Bike Trip/7 - Trek on wheels - Ooty - Wayanad - Coorg, September 11-12-13, 2009

[Chitra]

Coimbatore-Kothagiri- ooty - masinagudi - mudumalai national park - bandhipur national park - gundlupet - maddur - muthunga wls - sultan bathery - kalpetta - kuruva island - mananthavady - tholpetty wls – kutta - nagarahole national park - kutta - irpu falls – Hunsur – Bangalore

DISTANCE - 720 Kms approx

DAYS - 3 [11th to 13th September 2009)

BIKES
4 PULSARs 150 CC DTSi
2 CBZ XTREMEs 150 CC
3 Royal Enfield-Thunderbirds – 350CC
1 Bajaj Avenger – 198.8CC
1 Santro Xing Car

STAY
DAY 1 NIGHT-Sultan Battery
DAY 2 NIGHT- Madikeri Tq.

NATIONAL HIGHWAYS
NH 47
NH 67
NH 212

Riders & pillions – Paari, Ramesh, Ram, Nachu, Karthik, Mani, VIshal, Suresh, Peter, Pradeep, Samyak, Nisha, Maya, Chitra, Hema, Divya, Vel, Balaji, Palani, Jeyakumar, Sriram & Anand.

Magnificent Men, Charming Women, and their flying machines

Day1: Coimbatore to Ooty
18 member team from Chennai & 3 member group from Bangalore with one Xing personality in the santro from Coimbatore started our Bike tour on the 11th of Sep, Friday 2009… The bikes were moved a day before to make sure it reaches safe at the destination to start our long Vroommmmmmmmm……drive…  I would take a line here to thank Balaji for his efforts and coordination to make this Amazing Bike Ride possible!!!
Team, let’s enjoy the Long Ride now… Here you go!!!

On a gloomy morning in Coimbatore, in a time when summer was making way for the winter dews, we,  the group of 22 young Men/Women gathered together to start our journey to conquer the “WESTERN GHATS”…
The team met up at Coimbatore station, from there moved to collect the respective bullets/bikes to start the long Journey. The riders rushed to the Motor Bike Stand to see their Lady Love, If she had reached safe and sound, with no damage and been handled with gentle care… Heard somewhere in the air, that one of the Lady love is MAYA, the Bike ;-) Rest of the riders wanted to keep the names “Secret”, I believe.
The riders filled the fuel post fixing their bikes, dumped all our back packs in the XING and were all set for the green ride… The pillions were thrilled to keep the riders engaged with their Interactive, thoughtful conversations.
“Life may begin at 30, but it doesn't get real interesting until about 150.”

I felt this saying true, as we started our journey through Mettupallayam, passed by small villages, towns, like a parade show, one bike behind the other, in a series. It really looked like a trained Motor show and all the public eye were on us.. It really reminded me of “Neighbors envy, Owners Pride”.. Passed through smalls towns in Coimbatore, started riding towards the Ghat section, singing, whistling to the music of the buzzling air, little creepy noise of Sparrows, crows around, enjoying the ride through the lush green paddy fields, healthy vegetation, this really was a energy for most of us, who are tired of the daily pollution, dirt and traffic in the so called city life… In fact I remember Ramesh pronouncing “It’s been quite a while we saw sparrows” and watching one on the outskirts, was a twinkle to the eyes :) How can I forget the Stopover for a Mirinda ADD Show?? If I miss this, the team will sure not excuse me – I thought we were in for a Bike trip through the Western Ghats. It came as a surpise, that our SUPER HERO Karthik was kind enough to do a model Road Show on Viewers request… The highlight was his “Flourescent Jacket, which gelled with the hoarding in the small Bunk shop. Karthik is way beyond comparison/competition to “ASIN”… you guys agree??

