Re: Nilgiri calling .. 2000+ kms Platina ride again

Travelogue Approved

Great going sirjee. Awesome stuff.

Re: Nilgiri calling .. 2000+ kms Platina ride again

HA !! There you go again ! Could never resist a ride could you ?

Cheers & Ride Safe

Re: Nilgiri calling .. 2000+ kms Platina ride again

hey. Nice teaser

And Good start. Bring it On.

Re: Nilgiri calling .. 2000+ kms Platina ride again

Nice teaser. Looking for the Tlog.

Re: Nilgiri calling .. 2000+ kms Platina ride again

nice teaser, waiting for the rest...

would like to know more about the "fanta stove"

Re: Nilgiri calling .. 2000+ kms Platina ride again

Congrats Shubham bro, on completing another trip. Lookin' froward to more pictures and details.

Re: Nilgiri calling .. 2000+ kms Platina ride again

Thank you very much for quick approval sir
I am just following my heartbeat ..

Seriously you got me sir, I am damn addicted and can't control me ..


Here you go ..

Thank you , here you go..

I will put the link about that cock bottle stove aka "fanta stove"

Aree my a$$ started smoking again , my palms started itching , I need another trip ...


....................................
For a long time I wanted to do this trip but could not find much needed time and savings also.
After a lots of travelogues and posts in HVK forum I made the route map ..
Like my other times this time also I planned to ride at night , me & sujoy da choose the next day after exam for starting and planned to take some rest after exam ..
But being a DIYer I could not sleep , all the day I tinkered my bike here & there ..


Day 0: 28/12/2013
Plan was to leave hostel at 8pm after dinner ..


Route : vellore-krishnagiri-e.city bangalore-kanakapura-bandipur -ooty-Kotagiri


Staying option: we choose to stay in kotagiri for some reasons
1.Much closer to nature
2.less known or populated area compared to ooty
3.much cheaper stay & food options


In short-cutfrom FB update)
Day 0 update:
engine oil,airfilter,chain lub - chked
mobile charger,DRL,spot lamps -chked
luggage , mobile , laptop-chked
all working , (failed the blinker )
landed safely in kotagiri via bandipur national forest,ooty..
weather was too chilling and winter gears were in adequate .. — with Sujoy Sankar.



While packing luggage




Day 1 undate: my friend named it as Volvo service day, because we rode mostly non stop (unlike our regular riding style) , took the road towards Bandipur national forest through bangalore & kankapura , left vellore at 11pm reached there at 9.20am , because of too much cold and without proper winter gear were nearly collapsed our arms .. DOJ=28/12/13 with Sujoy Sankar


But yes,we could start our journey at 11pm only after food.
Bike was loaded fully







As this was our 1st ride after Sujoy da learned riding properly and owned a Black Duke 200 (which was in his home in kolkata) so he choose to ride 1st ..
I became pillion and he continued and reached Krisnagiri which was just 130kms , we stopped, took coffee .
Weather was cold but bearable till then .
After that again he started riding and reached e.city bangalore , but mid night chilling factor started showing its magic , more over too much truck traffic didn't let him ride peacefully in this stretch , though that was quite common to me ..


From there I started riding took Nice ring road , mid night total free road , cruised 100+kmph till the kanakapura left cutting and from there bad road started showing its game and winter chill was again pushing us in pathetic condition as we were not having proper winter gears ..



thats my bike's dash at night .



dash view at day time ..


Roads were never good and we continued without any stop (total non stop) till morning 8am ..
Somewhere by the side we stopped , freshened up a bit , gave the little engine the most needed rest and started again ...


Entered bandipur forest .



bandipur entry gate



road side pics continues






micro stop for just pic



deers & my bike



bandipur



deers everywhere



thats mee , got shot



ride continued to mudumalai nation park



road side pic



me & my ride



near the TN tourism resort





started climbing towards ooty


But here is another story,
this aria was having problem in climbing (which is very unlike), it was doing wheelspin and lots more unwanted drama and slowing down all other vehicles including me .. may the driver was not having proper hill driving experience or some other mechanical issues .. But I got a tough time because of it as in the middle of every Hairpin turn I had to stop and use 1st gear again and straining the engine too much , and he didn't let others go further
(mind it my bike was loaded with 2people + lots of luggage)



pics says the story








the landscape started changing



though that was not atall a lovely sight


After that we again cruised mostly non stop to kotagiri , booked a room in budget hotel near bus-stand ..
We took bath , took our lunch in local place and slept for some 2-3 hours , and again left room for exploring local places or the kotagiri..
Some pics




near mount Don Bosco



from there



the evening mist started covering the area



haha me , don't know why or how but the expression was quite different than the boy I am :P






Don Bosco church








kotagiri town from there



another one ..






