Re: Yercaud - When Tourers Become Tourists...

Approved!

Bring the rest.

Re: Yercaud - When Tourers Become Tourists...

Nice write-up mate and the pic are equally good. Had seen a few pics on fb also.

(Waise ab yaha to mei post kr sakta hu.. Galti ka chakr nai )
[MENTION=41586]Divya Sharan[/MENTION].. Don't post the speedy cornering one here Mod ko dekhke bache josh mei aa jayege.

Re: Yercaud - When Tourers Become Tourists...

Thanks for the quick approval Sir..!! :P


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I was besides myself with anticipation on what we were going to find at LADIES POINT where as Divya was assuring me that it was just a plain old view point - nothing much unusual. So we started making our way towards the promised land - I meant plain old point - and like true tourists, we got lost on the way.

I have no idea where we took a wrong turn but suddenly we were in a VERY posh locality of Yercaud with expensive bungalows on both side of the gully. Who would have thought rich people maintain weekend homes 30 kms off Salem??? Any way there was absolutely no one around to ask directions from and so we simply followed the road - which led to a dead end..!! :|

Since we were here Divya decided to click some pictures where as I went to check out the private property gate that was at the end of the road. I spotted a trail heading up into the mountain some way beyond the gate which was going right beside the private property wall. Told Divya that I was going up to explore...

It was a short trail - and about 150 meters into the trail - I ended up in some sort of biker heaven... The pics just do not do justice to the place:













The place was absolutely deserted, totally silent, cloudy with a light breeze blowing. Total mind blow. I went down and got back up with Divya...







Well this was awkward - here we were in Yercaud with the intention of doing the most touristy type things and had ended up doing the complete opposite of that. :|

This place, this deserted meadow of wild flowers on top of the mountain was so good and soothing that I did not want to leave, but soon enough it was time to go. I was sure LADIES POINT would have nothing to rival the awesomeness of this place. Either way we made our way down back to the small road of rich people and found one odd man who gave us the directions to go to LADIES POINT.

On the way we found Perfume Paradise - and since buying Yercaud's special Perfumes was in our tourist itinerary we made a stop and picked up quite a few bottles of various fragrances. Now dad, mom, sister, brother, distant relatives will all smell good - at least temporarily - hopefully. (No, I know what you are thinking - and you are right actually - that one kaka/mama/uncle is always gonna stink no matter what)

So time to get to LADIES POINT.

DAMMIT this LADIES POINT was turning out to be quite elusive. But no tension we were real close now. Confirmed the directions once more and we were on our way. This definitely seemed like the right road since taxi traffic was steadily increasing. Good then - we will be there soon. Right? RIGHT?

WRONG!!! Because once we reached there - there were so many taxis that there was a grid lock right at the entrance.

People were totally loosing it there, one guy burned out his horn and immediately after that his clutch. His car stalled right in the middle of the narrow road with a 100 cars on either side blaring their horns. Complete "welcome to India sirjee" moment.

I looked at Divya and without a word we made a U-turn. Time to get out of there - and fast.

Well seems like LADIES POINT was not in our fate for today.

At this point in time I was mulling whether to go to GENTS POINT - yes they have a GENTS POINT there as well - they cater to all orientations you see - when Divya said that this was enough of touristy type thingy. Let's do some tourer type now.

Let's Explore Yercaud.

YESSS..!!!!

And so we picked out some random road and started going somewhere. Stopped at a few places for pics. Picked out a random turn which was leading 4 kms up the mountains going to some weird temple. Neither me not bhai was interested in temples but the road seemed interesting so we went any way.

After a scenic ride on a steadily climbing road we reached the top of the mountain where there was a large garden kind of thing with no temple in sight.

It was already about 1:30 by now and we decided to chill here for a bit.

The views around the place:




There was a police station and some weird tower in this desolate place for some reason




Our steeds resting...




After chilling out here for another hour - we decided to start making our way back. Reahed Yercaud Lake quickly and since few of the other touristy type places - such as Kiliyur Falls etc. had no water - we decided to give them a miss and start our way back to Salem.

At Hair Pin Bend 20/20 we both adjusted our GoPros to capture the awesome down hill cornering session (yeah we both have GoPros - I made mine at home for Rs.20/- and he got his free with his camera).

The downhill session was awesome - but as we crossed 12/20 bend, the heat became oppressive. The heat shock was extremely sudden, I knew then that Salem is going to be an oven. But my mind was still on the video and I was intent on making an intense cornering video out of this down hill.

We reached the base - it was hot like crazy - and I checked my camera, well damn!!! The video was crooked, and yellow, cause the white balance was messed up, and the video was pointing the wrong way... What a waste. I thought well lets wait for Divya - he may have some cool footage - hopefully. NOPE. His camera stopped recording at 15 mins. And he was stuck behind 3 buses for the majority of those 15 mins. I guess that's what happens with desi jugaad GoPros :P

Any way, it was extremely hot and I just wanted to stop at the nearest CCD and cool down in the AC when Divya dropped the bomb on me that Tamil Nadu does not believe in the concept of CCDs... WHAAATTTT??? Nearest CCD is in Shoolagiri..!! Well shit. We thought of finding an AC hotel in Salem and chilling out but we did not find any. And without any intention we were on the highway.

Stopped at Thoppur Toll Naka for some refreshing juice, went ahead and suddenly the sky became overcast. Soon it started raining.........!!!!!


Thank the rain gods... it was such a deep deep sense of pleasure to get soaked in the rain after going 40 kms through 40 degrees.