From Orange, back to our green environment, the riders were pacing at a descent speed to get in to the pollution free, fresh air, lush greens, surrounded mountains, valley views, steep down views, halting for pictures in all scenic locations, Photo shoots of the top models (Nachu , Karthik in particular) in the team, view points, as we proceeded, reached to Kothagiri, halted for super Egg curry, parota, Dosa, idli, coffee,breakfast hog…. What a lovely hunger feeling to have Breakfast in a small joint, amidst cold weather.

Here comes another Hero of the Bike trip…MR. PALANI, so called Paruppu Palani, who for no reason, hates the HR…came with his lady love Yamaha, which all along created problems and made Palani’s ride miserable. Atlast we had to move the bike back to our city destination and Palani joined with the other riders. I hope Palani realizes now, where the curse is from ;-) Completing close to a drive of 70Kms, halted at a junction close to Ooty, where we were regrouping and waiting for Paari/Palani to return post moving the break down Yamaha back to its original destination, meanwhile… four culprits in the team plan for a hot hot… garam garam chai, which they skipped on the way, and got to hear from other riders who tasted and were pretending not to have. These four sneak their way out of the group, went on a ride all the way for that little HOTTTTT Tea, and in the whole sequence, missed the team, who started their journey after regrouping…. Not sure who these 4 daring, young riders were ;-).. But all said and done, the Hot Lime tea and the cardamom milk tea were Awesome.. Remembering the scene, can still sense the smell of the TEA.

Continuing the joy of riding, the 4 culprits made to the speed and joined back the team at a “Bison View Point”. Not to forget the CTCians style, the DSLR’s peeped out and all the Photographers were in action to click the best pictures of the view point along with the team, their lady love bikes, riders and the Pillions… After a good Photo shoot, started our journey, reached close to Bandhipur. As most of them were feeling not able to get a glimpse of even one wildlife in the dense forest range, there comes to our surprise “ONE SINGLE KING OF THE JUGLE” THE IVORY TUSKER, left alone in the forest, thinking of its strategy.. Huhhhh!!!!  Viewed one wildlife at last, was the happiness from the team, who back again, started clicking series of pictures of the SINGLE ELEPHANT… Some really wanted to play with the elephant by making noise, teasing with sounds, but at last we decided the distance for it to attack us was very less, and dare not risk our beautiful life!!!

Some wanted to play with wildlife, the rest with their life on roads…. Here comes back our QUICK GUN MURUGANS, Karthik & Nacchu, who wanted to risk their life in the Jungle roads, to check if a Lorry or a van can run over them, and they can still survive in their “KARATE STUNT STYLE”.. Out of the Jungles, driving all through the forest… after a very little Breakfast, the reminder call started for Lunch Break!! Chicken, Egg, Mutton, Biriyani, all these words all through in the air.. there comes a highway Restaurant, which said, come on Boyss!! We would serve all these for you….The only time the team gets disoriented is during the food feast, where the vegetarians disappeared in the group and the Non-Veggies rape the little chicks… I don’t have to describe how the taste of food was post eyeing this picture :P Good feast Matchan!!!! What a Biriyani? I am an EGGITERIAN!! But I eat Chicken/Mutton Biriyani without the MEAT (Karthik)!! I DONOT EAT NON VEG, says one from the group (Pradeep), but keeps the whole plate of boneless chicken next to him and silently chews… BUT THEN HE IS A VEGETARIAN!!!  MIND IT RASKALA :) So many conversations, quick witty jokes, more to go on Guys says the Captain and time to start our ride back to the 1st day destination.

