpin curves

Tried a different shot :-)

rajesh1136 · 03-21-2011, 12:29 AM

Super log and pics. Waiting for day 3

03-19-2011, 12:16 AM	#1 (permalink)
bikerfas Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Chennai Posts: 413	My First Long Ride - 2850 kms covering parts of Tamilnadu and Kerala Prologue Couple of months back, was browsing through the net and stumbled into the Trip log of a different Spiti and then in Xbhp’s magazine; which in turn was our discussion and we finalized to do Spiti in March. You see there is a old saying “Man proposes God disposes”, like-wise even though Spiti was planned, leaves applied – One of the rider Steve’s health condition didn’t allow him to do touring for some time. Now it was left with me and Ananth to decide on the Trip – but Ananth wasn’t able to take enough leaves, which left us to think/plan for Rajasthan. Meanwhile an Inter-state G2G was being planned in the south same time. Now as the dates were nearing another road block (or I should call ride block), the Rajasthan plan was dumped since Ananth ZMR had some problem which left me no other option to join Interstate G2G. With Leaves already approved, I decided to do a solo for the initial 5 days and join the gang in Munnar. On March 6th, Usual Sunday G2G happened to discuss about the InterstateG2G, I was there to get some info from Steve about the places/which I could take before reaching Munnar. With 10 days in hand and no proper decision on the plan/route ahead I decided to do the ride solo to give myself a much needed vacation J and join the guys at Munnar – Interstate G2G. My sincere Thanks to Steve and Ananth for the Route Suggestions – even though I didn’t explore most of them but the ride was enjoyable and Sudharshan for his map, Sunny (Sunil) for the cramster saddle bags. Day 0 – Preparation for the Ride Since I had service my bike a week earlier, I just changed the Engine oil, then chain service, the bike is all set for the ride. Started to pack the Saddle bags borrowed from Sunny; as the ride is going to be for the next 10 days; I decide to carry enough t-shirt and shorts apart from the riding gear. Packed the SLR camera and P&S camera; charged the batteries. With excitement and adrenaline rush in air tried to get some sleep before my ride. Day 1 - Chennai – Tiruppur – Coimbatore With all packed up and the necessary stuffs in reach, woke up early morning to start my ride. Had quick bath in cold water which was refreshing enough from my sleep. First time I tried saddling my bags and was right on one go. Geared up myself, with a customary picture before the ride, I was soon on the empty roads, which were too gobbled up by my machine. As the Day 1 plan is to reach Tiruppur, catch up with Xbhpians and head to Coimbatore to stay in my friends place. After 80 odd kms, still the sun is hiding behind the clouds; I was feeling much colder and the visibility was low. Later I realized that, its fog all around me – what a beautiful sight to see the fog over the fields and sun rising in my rvm. Took out my SLR, to capture some snaps of the fog and my first sunrise of this trip. From there on, the ride was very smooth riding in the NH with occasional photo breaks and a stop for breakfast. There were birds in the hotel which attracted my attention, tried to click couple of pictures and started to roll back on rode. Me all geared up for the ride Early Morning Fog in outskirts of Chennai SunRise My pitstop for breakfast Birds at the Breakfast place Thereafter the ride was of not much interesting, since the highways are open and FZ lacks juice to gobble up them in speed; but was able to maintain a constant speed of 90’s. With some Photo breaks and a lunch break, I reached Tiruppur by 3.30 pm. Called up karthick and met him up in his office – chitchatted about biking, t-shirt making, my ride plans, etc. He quickly called up cpoimbatore guyz for a small meet up, since being a Monday everyone would be available by 6.30pm only. So we made a delayed start to Coimbatore around 5pm and reached Coimbatore and waiting for the other guyz in their usual meeting point. Soon Ram, Mahesh joined us and later Deepak joined with his RX135. Exchanging intro’s and views/plans on my ride time passed by and Karthick realized it’s getting late for him to get back to Tiruppur. We moved to Mahesh office, to check out G2G t-shirts and each grabbed their one. Time to move; ensuring that we will catch up in the G2G, I started to my friend’s place for which Deepak helped me showing the route. Reached in friend’s house, took a shower to refresh and started planning for the next day ride. Made my friend Hari to take leave the next day and decided to Ride to Top slip and Valparai. With destination for the next day finalized, I lazed for a good sleep. (L-R) Mahesh, Me, Deepak, Ram, Karthick Route taken: __________________ New Riding Gears '11 - Yelagiri\|10 Day Ride \|Thalankuppam\| Ooty Ride '10 - Kolli Hills\| Tri-State G2G\|Vedanthangal '09 - Vellore\| Last edited by bikerfas; 03-20-2011 at 01:15 PM.

