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**The Monk** · 06-15-2017, 12:05 PM

Re: The Valparai Sojourn

Travelogue Approved

**MukundRao** · 06-15-2017, 12:46 PM

Re: The Valparai Sojourn

Cloudy weather but clear pictures !! Awaiting for the story

**WindPacer** · 06-15-2017, 01:15 PM

Re: The Valparai Sojourn

[MENTION=84424]yasii_leo[/MENTION] Eagerly waiting for the detailed write-up and pictures :-)

ATGATT !!!

Cheers,
WindPacer

**yasii_leo** · 06-15-2017, 01:39 PM

Re: The Valparai Sojourn

Originally posted by MukundRao View Post

Cloudy weather but clear pictures !! Awaiting for the story

It wasn't as cloudy as it looks, that's the HDR filter doing it's job! 😁

**yasii_leo** · 06-15-2017, 01:40 PM

Re: The Valparai Sojourn

Originally posted by The Monk View Post

Travelogue Approved

Thank you 🙂

**sajalsheth** · 06-15-2017, 02:00 PM

Re: The Valparai Sojourn

@yasii_leo ji

**experimentalhead** · 06-15-2017, 02:34 PM

Re: The Valparai Sojourn

Super Start. Cool pictures.
Made me nostalgic and took me back in time to my Valparai ride

**amods** · 06-15-2017, 02:43 PM

Re: The Valparai Sojourn

Monsoon trip pictures are always treat to eye ! Log please..

**sunilg** · 06-15-2017, 04:47 PM

Re: The Valparai Sojourn

Lovely pictures there! I've been on that Cochin - Munnar - Valparai route a few times, and it is beautiful.

Thanks for showing how it looks in the rainy season!

**hypheni** · 06-17-2017, 04:42 PM

Re: The Valparai Sojourn

It seems that monsoon ride has already been started in the southern part of India. Waiting for monsoon to arrive in the east. BTW those Gixxer are looking pretty cute only the RE doesn't matching with the cuteness.

**Murali 03** · 06-20-2017, 07:58 AM

Re: The Valparai Sojourn

Nice Picture's...

**yasii_leo** · 06-21-2017, 09:13 AM

Re: The Valparai Sojourn

Prologue:
It all started about three weeks before D-Day. I badly wanted to go for a ride. I asked many for company but with most of my close friends not being too much into motorcycling, riding with one of them seemed a bit impossible at that point. So I turned to my friends at work, and the same weird look, Valparai? On a bike? 🙄

Day 1, Saturday,9th June, 2017:

I woke up all of a sudden, not from some weird dream this time. I just woke up, checked my phone, 3:31 am it showed! Damn, I was awake two hours before the time I set an alarm for. Every night before a roadtrip, this is something usual for me (most tourers experience the same I guess). Every single night before a ride or a drive, I promise to my body that I'll sleep well enough, and I end up breaking it. Till date, my body has never punished me for it, perhaps it's always as excited as my mind is about a roadtrip! And so I created a story in Instagram sharing my excitement and tried to go back to sleep, which I obviously couldn’t. So, I started watching Mumbiker Nikhil’s travel vlogs (motovlogs- something which I would be starting someday soon), to further increase the excitement.
I woke up (or better stated as got up from the bed), at about 5:30 am, packed up all the stuff, including the documents for which I ran around a bit, a couple of days back. I unpacked my riding gear (just knee guards and gloves, the gloves were getting dusty within it’s pouch!). Got my mobile setup ready within the rain jacket and pants, and was all set to leave. And that’s when what this ride was meant to be about happened, right from the start, it all began with a heavy downpour! I decided to start off anyway, to stop and wait for the others at a nearby place (Kakkanad, Kochi - Most techies working in Kerala would know this place!). The route towards Valparai was through Athirapally- Vazhachal, the return was planned to be via pollachi! So, the others arrived a bit late and we started off towards Adersh’s house, yea, I almost forgot to mention, though I tried convincing almost everyone to come by motorcycle, it didn’t seem to be a feasible option for many due to various reasons and so it was just three(Vishnu, Me and Jaison - yes, thats’ the order in the photo!) of us on bikes in the end. And finally after all the minor delays, when we started off for Adersh’s place, Jaison saw his someone special, and stopped to chat a bit (Ahem, well, it turned out to be a little more than a bit as we grew impatient waiting a bit forward, and almost decided to turn around and get him!). It was quite a calm ride until Adersh’s place, and from there, the others stepped into the car, and me and Jaison got all geared up, and ready for the ride! Yes, Vishnu would join us only after Angamaly, nearby his place en route to Athirapally! So, the next stop was Angamali, where we stopped for breakfast at Aryas (yea, I know, yummy dosas they make!). We left from there at about 8:30 am, and then we met Vishnu after Mukkanoor on way to Athirapally.

