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**antz.bin** · 12-03-2012, 02:15 AM

Thread Approved

**Satishrajdev** · 12-03-2012, 12:16 PM

NIce pics........Keep coming

**somen1984** · 12-03-2012, 05:59 PM

Good one..keep it coming!!

**I.S.Avinash** · 12-03-2012, 07:35 PM

Originally posted by Satishrajdev View Post

NIce pics........Keep coming

Originally posted by somen1984 View Post

Good one..keep it coming!!

Thanks Guys

**I.S.Avinash** · 12-03-2012, 07:39 PM

Day 2: "Live Close to Mother Nature"

Today my plan was to visit some famous and unknown places and to explore deep inside the thick, dense forest in SULTAN BATHERI. As now it has become routine to wake up early morning, I felt very fresh, did a little warm-up before the start and had a look at my glimpsy 220. I felt that it was so energetic to start for today's ride and make a new chapter in this WRANGLER's contest. I started off around 6.45 and my plan was to visit Kuruva Island and following spots. It was a hot tea cup discussion with the tea master( experts in something are always masters ) where I came to know that there were few points where forest explorations are quite better in lens view and I was alerted that there could be few elephants too which boosted up my excitement.With so much expectation running on my back head ,I Started my journey towards the island and I must say the road was scenaric and properly laid. Few bus drivers road rashly and I managed and came out of it in one piece reached the island.

While entering the spot, I met a biker from Chennai and his lover, a DESERT STORM and shared few words with him about WRANGLER sponsorship and how adventurous my trip was , in short. He was so excited and happy for me getting selected through WRANGLER and wished me from his side. With a warm hand-shake, we both parted in our own way. I had to pay for the spot but it was very cheap. I crossed a river which was plain and pure and I was happy to see my reflecting in water as a biker. After the river crossing, I was into a deep forest which was implementing the beauty of trees if they are not cut just in the name of deforestration. I had two bananas which I shared with a monkey too, another nature lover of our kind.
Interacting with keralites:

Wrangler best piece of cloth ever made !

This time I took a different route to explore the forest which demanded a quite long ride and human head counts started to drop off. All I could see there were rubber trees only and later met few tribal people and kids as well. They were happy to see me and I spoke with them using signs and they could clearly feel that I was completely exhausted. They invited me to their home and happily wihtout knowing who they are exactly I went inside and sat on the floor. They served me with some dishes which I dont even know. I asked them to sit with me and we shared the food like one happy family and I felt as if I am having it at my home.Some points I am gonna share with the readers even if it occupies more lines in my blog.We complain our government for frequent power offs and we have rights to conduct a strike even with police protection. These people are living without electricity 365 * 24 * 7 that too deep inside a thick forest. where is the word 'protection' has its meaning here? They don't even know what is 'strike' exactly except for knowing it with its combo word 'lightning'. I felt so sad for them, wanted to make some happy time with them till I was there, Played with their children, helped them to make some powder out of grains by rolling a stone-roller, drew some drawings on the sand which those little kids enjoyed by clapping their hands. They are the real gentlemen and ladies of all kinds in this WORLD.They are cultured in terms of heart and characters which most of us should learn form them.Time was running by and I need to get back to the city so started from there and reached sultan batheri.one of the memorable moment it was and around 2pm completed my lunch and my next was to visit Edakkal caves.

The Place where I stayed

Taking some rest after playing cricket

Enroute to caves

Reached the caves in no time and I was so happy that could see kids there who were playing cricket. I parked my bike to play with them and in a couple of minutes I cbecame like a child only and started doing hi-fi when they took wickets and hit boundaries. The I started trekking towards the cave and I was accompanied by a rain - a rare companion in chennai.OMG rain- trekking -slippery region it was a different ball game but I accepted the loving challenge and started trekking Thanks to wrangler jacket and jeans as I was well protected from the rain and my shoes did its job perfectly.

Took some time to reach the top I was completely exhausted. At some point of time I thought I might return back but only my hope and the proverb which I shared previously tool me to the top and it was 'OMG' feel I should say and shouted from there that whole world could hear this, ' I am a WANDERER !!' .

