Hi All

This is my first ever travelogue, though I have traveled extensively, had never written any. This will be a long post covering the routes taken and places seen and their reviews in my view. Biking bro's who have seen these places are welcome to pitch in and this can be good info for people who plan to visit these places.

So lets begin shall we..

Pre ride planning:

Biker inside starts itching once every 2 months.. Be it short rides or long ones there has to be a ride . This time luckily got vacation on Monday to Wednesday coupled with Ramzan leave, it was a really long vacations. Plans started with Goa, Munnar, Wayanad and even Rajasthan . Thanks to monsoon we finalized on Ooty and Coonoor as we have never been to Ooty.

Initial plan was 4 guys and 2 bikes.. thanks to final minute Magaa.. I want to come buttt..s and xyz reasons, it was down to my bike P150[2011] and my friend as pillion.

I had done the servicing a week back and sorted all the niggles, upgraded my rear tyre to CEAT Zoom T/L , head lights to Philips xtreme vision 55/60W(more on this later)


Day 1: Road taken - Bangalore: Kanakapura: Malavallli: Chamarajanagar: Kollegala: Masinagudi: Ooty

After a short prayer to rain god to show mercy for 5 days, with 1 back pack, my riding jacket, gloves and all gear, I left at 3:30 on Friday morning and I had to pick my friend on the way. So we bid good bye to his parents at 4:30 and started our journey.

I always prefer Kanakapura road over Mysore road, for the scenic road and mainly to avoid the traffic and the illogical speed breakers. This road is smooth, no pot holes, no speed breakers and lovely twists. We reached Shivanasamudra at 7:30 and the waterfalls were lovely site, thanks to rivers in full flow.

Couple of pics:





Next destination was Himawad Gopalaswami Betta:

We were having breakfast at ChamarajNagar where we saw sign boards to KGudi and BR Hills.. These were added to the places to see on the way back.

The roads are not so smooth, in patches but not bad for a while from here, we reached HG Betta and experienced what to expect in Ooty (in a milder way of course). The mountains are covered in mist, greenery all around. It was nature at its best

They have put some makeshift fencing to stop the visitors from venturing into the mountains, The moment you cross it, couple of guards appear from no where and drag you back

Atop the mountain


My love:


Sun flowers at the bottom of the hill:



We left HG Hills and our next destination was Bandipur forests. The roads are very scenic. Could not spot any animals other than monkeys which were being fed by cage on wheelers. Even with lots of sign boards saying no feeding animals, no throwing plastic etc.. animals were fed, plastic covers thrown around. Was not very happy by this unruly behavior of littering nature..

We passed through Mudhumalai and I wanted to take the Masinagudi route for the ghat section .

We had food at Masinagudi and were awestruck by the beauty of surrounding hills and the sheer size of them. It was like a king majestically seated and overlooking the proceedings of nature.. So went inside some galli road and found a nice grassland to rest and enjoy the beauty of these mountain range.





We had done lot of miles, and the complaints were lodged strongly by the butts. They also threatened to start burning themselves , but we had an amazing ghat to cover. 36 hairpin bends were fun to take and were thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks to new rear tyre, I was able to lean into these with ease compared to the previous eurogrips.

We reached Ooty at around 3:30. After a wonderful ride, satisfied souls needed place to rest. We decided to take a place outside city and stayed at "The Nest" which is at the junction of Gudalur road and Masinagudi road. The accommodation was comfortable with a double bed, TV, hot water Geyser and clean rooms and was economical.

We slept for good 3 hours and left to Ooty city for dinner around 7:30 pm as we wanted to see the city. Oh boy, that was the most scary and thrilling ride of my life.. Road full of fog,the fog was so thick, I couldn't see where my headlamp beams were ending . Trusting the road center markers we did the 14 kms and reached back chilled or frozen is the better word to describe. The fun had not died.. I due to lack of space in the back pack, had carried a only a half sleeve sweater and the riding jacket was no good for cold. I was shivering with 2 shirts and a sweater.. Thats when a jugad idea flashed.. emptied the 2 bislery bottles, filled them with hot water and slept with the bottles . This hot affair with the bottles lasted 5 nights .


I will post the Day 2 and further details soon.

Cheers
G1