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Kodai – a game of mist and corners
Due to the hectic pressure and busy work schedule mind was urging for a long journey.
As far as am concerned there is no better medicine as a bike trip, to free the mind. Have heard a lot about valparai and the 40 hair pins always wondered me. 
After so many searches the route was fixed as Pala-Athirappally-Valparai-Palani-Kodaikkanal-Pala. The doubt was whether my beloved air cooled 180 cc angel can bear such a journey. Reading the XBHP travelogues shut that doubt. Got the bike serviced and ready for the trip. My colleague and I decided to go together but in the last moment he couldn’t come. I was not ready to cancel the trip and I decided to go solo. But in the meantime one of my friends joined me as a pillion.
Started the journey at 5.30 A.M.
Everything was perfect except the weather. It was heavy raining all the way to Valparai.
Rain gear was just a name and it couldn’t bear that kind of rain. We lost all the joy of the trip and made it up to valparai. We call it day and cancelled the trip and returned to home. Checked out at malakkappara check post by 4 P.M. It was dark already and we were alone in the road. The fear begins here and all the warnings by the forest officers made it worse. A Bolero appears in the opposite direction waving us and shouting don’t go. We stopped suddenly expecting elephants on the road. We looked for a company for 10 minutes and decided to move on as its becoming worse. A few moments later an Innova also waived us and we stopped again. Am scared and I couldn’t proceed but my friend asked me to move on. We can smell elephants from that point but my friend said go man, if we saw elephants we will make a u turn and run for our lives. We were lucky as we saw them on a very long distance. Reached home with so much guilty for cancelling the trip. Ride to valparai just to buy some tea powder and chocolates. However so much happy to see 430 Kms in the ODO in a single day.
As legends say failure is only the beginning of success, we completed the trip on the same route. The sweet unforgettable happiest cold 2 days.
As far as am concerned there is no better medicine as a bike trip, to free the mind. Have heard a lot about valparai and the 40 hair pins always wondered me. After so many searches the route was fixed as Pala-Athirappally-Valparai-Palani-Kodaikkanal-Pala. The doubt was whether my beloved air cooled 180 cc angel can bear such a journey. Reading the XBHP travelogues shut that doubt. Got the bike serviced and ready for the trip. My colleague and I decided to go together but in the last moment he couldn’t come. I was not ready to cancel the trip and I decided to go solo. But in the meantime one of my friends joined me as a pillion. Started the journey at 5.30 A.M.
Everything was perfect except the weather. It was heavy raining all the way to Valparai.
Rain gear was just a name and it couldn’t bear that kind of rain. We lost all the joy of the trip and made it up to valparai. We call it day and cancelled the trip and returned to home. Checked out at malakkappara check post by 4 P.M. It was dark already and we were alone in the road. The fear begins here and all the warnings by the forest officers made it worse. A Bolero appears in the opposite direction waving us and shouting don’t go. We stopped suddenly expecting elephants on the road. We looked for a company for 10 minutes and decided to move on as its becoming worse. A few moments later an Innova also waived us and we stopped again. Am scared and I couldn’t proceed but my friend asked me to move on. We can smell elephants from that point but my friend said go man, if we saw elephants we will make a u turn and run for our lives. We were lucky as we saw them on a very long distance. Reached home with so much guilty for cancelling the trip. Ride to valparai just to buy some tea powder and chocolates. However so much happy to see 430 Kms in the ODO in a single day.
As legends say failure is only the beginning of success, we completed the trip on the same route. The sweet unforgettable happiest cold 2 days.
. We have a Standard 350 and a unicorn 150 but the dogs came after me every time. All most hit some on the way. When you ride in Tamil Nadu watch out for dogs and cattle
. 
. It was raining (snow rain) near kodaikkanal. The route was full of corners and hairpins. I cursed every moment for buying the Michelin tire on the rear
. So slippery, which failed me to keep up with my fellow riders. Almost skid many times. 
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