Re: Ride to Yercaud/Kolli Hills

Thread approved.

Re: Ride to Yercaud/Kolli Hills

Nice, we also did 2 weeks back, got drenched fully while coming

But it was a good ride

Re: Ride to Yercaud/Kolli Hills

Nice one. Thumbs up!

Re: Ride to Yercaud/Kolli Hills

Well done. Bangalore has some super riding options for day and longer rides. Perhaps, the best in the country. The road conditions both on the straights and in the hills are amazingingly well maintained and constructed. With relatively cheaper cost of fuel compared to Maharashtra and hotel options, good weather mostly all year round, makes the South a paradise to explore on a bike.

Re: Ride to Yercaud/Kolli Hills

Nice pics, that forest looks so beautiful.

Re: Ride to Yercaud/Kolli Hills

The same day we reached, we decided to explore Yercaud, since we had the remainder of the day to ourselves. We ate lunch at a place called Sweet Raskal. I will not post any pics here and spoil the fun, I HIGHLY recommend you people to visit this place, you will not forget it! There are lots and lots of quirky, funny and thought provoking signboards around this vast restaurant, and the food too is very good with worthy rates. You can spend quality time here. I'm sure the owner was a frustrated Mechanical Engineer who founded this startup After a good meal, we proceeded towards the star attractions of Yercaud, the Gent's Seat and The Lady's Seat. It is worth to visit them. You get a good view of Yercaud surroundings.

Now hungry for some ghat road action, I pulled my friend and off we went riding on the ghat roads within Yercaud region, in the drizzle! We rode at a slow and leisurely pace, not so much corner carving as to flow through them! And what a mesmerizing experience it was indeed! The road conditions were brilliant, wide with smooth flowing corners and nicely banked turns. The slow thump from the Thunderbird echoing through the surroundings was bliss. We road from Yercaud town centre to the end of the ghat turns as seen on Google Maps, located by something called a 60 foot bridge. The view from any point on these ghat roads is just stunning, all you see is a vast area of lush green mountains and forest cover. Here, let the pictures speak for themselves.




The Ghat roads as seen from Gent's seat tourist attraction












Our steeds at the 60 feet bridge. Although one can continue down this road (it leads to Salem), the proper tight twisty bits would be over by this point.

We had an early night, as the next day would be Yercaud - Kolli Hills - Bangalore. That would entail a 351 km ride in a single day. Here, we would ride from Yercaud to Kolli hills, which is around 90 kms, ride the 70 hairpins up and down, backtrack the same roads for 90 kms back to Yercaud and then off to Bangalore. It was quite an experience! I will be sharing it in my next thread.

Re: Ride to Yercaud/Kolli Hills

Final Part : Yercaud - Kolli Hills - Bangalore

The plan was to get up early and leave for Kolli malai, but when have "early waking up" plans ever gone according to plan?! (pun intended). We woke up leisurely at 8, had breakfast courtesy the home stay, geared up, and left for Kolli hills by 9. The weather was sort of hot, but when one is on their loving steed cruising at 80-90 kmph on butter smooth roads, with stunning views either side, all the worries just fade away. Again a hats off to Tamil Nadu Government for maintaining their motorways in such great condition! One will find a lot of fascinating small-medium sized hillocks enroute. We stopped for coconut water around 45 kms into the ride, chatting to the sellers. My friend is fluent in Tamil, so he answered most of their curious questions, while I tried my best in whatever mixed Tamil/Malayalam I know. They suggested us a left just before what Google Maps showed, promising us that the roads would go through gorgeous village and country sides, but sadly those roads were under construction. Hence we followed our trusted Google Maps, and we shot ahead to Kolli Hills.

When I say hairpin bends, this is what I will mean for the rest of my LIFE! It is like, God dropped a noodle onto the hill, and carved whatever shape the noodle was. Just check the following image to know what I'm talking about.



We did not stop anywhere, just went straight to the top! It is a total of 70 hairpin bends, and the start is marked as shown -



From then on, it's just non-stop hairpin after hairpin. Since we had gone on a weekday, the traffic was less, and most of the cars give way for us bikers. Respect. One annoyance was that there was some function at the top, hence we encountered many trucks trudging their way up the hill, carrying food supplies and plastic chairs. It was a slight hassle to pass them, but they were understanding and signaled us to overtake them whenever possible. As is usual, we found a bunch of around 9-10 youthiyas crammed into an Omni, all boozed up, howling at us (they were excited seeing our riding gear, maybe). We could speed away from them easily, and luckily didn't encounter them later on. Speaking of the bends, after around the 40th or so, I started feeling dizzy, due to the continuous leaning. Amazing piece of machinery the Suzuki guys have conjured up with the Gixxer, as it attacks corners mercilessly. That chassis DEFINITELY needs a bigger power plant! Me and my friend maintained a distance between us, overtaking each other at times, but most of the time we had the hills to ourselves. We never stopped en-route to take photos, so I will share whatever we have taken.






At the top, as seen in the first Google Maps screenshot image in this thread (Sri Kalliaman Temple)


Having Hide n Seek big pack at the top (much useful item to be carried on rides, along with Minute Maid Musambi juice. Also guys, please carry your trash back in your bags, stowing it away in some extra plastic covers you can carry along. Let us not spoil nature and preserve it for our kids to ride to and enjoy)



At 70th hairpin bend


View from the top

On the return leg, we stopped at many points to take in some stunning scenery.








One of the MANY insane bends. You can scrape any part of your motorcycle tilting here




The straight road leading to the start of the bends. The last straight road you'll encounter before the beginning!

Our souls fired up and our cornering cravings quenched, our stomachs needed filling up too! There are many hotels at the base of the hill. We had traditional Tamil Nadu style meals (yeah, having vegetarian sometimes is good for such long rides, sometimes)

After a heavy lunch, around 2:30 in the afternoon, we decide it's time to head back to base camp Bengaluru. With heavy hearts, we left, cruising at a pace of 90-95, which, on retrospect, was not needed. If one cruises comfortably at 80-85, it might not stress the engine much, and one can glide along without much tension.


Somewhere near Dharmapuri


Our bikes taking much needed breaks on the return run


My ride buddy took this picture somewhere before Hosur


The final approximate tally.. around 750 kms in 2 days

On the return journey, we stopped every 70-80 kms for a tea break. We reached Hosur at around 7 in the evening (covering around 320 kms in 5 hours). But sadly, the last 30 kms (out of a 350km journey) took us 1 and a half hour! This was due to a mix of rain and traffic. Finally, we reached our homes by 8:30, concluding one epic and slightly rushed ride. One must not miss this ride, as it really gets you to peace, and satisfies your inner needs of travel. Kolli Hills is one place that MUST be on your bucket list, and must be ticked off soon. If your in Bangalore, it is technically possible to go and come back in one day (around 600 kms total). But it is advised to couple this with Yercaud stay-over, to have a pleasant experience. The ghat roads at Yercaud too are not to be missed.
Anyways, thanks for reading this far. Hope I got the essence of the ride in these threads. Until Next time, Ride Hard, Ride Safe!