Day 1 – Bandhipur to Sultan Battery (Its sure not LED BATTERY GUYS!!!!) PAARI this is for U ;-)
Completed close to 200kms from the start point in Coimbatore, reached Sultan Battery, destination – Hotel Regency, 2nd Floor – I believe that’s the reservation we had! Long long ago, so long ago, no one knows how long ago, we made a reservation at this place called HOTEL REGENCY, waited, waited and waited….. no one knew, when we got the rooms…..All were expecting some rooms, may be three/four people sharing, could go take a shower, freshen up, relax, go for a Movie to the theatre opposite, deciding on which Malayalam movie to watch, tried hard to get the names of the movies, in the meantime ordered some sweet Banana Bajji’s, continues the waiting time…. Continues the thirst for Health, energy Tonic, Drinks ;-) Refreshing coke!!! We were waiting and waiting, and here comes the CTC Reporter, Vel, live from the studios of SULTAN BATTERY, with his camera shoot about the experience of the 1st day ride, about the organizers… I believe vel captured a good Review about the Organizers, who were always positive to get the rooms somehow by the middle of the night in Regency ;-) Thanks to Ram, Ramesh..Once again ;-) You guys were really PATIENT and NEVER LOST HOPE in reservation. The Grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. Sure all appreciations to the organizers!!

Here comes the scene in the wide area Hall, arranged with 22 beds.. the whole group jumps to the beds reserving their corners, beds, pillows.. some rushing to take a shower, some crashed on the bed..some grouped for a chat…VERY FEW WITH VILLAIN LOOKS waiting to choose the victim for BIRTHDAY BUMS!!! Ohhh, here comes the two BAKRAS – who got repeat, replay beatings… None other than our “PARUPPU PALANI” & “SUPER HERO KARTHIK”. Its like “singam da, single ah dhan adi vanguveen!!! HEHEE… The team grouped in to two, and went on to the Battery town on the look out for good food, as some enjoyed food alone, but the rest had energy tonics along with food, and returned back to the hotel. After all the fun, jokes & laughter, the team rested for some sound sleep, few really had a SOUNDDDDDDDDD Sleep, rest started the next day, pretty early, troubling, waking up others…. I am not sure if we woke up with a good SUPRABATHAM, but for sure, hearing the shouting & pain of Palani getting beaten up again…I believe, he asked for it and his wishes were honored!!!

DAY 2: Sultan Battery to Kuruva Islands, Wayand:
Get set go!!!! Finished a lovely, wide spread Breakfast at the hotel, and riders went to warm up their bullets, and were all geared up to enjoy the high flowing water bed of Kuruva Island… “God’s own Country” blessed us with the pleasant ride all through to Kuruva Island, as the entire stretch of roads were smooth & the landscape was breath taking, except for one patch of ride where all the riders had their challenges to cross amidst the stones & mud, clay and bad path way to reach one of the best Island.. Parked our bikes, all set to jump and enjoy the force of flowing water, the team took a nature walk through bamboo range and reached the water bed..

If there is magic on the planet, it is contained in the water.Water is the driver of Nature. I think of this again and again, and still keep thinking the same, when will the CTCians energy levels drain? Will it or Not? May be? May not be?... My god, this team was simply amazing.. 2nd day start, full of energy, great adrenaline rush to jump into the water, sailed through the bamboo rafts, all our Stunt Masters, Super Hero’s were ready for their live performances, just was waiting form some one to say “Live, Action, Camera” and there starts the Birthday kicks again… This time in the flowing water, it was every one, target was coming in turns to most of them, and not to miss, sure Karthik being the leader of the show. May be in the Fashion industry Terms, Karthik was the “SHOW STOPPER” in the entire bike tour. We all spent about 2hrs in the island, enjoying the water bed, singing, laughing loud, posing for pictures, waiting for a BAKRA all the time and finally decided with no heart to leave the place to start our journey back on roads… All way through, if I don’t mention the lovely black tea, lime tea, then for sure I am missing something…..