The rain stopped and simultaneously we also stopped at Thoppur A2B. It was extremely crowded and we did not even enter, just relaxed in the parking lot. About half an hour later we started our way back to Bangalore. I knew it was going to rain but apart from covering the tail bag with the rain cover neither of us had any intention to not get wet.

2 kms out of Thoppur A2B - it starts raining... Yes this is awesome - this is exactly what I wanted...

5 minutes later the rain intensifies and I am soaked to the BONES. Ok this is good - but a little less would have been ideal.

3 minutes later visibility has reduced to 30 meters, the sky is dark, it feels like freaking 6:30 in the evening and the time on my console shows 4:30. There are violent crosswinds and I can see sheets of water moving across the road pushing me form one side to the other.

WTF..!!! I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS...!!!!

On top of that there was no sign of Mr. Mod...!! Plus all the cars had pulled over to the side of the road with their hazards ON, all the trucks had pulled over like wise and I was literally on the road alone. WTF??? I kept thinking why the hell are ALL cars pulling up??? It was freaking me out kind of.

But Divya had raced ahead and there was no sign of him stopping anywhere. So I looked at my console, I was doing 73 kmph through TORRENTIAL RAINS, and all of sudden I just felt that this is it. I am going to stick to 73 kmph NO MATTER WHAT.

After that it was half an hours battle to keep the bike on the road and stable as sheets of water were violently pushing me around as if I was a toy. The people in couple of cars that passed me were literally staring at me - probably thinking is this guy a maniac for riding in this weather??

But really the worse part was the cross winds with the rains.

For the next half an hour there was no sign of Divya. I again started worrying. Where the hell is this guy?? Has he raced so much ahead? 45 kms before Krishnagiri the rains stopped, still no sign of Divya. 35 kms for Krishnagiri. 25 kms for Krishnagiri... DUDE WHERE IS THIS GUY???

15 kms before Krishnagiri I see a white ZMR parked on the side of the road - well thank freaking god..!!

We stopped for tea, everything was soaked but the viaterra rain covers held up - not a drop went inside.

My main concern was to not get stuck in this kind of weather system again. And so we got back on the road. But the farther we got from Krishnagiri the clearer it got that the rains were far behind.

After Hosur the CRAZY traffic started again. People doing all sorts of antics for god knows what reasons. One scooter guy tried to kill himself by coming in front of a speeding truck - lived somehow. One bald uncle tried to kill me by side swiping me. I lived somehow. Divya got raced by 2 fools on a Unicorn, then got cut by some mad person in a car. It was complete madness.

But soon enough we were in Bangalore. Bangalore Traffic i.e.

An hour and half from Koramangala to BEL road. Meh.

We took a last stop for the day at our local bakery thinking over the days events.

This had been a great ride. Healthy touristy type stuff, followed by high adventure in crazy rains... Many memories to take away from Yercaud.



All in all a nice 510 kms on a random Sunday.

Cheers!

-sid

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Haha..!! Thanks @nadz11.ns ..!! Arre aap jahan chahe post kar sakte ho - galti hui toh hui..!! No worries...!!

Re: Yercaud - When Tourers Become Tourists...

@plasmabhai, awesome write up! I'm glad you took the task of putting our experience into words, I couldn't have done it so beautifully.

Sadly, since my PC is busted, I may have to put pics right out of FB here (meaning resolution loss).

(Oooo, low res pics?)

Re: Yercaud - When Tourers Become Tourists...

But you have taken more pics than me, you can share the ones you took when my cam was in the bag. Low resolution doesn't matter - my pics are also shared from picasa - thats 800 px across. Any way - your call...

Re: Yercaud - When Tourers Become Tourists...

Ok boss.

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Few pics from my end. (right from start with [MENTION=42765]plasmabhai[/MENTION] arriving to him departing.)

Re: Yercaud - When Tourers Become Tourists...

Awesome writeup Plasmabhai . Amazing pics as usual. Loved reading it.

Sent from my HUAWEI G700-U10 using xBhp Connect mobile app

Re: Yercaud - When Tourers Become Tourists...

Amazing trip and equally amazing write-up. Seems Divya bhai is quite a racer (since he disappeared in the torrential rains ) Please post some cornering pics also Mr.Mod

Re: Yercaud - When Tourers Become Tourists...

Me no racer. Just that I maintain a not so fast speed all the time.

I do have one cornering pic before rains hit us, but I can't share that here for obvious reasons.


Tapatalk'd from my stupid phone!

Re: Yercaud - When Tourers Become Tourists...

Waah mod babu!! Zabardast! on a different note, your rear tyre seems like a Zapper C ? What profile?

Re: Yercaud - When Tourers Become Tourists...

MRF Zapper Q 110/90-18 Tube Type. (you cannot use it in Leh)

Re: Yercaud - When Tourers Become Tourists...

Yeah....Zapper Q is not on my list anyway
Nice trip there!

Re: Yercaud - When Tourers Become Tourists...

ek no [MENTION=42765]plasmabhai[/MENTION]....awesome crisp writing. Seems like after writing numerous journals and assignments, this was necessary.
Mod bhai ka kya kehna....I can see new break and clutch levers on his bike
Nice writeup and beautiful pics.

Re: Yercaud - When Tourers Become Tourists...

Thanks G1 ..!! Actually the write up went a bit out of hand to be honest... Thanks for reading it..!

Thanks buddy... Actually in hindsight it was me who slowed down a bit too much. Divya bhai can race - but he is not a racer..!!

Thanks Saquib bhai... And Mod bhai ke new levers look really kick ass... You should totally check them out in person...