Then nothing , came back to hotel room , little facebooking , chit-chat, went outside for dinner and slept like babies ..


to be continued ..................................

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Re: Nilgiri calling .. 2000+ kms Platina ride again

Awesome log mate, very nicely described. Waiting for the rest of the log.

Re: Nilgiri calling .. 2000+ kms Platina ride again

*Platina dude at it again*

Another beautiful TLog Shubham.
Nicely written with equally good pics to conplement them.

Re: Nilgiri calling .. 2000+ kms Platina ride again

Thank you rider , here you go..


Thank you very much


.................................................. ..............................................
Day 2 :


In short cut from FB update: "ooty city trip done, happy with kotagiri staying ...
started with dodabetta ended with ketty vally with lunch in forest after cocking on fanta stove..."


Again day 2 started like any other day only , planned to visit ooty means ooty city trip like other tourists ..
Left room around 10am , had our break fast and then left towards dodabetta , the place was crowded , never liked by me type of tourers.



towards dodabetta from kotagiri



road side scenic beauty again



green continues


show stopper






on move shot



I was really enjoying this part of that day's journey



from dodabetta top



after finding posing everyone here , sujoy da also tried :P



view of ooty city from there





another




A funny incident happened there with a so called photographer with big size DSLR and show stopper , visited that then we moved towards stone house.
We had little trouble to find out that and some how our phone GPS was pushing us to wrong road every time for unknown reason .


BTW any how we reached there , as it was closed so just could manage to get a glimpse of inside the house , though it was empty only .
clicked some pics ..



stone house gate








as we could not fit the total house in single frame so had to take 2 different pics .




Next spot on our list was St. Stephen's church








We visited the church , entered into the church and met a family from France.



yep thats my bike there.


Weather was quite hot only compared to kotagiri ..


Then we moved towards botanical garden ..



nothing serious



was not much interested in botany , found this map interesting



little rest there , we were running behind schedule as we started late



in front of raj bhavan



sujoy da posed



this one he liked very much , sure we were planning to punch a bomb somewhere :P



sun was in full mood



me got shot


While coming in, I parked my bike in the privet parking beside the other bikes and left the place moved into garden , while I cam back i found
other bikes were there except my bike :O
I was real shocked when I could not found any where near .. Then I asked the people over there even they also started searching like hell for my bike :O
Then they found it behind a sumo, perfectly hidden inside ..
It was a great relief for me then ..


Continued towards rose garden but bad luck phone battery was out of juice nearly and my bikes ph charger was having a nice loose contact because of low quality charger



rose, i liked



rose garden



the garden from up



like an criminal


After that we could not click , just rushed towards ketty vally as we were running out of day light now , and with out day light valley riding is not at all fun ..

on the way towards ketty valley



evening was close



and we stopped because we were having great problem of having GPS prob (charger was not behaving properly)





tinkering with charger



valley , were already in


again ph batt dead so could not click pics again , aimlessly we rode around the valley till it became dark allover .


Then we took out our cooking gear "fanta stove"

time for cooking in jungle



it was actually dark


Took our very late lunch and started riding towards kotagiri, which was super exciting , on a long part of road I found we were only people riding inside jungle , somehow we just trusted our GPS and continued towards kotagiri , again my bike poor headlight was not sufficient enough to speed up had to continue slow(40-60kmph), as I didn't want to take any risk in unknown forest ..


Good roads , bad roads , no roads atlast I reached the road on ooty-kotagiri road and felt safe slowly cruised towards kotagiri bus-stand / our lodge room ..