The Wanderer!

I spend some good quality time out there , again interacted with few people took some photographs and came down to the parking lot to cheer up my Blackie. My hands and legs were in vibration mode due to lack of energy,body pain as well and decided to get back to the hotel room .

Enroute to the sultan batheri ,I saw a jain temple and I thought that I could spend few mins there too as it also a part of my valuable trip. The temple was built in an awesome manner,sculptures were perfectly curved and designed and I thought to sit there for sometime. As I was already feeling tired, I closed my eyes and started to rerun all the incidents and at one point I felt so good about the decent and safety ride I carried out, banana sharing with my close friend with tail, helping out people and promoting "no to tree cuttings" to people visiting there. I felt so satisfactory and some inner pleasure was breezing in my heart . What a sensational calming feel. This is what you call medidation where you feel the inner peace and happiness. I suddenly got up and felt that it was getting late. So I bid thanks to that poojari and reached the hotel room around 7pm.

The Historical Jain temple "Meditation soul retrieval"

What a day it was in total a complete circuit I followed -nirvana island, forest, becoming friends with strangers, interacting with saints, trekking while others think it’s impossible . by the way how can I forget them? Wonderful family and beautiful kids. Forget to mention that when I played cricket I got out in third ball.

Pretty dangerous bowlers they are .

Day: "Live Close to Mother Nature"
Kms Covered: 240
Route: Wayanad-Exploring Deep forest
Petrol: None
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Day 3: ENDURANCE IS TESTED TO THE CORE !!

I would like to highlight atleast at this point of time in my riding life,'WANDERER' is the word that carries maximum pain and dynamism in Biker's dictionary and when a rider dares to take up the title on his vein, there his ENDURANCE is tested. I'm no way an exception to that for the reasons that I'm a biker basically and WRANGLER showed this world an upgraded version of mine, Wanderer.
Its been 3 days I have been riding through broads and narrows, saluting the sunshine throughout the day, giving up all my glucose what exactly my concentration is demanding all time, leaving my sweat behind so that any Biker could sense that, letting rash drivers pass by me - just a control of my adrenaline rush, meeting up deadlines set by nature for what I am - a nature lover,..etc. I got stuck at one point searching a common word for all these hailstones. Here, unknowing to me, Wrangler has started to test not only my other criterias, but a basic Quality of a biker - ENDURANCE.
Morning’s sunshine.. Not as a matter of exaggeration , was seeming to be brighter and the Sky was higher. With the ordered strong coffee, A BBC newsline- ‘ Share market is tending to be low’. Not such an important tip for my ride but knowledge is always knowledge. Time never fails to render its job by reminding me about the things I needed to have closer look at. Punctuality , where I lagged and that made be to be little hurry packing my stuffs and vacate the place as per my schedule. Power chords were switched off, bags were zipped, checked for any missed out things and doors were locked. Met the manager and thanked him for providing me such a facilitated room and tipped the room boy who was just reaching my chest. He greeted me for my success, a common human nature
J .
Then I wiped my bike with towel and could not see my face in the side mirrors as they were fully occupied by fog. Saddled the bag, checked for fuel indica,With Neutral light glowing pressed the start button. Ignition failed. Second press. Failure again. This continued till 10 mins. Checked for spark plug and changed the new one which I carried with me. But still same result. I was nervous and tensed as it was already getting late. I just stood infront of her as a symbol of Anger and screamed, “ You gonna surely let me down” and sat there on the mud. I laid my head on the front mudguard (her lap). Should I accept that only we can take the pleasure that we can show our gratitude and love towards our beloved ones just because we carry an instrument that pumps blood ? Definitely not. When I was lyng down on her lap I could feel a vibration on the guard with her lights glowing. Suddenly I looked up and saw that room boy was trying to press the button and said ,” Anna(bro), it started .. J what I did is correct no anna?” I replied what he did was correct but what I did was wrong and looked at her. She said,” Boss !! I won’t break your trust and let you down till I’m there”. She made me realize that there is something which is more divine than anything else in this universe, LOVE and TRUST. Poor thing she had to undergo a Kiss- bath and fully drenched. Then I started moving as per my plan and my new mask was A WAYNAD-CALICUT DOMINATOR !! .

