Announcement

**Sunny** · 01-24-2010, 06:30 PM

Ride Report Approved

**surojit** · 01-24-2010, 08:57 PM

could you share some more pics pls.... and ya a good end to the year...

**blackbird** · 01-25-2010, 05:58 PM

Thanks Sunny Bhai.

Surojit, i plan to write a day-wise log for the entire ride. I'll attach the pics to the respective days. Hope u enjoy.

**silver_falcon_46** · 01-25-2010, 06:10 PM

Sanjay, make sure you bring in as many pics as possible. Lot of people out here read logs only because of the nice pictures that compliment them. Cheers.

**need4torque** · 01-25-2010, 07:03 PM

Sanjay, Nice trip you had! Munnar never ceases to delight me, I go there once or twice a year!
I too hail from Kottayam by the way. The pictures you have posted are very nice and please do post more.

**blackbird** · 01-26-2010, 05:30 PM

Originally posted by silver_falcon_46 View Post

Sanjay, make sure you bring in as many pics as possible. Lot of people out here read logs only because of the nice pictures that compliment them. Cheers.

Roger that.

Originally posted by need4torque View Post

Sanjay, Nice trip you had! Munnar never ceases to delight me, I go there once or twice a year!
I too hail from Kottayam by the way. The pictures you have posted are very nice and please do post more.

Thanx torque. more pics and ride log coming up.

**ankitmohan** · 01-26-2010, 05:33 PM

nice pics..., but m waiting for more,,,

**blackbird** · 01-26-2010, 05:37 PM

Preparations for the ride

**santoosh** · 01-26-2010, 11:13 PM

Bring it on ....
We are waiting ..

**praneshvittal** · 01-27-2010, 11:07 AM

ha ha ha... Nice start

No way, buddy !!! Bring it on

... Hooked up to this thread...

**sourav2688** · 01-27-2010, 11:35 PM

Nice start. Btw, are all managers in capgemini so cool

??
Anyways, bring it on

**blackbird** · 01-28-2010, 04:08 AM

Originally posted by sourav2688 View Post

Nice start. Btw, are all managers in capgemini so cool

??
Anyways, bring it on

Thanks mate!
From my experience in Capgemini, the on-site managers are a cool lot.

**blackbird** · 01-28-2010, 04:46 AM

Day 1, 24th Dec 2009 : Bangalore-Mysore-Ooty-Coimbatore-Trichur-Kottayam

Fuel Details:
Rs. 500/- 9.85 litres @ Rs. 50.73/ litre.

Woke up at 4 A.M that morning. Had a quick shower. With the luggage ready, I was all set to go.

Like most bikers, I have a habit of checking the rubber for any intruders. And during the inspection that morning, I had a shocker. There was a sharp object in the tread, similar to the size of a safety pin. It was rusted, and about an inch. Removed it. Thanked all the Gods for the late discovery. For the rest of the ride I was hoping that it wouldn’t affect the tube.

At 5 A.M, I left home. Entered Mysore road. Though I had a sweater and a jacket on, my teeth were cluttering. It was way too cold. Fingers already numb. Was keeping up 80-90kph. Reached Mandya around 6.30 A.M.

The bag pack was beginning to feel heavy and my back seemed to be hurting. I was carrying the bungee cords in the bag. I hadn’t used them before and was unaware of how to tie the luggage behind. For the next 30 mins or so, it was trial-and-error method with the luggage. Finally I got it right. Was cursing the fact that I had lost 30 mins for something silly as this.

Reached Mysore quickly. Rode through Mys city. I was on the Nanjangud road in no time. The roads upto here were good, and hence I was able to maintain a good average speed. But for the next 30 kms unto Nanjangud, there was too many potholes.

Had breakfast at Nanjangud. It was 8 A.M. Didn’t waste much time there. Started towards Gundulpet. The road was re-laid till Gundulpet. Smooth surface, 2-lane upto gundulpet was very pleasant, more so because the roads were not very great upto Nanjangud.

