Re: Ride for redemption - Exploring Kanthalloor and Munnaar!

Travelogue Approved

Nicely put together there. Glad that xBhpians are forever inspiring each other to ride

Re: Ride for redemption - Exploring Kanthalloor and Munnaar!

Nice log. Enjoyed going through it!

Re: Ride for redemption - Exploring Kanthalloor and Munnaar!

Thanks for the quick approval @The Monk! This is my first official travelogue, so forgive me if i don't meet up to the standards!

We only took photos on our cell phones, and the photos might not do justice to what was actually witnessed!

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Thanks @krishna77! It's guys like you and the biker brethren that still keep the flame alive inside us! Respect!

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The distance measured by our ever loving friend; Google!




The stage was set up a billion years ago; the actors getting into gear, down come the screens, and ACTION! “Houston! We have lift off!”

The Characters:
Rajesh Kumar on the Continental GT
Raghu Ram on the ever lovin Yamaha FZS
Suresh Babu (Ghost Gopalan) on the Bajaj Avenger
Manoj on the classic black and orange FZS
Venkat on the Battle ready FZS
Francis on the Fazer, and
Yours truly on the baby ceeber.


DAY 1: Thursday 2/7/2015

So, as we all know, theory and practical usage of the theory do not always go hand in hand. We started from office by 3and only got onto the highway at 4:30 AM, after a chai break. Initially it was planned for six of us to start from Chennai, and Francis from Bangalore, meet up at Dindigul. Unfortunately, Venkat had mixed up the dates and applied for leave on the 3^rd and 4^th, but we made sure he felt the brunt of it! So it was decided that Francis would ride from Bangalore to Chennai and accompany Venkat on the 3^rd to Kanthalloor. So it was just me, Raghu, Rajesh, Manoj and Ghost Gopalan on the highway. Our speed was adjusted according to the slowest bike in the lot. We had our first break in a tea shop in Maduranthagam.

The rest of the journey was uneventful till Dindigul, where we got off the highway and went in search of the original “Dindigul Thalapakatti” biriyani! The food wasn’t all that bad, but not excellent either. After filling our stomachs, we headed down to the parking lot, lubed the bikes’ chains and headed out to the highway. Now, it is to be noted that, while travelling solo or in a small group, the average speed is considerably in the decent 90’s, but our group did have a few noobs, and this was their first time out on any sort of road trip, hence the average speed came down to sixties, not to forget breaks.




The route we took was Chennai-Trichy-Dindigul-Udumalpet-Marayoor-Kanthalloor.








This is what awaited us, soul starved weary travellers! I only wish i worked in a place like this, where i do not have to have coffee to get refreshed, i could just take a look out the window!




What happens when a rat, or a snake comes into our home? It gets beat to a pulp. Some even go the distance of burning the creatures after killing them. These are commonly termed as pests.

Keeping in mind, the above example, what happens when humans forage into elephant territory uninvited? We again get beat to a pulp and thrown off the face of the cliff!

Now, when we entered the Amaravathi Wildlife reserve forest, we were all awed at how beautiful the scenery was, and how untouched nature seemed compared to the concrete jungles we were raised in. It was surely a fresh feeling! But, we were also aware that we were in tiger territory, and had to make a move, lest we fall prey to that big striped cat! So we hauled ass, packed our selfie stick and rode out of there, to make matters worse, the sun was setting fast, even though we were heading west and light was fading. By nightfall, we crossed the reserve to only be greeted by another forest reserve! The Chinnar Wildlife Reserve, which accommodates 4 different herds of elephants, wild boars and hordes of peacocks! We were checked by the forest officers, who looked at us like we were crazy going into the jungle in the night, with just our bikes, and even cautioned us saying that there was a herd of elephants that just started climbing the mountain. We had the luck to see a wild boar and several peacocks en route.

The Kerala border/Forest check post is pretty thorough, they went through our baggage in detail, and enquired about our destination, and were surprised we'd be mad enough to go into the jungle on nothing more than two wheels!





