i really don't remember the name of the hotels i stayed in.. It was just check in one night and back on the saddle the next day..

DAY 5- SATURDAY, JULY 14


As i knew it was a short ride today to Madikeri about 150kms, i started off late,lazing around in the room,packed my stuff and left by 10am. The weather was very pleasant, i enjoyed the beauty en route madikeri & reached there right on time for lunch. I first checked in a hotel named GREEN HAVEN. The place was spick & span. Clean corridors, the theme of the hotel was white. Well almost everything was white & bright.





So, after checking in, i freshen up for some authentic coorg special lunch. One of my friend had suggested me this place. Akki roti(rice roti),pandhi curry(pork curry) were on top of my list. The best place to have it is COORG CUISINE.


Akki roti & Pandhi curry
Who would want to ride after a nice heavy delicious meal?? Hitting the sack for a good nap was in my mind. But just as i went out, i spotted a board that read Abbe falls-6kms. Why not digest the heavy meal by riding. I was accompanied by some slight drizzles all the way till abbe falls, the roads were in a very bad shape. Not a slight chance i could do more than 20kmph. The roads were that bad. After i reached the falls, i then realized it was not worth visiting this place.



At about 6 i reach my room, update my folks, upload a few pictures, and by the time i was done with all this it was dinner time. After some light dinner i hit the sack as i had 300+kms ride the next day.

Route- Chikmaglur-Madikeri
Distance covered-155kms
Riding time- 3hrs

DAY 6- SUNDAY, JULY15





After almost a 45 minutes break at kushalnagar ccd i had 80 odd kms to reach. Twisted the throttle & i was there in no time. My friend nishanth joined me in after a couple of minutes i got there. Little bit of chit-chat we had about the ride while we sipped on a coffee. Nishanth came up with this idea of clicking some pictures near the Mysore palace. It was good idea. And with the 220 posing in front of it made it even better. We head to Mysore palace which was about 10kms. On reaching the location i slowly take the bike as close as possible to the palace to a get a few clicks. With all the posing & clicking done we part ways.



Mysore..



My trusted companion posing




Spot the deer!!





The obedient big fella!!!


Ooooooooh

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED \m/
Thundered my way all the top to ooty in an hour. Reached there right on time for lunch. Nothing special there for lunch, just the normal veggies.


Coimbatore was hardly 90kms for ooty. Coimabatore was my destination for the day. The roads heading to coimbatore from ooty was suuuuuuperb!! curves just like a super model Had a blast through the twisties. The weather being nice & cool was another advantage.

DAY 7- MONDAY, JULY16














Th smell of the tea estates and cool breeze was just pure awesomeness. I had reached valparai exactly for lunch. But all that i had was tea tea tea!!






Tea estates- Valparai






I started my way back soon after i finished my some 5 glasses of tea. I wanted to enjoy the curves to the max, so i never stopped any where while coming down, thundered through the ghats as though i was racing. I know it was risky, but could not resist. I was back in coimbatore by 5, got the bike washed and called it a day.

DAY 8- TUESDAY, JULY17



6 in the morning it was. All the guys in the room were fast asleep. I slowly sneaked out and my destination in mind was Kodaikannal. It was about 150kms from coimbatore. I tanked up at some were near pollachi and headed towards kodai. En route to kodai near udmalaipet i spotted nearly 200 windmills. It was so beautiful to watch them. Well it does look tiny from a distance, but when you get right under one, your head starts to spin like the wind mill. It was spinning at quite a good speed. As i was seeing all the windmill’s i decided why not get take the bike near one for a pic. I spotted one were there was a path from the road. Phewwwwwww!! the swish swish swish sound it made every time was so scary. I stood right under one with bike & just to feel more comfortable i moved a little away from it. The blades are freaking huge & sharp.

Windmills en route Pollachi…

Huge ain’t it??

Near udmalaipet….
So, after playing with the windmills for some time i headed to kodai. The roads were not all that great unlike the other hill stations i had been to. But kodai has a totally different feeling to it. I would not call it as one of the romantic hill stations,but an adventurous one. I just had about 2hrs to spend there. First i visited the silver cascade falls. It wasn’t all that great as it sounds.