Beautiful Morning

The streets of Wayanad

After leaving the place with an emotional incident,My ride started off with low pace and later synced to its usual rhythm. My map was pointing to Karrapuzha dam, my next target and spend some good amount of time there in snapping it out in angles.

I could see a vast land occupied with this massive dam, to explain its size in a bigger way possible. With its side-stand into action, me and my buddy were looking for a sign of security so that I could cover the beauty of the place as much as possible with my luggage safe. The beauty of the landscape not only occupied human 3D lens but also impinged through my canon 7D and I started to my next destination Calicut (Kozhikode).

The road stretch between Waynad and Calicut was no so good as I guessed but it was not bothering me much except for the time delay I was encountering. Roads were slippery, potholes took their chances to take out my tyre pressure as much as they could and there was no option left out for me to give my throttle a little raise. My back and wrists started to pain a little which I could bear for next 30 mins but then it really started to take viswaroopa. So I stopped my bike, relaxed for a couple of minutes, stretched a little and had some glucose to fresh-up a bit. Time was around 11.30 and still a long way to cover. I did not want to add her more mental pressure as she was already undergoing it. So planned to have my breakfast little late and progress towards Calicut.

For about 25km the roads were like this

Enroute to Calicut

It was around 1 pm, I reached the outskirts of Calicut and P-220 was literally dragging me to enter the city. This stretch was little dry to put my tyres on and it was a little tiring ride. There was a signal junction where I had to wait for 3 less from 5 approx. There I saw two guys getting out of a car on seeing me and I was initially little scared as they were looking little rough and tough. They approached me with couple of questions (on seeing my stickers I suppose) like whether I am a XBHP-ian, came here for any ride, about the sponsors and making of this massive project. He turned out to be Levin and he too owns a Pulsar 220. We had a convo over various topics and I was tipped by him on continuing my further ride very efficiently and magnificently through Kappad beach and also my maps were updated with the shortest route to Kochi.
With my hands showing bye to Levin, I started aero-ing towards my next point of target, Kappad beach and roads were so beautiful and a nice stretch for every biker to show their bikes a thirst to cruise. It was hot and little suffocating with jackets and gloves worn but I rode towards it with not much disappointment as I was expecting this as a worst case scenario. Beach was really looking too good but was crowded a little more than usual as it was prayer day of the week (Sunday). Being not interested to be the center of attraction ( hee hee ) I quietly stepped away from the place, gazing at people who were spending awesome time with their families and friends which I really missed. Having decided to do some off-roading and I searched for spot which had to be isolated from the beachies. As a matter of fact, I was so exhausted that all my glucose was strawed , removed my riding gears,laid my back in a big stone and I was sketching in my mind about the path I had to take to reach kochi with this condition of pain. ‘Wanderers Pain will not go in Vain ‘

For a Wanderer to road never ends

After clicking beach spots, I planned to visit ‘Mithai Theruvu’ which was so famously called ‘The Famous sweetmeat street !!’. I had to cross number of diversions and road blocks to reach from end of the street to the other. It was one kind of awesome experience to noof my bike through the street as it was so narrow and crowded heavily. Just imagine a pulsar roar, with cramster-Wrangler combo products, penetrating the crowd in a busy street. People started to suspect as if I was an alien and came with an intention to end this world to make NASAs words true. Then I planned to leave the street and reach the city junction to take the route towards Thrissur.

Roads that led to Thrissur were of ok kind and I could not cross 70 or 75. They were single-lane roads and vehicles showed their heads with an intention(tension) of not letting me overtake the other mobilaries ahead of me. I rarely got chances to show my tail to my headers and happy to some extent that I could atleast maintain a decent speed. I could feel my body’s engine heat as it is not oil cooled (gifted Pulsar) and stopped near a Pharmacy to reduce the temperature and continue with my ride. In the meantime, Saurob, an XBHPian from Cochin, called me and asked about my arrival time. I told him about my body pain and fever and it might take hours to reach Cochin.