Well, I forgot to give a brief about my fellow riders, so here goes - Jaison: Laid back, haven’t ridden much other than the 70 odd km rides to his hometoiwn from Kochi, a really calm and composed rider! Vishnu - RE fan, like the usual ones who ride a bullet, damn crazy about that machine, a bit inexperienced and impatient when it comes to riding, yea, I did get a bit irritated by the zig-zag manoeuvres by him later on, but nevertheless, showed some great spirit to ride endlessly throughout the journey! And about me, well, I don’t know, I guess I ride okay!.

Here is a route map of our journey :

First view - Athirapally Waterfalls

Yeah, right, a portion of Baahubali was shot here. But besides the association with that epic movie, the waterfalls itself is quite an epic visual from up close! Here are some clicks, we took over there:

We ended up spending about two hours over there as we ended up exploring the entire place (wherever it was possible to venture!). In the end, the guards came and shooed us away from almost underneath the epic falls!

Second view - Vazhachal Waterfalls

There wasn’t much to see at this place (atleast we weren’t interested as we had just spent about more than two hours at Athirapally, what’s Vazhachal compared to that!). So this was the beginning of the forest, it was almost 2 pm and we hadn’t had lunch yet. And the rain gods looked furious, and it started raining, not so heavy yet. We provided the vehicle details and took the pass to get through the forest check-post. After about two or three kms, we stopped at a roadside restraurant which according to the guards at the checkpost was the last one before sholayar. It seemed like a place where the food would be as old as the cob-webs at it's windows. But we were wrong to have thought so, the food was really good (well, it atleast tasted good, which might have been due to the fact that we were damn hungry!). So we were done with lunch, and all ready to ride through the Forest! (Well, I was praying that we don't come across any elephants, the guards warned us about a lone tusker who was out to explore the roads just like us!). Anyways, like I said the rain gods who seemed really furious started showing it off! This was honestly the worst rain, I had ever experienced in recent times, and oh boy, what a time to feel it all. After about half an hour of riding, it felt like my feet were floating within my boots. Trust me, it was the most irritating feeling ever, but I wasn't in a mood to take notice of the irritation, I was too lost in the bliss of riding on roads smooth as glass (yes, wet and skiddy!), total greenery all around, no one to help out if anything went wrong and yeah, ofcourse at each turn, the fear of the lone tusker kept looming as well. We weren't revving hard, as it was raining cats and dogs, and there was considerable traffic at the otherwise empty roads(according to what I heard!). After riding for about two hours or so continuosly, we reached sholayar! Well, the rain gradually started to disappear and from the wild and furious climate of the forests, we entered into something equivalent to Heaven I'd say. Tea estates on either sides, beautiful roads and mist all around, we stopped and stood there for a while. It was damn cold especially since we the bikers were fully drenched in rain! The photo just after the prologue kinda expresses what we felt at that point, thanks to Adersh who captured the moment! We continued the ride till we reached our stay for the night, yea it was almost five now!(All plans of exploring the Mannampali forest range were postponed, only to find out the next day that prior permission had to be taken for the same!) Coffee Cottages- that's where we stayed, thanks to Vishnu for finding this one out, and it was cheap too. Check out the the view we had :

We all woke up to a much better view than this pic actually, it was beautiful in the morning!

Me, Jaison and Vishnu started removing the rain liners, and hung it out to dry (at the entrance to our cottage!). My shoes looked like they would remain as wet, for the rest of the journey for sure, there was definitely no going back to dry for them! We started freshening up one by one, and Adersh and Stephin set out to buy snacks, and some food. The electricity at the cottage kept going off frequently, we started discussing random shit over dinner, the usual stuff when a bunch of guys get together, and everyone pointed out that we should do this very often! I was happy at hearing that (More rides, I grinned in happiness, the evil kinda smile! ). We all slept by about 10:30, and I dont remember exactly, but we sure did blabber about so much nonsense (Me, Dileep and Jaison) just before falling asleep, and no, we weren't drunk! . I woke up like usual at about 2 in the night, and found it hard to go back to sleep. But somehow managed after about half an hour I guess. Woke up in the morning, and went out immediately, to witness serenity as I'd call it, it was such a pleasure to watch the mist slowly clearing up , and the green strecth of the sholayar reservoir in all it's glory!

All of us got ready, as soon as possible, as we still hadn't seen much, and there were a few places which we planned to see. So, we were ready and before we left, the cottage incharge, captured us with "the view" in the background.

Third View - The Sholayar Dam

Our first stop for the day was sholayar dam, which was quite close to the place we stayed. Reached there, and then it was time for some amazing photos. Let the pcitures do the talking:

That's Jaison on the left!