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Re: Nilgiri calling .. 2000+ kms Platina ride again

day-3 :31december,2013


The plan : kotagiri-Ralliah dam-conoor-kundha dam-avalanche lake-emrald lake




Though the plan didn't work for surely ..


In cut short: (Fb UPDATE)


The day, we started late,we were too late around 11.30am when we were on road, cruised toward Ralliah Dam, could not found the road went on offroad and last 200ft trekking , then again we cruised towards coonor , met the officers and workers of Nilgiri Railway , saw the stem engine & disel engine both , then Kundha Dam and then towards Emrald lake & destiny farms .. Then we went to Avalanche lake but till that its time over , as they din't allow people to go inside after 3pm and we didn't had this bloody information ,
came back to kotagiri at 8.30pm , sujoy da tried his hand on hilly roads .. A day well spent ..




I was never a late riser , I don't know what happens but normally I wake up early morning only.
May be because of my habit, that day also I woke up early .





Thats what I saw when I open my eyes , I just grabbed my ph and clicked this.


But sujoy da being tired and late riser woke up late . After freshened up we took our breakfast in the shop beside the lodge , we started cruising towards the unknown ralliah dam ..



in kotagiri



on move shot



corners, but I am never interested to lean into it



I wish if that house was mine ..



the not good vga cam clicks



as Sujoy da was riding so I got my handsfree to click



the hilly road continues



The hilly villages which reminds me the darjeeling days



New tar road , actually road working was in progress



a stop to click




Ph GPS constantly showed the route and we followed that like a good boy and reached a place with stiff climb with broken road which was not an issue as we were not carrying huge luggage so platina pulled us effortlessly and road just disappeared .
Found some local worker , asked them about the dam they showed another parallel road and we cruised again ..
By the side of the road we found lots of super awesome bunglows and most of them were secured very tightly , I guess those belongs to some elite people .



One the way , the click time



we just loved the nature



thats me



just loved the view behind



another shot


Again we cruised little more and found the dam , but could not figure out the damn road > .
So I went on offroad and reached the place from where the dam can be seen but can't ride till there so parked my bike and little walking and reached the ralliah dam.


offroad continues



there was little water only



yep , it is








the map & me :P
though the pic is not atall clear



can you figure out my bike in this pic ?



near the water



wanted to jump into water but lack of time



the route where we had to walk



the last point till where we could ride .


In the mean time 125cc engine got some needed rest, so we fixed the GPS to next point and started cruising towards nilgiri railway..
We reached wellington rail station and then the famous conoor rail station, to my surprise we found the steam
engine just pulled the train till there and the diesel engine had taken the charge from there to ooty .


We meet some officers there as I was very much interested about their life with Nilgiri railway there .
They were more than happy to get some partner to discuss about it , they offered tea and snacks and roamed inside the engine workshop .
Just hats off to those hard working people taking care the old " NILGIRI Queen " steam engines,clicked some pics and bid good bye to them ..



the train just arrived



just posing



sujoy da



waiting for "kajal" :P :P



the diesel engine to pull the train till ooty



the workshop



life line continues



the queen



The old one & new one



some more view



the loco shed



117years and continues



green signal


The train left towards ooty and we also bid good bye to the officials and rode towards next destination kundha dam ..


After the conoor station the road was quite filled up with traffic and mostly bad busy roads with rail track by the side and after taking the right turn towards Kundha changed the whole scenario. Road became super smooth with nice views all around and not so heavy traffic , mind bowing deal .
I didn't check the time and I didn't wanted that ..



road side snap



"aree cha bagan " ~ "tea gardens"
Don't know why when ever I see them my heart starts dancing :P



It was too colorful to be clicked in my ph cam



smooth road continues



again





I liked the color



a temple on route








and we reached kundha



Near Kundha hydro electric project



From there road continues again towards emrald & avalanche lake



mera sawari (My ride)





is it not beautiful ?



some hair pin continues



roads were mostly smooth till here



and thats our 1st view of emrald lake



posing time towards Destiny farm



some better views



just mindblowing





no posing



checking out there



some more clicks



soaked into nature



nothing to say



parked my bike near the water



one more shot



the last click


quickly started cruising towards avalanche lake but on the road a milestone showed us a different route written as avalanche lake , took the route after little jungle riding we found a big dam where photography was not allowed as local people told that was canada dam .
Actually we found and the place was well decorated with little playground and park for children but all that was history and was in broken condition..
BTW I clicked some pics with my hidden camera style but to my utter surprise I could not find any of the pics .