‘Riding’ might sound so simple when you watch it only as a spectator. Once you start participating as a rider, it has a lot to say actually teach you more than what you percept. Being a student to the heading, third day was completely based on the topic ENDURANCE again. I was riding on and on and still I could not find any name-board for name sake to create an illusion in my mind that I was atleast nearing some unspotted place. It was not a simple-straight-linear road where you could ease your throttle with minimum concentration. It was not a pro-rider stretch, even I am not a pro to take the credit that I have crossed 410 + kms in a day’s time with all sorts of obstacles and pains and never willing to call the day off. It was just my will power which was my stamina feeder. My eyes did not scatter, My hands did not lose the grip, my saddle was aligned with my leg posture and again a gigantic look of a young XBHPian into the action with same energy flow with pain from every bit of his pulmonary. With difficulties I reached Cochin around 8 PM and checked in a nearby hotel. In the meanwhile I informed Saurob about my reach

Biker's way to see the sunset

What a Day it was I should take the pros and cons from this ride and I should prepare myself for the upcoming days, Because that's the "True Wanderers Way".
By the way I am going to take a day off or start things slowly thats the smart way to do it, Because "Wanderers think smart as well"

Day: "Testing the Endurance of a Wanderer "
Kms Covered: 410
Route: Wayanad-karapuzzha-Calicut-Thrissur-Cochin
Petrol: 1500rs
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Day 4: The Adventure Begins “Inside the Jungle”

The previous day I felt so sick and planned to take things in a slow pace but most of us know that the inner spirit closely associated with your target would never let you change yourself for time being. So 6 AM was my wake up time and my plan was to visit local places in and around Cochin. At the same time, my guts feeling was making a ring to my brain pointing out, ‘Winners don’t do different things. They do things differently.’ Why not this proverb would fetch me a creative thought to find a rare-visited place to explore? So I called my cousin brother who knows nook and corner about the places here in Kochi but he was hesitating a bit to share them initially with me since there were lots(lost) of risks factors allied. Then I convinced him saying that it was all about how well we explore the nature’s beauty and the chance given my WRANGLER to do so with full confidence and liberty. Being a much satisfied person, he listed down the places which most of them were not much explored and even google maps might find some difficulty in spotting them J So as a first step I reached a place called Kudanadu where they train elephants and to see them we need to special permission from the forest officer. As my brother has already informed about my arrival to the forest officer, it was little easy for me to identify myself to them and they were happy and surprised for knowing such adventurous sponsors for gutsy riders like us. The way they train the elephants and the love they show towards them is an amazing scenario to experience atleast once in a life time
Enroute to Kudanadu:

Elephant training Center

This is where they train the elephant:

Having spent some 30min of valuable time, I left the place and started my journey towards a river called Paniyeri Pori. I am sorry for not being sure about the exact name as it was very difficult to remember it and even Google search was not able to pick it up. Enroute to the river, there was again a thick forest which gave me greeny sensation all over my skin, a lonely path to define you that you are really lonely once you are stickered as a TRUE WANDERER and finally… Elephant foot prints..!!! OMG!! I remembered once my grandpa used to tell me like Elephants are capable of remembering people and they could easily identify them in the next possible attempt. If any of those trained elephants did get a chance to see me there there might be a chance for a ‘hi-fi’ even before I come to any conclusion. I prayed that my ride should not stop there for any reason and I reached the spot. Some trekking was again needed to reach the river and I was like ” Trekking?? No..!! Not again..!! “ as my body condition not a bit would promote it. But my spirits was on its peak to make impossible things possible and thanks to nature for guiding me to take wise decisions at right times. The place was so scenic and lonely to interact with nature. A must visit place in Kerala.

