Re: Exploring South India - Part 2

This image sends a shiver down my spine. Awesome!

Re: Exploring South India - Part 2

Day 5 : Ab jo hua so hua, chal ke thoda sight seeing kar lete hai yaar..

Kodaikanal

We had booked the hotel for just one night hence the Hotel owner wanted us to either pay 1000 bucks as it was a weekend or leave. After a little argument, we left not because of the amount but more because of his arrogant attitude. We checked in a different lodge for that day. Shifting the half packed stuff from one lodge to another was the difficult part.

Bad start of the day but we dealt with it. Then we headed for a usual sight seeing. On our list was Pillar Rocks, Pombarai, Silver Cascade, Bear Shola falls, Golf ground and few more (don't remember).

The weather kept changing its faces .... some time sunny, next moment clouds all over. The weather keeps changing in matter of minutes.

Visited Solar Observatory too but didn't click any pics of that as camera was not allowed there.

Show Time :






Pillar Rocks




No bikes allowed beyond this point. So we dropped the plan of going ahead in bus.
The road led to Berijam Lake.

On the way to Bear Shola falls




Bear Shola Falls


Guna Caves entance


We did not find any "caves" but the place was nice and spooky : Guna Caves


Perfect suicide spot


On the way to Pombarai

Pombarai ... a small hamlet covered in clouds


Pombarai


Pombarai


Pombarai


A mosque hidden in the clouds : Pombarai


On the way back from pomabarai


Silver Cascade Falls

A small clip of the ride back from Pombarai :

Re: Exploring South India - Part 2

Haha... I too had similar feeling all through the way. The form we have seen nature that day cannot be explained. Unfortunately I could click very few of what we saw and experienced.

Re: Exploring South India - Part 2

Excellent travellogue, the Nillgirie's did bring back my childhood memories, when we traveled south for our summer vacations, my uncle used to stay at Kotagiri, and we used to do Ooty, Connor, during those trips.

Regards

Vinod

Re: Exploring South India - Part 2

Thank you so much

Nilgiris are really beautiful... they tkeep calling me back.

Re: Exploring South India - Part 2

Well, your pictures are definitely giving the necessary temptations :P

Will do sometime, hopefully pretty soon

Keep riding, keep sharing! :thumbup:

Re: Exploring South India - Part 2

Thanks. .. more coming soon

Re: Exploring South India - Part 2

Nice TL, excellent photo, right time !! Thanks for sharing.

Re: Exploring South India - Part 2

Thank you so much ... Rest of the journey coming soon.

Re: Exploring South India - Part 2

Day 6 : Ab itna door aa gaye hai toh thoda Kerala bhi dekh lete hai :P

Kodaikanal - Munnar

Before leaving Kodaikanal, booked a Home-stay in Munnar. We left Kodaikanal at around 6 am. Weather was chilling cold. I wore all the jackets I had to protect myself.

Sky remained clean all throughout the day. The journey till Munnar was all too scenic and the roads were good so we took minimum breaks also distance was considerably less.

Loads of curves and corners but narrow roads of Kerala was not very inspiring for cornering. Followed GPS and lost our way somewhere

Boy oh boy ... the roads of Kerala defy gravity, I mean inclination more than 45 degrees at some places ... We were like shocked whether our bikes would climb or not.

Language barrier was a big issue, locals were not able to help us locate our home-stay due to language issue

After a lot of searching and hunting, we located it. Beautiful House ... Awesome!! .. dumped our luggage, got freshened up and left for Munnar. Munnar was just few kilometers from that home stay. We tried to cover up few of the places-to-visit in Munnar before calling it a day. We could see hills from the window of our room. Lovely place.

Munnar is a beautiful small hill-station, full of tea gardens, ideal for honeymoon couples

The home-stay was very well maintained, food was a bit too spicy for my taste, my bad I did not mention them to keep spice levels low in our food. The homestay was affordable too, 700 bucks for a night excluding food. Not bad !!

We took a small walk down the lane just outside our home-stay in the evening. There were many other home stays on that small street. Every home stay looked beautiful and well maintained.

Photo Time :


Just after we started from kodaikanal


Clear sky


The remains of 2 days of heavy shower






A small waterfall on the way to Munnar


The best pic of me with my bike anyone has ever clicked






Our beautiful Home Stay


God's own country


Echo point


Biker Selfie


Tea Gardens








Kerala was truly beautiful ... Really God's own Country

Re: Exploring South India - Part 2

It's 'God's own country' for a reason Beautiful!

Wallpaper worthy pictures :thumbup:

Re: Exploring South India - Part 2

Thank you so much

Yeah it totally justifies the saying "God's own country"

Re: Exploring South India - Part 2

Day - 7 : Bhai aj Valparai pe cornering karenge

Munnar - Kozhikode (Calicut)


We started of early from Munnar, it was still dark when we left our home-stay, bid the owner good bye. He was a nice guy who took care of us very well.

We both knew it was going to be a very long day through unknown and remote places. After we crossed Munnar, we started looking for Anamudi peak, could capture it in pic but could not find a way to reach there.

We rode miles and miles to very very remote forests. We rode through " Indira Gandhi National park". The roads were extremely remote with very scarce traffic. Our luggage was checked at both the forest entrance and exit check posts.

After getting lost at various places, taking unknown diversions we were on the road that led to Valparai. We stopped by a restaurant to fill our tummies before we race our way to Valparai. We were extremely excited to ride through the hair pins of Valparai.

We rode through the hair pin bends of Valparai... to the top, but unlike my anticipation, the corners were so tight and with quite a bit of scattered traffic, it was not possible to enjoy the corners. I rather rode with caution keeping safety in mind. Nevertheless, it was great fun to ride through endless corners.

After we reached Valparai, we rode ahead through another unknown route following our GPS. The road led us through the dense and never-ending "Sholayar Reserve Forest". We also came across Sholayar Dam.

Kozhikode was a long way to go, we kept riding and riding and riding. The weather suddenly changed its mood and it rained heavily. We wore our rain gears and continued riding. A very good friend of mine "Bahir" booked a room for us in Kozhikode.

We checked in the lodge at around 8pm, freshened up and Bahir took us out for dinner and a little sigh seeing. It was 9 pm already by that time.

We had amazing dinner and "Sarbat" which is syrup mixed in milk. I would suggest everyone to try "Sarbat" if you happen to be in Kozhikode. Spent some time on the beach, the sky was still thundering with strong winds. Little did we know what we were heading towards.

Photo Roll :






Tea Estates




Valparai hair pin bends


Sholayar Dam










Frist rays of sun on Anamudi peak










Somewhere in Sholayar Reserve Forest


Our friend Bahir who booked our stay in Calicut and took us round the town in his car.
It was a an amazing evening trying yummy delicacies and travelling around in a car, while it kept raining outside.
PS: Sorry for the sad faces, the guy who was clicking clicked without warning.

Re: Exploring South India - Part 2

😍 I'm pretty sure I won't be reaching my destinations in time if I was riding in such scenic routes!

Very tempting pics! Very! :thumbup:

Re: Exploring South India - Part 2

This was the reason we had no definite plan of our destinations, we just saw places on the map and rode towards it, had our won time enjoying the beauty of nature.

Thanks again.

The last leg of the journey coming up soon. The absurd end of the journey.