Day 2: Kuruva Island to Virajpet, Coorg:
From Wayanad, the plan was to reach virajpet, Coorg by early hours in the evening, as we could settle down at home stay and spend the rest of the evening with the group… Like a real movie, all this while was fun, green, Tea factor, laughing, giggling, pictures, models.. Hold on to your seat belts as the real adventure of the trail begins… This is a real story of a handsome young Man named “Ramesh”, who by all his dreams wanted to possess a Royal Enfield Bullet, Thunderbird. His wish came true and he did own one and his lady love was just about a month and a half…He loved his bullet so much and wanted to ride her all through the Western Ghats… Did his dream come true??? Watch out the movie sequence… The group was mostly eyeing at Ramesh’s new Bullet for a good drive along the Ghat range… Though he possessed the dream bike, never he got an opportunity to ride his Bullet… Naachu was the first to enjoy and feel the ride in Ramesh’s bullet, zipping through the ghat sections, making the rest of the crowd envy the ride….After a break from Naachu, comes our SUPER HERO, Karthick, who wanted to test drive the bullet with Ramesh as his pillion. Started their journey after Naachu handing it over, our Hero takes over the ride, shows his riding skills, he was scraping through the other bikes in the hairpin bends as smooth  as one could feel the bullet power…All way through, lullaby, fresh air, anywhere and everywhere, feel of green, here comes a patch of bad roads… Hero tried to control the spead along a long U turn and unfortunately applies the wrong break, which made the rider go out of control and the Bullet skids…. Sequence is pretty much like the MATRIX scene, but in Matrix the recovery is quick, but in reality, there were little injury, damage to the new bullet.

Irony to this was, Vel all long drives enjoying the scenary, and very careful calculating the bad roads, follows karthik, but slips as HERO fell down, being unable to control the bike.. Vel too had severe rashes, but everyone was ok with no major injuries or situation to handle. To all good, the place where stargetically, the hero (karthik), pillion (Ramesh) and the 2nd hero (Vel) did the stunt was right next to a mechanic shop. Hero after the climax, took the bullet the mechanic shop to do some minor adjustments, to resume the ride again. I am not sure, after all these incidents…Can we still call it “Neighbours Envy, Owners Pride” ;-) or “Nothing is Impossible” The riders following vel stopped with the stunt team, applied first aid, made sure the guys were ok. With all these incidents, time was running a bit quick and with the gloomy weather around, it was looking the rain god would sure pour good showers… The team regrouped, with the message passed to the Captain on the heroic deeds.

Lets start our ride again team, was the call from the captain, who took a decision to skip the Iruppu falls on the way as it was getting dark. The soldiers followed and it was quite a pleasant cool ride to reach Virajpet, where our home stay was arranged. Riding, riding and riding, finally reached our home stay place… deep inside the thick coffee plantation, where the lovely sweet little terracotta home was all arranged for us to rest for the night…The group was starving in hunger as we all skipped our lunch, had some junk food all through the way, munching the wafers, cookies, whatever we could get through on the way. Deciding to go for dinner or few of them will order get to the town and pick up the food for the rest of the team, finally all of them ended up moving to the town in search of hotels.

East End Hotel is the rescue for the starving CTCians., where we ended up ordering all food on the Menu. This was a real feast on Coorg delight, specially cooked food in the typical coorgean style ;) Ofcourse to add… sure nothing without “Tonic water is the secret of My energy”…. The group split in to two again for dinner, and few stayed at east end and the rest ended up to a nearby Andhra mess.. Food order took a long time as the hotel was packed with customers, waiters behaving very pricy to take the order at the first place, some literally pulled the waiter to better take an order at our table, finally we get some starters to smell and taste. Whats like a typical conversation over a good dinner table? Something about Cricket, politics, about bike trips to Himalayas, Girl friends, Boy friends……….

All your guesses are wrong guys!!! Here comes “THE MAN” Mr. Palani, who pulls the string between HR and Operations in the IT world..
I believe he really had some bad experience in his appraisal cycle with the HR or really got into some fight with his HR team… Poor Palani, all said and done, HR always rules over Operations.. That’s what the Bible says :D Post our heated arguments, good food, amazing Dhal, Chaval, Biriyani, what not…. We cleaned up the hotel and they had nothing more to offer from the kitchen… We walked out of the hotel, played some good music, danced on the town roads around 12:30AM, enjoyed to glory, drove back to the Home stay, where the other team had already winded off, called it a day and were in deep sleep… As we reached, the camp fire was still inviting the warmth, heat, and we all wanted to play some music enjoy for some more time displaying the talent of our guys dancing. With the total satisfaction of enjoying the days ride, evening little party, we decided to take bit of rest to start our Motor gears the next day..