At Gundulpet, I was in 2 minds about the route. A right turn from here would take me into Kerala(wayanad region) in a few minutes. But I wasn’t certain about the route to Kottayam from there. On the other hand, I would reach Ooty if I rode straight. Though I had decided to take the Ooty route during the preparations for the ride, the thought of entering Kerala was very tempting.

I decided to stick to the initial plan. Rode towards Ooty. The road from Gundulpet to Ooty is under construction for about 15-20 Kms, if not more. Went past the right turn towards Gopalswamy Betta. Kept going until I reached the Bandipur Forest entrance.

This was a very exciting prospect. Though I have done a fair amount of touring, I have never rode through a forest. This was to be my first experience. Soon after I crossed the check-post at the entrance of the forest, I stopped to check the tyres. A flat tire now would leave me in no-man’s land. This prompted me inspect the tyres. No intruders. I was good to go.

Nervousness, riding alone, scary thoughts of encountering big cats, pachyderm roadblocks etc would dominate my mind for the next few minutes. There was one particular stretch where I was riding alone for more than 10 minutes, no vehicles in the opposite direction too. “ Am I on the wrong road?” i wondered

. Just then, there was an angel in sight. A sparkling silver Audi A6 was approaching from the opposite. Was relieved to spot another vehicle.

The fun of riding through a forest began to dawn. Came across a few tamed elephants with mahouts on the way, a guest bungalow, people eager to get out of their cars to catch a glimpse of the shy deers and so on.

After a few kms, I was saturated riding slowly and looking on either side of the road to spot animals. Twisted the throttle and kept up a healthy speed .

Exit Karnataka, Enter Tamilnadu.

The Mudumalai forest stretch was equally pleasant to ride. On the way, there was a cop waiting by the road. He gestured his hand indicating me to stop. “Forest is not a place to check documents”, I thought.

I stopped near him. Instead of documents, he asked me if I could drop him up to Masinagudi. My luggage was tied to the pillion. He needed to get there soon. I looked at him. Didn’t suspect anything fishy. I was fine with dropping him. Took the luggage off the rear seat and placed it on the tank. While riding, I confirmed the route towards Ooty with him. Dropped him at Masinagudi.

From Masinagudi, the ride was peaceful upto Ooty. The hair-pins leading to Ooty was worth taking this route.

The chill climate of Ooty greeted me as I ascended the hill. It was a pleasant morning, neither cold nor the normal temperature that one is accustomed to in Bangalore.

Riding to Ooty was the best part of the day. Was thankful to Santoosh for suggesting this route. Kept clicking snaps as I was riding. Dint stop anywhere for a long break at Ooty.

At Ooty, I enquired with the locals about the route ahead. I was to ride towards Coonoor and then Mettupalayam. Some suggested I head to Kothagiri instead of Coonoor, and from there to Mettupalayam. The reason for this, the road between Coonoor and Mettupalayam was under construction. But one of them said that bikes could pass. That was enough for me. Coonoor would be my next destination.

The ride to Coonoor was mediocre. I can’t remember anything out of the normal that happened. Just before Coonoor I did a ‘MAN ON A MISSION’!

Here’s the scene.

There was a local bus ahead of me, 3 Kms before Coonoor. At one of the bus-stops, a lady in her 60’s got down and the bus moved ahead. When I was about to release the clutch, I heard the lady say “ayyo”

. I asked her what happened. I spoke to her in Tamil. So she was comfortable explaining. She was holding a bag.

“This bag belongs to a woman in the bus. I forgot to give it to her before alighting”, she said.
“Don’t worry. I’m headed in that direction. I could hand it over to the bus-conductor” I suggested
She didn’t have better options than to give it to me.
The bus was out-of-sight. For the next 5 minutes, I felt like a cop chasing a speeding car.

