A Falcon and a Bat on a riding holiday

It’s the onset of monsoon, probably not the ideal time for a biking holiday especially in the Western ghats. But paucity of time (read work) meant we had very limited options for this long awaited ride. Many were held up with families over the weekend which left my friend and me to go on this adventure. No pressure then, even if things go slightly out of hands!

I left most of the route planning to my friend, who is obsessed about National highways and the twisties. (Mostly because of his R15 aka Falcon). Not sure where the guy learnt using google maps, but he generally decides on some kickass roads. After some research, he zeroed in on this

To ensure we were not the type who don’t care about health and safety, we started shopping for bungee cords, balaclavas, energy bars, medi kit, Gatorade etc., Quite some thought was spared on the stops as well. However, as we’ll see later, not many things go according to plan. The first of these examples came in the form of batteries! Never knew that my camera was not compatible with them and ended up losing out on capturing the riding gear used, the start off pics et al upto Yercaud.

We were a bit behind schedule right from the start as we left Bangalore at 6 am against the planned 5 am. A cool climate and wonderful roads meant we reached TN in no time with just one stop for breakfast. Time for the second hurdle when we reach Salem!

The plan was to take two different routes to and from Yercaud. The ‘to’ was through a national forest reserve where upon reaching we learnt that bikes are not the most suited. Since we did not want to miss out on Yercaud, we hit Salem, took the deviation, and behold; we were treated to a flurry of superbikes! If my counting was right, there were six of them, could recognize only a couple of them. My friend was intimidated and accompanied them up hill. We rode the awesome ghat roads with some footpeg scraping enthusiasm and descended by noon.

The Bat and Falcon

Oh ya, there is an ATV trail there for the adventurous types. I hated the car/bike combo of the quadbike though! There are no pics of this primarily because of the batteries :-X

Our planned halt at Cherai beach was still far far away. As they say, the journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step, we decided to move on. I got the ‘Man, what’s with you?’ look from one localite at Yercaud when asked for directions/distance to Kalady. We decided to get a move on and joy-o-joy, the road to Coimbatore was dismissed with one stop for lunch, but the average speed was up there with any of the hatchbacks that come to your mind. One of my colleagues told me about the poor road conditions for the last 40 km or so to Coimbatore. We were simply not ready for the horrible traffic especially after having such smooth roads upto this point. The heat, traffic, sheer frustration and loss of time meant we reached Palakkad by 7 pm. A few calls suggested us to stay there since there were not many places up ahead where we could camp for the night.

Day-2:

After a good night’s sleep, we decided to reach Kalady, the birth place of our spiritual leader; considered the holiest place on earth. From there, we would dump our luggage and head to Cherai beach. Again, bad roads, spine shattering potholes, zero traffic sense ensured we reached only by noon.  We were advised not to go sun bathing since the heat would be unbearable, so we went late in the evening to Cherai. Excuse us for the poor snaps, but these were the best we could manage with a point and shoot at 8 in the night.

Cherai Beach

A relatively uneventful second day came to an end.

Day-3:

Headed straight to the ashram in the morning, meditated for quite a while and started towards Thekkady at roughly 10 am.  Although a bike is probably the best way to experience nature, the downside is getting drenched. The pics below may not give a fair idea of the downpour, but check out the roads!

While there was some initial promise of nice tarmac, we lost a fair bit of time negotiating the bends. At 1500hrs, we were still way off Thekkady. Stopped for a spot of lunch, where a man told us the road from there was a dream and should not be missed. Those words were the perfect dessert we wanted after a mediocre meal! And boy was the road a bliss! I’m simply lost for words when it comes to this part. Smooth, fluid, scenic, are some of the words that immediately come to mind, but definitely don’t do justice to this ribbon of perfection.  With zero effort and some footpeg scraping cornering, we finally reached Thekkady at 1715 hrs. Since it was more of a riding holiday in our minds, we decided to start from there at the earliest. But before we left, the mandatory, “We were in Thekkady” pics were shot, fluids consumed and vroom!

Earlier in the day, many warned that our plan of Kalady->Thekkady->Munnar->Kalady was quite ambitious. Without heeding to such discouragement, we ploughed on in the night; no idea about the route or distance to Munnar. It must’ve been around 7pm in the night (felt like 2 in the morning!) when my bike had it’s first moment. Initial thought was that of engine overheating, so we rested for a while near some settlement. As we approached Munnar, the roads got scarier, narrower, not to mention the visibility was next to nothing. The only sight was the Falcon’s tail lamp which would disappear now and then. Quite an adventure when explained now, but believe me, it was one of the scariest moments of my life. Cautiously, we reached Munnar by 2100hrs, called our homes and informed we were safe. Turns out, it was not the wisest of decisions staying there. The accommodation is boomingly expensive; a vanilla two bed room set us back 1000 INR, after some haggling. But we were too tired to think of riding elsewhere, so decided to stay.

Some pics of Munnar and Kalady 

Neriamangalam Bridge (On Periyar River)

Purna River (Kalady)

Day-4:

The most strenuous day according to our initial plan was ahead of us. Factor in that the plan had taken quite some detours by now, it would get even worse. After some much required rest, we headed back to Kalady, freshened up and started there by noon. A quick call to my friend back home helped us decide the best way back was through Salem. Let the games begin; an excess of 520km in less than 12 hours!

The gods simply did not seem to have mercy on us as they lashed out thunderstorm after thunderstorm once inside Tamil Nadu. As balance prevails, the roads came as a blessing and help us make up all the lost time, especially between Coimbatore and Salem. Drenched , dehydrated, tired bikes, midnight, but nothing stopped us from reaching the comfort of our homes. Even 30km from Bangalore was a challenge because of the rain. Man, never plan a riding holiday during the monsoon! Still, 636 km later, I came home to some steaming hot maggi. The sound of rain hitting my visor still haunts me.

There are no pics of the final day of the ride since we were busy making up for lost time. Also, rains meant the cameras were tucked away inside.

April 2012 has indeed been epic. Lonavla, Yercaud and the Western Ghats, all by bike ; what more can I ask for!