Day 3: Virajpet to Dubare Elephant camp:
Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars... and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful.  Everything is simply happy.  Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance.  Look at the flowers - for no reason.  It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are….
Ok lets hit the reality show again… Starts the 3rd again, with all the great energy, but with the Hero, Hero2 and Pillion who had a fall, were feeling a little pain due to the bad crash, rest all with same adrenaline rush, gathered, got ready to hit the roads back. The plan was to visit Dubare Elephant camp, do some white water rafting, head towards Bangalore. Team regrouped on the main roads, filled fuel, did a recheck on the Bikes, and were set to make people turn back eyes at our charming 10 bikes/Bullets… As we continued on the roads, there was a bit of confusion whether to visit Dubare or just continue straight into Bangalore to wind off for the day. In the whole confusion, the happy couple who just enjoyed the music in the car, went all through to Mysore road (Vel & Balaji) wherein the whole group waited for them to have some breakfast and head to Dubare.. With a long wait time, unable to control the hunger, we cleaned all the food at a small Parota join on the hills. I am sure Chetta made his money for his week’s survival…

Post our Breakfast, after the long wait, the car arrives with Vel & Balaji totally drained, driving all the way back to dubare. Once again, regrouped, started heading towards Dubare Elephant camp. The actually plan was to do little bit of swimming and may be river rafting. As we reached Dubare, as it was a weekend, we had difficulty to get reservation for River rafting and had to skip the same.. The team decided to do swimming in a little high current running water, and here it starts….. The entire team, except for a few non swimmers who just wanted to be as audience to watch the fun, stayed back and the rest jumped in to the running water… The team crossed the line area where after a particular point the water has powerful current and could wash the person along with the running water. How can I end a story without the final heroic Deed!!!! Here comes our MAN, Karthick who says “Guys, if you cannot do a good swim or rather the one who doesnot know to swim well, refrain from coming to the danger zone…. Its only for the Extraordinary men who could do Hero stunts….He said this and started swimming as the team stayed a little before the danger line, and watching our Hero… Suddenly the group could see Karthick jumping out of the hide tide water, shouting and waving his hands, as you know he is a hero, the team thought he was showing some stunts with his excellent swimming skills, but few minutes later, realized Karthik was stuck in a high current range, and was getting drowned….
There comes the rescuer, saviors, none other than peter, Balaji and Anand, who rescued our Hero from the High Current zone…. As all story has a happy ending, thrilling climax, so did our Bike trip.

The whole team was out of the water post this incident and we were all making fun of Karthik’s daring statements all through the way… Winded off from Dubare, journey begins as the final day on roads comes to an end, as the riders hit the roads, ride on the highways of Hunsur, Mandya, and back at Bangalore. Way through the team was guided by routes to enter the Bangalore city and as in between, Peter’s bullet had minor problems, nacchu stayed back to get that rectified, the others reached the destination to leave the bikes, and rush to the railway station to catch their trains…… Ravi Ghosh, who made a guest appearance in the reality movie and made all the Riders/pillions happy with his Set Dosa Treat!!!! You really deserve Birthday Bums Ravi…..How can we end a story without a Moral?? Should we really say some moral to the Hero’s in this bike trip………..I think, let’s leave it here, and rest is for the readers to decide on the Moral and enjoy!!!! Before I call it a closure…I take this moment to thank the Organizers, Ram, Balaji, Ramesh who took their time off to arrange such a lovely Road trip all through the Western Ghats.. Without you guys, this wouldn’t have been possible. Amazing Coordination, Support, Group, team spirit… What not… Let’s look forward to more and more Road trip Guys!!!!