Now, it’s common knowledge that wild elephants, when in herds, are somewhat docile rather than single elephants, or elephants protecting their young ones. We were in the elephants’ front yard, riding on their grass and making a ruckus. We were the pests! Rajesh was so enthusiastic after witnessing the ghat section, that his exact words were”Machi! Na front’la poraen, horn adicha, munnadi vandi varudhu’nu understand pannikonga!”. The literal translation was, he wanted to take the lead this time and he also instructed us, if he honked, it means that there’s a vehicle coming in the opposite direction, and we have to take caution since it was a single lane road.

Remember the pests in the front yard? Well this band of five pests waltzed right into the living room of the elephants! Not more than 20 seconds of Rajesh’s dialogue, did we encounter three elephants, not more than 10 metres away! It was getting dark, and all we could see were giant silhouettes! One, assumingly a male, was climbing off the road and uphill into the forest, followed by a young one, and assumingly the female.

Elephants do not climb downhill, but have serious power to outrun you, uphill! Luckily we were downhill! Startled by all these bright lights and weird noises from the engines and exhausts, the male elephant quickly climbed onto a cliff above us and left a blood curdling scream! Man, I have never in my life been able to make a U-turn on my CBR on a good day in a single lane road more than 8 feet wide. This road was just about six feet wide. Oh, how I held onto the front disc brake and gunned the throttle! My rear wheel started spinning, almost went over the cliff, and amazingly turned to the opposite direction, and I went as far as I could get away from there! I was third in line, and Rajesh was first on the Avenger, and Raghu second on the FZ. Rajesh followed my exact same maneuver, and high tailed downhill! In all this ruckus, Raghu was caught in between the elephants and the CGT making a turn, but somehow managed to get away as well!

We regrouped a few turns downhill, only to find that the male, on the cliff above us had followed us! Now it was pitch dark, and with our headlights illuminating just the road before us, we had no way of finding where the male elephant was coming from, but kept hearing the trumpets getting closer and closer! We then moved to a place where we were sure that the elephant above us cannot come down (we were standing right below a steep cliff about 20 metres high). We waited, some of us were thinking of turning back and spending the night in the checkpost!

As we waited, there was a few other motorcyclists who passed us, without heeding our warning. But, not to our surprise, came rushing back to regroup with us once they saw the real scene ahead. The same follows suit for a Pajero, an Alto and an Innova. They passed us, we heard the brakes being applied, and the sound of the reverse gear being engaged, and voila! They regrouped with us. By now, the male elephant was nowhere to be seen, but we could hear it’s trumpeting becoming more frantic, like almost as if it’s calling for reinforcements. To our luck, a Trax jeep came from the opposite direction, and stopped by us and told us to wait till the elephant moved uphill. He was a regular on this route and had seen many such incidents. He pushed off, and I still cannot comprehend for what reason, but he turned back, came to us, stopped his vehicle and did something that not only made me respect him, but also restored faith in the human race!

He got out of his vehicle, grabbed some sort of rag/sack from the back of the truck, and moved forward into the dark towards the elephants! He threw the rag close to them, and within minutes, both the baby elephant and the mother climbed into the jungle and disappeared from our sights! Do you think we find people like this in the so called advanced metros? NO WAY! We sincerely thanked him! It was around 7:45 PM as all this unfolded. We talked to the Pajero’s driver, who was coming to Munnar from Bangalore, to lead the way, we would follow him and the cars behind would tail us! He agreed, and man oh man! Do you remember the scene from Tokyo Drift, where the girl(I keep forgetting her name) takes the guy on a drive through the mountains in the night? Remember the trail of head lights? Yep, we followed suit! A GoPro was seriously missed here! We held speeds of 55kmph through these roads, and stuck to the Pajero for life, lest we become prey to the wild elephants! So we crossed the reserve and stopped at Marayoor junction and thanked the Pajero guy. He headed on towards Munnar and we took a left towards Kanthalloor. The rest was uneventful, we reached the cottage at 9:30PM, bought some hooch along the way, had dinner, drank to the good health of the elephants and crashed.