Silver cascade falls…
After spending some time near the falls i headed towards the kodai lake. A nice clean lake i would say. Then a visit to dolphin’s nose. Well after almost 20mins of trekking i got to know that they had closed the entry for the dolphin’s nose due to some public nu sense. It was a total waste of time.. Wasted almost an hour and it was time for me to ride back to coimbatore.

En route dolphin’s nose….


Kodai lake….
On my way back to coimbatore i had stopped for lunch at around 3. Had awesome kabab’s from a Dhaba named Ali’s dhaba. The food was really good there.

Lunch break near pollachi…

Back to the room by 6, and my destination for tomorrow was land’s end. KANYAKUMARI!!!




DAY 9- WEDNESDAY, JULY 18



The alarm goes off at 5am. I was pretty excited about today’s ride since it was Kanyakumari. Always wanted to visit that place, but never knew it would be this fast and that to on two wheels. All set and done, deepak wishes me luck for the rest of the ride and i head to kanyakumari. The distance i had to cover today was about 450kms.. Beautiful 6 lane roads to ride on.


The state highway to Madurai was traffic free, i was easily able to do 100-110kmph easily. My first stop was just before reaching madurai. It wasn’t a loooong breakfast as usual. I just munched on some biscuits,cola and started off quickly. I wanted to capture the the sunset in kanyakumari which mean’s i had to reach by 5, find myself a room and head to the sunset point. After reaching taking the by-pass 6 lane road to kanyakumari i reached tirunenvelli which was my second stop. Stopped there for quite some time since i had done almost 160kms in the blistering hot sun.


En route Madurai…




Butt break after about 160kms….


Indian cement factory….

I was just 80 odd kms from kanyakumari. Munched them in no time, and i had checked in a room just near the sunset point. I had reached by 2, which meant i could have a nap and enjoy the sunset later in the evening. At around 5:30 i was there. I could slowly see the sky changing its color and the sun coming down. The orange tint all over the place was a spectacular sight to watch.



Sunset point-Kanyakumari
From this point i had no other option, but turn around and head back home. Kanyakumari-bangalore-720kms was in the menu for the last day of RAID THE SOUTH.





DAY 10- THURSDAY, JULY 19

I am on the road by 6. It was a looooong ride today back home. The 6 lane highway all the way till bangalore ensured that i reached in less than 10hrs. I was cruising at 120kmph, frequent breaks just for a face wash a small drink and back on the saddle again. Every stop was nothing more than 8 minutes. Unfortunately i did not click any pics today since i was looking at 720kms. I could not afford to waste time, but kept riding riding. I had informed my folks at home that i am leaving from kanyakumari to bangalore in the morning, but never told them what time i would reach, because i myself wasn’t sure. Well, i reached home at 5:30pm. Every one was surprised as in how did i make it so fast. I was riding no SUPERBIKE. Just a 220cc Guess am ready for a saddle sore now.
The last 10 days have been some of the great days ever experienced. Rains,highways,ghats,roads,no roads,slush,mud and what not. EXPERIENCE OF A LIFE TIME.
I thank CASTROL POWER 1 & all my folks for the support & help without which this mega ride wouldn’t have happened.

My trusted companion the PULSAR 220dtsi aka BOLT

A awesome travelogue with lots of awesome pics...
You ride very fast buddy...

Super cool pics bro, specially the sunset point pic. Yummy Neer dosa and Mutton . And a wheelie on ghats . Nice log and was point to pint . Well, whats with this pic -

Is it a natural phenomena or have you edited the backlights . Ride safe bro and keep posting.Thanks

@hhsplendor thank you

IronHide Shetty thank you bro ooooh yeah talking about the wheelie this happened when exiting a hair pin bend well, that pic is just edited tooooo much

Ride safely Fighter. Takecare

sure buddy you too

Ajit my bro! Great.. you have already inspried me to go ride to the 40 hair pin bends ;-) and through this many more too am sure. BTW, sanjeev here from power bikers incase you are wondering who is this bro you dont know

Good ride you pulled. Congrats! I am sure this ride will etch the memories of a lifetime

yeah buddy i still remember each and every km

gotcha hope to ride with you soon