Well here we were again, at the brink of another Long weekend. (Gandhi Jayanthi 2008). Planning was underway as to what to do and where to go. My usual travel group prefers to travel by car than on a bike and so I have been driving with them rather than riding. Tried convincing them to try to ride with me, has not worked till now. Tried to talk them in to letting me ride, while they drove to where ever we went. NO again. I was hoping for the same response again, this time over. But something unexpected happened. NOPE, they did not agree to let me ride while they drove or even better, they all did not agree to drive with me. WORST. Some guys were busy that weekend with an implementation, some were busy with some month ending or quarter ending. A trip in that weekend was not possible. Everyone was busy, but I was still free.
So asked a couple of guys at work if they had any plans for the long weekend. They had many. But again they wanted to drive down to where ever. They started with 4-5 people and 1 Ford Ikon. The number went up to 8 and 1 Santro more. Then they started deciding the destination. Kerala was one, Mangalore was another. People wanted a rather laidback trip and not too much travelling. So we zeroed down on Wayanad. Then 3 guys dropped out making the count 5. WOW here was my perfect oppurtunity to suggest and implement "4 guys drive in a car" and I will ride the bike ;-). At first they said I should not ride alone. So I got a friend of mine to ride with me. So we were all set. 6 people, 1 Thunderbird and 1 Pulsar. Finally it was Ashish, Shobhana (Ashish's Wife), Vinodh and Rupak in the Santro, Padmaraj on the Pulsar and me on my Birdie.
Plan was to leave early in the morning on the 2nd Oct, reach Wayanad by noon, do some sight seeing that day and the next and then leave on the 4th. Sunday the 5th would be a rest day at home. So I got my Birdie checked and got my friend's Pulsar serviced too. Now the Pulsar belonged to someone other than who was going to drive it, so had to take the regular precautions. Well I tanked up the Birdie and got the Pulsar and its documents on the 1st Oct night. Packed my stuff and hit the sack at
around 1AM.
Day 1
Woke up at 3.45AM got dressed and took the Birdie out to pick up my friend who Stays at Shivajinagar (25km round trip). We were back by 4.45AM. Then saddled up the birdie. We were supposed to meet the others near Jayadeva flyover at 5AM. They were a bit behind schedule. Well we left at 5.15AM. Just then realized that the Pulsar was not yet tanked up. Well it looked like the Pulsar had atleast 2 ltrs of petrol in it and so we thought of fuelling up on the Highway. We took Kanakpura Road and got on to NICE road. It sure is a nice road to ride on at 5.30 in the morning. Well we went on to Mysore road and almost till Bidadi, all the gas stations were closed. Then I started stopping at all the gas stations and waking up the attendants. Finally we filled up the Pulsar at the gas station close to Kadu Mane. Then we started riding. Next pitstop was
just before Mandya for tea. After that we rode on till we reached Mysore. We were supposed to meet the others there. Callled them and directed them to us. Tried to find a place to have breakfast. Everyplace we looked look very dingy. So went in and parked in Pai Vista. Only when we went in did we realize that it must be a 3 star hotel atleast. So we walked out and had our breakfast at a very "LOCAL" restaurant after parking at an "INTERNATIONL" parking lot ;-).
After breakfast, we took the Ooty road and headed towards Nanjangud. We say a lot of Gandhiwadi's in white Kurta Pajamas and Nehru caps saluting his statue at one of the City's circle and chanting "Gandhiji ki Jai". It sure had been a while since I saw or experienced something like this. Well here it was. On my way picked up a school kid (7th Std) going back after the Gandhi Jayanthi activities in his school and dropped him off to his village. He sure was one hell of a talker ;-). Roads became bad just as we were about to reach Nanjangud. So the bikes had the upper hand in weaving through the traffic as compared to the cars and we were off. Reached Gundlepet and my friend had to attend a "call of the nature" and so we stopped at the coffee day there. Took a right from Gundlepet and entered in to the forest area. Man was it cold and Dark in there???
Made riding there even more fun. We did see some elephants on the way in the Muthanga wildlife Sanctuary. We rode on till we reached Sultan Bathery. Confirmed our bearings and rode on to Kalpetta and on to Meppadi. From there we needed to take a diversion to the right to go to Soochipara Falls where our homestay was. I fuelled up at Meppadi and carried on riding through the winding roads, awesome hills and lush green tea estates. (a meandering stream was the only thing missing to awaken the poet in me;-).
Well we reached a junction where there seemed to be cabs, buses, cars, bikes, tractors (and any other imaginable form of transportation) was stranded, each facing a different direction. TRAFFIC JAM. Well I helped clearing it up a bit and then got my bike through and reached our destination, Soochipara Residency. It was a quaint little home stay in the middle of an estate. Nice place. Not so Pricey. Loved Mohan Chettan the caretaker and the food too.The others arrived shortly and we soon freshened up and started our trek towards the falls. Had steep stairs most of the way but was still very tiring. Since it was a holiday, the place was filled with tourists. Loads of college boys singing in Malayalam and clapping to the beat. Sounded fun. Well after trekking some 1.2km, we reached the foot of the falls. Was an amazing sight. Vinodh, Rupak and Padmaraj could not keep away from the falls for too long and sto they stripped and waded in to the pool to get as close to the falls. Ashish followed suit. I was the official photographer ;-). They had a fun time and returned only when the security started whistling asking everyone to leave. Well we trekked back. Had some hot Bhajia that Chettan had made for us and drank the beer that Chettan had ever so kindly arranged for us ;-). Had a sumptous dinner and then hit the sack.
