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Hi everyone. It’s been 6 months since my last trip (Pichavaram).
There was a conversation between me and my bike in dream by the way.
F.R.I.D.A.Y - Why the hell did you buy me? (Ethuku da enna kalyanam pannikita)
Me - To travel (Oor suthurathuku than)
F.R.I.D.A.Y - To where, the boring office, on OMR road and stand on traffic lights. (Enga Omr road, Tea shop, Sathyam Theatre. Ithuka?)
Me - Confused state
F.R.I.D.A.Y - Look at me! I am built to ride everywhere and you are just pissing me off. Either we are going for a long trip else I am divorcing you immediately.
Me – Dream over I got up in shock.
Time showed as 3 AM. I went down to parking and looked at her(my bike).
Immediately called my friend Raghav (he was working at that time).
Again a conversation
Me – Machan, Plan for a Kerala Trip.
Raghav – Idiot, Shut up and sleep. (Poramboku. Mooditu thoongu da)
Me – Dude, Am serious are you coming or not? (O***, variya lllaya?)
Raghav – Budget tight da. I can’t make it to the trip. Plan for a 2 day trip to somewhere else.
Me – (Day before this dream, I have read a trip log about Kolli malai in xbhp and Team-bhp) let’s go to Kolli malai machan. 2 days trip
Raghav – But I can’t afford that dude. You know am working on 24/7 support project and blah blah blah.
After lot of Persuading he accepted, then came a surprise. We don’t have to take any leaves at all actually.
29th, 30th September and October 1st and 2nd were continuous holidays for most of the IT sector guys in Chennai.
Next comes the heavy part – Convincing my Parents L
I know about my dad that he won’t even accept to pondichery and we are gonna ask permission for an 800kms trip.
So first I informed my Mom about it. Initially she was reluctant but she is the only one who trusts more on my riding and she just replied Saturday night you must eat in home dot.
Mom asked me to script the drama to Dad that your friend is getting married and you both are leaving in car with other friends to Salem. My friend looked at me smiling and said lucky you. (antha karadiku enna oru santhosham
).So on 28th of September we finished all our works soon in office and reached home by 5 PM to prepare the bikes. Washed with josh, cleaned the chain and lubed it.
Mom helped me in packing stuff while I was busy downloading routes in Maps applications.
Our initial plan was to start by morning 6 AM at least and reach Kolli malai by 2 o clock at the max.
Usually when we are going for a trip on next day people won’t get sleep due to excitement, anxiety. But me snoring till 5 30 AM. Raghav with his brother directly came to my bed room and waked me up. (pinnadiye oru kick vittan)
Got ready in hurry and left by 6 30 AM. Actually we have to get out before my dad wakes up.
Our initial pace was even below 70KMPH till we reach SriPerambadur. Yes we made a mistake by taking a longer route.
From there on we never reduced our pace below 85 Kmph. Roads were so well maintained and soon we were accompanied by some good riders in RE. They asked us to join with them for few KMs. Man the way they show their Biker gang sign, To indicate potholes, To stop riding (mindblowing). Took my memories back to 2015 when I was travelling to Kerala. They waved us Goodbye near Aambur.
From there we rode continuously till we stopped for a brake near Krishnagiri Junction. This is also where we faced our first obstacle.
The day before the ride Raghav changed Oil and Oil filter but didn’t change the oil filter packing. Oil was dripping all the way from Chennai and already around 150ml of oil drained.
We were searching for a Honda SVC near Krishnagiri but none of them knows much about CBR 250.
So we went to Dharmapuri in a medium pace and asked for oil filter packing in one of the service center. The Sales manager’s immediate reply was that they don’t even get spares for these bikes.
Seeing our condition one mechanic from SVC took the bike in and removed the oil filter cover, applied some paste on existing oil filter cover and topped up the oil for free.
His name is Mr. Karthik Raj. I forgot the name of SVC it’s on the way from Dharmapuri Bus stand to Dharmapuri bypass. Gave him 100 rupees for his work and left from there. By the time we left it was already 12 30 PM.