I am signing off with my last appreciations:
Three Cheers to the awesome team, Our Leader Peter, Captain Ram & Ramesh for the wonderful road maps, routes, last but sure not the least Balaji for an amazing Support!!!!
Hip Hip Hurrah!!!  
Hip Hip Hurrah!!! 
Hip Hip Hurrah!!!

[Nachu]
Hey Biking Freaks,
Hope you all reached home safe and sound....
Me and my bike Maaya reached home safely. I think my bike Maaya enjoyed her last trip with me :)
wow, what a crazy biking weekend with such an awesome group. i just couldnt come out of the memories of this weekend.
Superb hairpin bends at Nilgiris
Nice view points of Kothagiri
Awesome roads of Masinagudi
Painful Bday Bumps and Pillow fights at Wayanad hotel ;)
Chill waters of Kuruva island and water splashing game
Very tough rock road leading to Kuruva island
Bad roads of wayanad to virajpet and a bike accident bcos of it
Thrilling drive to Coorg on a pitch dark evening
Funny drunken monks at the bar
Nonstop DJ nights along with Campfire at the homestay
Much awaited falls and classy bath out there
Much more monkey actions and monkey photography wherever possible
Superb Parotta and fish curry lunch at a Chetan shop
Swimming at Dubare and 2nd life to Karthik after drowning in there ;)
Riding to bangalore in good speed on a state highway
wow..... lots more memorable events in just 3 days. i love CTC just for this.
I am still laughing like anything, on remembering the funny events of these 3 days

I would say THIS IS THE 3 MOST FUNNY DAYS OF MY LIFE IN RECENT TIMES....
Especially I remembered some dialogues and did rotfl.
I'm summarizing only the funny events of these 3 days
In Kothagiri-ooty road someone told this.....
(translated in english) "Hey Nisha, you get down from bike. (to that ooty lady) Madam you please come, i'll drop you".
And, from then, that lady also started to talk in english..... highlight is "may be she thought karthik is a NRI". Karthik went a step ahead in social service and dropped her at her home itself ;)
And then on that day night, i still remember how much Palani got excited when he started explaining OG3 stories. Though i was enjoying it initially, when i got a nice knock on my head from him out of his excitement, i forgot what happened thereafter. head spinning, eyes popped out, I am crying "mummy..... save me from this monk"

And on saturday morning 4.30 am, we heard the dialogue of the month.
"Basically I'm a Villain". The very moment this dialogue was uttered, we heard the person who told it, started to cry. Because people started giving bday bumps, and he was trying to escape from it. There came our Shriram with a pillow to block him and continued the bumps. Btw, who is that Villain.... Palani again
We were getting ready from Wayanad, and we could see everyone is getting pricking sensation. It was by a porcupine's bristles ;) And Karthik told whenever he wants to slow down other bikers, he just asked the porcupine to throw her bristles over others. What an Idea Sir ji!!! Who is that porcupine bristles girl..... Maya
We were driving from Wayanad to Coorg, someone was driving the bike, and Suresh was sitting behind her. And there came a big pothole in middle of the road. Bang !!! Bang !!! The tyres of his bike almost got punctured, then the bike got stopped very next to the police checkpost. Suresh said "Amma, Thaaye...... Aaniye pudunga venaam..... Naane vandiya oottikiraen"..... who is that amma..... credit goes to Divi

On road instructions..... "Guys drive carefully.... Vandiya paathu ottu.... Road is bad, be slow.... Dont drive in right, come to left da"..... Immediately one sound ..... Dhamaallll...  Dhamaaalll..... Someone's shouting "Ayyo..... Pochae....". The one who was giving instructions lying down in road, and counting some coins there.... who is that coin counting guy. He is "Born 2b a SuperHero SuperZero". You know who he is.... he is Narain Karthikeyan of CTC. He didnt even care to help Ramesh who has fallen down in road bcos of him. Immediately he got from road and said "Machi, i'll go give the bike for repair in that mechanic shop da". Ramesh wanted to give him a tight slap. Karthik just escaped