Again we didn't want to waste much time as lack of time really ripped a little towards avalanche lake and found time over


The security didn't allow us as the entry time was restricted after 3pm and it was 3.20pm ..

the check post from where we had to came back ..


After confirming that next day we can visit that we left the place towards Kotagiri..


On roadside we took out our cooking gear and cooked some "ready to eat" food and relaxed cruised towards Kotagiri .
Reached evening 7.30-8pm as far I can remember ,we all (platina,me & sujoy da) were tired , took our dinner little regular chit-chat & FB update and slept with a hope that next day we can visit avalanche lake ..






To be continued .................................................. .......

Re: Nilgiri calling .. 2000+ kms Platina ride again

great trip and nice pics....

waiting for the fanta stove details .. he he ..

Re: Nilgiri calling .. 2000+ kms Platina ride again

Thank you sirjee..
For fanta stove google with "hobo stove /stove with bear can/stove with cock can" , you will get lots lots of DIYes , found it useful..

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Uploading next part:
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DAY 4: (1st jan,2014)


They year 2014 I started with exploring new places , yea thats good for me ..


When most of the people were sleeping after their "wild/hard" partying ,I was riding super hard ..
Coming back to it later.. ;D


From facebook update :
"1.messing with TN forest dept
2.reaching avalanche lake without the permission of TNEB in other offroad track
3.being chased by wild ELEphant in the dark evening in nilgiri RF
what more !! perfect way to spent 1st day of new year .. — feeling refreshed with Sujoy Sankar"




In short:
A day again we started late, sujoy da still traveled on my bike even after having back pain prob , we rushed towards avalanche lake which was quite eventful because of forest dept and T.E.B though we managed to reach there then towards nilgiri , after mulli checkpost Elephant story etc ..
After all , it was super awesome ..








Day started like the other days in kotagiri, woke up around 7am freshened up then logged in FB and some discussion in HVK fan forum and the routes and little work as being admins of some groups and forums, little instructions to the on duty juniors in hospital .


Then sujoy da woke up with back plain . Don't know why he got this back pain issue suddenly as we traveled a lot before , much more longer distance , much worse roads , never any problem , but after he started riding his duke 200 his back pain came into story [its not because of duke for sure, duke's ergonomics is pretty good except super hard saddle].
All the day I kept him irritating with the duke & back pain story ..


SUjoy da freshened up but we were again late like other day in this trip and unlike what we planned .
Slowly taken out my bike from parking lot , warmed up , loaded the tank bag (bag on tank) and went to our breakfast place, tummy filled up with nice south indian foods and set the gps ..



our breakfast place


Time was already 11.45am and the destination was good 90kms away which is not very easy in hills and roads were mostly busy and considering thats the 1st stop and we will be visiting lots of other places also .
I planned to ride fast (speed is fast or slow, that purely depends on the road condition,traffic, and the machine you are riding) , but in the mean time I found right fork is leaking oil > which was not atall good for corners ..


As the route was same as last day so I rode super fast and some what reckless (confession) also , shifting up at revlimiter even some time I found the speedo touching 85+kmph (4th gear, never used 5th as far I can remember) , foot pegs touched in most of the left corners but right turns were little pain as forks started leaking and reached kundha very fast , engine was super hot against it was running with 20w50ss oil and weather was cold and running with little rich tuning (carb setting) , that was showing how I ripped her ..

riding pics


I planned to ride non stop , but the smell of fresh tea was pulling be from backward , stoped near a factory asked if we can source some tea leafs but they told after some kms they have a road side stall from where we can buy ..
So again we continued ..



the tea stall :P
From here I took a couple of packets and ordered for 2 cup of lemon tea also.