From there roads and surroundings started changing from dry to greeny, greeny greeny all the way. We had our lunch around 2 30 PM near Salem and filled Bike tank too.
Finally we took a left near Kalangani. From there roads were too narrow single lane. Village people helped us to get to the starting point of Kolli hills.
Most of them were asking about our bikes
Villagers: How much does these bike costs? (evalavu pa intha vandi)
US: 1.8 Lakhs
Villagers: that much!!!!! Wil this give 90 kmpl per litre (adengappa, enna oru 90 tharuma litre ku)
US: We saw each other and said it will give around 80 KMPL (ahn nalla tharum 80 – 85 tharum)
They are really sweet enough to wish us for a safe riding J
I don’t have to say about Kolli hills road. Let the pictures do talking first.
Kolli hills a paradise for all the bikers with 70 hair pin bends to touch the road. On average a hairpin bend every 200 - 300 metres. Each and every bend weather gets colder and colder and fresh breeze.
You can take pictures at breathtaking 34th hairpin bend as it got more space to park the bike as well as for streaming vehicles.
So we reached the top by 4 PM. Next comes the important task – place to stay.
Being 4 days leave all resorts were already booked through online. Luckily we found a cheap and good lodge opposite to PA lodge for INR 1400 (3 Persons).
By the time we settled it was already 5 PM and it’s almost dark and weather was getting cold enough to search for blankets.
The lodge owner created bon fire on seeing our condition. But we were on different problem “MOBILE NETWORK”. India’s biggest network failed miserably and India’s forgotten network saved us.
Yes Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Jio nothing worked. (antha 4g ponna saavadinga da)
Luckily owner had Aircel and BSNL sim cards in his mobile. We informed our homes and started chatting with him and passed our time. It was a good chat with him.
During preparation we read that there are ghosts here and people have saw them. When I asked the Lodge owner he said I have been living here for 45 years and I haven’t seen any till now.
Here the food costs really low such that we 3 finished our dinner within 100 rupees. Also people are really kind enough to help us.
Owner asked whether we are going to be awake, we were confused at first. Then he said that room’s TV is not having set top box connection so he handed us over a pen drive with movies to watch and left to his home.
Finally Day 1 completed with lots and lots of good memories.
We got up by Morning 6 AM and left as soon as possible to Seeku Paarai View point.
We had our breakfast and left to our Destination “Agaya gangai waterfalls”
People will be allowed to Agaya gangai water falls only from morning to afternoon 3 PM.
To reach waterfalls You have to descend 1000+ steps. I would advise old age people not to go to the falls. Because it’s more hurting when old age people not able to climb up.
Sorry for very low quality pictures – The water force was high enough to damage my camera. The pictures were taken from change room but even that room was flooded with water that is being sprayed.
Finally with heavy heart we started climbing back and it took nearly 45 minutes to reach the gate of the waterfalls. Time was already 11 AM. So we cancelled the Maasila waterfalls and went back directly to room and packed our things and started our return leg by 12 PM.
Descending 70 hair pin bend is not so easy with idiotic car drivers not honking and turning through oncoming vehicle lane. We narrowly escaped 2 times even though we were honking throughout. We reached to the checkpost and took some photos and started again.
Post this we didn’t take any pictures as my camera battery is totally dead.
We had our lunch at Namagiripettai which is a short route to Attur as per Google Maps.
We had some good Biryani for 50 rupees in a very small road side shop. Worth the money. We reached Kallakurichi by 4 PM and filled our petrol tank again for final leg.
We had few stops near Villpuram and Tindivanam. After a Tiring and awesome ride we reached home by 8 PM with mom waiting for me.
Summary:
Petrol expense - 1400 per bike
Kms covered - 831 Kms
Mileage - 44 Kmpl
Food expense - ha ha just 200 per person.
Room expense - 1400
Route map we followed:
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