Dileep, lost in thoughts! (Nah, just posing!)

Stephin to my right, Lijo to my left. And Vishnu and Adersh at the top left and right respectively.

And once we were done clicking, we left for Valparai town, where we had breakfast. Wasn't anything worth mentioning, but was okay! Then it was on to our next view, which we were confused about, we enquired about Manampalli, and realized that it wasn't possible as I had said earlier. The next option we had was Neelamudi Pooncholai, we set the location on google maps and started off, and we went through different roads for a while and ended up nowhere, when we asked one of the locals, they said that the route we were taking would take us to Neelamudi Pooncholai but the roads were too bad, or in short it would be an off-road adventure, which the Alto K10 wasn't prepared for (maybe it could have, but we didn't want to take such a risk with not much time left!). The next destination we decided as loam's view point followed by Aliyar Dam. Luckily on the way, we ended up visting two more places!

Fourth View - Koolangal River
A good view-point, where there were many taking photos and a few of them bathing as well. We took some photos, and chatted a bit at this place. Let the photos do the talking :

Lijo version of lost in thoughts!

The Gang!

And we were all set to leave for Loam's view point next, little did we know that on the way, we would meet someone who'd lead us to the most amazing experience of this trip.

On the way, just before setting out to Loam's view:

Fifth View - The Epic 'Thalanar'

Vishnu went ahead of us for a while, and on the way we noticed a deviation. Vishnu was chatting with someone over there, we stopped and got out to enquire. The man said that there is an amazing view point if we drove up this road, we could see a drastic climate change (right now, it was about 25 degrees, and sun peeping out once in a while kinda climate), but he also warned there was a probability of running into tuskers or wild bisons, and that the road was hardly visible once we went up a little further. It didn't seem like the climate would change that drastically, and we thought he must be exaggerating.

We started the climb, cautiously, as gradually we weren't able to see much, we were witnessing the drastic change he mentioned about. What he said was true, oh my, the tuskers , the bisons, that too??? . We kept climbing, we saw another group of bikers, climbing down, so we assumed that there was nothing dangerous when they went, so there was some relief. We continued the climb, and it started getting really misty, covered up in clouds which we saw from the bottom, we were almost at the top of that mountain! We stopped, and got out, freezing cold, windy, misty and what not! It would be hard to put it into words, the kinda climate we experienced there, we saw elephant dung on the way up here, so we were also cautious about that fact, but this was something different totally! It was one of those moments, where you feel like you're the happiest man in the world! And yes, I believe I was at that point, and so was everyone else with me. The best part of motorcycling is the amazing views, which are offered like rewards in return of the endurance we went through, I don't know whether it felt the same, for those who drove up in the car. But what we felt is true bliss! The photos wouldn't do justice to what we saw and experienced at that point, so I am skipping it. We decided to descend down a couple of rounds, where there was a place to get a view of the mountains from the edge of one! Let the photos do the talking, and yes, all, these were taken just a slip away from what could have been sure death :

Now you know, what we're talking about.

And after a while, we decided to leave. Next stop, Loam's View point!

Sixth View - Loam's Viewpoint

I had seen a lot of photos of this place in Instagram before leaving for the trip, and it was just as beautiful as it was in the pics! Loam's view point is on the way to Aliyar, after lots of twisties, it's truly a rider's perfect break after having cornered his way through the twisties, a simple yet beautiful view. It's here that we came across our first wildlife sighting during the trip, and it wasn't a tusker nor a bison, it was this :

So, after clicking a few pics, we left, one of them being my favourite pic of the journey, my current profile pic here, the one that was posted as part of the intro for this travelogue. I just love that pic, it explains a lot, I guess! Thanks to Jaison for the click, he understood the kinda pic I wanted, and clicked an even better one!

Seventh View - Aliyar Dam

It was almost 2 pm, by the time we reached Aliyar Dam, and we were all damn hungry. And with the hotel salesmen (I know right! Damn, that kid who screamed his voice out and got us into that shop) screaming their voices out for their share of customers, we got into one which seemed quite crowded. And then on, till we got out, we tasted some really bad food! We all had the worst fish fry of our lives, from the smell of which it was quite certain that it's been many days since the corpse has arrived!(of the fish ofcourse ). We finished our yucky lunch, and entered the Aliyar dam park, through which we could get to the top of the dam. Sat down for a while, and drank lotrs of water to get that yucky taste out of our mouths! It refused to go away, anyway. it was almost 3 pm, and we had a ride of about 230 kms remaining, the others went out to check out the prices for boating, while we clicked a few more pics:

Now that, all our viewpoints were over, it was time to enjoy the ride!