Discussion
Monk1: HR people doesnt do any work at all..... they just come to office to screw up others life. They dont have any work
Monk2: Software Engineers are dumbos, we only give life to them, without us they cant live at all
Monk1: If we are not there, HR's dont have any work, they just do browsing, chit-chat, timepass, no other work, just screw up others life
Monk2: Without HR's, you guys wont even get a job at all. Mind it !! (Quick Gun Murugan ishtyle)
Discussion is heating up, all others are enjoying the conversation, especially Nachu and Ramesh adding fuel to the flame and having fun to the core. Who are those monks - Monk1 is Palani, Monk2 is Chitra
13th Sep 12.00 am - calling Balaji sesh over phone.... Balaji picks up the phone. Everyone sings songs "Happy birthday to you... ". Everybody wishes him. Balaji talks to Nachu and says "Hi da, thanks for the wishes.... Muaaahhhh..... "
Thats it, everyone was waiting for that moment. As soon as this things happens, everyone's pouncing to tease Nachu for one whole day. Nachu runs away from everyone and says "Nooooooo, I'm not a gay. I'm straight. Please leave me". Infact Nachu is about to cry saying that "Now only my mom is initiating the marriage talks, please dont spoil it by teasing like this". Nisha and Maya having fun by teasing him
Dubare elephant camp, high water current, people reached middle of the river,
Peter: "lets go to other bank of the river"
Karthik: "Only confident swimmers try it, others pls dont take risk" (he thinks risk edukkuradhu ellam enakku rusk sappudra madiri)
They start swimming across to the other bank of the river. Someone's swimming sideways instead of going forward. After getting washed away by high water current, she shouts "Papa....Papa"
Peter rushes to save Divi.
Right behind him, someone's very thirsty and drank all water in that river. He wanted to drink more, but his tummy is just so small for it. Balaji is pulling him out with his hair. Then Balaji shouts "Peter.... Help". Peter rushes to save Karthik and gives him 2nd life
 

Rest of the group is planning go back to car from middle of river, Shriram is confident enough to swim, he starts swimming, but he couldnt move at all. Though he was alright, someone's pulling his hair forcefully. Shriram comes back to same place and asks "i was confident to swim, but who pulled me back". Brave man Palani says "See, i saved you"..... everyone laughs
Peter's helping everyone to reach the shore safely. Ramesh and Nachu broke the human chain, and Nachu says "i'm ok, i'm confident". Ram says to Ramesh "Machi hold the hands of Nachu properly". Ramesh says "Nachu is confident, then why to hold hands". Ram gets angry so much and shouts "adinga, kaiya pudida". Ramesh and Nachu dont want to more scoldings, they hold hands immediately
Oh man, what a funny weekend.... one needs to be really be there to enjoy all these funny moments of life..... i just couldnt come out of those happy moments of life
Eagerly awaiting the next bike trip...

Written by: Chitra Subramanian, Nachu

Organized by: Balaji NJ, Ramesh, Ramkumar

Image Galleries:
Ramesh
Peter
Paari
Manikandaraja
Vel (video channel)
Karthick Sundararajan
Samyak kaninde
Shriram
Palani