Limca book of world record



sujoy da



Just pose , see my bike is also visible



Kundha



riding snap














After a photo stop in kundha again we rode towards avalanche lake, but to my utter surprise in the left turn from main road(avalanche lake was 7kms from there) there were some forest dept people and told me that I can't continue as some local festival is going on . we felt irritated and continued on the main road to find if any other road continues there ..
But nope , no other road , so came back and started talking them softly but they were not atall ready to let us go, I found lots of people cam to that point and went back ..
Then the conversation follows :
me:to whom I have to meet to get the permit?
they:today tourists are not allowed to go further.
me:why?
they: local festival going on.
me : as a tourer I and regular travelogue writter I write logs in XBHP,XKMPH,BCMT,Lonely Highway adventures and etc forums , I really want to cover up the story , otherwise I have to write about the bad hospitality..
will you allow us ...
they were little afraid, they though we are reporters as sujoy da was recording all the conversations as clicked their pics also..


They: you can go , but again there will be a check post by TNEC , they will not allow .
Me : ok , lets see..





On the way



through the jungle



visible



inside jungle .




We with lots of joy and pride continued , again 3 check post we found they all checked out luggage and let us go, but then all of a sudden a jeep came from opposite direction with a arrogant driver from inside literately pushed us on the cliff,and wanted us to go back ..


And that was us , parked my bike , about to slap hard with my gloves on my palm , the guy became super afraid because of our "huliya" about to call someone , but we snatched the ph , and sujoy da was recording all the story in his ph ..
Then the guy said he is a driver of TNEB and he was ordered to do so, the cause was TNEB was having picnic party inside , and they don't want to get this info to outer world ..


We left that poor guy and planned to leave the soon :P :P




We found the lake was visible in side the jungle and I found a offroad track , simply we continued on that ..
Clicked pics , and found some other bikers also waiting on the road thinking how we could reached the point on our bike but seriously it was easy only because of my regular offroad riding habit.





just rode , beside avalanche lake





Sujoy da posing



Thats how my bike sees



Don't know from where these water was coming into the lake






Can you spot my bike



photo time



some more



it was little dried up as per the soil looks




Came back on road , continued a little and found another nice place , went after parking my bike and clicked .








clear view



my 2mp ph cam can't click better clicks, either I'm capable of






some more shots



the way where I trekked ..



little track visible







Then we set the gPS to mulli which was around 50kms and towards Nilgiri eastern slope that was the best part of the whole trip ..


After kundha I was riding slow enjoying the beauty of the place but could not click much pics as day light was about end and our mobile cam was not capable enough to click those beauty ..



from the top






doggy was not atall happy with my bikes DRLs



keep oon riding



road side snap



nilgiri



thats why its nilgiri



some better shots






On the way to mulli



sun was saying good bye









smooth road till geddai dam




In between kundha & mulli there were very little traffic actually counted and found only 3 cars on the way ..


Clicked some pics in between ..











flowing , it continues, stagnant -it stops ~ thats our life








me & my ride



I liked this shot





my super dirty bike


After geddai dam and hydroelectric project I found elephant dump here and there on the road .
I had some previous experiences with "haati mama" aka elephant in north bengal , so I could easily understood that its an elephant zone and we are the only vehicle moving here and time is 545pm evening ..
Sujoy da told me that as we didn't had any lunch that day so we can take our cooking gear and cook our lunch , but some how I didn't feel safe so continued riding on super bad roads ..



Hydero electric project



same




We came to mulli check post at 6.20pm and found its closed , went forward and talked to the officers over there and he asked 50rs as a bribe , I gave and then asked his name and at that moment he got a heart attack :O
He though I'm gonna complain :P , then I said "happy new year" he smiled and said his name as "Narayan ",
he also warned us about the wild elephant on roads .


Headlight (35/35watt silverstar) + LED spot lights (3watt*2) were on and we slowly cruised but as roads were super bad and sujoy da had back pain issue I took it in easy way ..


All of a sudden in a left turn we heared a "dhop-dhup" sound and an angry "knorrckkkk "sound of elephant ,
my brain took some mili sec time to understand what happened but in the mean time I pushed rear brake hard in voluntarily and rear started skid , but clutch , 4th gear to 2nd gear , a wheely and nothing I can remember .
It was ride "ride it like I stole it" for next 3kms to nearest village ..