Next stop was decided as Pollachi, to have some tea and for a loo break ofcourse. So far, I had been riding behind the car, due to the fact that I didn't wanna get lost, and Jaison was also there behind me. But it was time for me to ride freely without the restrictions that a car in front imposes upon you (braking distance, ride by the driver's wheel etc). So I decided to rev hard, and get to Pollachi asap. As I accelerated past Vishnu and Jaison, I indicated them to follow (Jaison chose to ride behind the car yet again, I guess), I was able to see Vishnu in my rear view mirror for sometime but then he started disappearing too. 80, 87, 95, 101, 110 - That was the speed range during this stretch. I asked people for directions in between, even then there was no sign of Vishnu or the others (Did they take the turn towards thrissur before Pollachi??? Adersh mentioned about such a way but was decided that we would go via pollachi only.) I waited for half an hour at Pollachi, and the sight of the others was a relief (I didn't wanna ride back alone ofcourse). We said that we would stop somewhere before Thrissur when we saw a nice restaurant, but ended up not stopping till 30 kms before Thrissur, thanks to my innate nature of not stopping while riding/driving (I have heard all kinds of abuses from Parents, Friends, etc for this irritating habit of mine!). For me, while travelling, everything other than the ride or drive takes a side seat, I don't feel hungry while travelling (if I'm riding or driving that is, and yeah, I hate to not be in the driver's seat!). Unfortunately, it's not the same for everyone, so I have had my share of complaints for the same (against me!). So we stopped at a small teashop, about 30 kms before Thrissur, and had some tea and snacks. Vishnu was to go a different route from here on, so it was bye bye to him for the trip. Me and Jaison decided that we would go together not trailing behind the car, so I set the map, one of my headphones plugged in with some music playing, and the occasional shouts from the G-Lady to turn right and left and stay on the national highway for so and so metres or kilometres! This was my first long stretch at night, I'm not a fan of riding at night due to the condition our roads, and also the idiots on road who kill it with their brights! I wish people were more aware about such things, the number of road accidents would have drastically reduced if people had basic awareness about safe driving/riding! Okay, not good at preaching, and so I won't

We were hardly able to see anything, thanks, to the no street light stretches in between on the highway, and also it started raining, and due to road works goin on, there were huge potholes (like the craters on moon, from the look and feel of it!), some of them into which we tested our suspensions. And these potholes appear dramatically, from nowhere, when the entire road is so good, and also when you're at good speeds as well! But yea, we started using the lights of other vehicles as we maneouvred our way through the potholes without reducing the speed much. We were doing speeds of about 75-80 throughout the stretch, and I occasionally had my speed runs as well, touched 113 in the process (which was my top speed on Gixxer so far!). Jaison would go missing every now and then, and I had to slow down, a bit to get sight of him. The reason why I say he is laid back, he would never go beyond the limit no matter what, and that's a good trait on roads I feel, one that would keep you alive so that you ride another day!

We had this good mojo, of riding together till we almost reached Aluva, where both of our bikes had got into reserve, and we decided to fuel up. Took a short break of 5 mins after riding for about 160 kms at a stretch! The Gixxers were doing great, we never had to worrry about it during the entire journey, no issues whatsoever. We met up with Adersh and gang (the alto K10), and stopped at Aluva for dinner. From all the meals during the journey, this was the best! I couldn't eat much but it was a huge relief to have some good food finally. We left for Adersh's house, from there and it started raining heavily again, and once again, my boots which somehow managed to get dry got drenched in water. And Jaison, well, he got lost on the way to Adersh's place, missed a right turn and ended up at Adersh's place about an hour later after we all had left from there and reached our respective homes!

A mix of roads , this journey was, we rode through almost all kinds of roads except no roads! A wild stretch through the forests which was really narrow, the beautiful twisties from Valparai to Aliyar, and then the single lane highway, followed by the three lane highway and roads undergoing construction too! It all started with a heavy rain and ended with one as well. My knee guards were the only thing that didnt' get wet thanks to Quecha rain pants! As I reached home, and looked at the odo, 470 kms, I started thinking when next! This trip was the much needed break for me, I really thank my friends from work for joining especially Vishnu and Jaison who gave me company by deciding to ride! Well this is my first travelogue ever, and I hope I haven't bored you guys with my too detailed story of the trip! So, until the next ride!

P.S. : Ride safe guys, you get to ride another day!

**Naughty VaIsH** · 06-21-2017, 10:53 AM

Re: The Valparai Sojourn

Valparai is one of my favorite spot ..

**shiv4747** · 06-23-2017, 12:22 PM

Re: The Valparai Sojourn

Awesome pictures and seems you guys had great time.

Valparai is always something special.

Ride safe
SSB

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The Valparai Sojourn

The Valparai Sojourn

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