322 km ridden.
Day 2
Woke up next morning and as per plan we were to visit Edakkkal Caves and Banasura Sagar dam that day. We rode up to Meppadi and fueled up the Pulsar. That is when I realized that gas in Kerala is 6 bucks cheaper that in Karnataka :-(. After many a twist and turn on the circuitious roads and innumerable traffic jams, We finally reached Edakkal caves. Parked and started trekking. 1.2km the board read (1.2 km again. Coincidence??????). Well it was a tough task climbing uphill. Well we finally bought the tickets and went on to reach the cave. It actually has 3 rocks for walls and another huge rock (probably fallen) hanging precariously acting as the roof. It has some 4000 year old inscriptions on its rock faces too.
There is a path that leads further up, right to the very top of the hill. Been there last time and did not go too far as my group did not wanna. This time Rupak, Padmaraj and I were Game. We dragged Rupak along anyway. Was a very trecharous trek with nothing at the end. We made it and back to the bottom in one piece. Had a hot Kerala style meal. It was 4 and we thought of skipping the Dam, when some locals said that there was an amazing place called Kuruva Islands which we should not miss. It was some 60km away and in the opp direction from Bangalore. So we decided to go. Those 60km were the 60km that never seemed to end and the road was so amazing, don't even ask. We reached at 5.15PM and came to know that the place closed at 5. Sheesh. So we had tea and some tapioca chips and started back.
We had almost a 80 km ride through forest and hilly area and the sun was already setting. We decided that the bikes would leave the car and meet up at Kalpetta. We started riding the forest and hills. The moon sure did look pretty and forest or No forest, wild animal or no wild animal, mountain or no mountain, bandit or no bandit, I had to get a snap. So I stopped. Padmaraj rode on. We were split up for the next 30 mins and then met up at a junction where he was waiting anxiopusly for me. Kalpetta was jst some 10km now. We called the car. They were also closeby. So we rode to Kalpetta together. Bad news was Mohan Chttan was not able to arrange beer for us. So I started looking for a wineshop. Found one. Called the others. They picked up the beer and we started off to Soochipara via Meppadi. Till Meppadi, we were on a highway. There was traffic and at some places street lights too. After Meppadi, it was just winding roads, tea estates and mountains. WOW. Was that some ride? 19km of sheer adrenalin. Amazing. We reached the homestay in one piece. Beer, Bakchodi and Dinner and then we hit the sack.
150km ridden.
Day 3
As per plan we were supposed to leave for Bangalore after breakfast. But Rupak suggested that since we have come so far, we might as well make the most of it by checking out the dam too. Onl when we started riding did we realize that unlike what we had been told, Banasura Sagar Dam was towards Calicut and not towards Bangalore. We rode on to Vythiri and took the deviation towards Parijyanathara and rode hard till we reached Banasura Sagar Dam. Looked nice. On the way I had seen a small hillock that had a church on top and stairs cut out along the side of the hill starting at the roadside. Was travelling too fast to stop and take a pic. I had already thought of the caption for the pic "Stairway to Heaven". So I decided to take the pic on the way back.
Unfortunately we took a different way back :-(. We parked the vehicles and walked 700 m to the boat launch area. We were told that it would take around an hour for our turn to ride the speed boat. Well we thought "Aaaye hain to kuch karke hi jaayenge". So we decided to wait. Was worth the wait. The park was amazing. Had COFEE at the COFETERIA (See pic) while we waited. The speed boat ride was fun too. After that we had the Fried rice that Mohan Chettan had packed for us. God Bless his soul! Then we started riding at around 3. Plan was to reach Mysore by around 6PM and so Bangalore by around 9PM, worse come worse 10PM. But the ride through the forest took us a while and we reached Gundlepet only at 5.45PM. After a quick tea, we started off vowing to stop only at the hotel (Indradhanush) behind Chennapatna coffee day for dinner. Traffic and roads at Nanjangud was BAD. The bikes pulled through. Did not see the car taking a deviation just before Mysore. We rode on and rode through the outskirts of the city, while the car took the Outer ring roag. The bikers were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of the Mysore Palace in it's Dussera attire and also the "WELCOME" lighting on Chamundi hills. Then came Mysore Bangalore road. The traffic was scary. Read about fatal accidents everyday on this road, but we had to brave it all the same. We did. Reached the Indradhanush Restaurant. Had a great dinner. Met some friends who were returning from Mysore. Then rode back home to Bengaluru. Reached home at 11PM.
368km ridden
Updated my blog and hit the sack.
Bottom line
Days - 3
Travellers - 6
Vehicles - 3
Km - 840km
Masti - UNLIMITED!!!!!