After 2 km of trekking I reached a spot where my lens demanded me skim through the places to frame some of it. After portraying them I wanted to go little deep inside but it seemed dangerous without any guidance. At that time I asked for a guy’s help who was passing by that side and fortunately he turned out to be a guide for that location. He assured me for maximum enjoyment and jungly trekking that included spotting few wild animals. My face was lightened up with smile and our adventurous trekking started with jumping on a rock together.

Few Places we need to climb :

Elephant Foot Print

No Comments :P

Guys !! I must say it’s one best of my trekking marks as my knee landed the grounded thrice with my 7D in one hand and its bag in the other. My knees were badly hurt and there were chances for my ankle cramps which often happens to me. But after all I can’t say no to these adventurous explorations just by looping those pains into action. A wanderer, A biker, an xbhpian has to face it. Quechua seemed to be doing its job so well to setup its trademark in places it has never seen before and my WRANGLER lived up to its name. He kept saying more and more things that were so valuable I could guess but since there was a barrier called ‘language’ which restricted me to grab it to the fullest. As a first step in making up his promise true that he would spot few wildies, We could trace out elephant’s foot prints and later we could spot one or two owners of the same but at a very long shot. I thought of taking a nature bath in the river but my health condition and time factor did not give me leverage to put down my wishes into action and so we had to get back to starting point. Now this Wanderer has one more invitation from another forest to explore its core beauty!! J

This time my Entry into the forest was little different, frozen by the density and freaked out by worms..yuuuuccck..!!! I stamped few of them unknowingly. There was a temple in the middle of the forest which added more beauty and glamour to it but could not visit due to my accessories. After few kms from off-roading and trekking I returned back with complete satisfaction. What a place to see!! I bet no one would have known about these places apart from local people and I should thank my brother for his information.
Inside the forest I lost it completely:

Later I returned back to my room , took a hot bath and had a slice of bread and a tea. Then I checked out the room and started the ride towards Cochin, screened commercial spot Chinese fishing net ,clicked few pictures and from there I got a boat ride to reach the other side of Cochin. It was a good experience in total and went to the beach. Nothing to draft about it as it was just a normal beach . I was so frustrated that I came that far to see a very ordinary beach.

Enroute To Beach :

Since there was not much inlet to my heart from beach through walk, I started to look for a road Where I could ride my bike inside the beach found the same. I started riding towards it like an enthu child and after riding few meters all other people attraction came towards me. So I moved out from the place silently and started my journey towards Alappuzha.

My plan was to stay at Alappuzha for the day and around 4pm I reached it. Evening sunset, pleasant breeze demanded me to go for a boat ride.It was a pretty good experience and built a fantastic conversation with the boat owner and driver. They were so excited after hearing my whole story regarding the true wanderer sponsors, the freedom they gave for the riders in the name of rules and the follow-up they make for each pariticipant.They wished me luck for the contest and with their blessings I felt the pleasure of the boating too.

Backwaters Alappuzha:

After that I stayed in a room which was opposite to the backwaters and ended my day with Complete satisfaction. Again the experience I felt was Jaw dropping and Every day turned out to be more and more exciting and to tell the truth it has taken its toll rate from my body but it doesn’t matter. I will go as far as I can and I will reach as high as I can and from that peak I can Proudly say Am "THE TRUE WANDERER" …

Day: The Adventure Begins “Into the Jungle”
Kms: 290
Route: cochin-Perumbavoor-villages-Forest-Cochin-Alappuzha
Petrol: 600rs
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**satya_3d** · 12-03-2012, 10:06 PM

words will be no measure to appreciate your efforts to put this amazing views to us.// respect..
satya

**Karthik Mathur (Orange)** · 12-03-2012, 10:20 PM

The pictures are just awesome. Amazing!! Sooper stuff saar!

**JayD** · 12-04-2012, 06:07 PM

Nice trip log and awesome pics. The shoes look nice. How did they perform during this ride.

**aryan rajvanshi** · 12-04-2012, 06:59 PM

WOW

.........