In the village I found a Tata indigo & 3 bikes were waiting for something and they stopped us to go ahead as the some biker found single elephant and he came back .
So we all were waiting for a big suv or truck ..
Then a mahindra maxx pic-up came into story , planned that max will lead I will be in between and indigo will tail,
I felt little safe following the max with eating up lots of dusts , suddenly all stopped , hard breaking of the max, I stopped , indigo stopped and put in reverse gear :O


Found 1 single super big size "haati"aka elephant enjoying his/her evening dump ride after a nice lunch and enjoying frightening others ..


After some rev up sound of truck and 2-3 angry sound from elephant , the elephant gave us way to go and the truck became F1 truck , some how I had to follow till a township , after that we all bid good bye to others and checked GPS for kotagiri , which was nice 50+kms and time was 7.40pm .
No issues we continued till mettupalayam and after that sujoy da tried his hand on hill riding at night through Jaganari slopes and reached kotagiri at 10.15+pm , though not sure ..
All the hill town was sleeping then only the food place was open and we had our dinner then rode to the lodge and like any other day FB update and chit-chat ..
That was our last night in kotagiri as next day we had to rode back to vellore ..


Just "reclaimed our life"................


No more shots , no more clicks for the day ..


To be continued .................................................. .....

Re: Nilgiri calling .. 2000+ kms Platina ride again

Day 5:
The last day of this trip..


Though at 1st we planned to leave early but that never happened. Sujoy da's back pain prob was nearly nightmare for me then, though I was showing that..


I was little confused should we take chance to ride with sujoy da or should he take a bus ride back to vellore .


Early morning I woke up and logged into HVK forum and asked for a better route, as the route we took while reaching was nearly a nightmare again as dangerous pot holes will not be comfortable for us at that moment..


Very fast I got the other route info which was kotagiri-mettupalayam-sathyamangalam-athani-athiyur-mettue-dharmapuri-krishnagiri-vellore ..


We became ready around 12.30 pm and went for lunch , after lunch we paid the bills of the hotel ,loaded the luggage and kick started my bike ..


But before going back we wanted to visit kodanandu view point which we have missed in day1 plan .


So we went towards kodanandu view point but found to much police activity ..


After 3rd check post they stopped us , checked my bike papers , checked my luggage and they all suddenly became too much interested in our trip and specially our cooling gear ..


After 20mins of lecture about our trip they let us go , but we found the cause of that police activity was the Chief minister was there for her holiday also ;D ..



while sujoy da was riding towards kodanandu, i clicked



roads through the jungle



milestone says it all





speeding up



the view



in parking of kodanandu view point



sujoy da there



mountain to plain land , the conversion was visible but out of limit of our ph camera



some more pics from there








can you spot the plain land ?





bhoot







caution





can you spot a waterfalls ??





little zoom ..



me posing



sujoy da posing




Then with heavy heart we bid good bye to the place and started coming back journey ..
Don't know why but in this stretch we didn't click much photos ..


We took it easy way not too fast , we stopped after some riding for some rest ..
As far I can remember we started riding at 2.30 or 3pm from kodanandu , we crossed mettupalayam and cruised again towards sathy..





nice roads



we found bhavanisagar dam but could not reach near it neigher could click even after wasting 30mins time there ..


Somewhere in a small town I stopped for filling up petrol and also tea+bhajji break ..


We crossed athani then athiyur ..
It was night , all lights were on but we encountered cauveri river dam with little army security where the main gate was closed and my heart skipped a beat ..


As per GPS we were on same road but road blocked , so I thought that some time limit is there , so they closed the gate as its night ..
But then we found 1 local bike crossed through the small gate which was open, I followed that and crossed ../
Uff that was a sigh of relief ..


Crossing that dam road at night was superb because of lights though we didn't click again ..
The place was little hilly ..


I can remember I stopped somewhere in between , took water , cleaned visor and started riding again and reached Dharmapuri , from where the road was well known , as we didn't take any dinner so pulled over in-front-of a closed shop, took out cooking gear and finished the last packs of food which we had , but to much wind was making the scenario problematic ..


But we cooked , we took and reached krishnagiri , and again cup of coffee and rode back to vellore ..


End of another journey with more wanderlust in mind and promise to myself that will hit the road again very soon ..


Though its nearly 4-5 months I'm in room only