(We did not have the courage to stop and take photos of the route or elephants, so I sincerely apologize!)

Re: Ride for redemption - Exploring Kanthalloor and Munnaar!

DAY 2: In search of that ever elusive waterfall!

This is what we saw when we woke up the next day! Man, the view just hit me right in the face like a big fat tire! Bring out the phones, and click away! Mountains and mountains and more mountains!



The beautiful cottage we stayed in.


The parking area.




The fearless Rajesh! Climbing downhill! Wait and see how he fares uphill!



Man, I could almost live in this little hut and never ask for more! Unfortunately it was supported by highly suspicious looking logs that looked like it might give at any moment!













































We then decided to try our luck at getting into the Anamudi Shola park. Unfortunately, there were only jeeps allowed into the park and we were stopped at the checkpost itself. Upon talking to the forest officer, we learnt that a group of tigers had recently been introduced into the park, and they were even contemplating on shutting it down for tourists. Dont know if it would pan out. The route through Anamudi National park is the shortest way from Kanthalloor to Munnar, it saves about 50kms. But only jeeps make it through.

Re: Ride for redemption - Exploring Kanthalloor and Munnaar!

Good writeup there Jon👍

Sent from my XT1052 using Tapatalk

Re: Ride for redemption - Exploring Kanthalloor and Munnaar!

You got a nice accent of writing which along with the beautiful pictures becomes just "WOW" [emoji108]

Re: Ride for redemption - Exploring Kanthalloor and Munnaar!

Nice narration. Carry on!

Re: Ride for redemption - Exploring Kanthalloor and Munnaar!

Thanks [MENTION=76774]jatinarya[/MENTION] ! This is my first attempt at penning down anything, and i'm glad that you like it!

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Thanks [MENTION=57323]krishna77[/MENTION] ! Will have the rest up by this weekend. Back at the office, so things get pretty mushed up

Re: Ride for redemption - Exploring Kanthalloor and Munnaar!

DAY 3: Ahoy Munnar!

This is a variety of poison ivy. No I didnt touch to confirm!






These umbrella shaped trees are apparently 400 years old! They have extensive medical applications, and have also starred in the movie, 'Avatar'! Pretty cool right!





Our Jeep driver has to be appreciated, because, he did those offroading sections at about 70kmph in what we thought was a 4X4 but turned out to be a two wheel drive! We returned back sharp on schedule, had some breakfast and got ready for our sojourn to Munnar.


















































































Notice the wire going into the backpack? The FZS' battery was in the backpack!


Reached the cottage at 12:30AM, had dinner and settled in for the night.

DAY 4:

Re: Ride for redemption - Exploring Kanthalloor and Munnaar!

Awesome travelogue dude.........even through all the hardships ...........Truly a great story.........Hats off!!

Re: Ride for redemption - Exploring Kanthalloor and Munnaar!

Wow. Wonderful t-log. The elephant incident was truly scaring.

Re: Ride for redemption - Exploring Kanthalloor and Munnaar!

Super Calories Burning Ride. Good write up.

Re: Ride for redemption - Exploring Kanthalloor and Munnaar!

@Jon Niranjan Paul Nice composition Jon. Really enjoyed the travelogue. Top station pictures have come really well. So many events in one ride from elephants to a sleeping rider. Many memories to look back in your future. Keep posting. Loved reading a log after a long time.

Re: Ride for redemption - Exploring Kanthalloor and Munnaar!

Thanks guys! Kanthalloor is a really awesome place for a biker. All you need is 4 days to explore both kanthalloor and munnar. I'd recommend it to every biker here. The best time to go there would be in Nov-Dec as temperatures drop to about 8 degrees.