**I.S.Avinash** · 12-04-2012, 08:20 PM

Originally posted by satya_3d View Post

words will be no measure to appreciate your efforts to put this amazing views to us.// respect..
satya

Thanks Buddy!

Originally posted by Karthik Mathur (Orange) View Post

The pictures are just awesome. Amazing!! Sooper stuff saar!

Thanks Karthik

Originally posted by JayD View Post

Nice trip log and awesome pics. The shoes look nice. How did they perform during this ride.

Thanks and the shoes I use quechua, one of the best and reliable and it works like charm

Originally posted by aryan rajvanshi View Post

WOW

.........

Thanks

**Fazer89** · 12-05-2012, 02:25 PM

Drool Stuff mate !!! Suppa Lyke......!!

**Neeteesh Singh** · 12-05-2012, 03:09 PM

Amazing write up and an equally amazing pics...

Brilliant !! I started reading and only stopped when it actually stopped...

Ride safe !!

**I.S.Avinash** · 12-05-2012, 09:20 PM

Originally posted by Fazer89 View Post

Drool Stuff mate !!! Suppa Lyke......!!

Thanks mate

Originally posted by Neeteesh Singh View Post

Amazing write up and an equally amazing pics...

Brilliant !! I started reading and only stopped when it actually stopped...

Ride safe !!

Thanks for the complement Buddy

**I.S.Avinash** · 12-05-2012, 09:23 PM

Day 5: Having fun is also Part of riding

The past four days were so mesmerizing that I lost myself in the beauty of Kerala, amongst the thickness of the forests, plain clear river flows, gigantism of the wild nature, smelling the plants freshness, purest form of oxygen into my lungs, triggering my energy level to its peak to take up my further ride in a best possible way. So today I have decided to drop some of my time for fun and interaction with people. There must be some prints of this guy from Chennai in every place he visits. So I got up around 8 AM , got ready within a quarter of an hour, went out in search of my favourite-dosa, interacted with the hotel manager, asked about the specialty of the places I visited and finally my next target was Vagamon and from there to Thekkady.

So I started a bit slow from Kumarakom, took few pictures of backwaters and reached Pala through Kottayam. Nothing so special about the routes and roads and the Sun was beating down its level best. I felt little drained and thought of having a top-up juice as a piece of refreshment and from there I packed up little fast and reached Vagamon around 12 noon.

The Village Road which I took

Day: Having Fun is also Part of Riding
Kms: 202
Route: Alappuzha-Kumarakom-Kottyam-Pala-Vagamon-Elparai-Thekkady
Petrol: None

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 6: "Road To Paradise"

The Clouds were all over the Mountains

Munnar at its best

Top station:

Old women Near the Top station. I spoke with her for a while and she told me about her family. very sad to hear and I gave her little money to comfort her.

Green everywhere

Maggi!

My Plan was to reach Valparai by night but my plan did not work out as per my plan. The road between Munnar to Udumalpet was worse enough to let my bike not cross 45 kmph. There were alternate ups and downs, plain and pits, straight but narrow, unusual combos like mentioned.. On seeing the plain when you start to drag it would demand for a drift, when you were ready to drift it would ask you to be slow. So my average was maintained around 50.

Few stretches are very worse Condition

Few are Bliss

I reached Pollachi and time was around 6.30pm. Being least bothered, I wanted to execute things as I planned. So around 7 I reached the check post and the policeman was not letting me to cross over the gate. He was very kind and politely explaining me that it would be too dangerous to travel through the route as few tigers had been spotted by local people recently and he requested me to stay at Pollachi itself for the night. The way he treated me and just letting the governing ego to go when he spoke to me as a man not as a policeman, I was really convinced and showed him respect for how he was and not for what he was. So I obliged his request and asked his permission to at least take a picture of Aliyar dam. He agreed and I went over there, took a picture of the dam and with little disappointment started riding back to Pollachi to halt for the day.

Aliyar Dam:

Day: "Road To Paradise"
Kms: 407
Route:Thekkady-Munnar-Top station-udumalpet-Pollachi-Aliayar Dam-Pollachi
Petrol: 1000rs

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