I wasn’t able to overtake the bus until Coonoor. At Coonoor, I stopped the bike in front of the bus. The driver looked puzzled. I walked up to the bus-conductor and told him about the ‘lost bag’. Handed it over to him. I walked back to the bike proudly.

Now I was to go towards Mettupalayam. I enquired the route with a taxi driver. He said there was no way I could pass through the road construction. I didn’t want to mess up with the route. I took his advice to ride to Kothagiri.

The road from Coonoor to Kothagiri was paradise. It was curvy, well-banked, jet-black surface. Almost all the curves were blind turns. The throttle and horn were working in full swing. The distance was nearly 20 kms. Thoroughly enjoyed this section. Didn’t stop to click pics.

Kothagiri to Mettupalayam was a boring ride. It was down-hill and the traffic was heavy. After some time, I switched off the engine and kept rolling for 15- 20 kms. Once the ghat section was over, it began to hit me that I had lost a lot of time. Kept a constant 90 kph until Mettupalayam.

It was 3 P.M. Lost a good 4 hours. Route mess up and riding through narrow 2 lane roads had taken the toll on riding hours.

Had lunch at Mettupalayam. It was a regular Rice-Sambhar-Rasam with a few add-ons. Have to mention about the hospitality of the hotel owner and server. They were very kind and always around to ask if needed more rice or whatever they saw was less on my plate.

Just before starting, I estimated the distance to Kottayam. I had another 275 kms to cover. It was 3:30 P.M already. The earliest I would reach there would be 7:30 P.M, which is way too late considering the time I had started from Bangalore

.

Took-off from Mettupalayam, maintaining consistent speed anywhere between 80-100kph. Reached Coimbatore at 4 P.M.
As I entered Coimbatore, the traffic was slow-moving. Struggled through the traffic for the next 45 minutes

. No respite until I hit the Palakkad highway.

Exit Tamilnadu. Enter Kerala.

The feeling of entering Kerala was amazing. The hot, dry Tamilnadu gave way to the cool, green Kerala. I was already running very late. My phone had run out of battery. No more music. It was down to hardcore biking . Riding through the high-speed, 2 lane roads of Kerala was eagerly awaited since morning.

Small towns, small cities would come and go. Reached Thrissur at 6.30 P.M. The fuel went into reserve. After nearly 50 Kms, it was time for bike-food.

Fuel Details:
Rs 750/- 15.7 litres @ Rs 47.77/ litre.

Daylight was fading. The headlamps became more prominent. After 20 kms, there was heavy traffic, blame it on Christmas eve.

For someone who had done nearly 500kms and more than 14 hours of riding, this was capital punishment

. At some places there would be no movement for more 10 mins. Mercs, BMWs, VWs all lined up helplessly.

With this kind of traffic I was happy not to enter Cochin. The traffic condition didn’t ease until Angamaly(25 kms before Cochin). At Angamaly, took the right turn towards Kottayam. I had close to 90 kms remaining. With eyes set on the trip meter, I stuck to what I had done best since morning.

Desination for the day was a place called ‘KADUTHURUTHY’, 35 odd kms before Kottayam. My mother’s ancestral house is in one of the nearby villages. Finally, after 623kms and 16 hours of riding inclusive of breaks, I rode up to the house at 9:15 P.M.

Grandparents were relieved to see me. To them, I had accomplished the unimaginable. I looked at my bike with respect. Good job!

Few of my cousins were already there. Chit-chat went on upto 12:30 in the night.
Hit the bed soon after.

Day 1 ride summary : 623 kms in 16 hours.

P.S: Few more pics will be attached to DAY 1 log soon.Lost some pics due to HDD crash.

**praneshvittal** · 01-28-2010, 10:12 AM

Nice Start :-)... Guess it was too much of driving on Day 1... Sad to know abt the HDD crash

...

Announcement

Another year end ride to God's own country

Another year end ride to God's own country

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