03-19-2011, 11:43 PM	#2 (permalink)
sunilg Super Moderator Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Ghaziabad, UP, India. Posts: 5,075	Travelogue approved. __________________ (Been There Done That) x 3.25 Join xBhp On

03-20-2011, 01:58 AM	#4 (permalink)
Suru Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Coonoor/Coimbatore Posts: 267	Missed seeing you this time due to my shift.. Beautiful pics there.. Awaiting eagerly for more pics and log... __________________ http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/1...xbhp-team.html

03-20-2011, 02:46 AM	#5 (permalink)
Haroon RIDE for PASSION Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalorean, but now in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Posts: 794	Interesting log and beautiful pictures. I am tuned in. BTW, what camera are you using? Any image enhancing software? __________________ Growing old is compulsory - growing up is optional *So many roads, So little time* RIDE for PASSION See us & our rides at: www.rideforpassion.com

03-20-2011, 05:22 AM	#6 (permalink)
steveburnside2001 Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Madras Posts: 613	hooked on to this thread. do not delay the log and pics __________________ Leh http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/1...d-reasons.html The Southern Sojourn http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/best-tra...-remember.html Munnar - Kodai http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/5...-page-6-a.html Goa http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/6...ers-8days.html

03-20-2011, 12:11 PM	#7 (permalink)
phanikar Nomad Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 678	Ah...... finally here it comes .........Waiting more text and lots of pics buddy .Also can you please highlight the route taken as well. __________________ Work life balance is like air fuel mixture Life is too short for traffic, take the highway...........

03-20-2011, 08:24 PM	#9 (permalink)
bikerfas Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Chennai Posts: 413	Day 2 – Coimbatore – Topslip – Valparai – Coimbatore Woke up leisurely in the morning and made sure that my friend is taking leave . Soon we both were on the roll, but it was actually around 10.30am and the Coimbatore traffic was full on. We decided to do the Valparai via pollachi. Once we reached pollachi I saw a board stating Topslip 20km to my right and Valparai 60kms to my left. Time was around 12pm, so we decided to do Topslip and later ride to Valparai. By 1pm we reached the check post before Topslip to be stopped by the Forest checkpost guard. Guard: bikes aren’t allowed in the reserve area, only 4-wheelers and Bus. Me: whats the other option we have sir? Guard: Its time for a bus to arrive which would go till Top slip and there is an another bus which comes from parambikulam which comes down by 1.30pm to Topslip so that we can come down by 2pm. Me: What if we miss that bus to come down? Guard: Next bus is only by 5pm to come down and if u miss that then u must stay there in topslip itself. With all this conversation over, me and my friend decided to take the bus ride since we have come all way, jus to check out the place. It was one hell of a bus ride and a bone shaky one (vibrating like anything). What weird in that bus ride was that there was 10 trays of eggs tied and kept in the bus, in which even one didn’t crack. Morning View from my friend's room balcony Road to Topslip Bus we took for Topslip Eggs which survived the shaky bus ride Few snaps from Top slip Bus stop Forest Guest house and Eco shop - Electric Fenced We reached Topslip, with the forest guest house on one side and the open landscape on the other side. Kerala border is only 3kms away and we thought of strolling some distance to take some photos and catch our bus back which would take another 20 mins to come (that’s what we were informed). But within 100 meters and couple of pictures, to our amusement the bus arrived much earlier, with no other option we got to take bus ride back down to the check post. With a couple of customary pictures at the check post, we rode ahead to Valparai. Enroute we were looking at any hotel for lunch, but with the heat rising up we decided to have ice-cream (cassata cake, cake slice and a small cup eachJ) for lunch at an Arun Ice-cream stall. Lunch cooled us a bit and we were ready to take on the Ghats of Valparai. Ride was much pleasant, we encountered small waterfalls in the roadsides and in one section of the bridge crossing we could see a huge waterfall (we thought) and our next stop was Loam’s View point. From the View point one could see the entire stretch of Aliyar Dam which was good. After taking pictures of the water body and the buses trying to negotiate the hairpins, we rode uphill negotiating the remaining 31 hairpin bends. Once we reached Valparai, we had some snacks and juice to quench our thirst. After a break we started our ride back to my friend’s home facing the harsh SH traffic and reached home by 8.30pm. Transferred all my photos from my memory card to hard disk and made my memory cards free to capture my ride for next couple of days. After dinner, chit-chatted with my friend for some time and lazed off the day with a good sleep. Thick Bamboo trees in the forest KL Bus was much more shaky than the TN's Reserve forest Roads Checkpost On our return ride saw a plouged land ready to get seeded These roads gave us enough shady ride to beat the heat Paddy Crops ready for harvest First stop once we started to valparai The same bridge from the Loam's view point Aliyar Dam Me posing Tea Workers are busy working Ant were also busy My Riding shots A Different color than Green One of the awesome hairpin curves Tried a different shot :-) __________________ New Riding Gears '11 - Yelagiri\|10 Day Ride \|Thalankuppam\| Ooty Ride '10 - Kolli Hills\| Tri-State G2G\|Vedanthangal '09 - Vellore\| Last edited by bikerfas; 03-20-2011 at 09:03 PM.

03-21-2011, 12:29 AM	#10 (permalink)
rajesh1136 Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Chennai Posts: 553	Super log and pics. Waiting for day 3 __________________ Rides: HH SPl (2000-2005) \| TVS Vic GLX (2005-2010) \| S GS150 R (Current) Gears: Scoyco JK -17 \| Cramster Twister \| Cramster Bionics \| Vega Boolean

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