Posted by: Karthick Sundararajan

Wayanad trek - Vavul mala, 21,22&23 Feb 2009

Finally there came the announcement “Wayanad trek- valvu–21,22&23 Feb 2009″ I have been spending nearly all my surf time checking for CTC’s (Chennai trekkers Club) trek schedule and wishing that they come more to the south from Chennai, so I could join. It has been more than a month and after a dozen mails Peter (read: Captain-CTC) let me join this trek that is ranked‘difficult’,which is a strict no for new comers, and I am exactly that. The sleeping mat that I had asked my brother to send  arrived on a Saturday, 4 weeks ahead of the trek. The arrival had me on my motorcycle scouting the town for fasteners for the mat which, I came across in the hot afternoon sun. My next stop was the tailor who helped me give the fastener a form. It is 19 Feb 2009, the day before I was supposed to leave on my first trek with CTCians. I find it tough to sit in my chair staring absently in to my laptop, I would have been better off sitting under a neem tree atop a hill staring with life in to the valley at my feet. It is 20 Feb 09, I have packed and repacked my trekking bag so I now know where exactly in the bag will that tooth brush of mine will roll in, much to the annoyance of room mate. I woke up this morning to see a e-mail from Peter on my mobile, that read“Mission-Wayanad, final debrief”, with which butterflies started their ballet in my tummy   but then the rest of his mail is a concrete action plan that boosts my morale.  At 17:16 hrs I receive a SMS announcing “the departure of 50 brave soldiers form Chennai to Wayanad” from Peterji.

“Time to go”  I tell my self.

The clock was racing towards midnight when I boarded the Train to Calicut, to meet Peter and some more of those soldiers who had not dozed off in the rocking train. Just 4 hours to reach Calicut, I am unable to sleep even after securing my cosy upper berth. I forgive those people who stared at us at the rail terminus of Calicut, we wanted it mounting off the train wearing shorts, carrying big backpacks, with sleeping mats sticking out at all possible angles, we must have been a funny bunch of people.

jeep trail…
It would have too normal had the bus we hired was ready for us, but who bothers, we spent the time feeding our cameras and resting after a long sleep. We reached muthalampuzha the last of civilization to wake up the sleepy village fowl. After stuffing our food ration for the next three days in our over stuffed sacks, we embarked on our trail on a steep tarmac path. With in minutes I and we realized that it was a mistake trying to carry our world with us, and we left back all those extra items with out which our survival would not be tough in a friendly villager’s home. We carry only the bare essential. The tar road soon gave way to a winding jeep trail, which lead us to a boulder strewn path. The going was getting tough with the early morning sun shining mildly on our faces.

the climb starts…
Three metal wires running parallel to the ground to keep the wild elephants from entering the hamlet marked the start of our trek. The first couple of hours easy trek took us to an amazing water fall running on a fairly plain rock face , inclined at 45 degrees. Our tired  body wanted a break, but that is not what Peter thinks; he says we have more to go and pushes us to move on. The climb gets tougher and steeper. We discovered our rhythm and we started climbing at our pace. It was a good half an hours trek before we reach another not so steep rivulet. Using the rocks for bean bags we had our lunch of sweet polis and bananas.

vellarimala- 2050meters…
Was that the heavy lunch or the refereshing dip in cool water or the tired bodies I found it hard to move on. The group was getting sober, and was putting their best to keep the person moving ahead in sight. Only strongest and the regular trekkers kept shouting words of encouragement to keep the group moving. The trek up hill was tough and we could hear many wondering aloud on what made them choose this place to spend their weekend. The view that we came across made sure the cameras were not hanging idle on your neck. With many a breaks and encouraging words from the fellow trekkers we could cajole our legs to keep moving. The cool mist that came down on us was a sure sign of nearing the peak, but still the peak was no were in sight until that last turn were it came in to view abruptly. The applause that we received from the seasoned trekkers who had summited earlier was well earned.

After a quick trip to water source 15 minutes down hill, and 40 minutes back (we were tired !!) ‘the cooking party’ set up two pots out of which came steaming hot soups and noodles, to be gobbled up by the croud. The roaring fire set up at the peak was just enough to keep us from freezing. It was not regular bed time but still what else could you do at that freezing temperature after a tough trek than to stretch on your sleeping mat with your blanket to keep off the cold and tarpaulin to keep away the dew.

here we come valvu…
Are early mornings colder than late nights, I am not sure. But looking at the frantic pace at which bunch of us were trying to light a camp fire in the mist would prove that. With little success in trying to warm our bodies, we start the day’s trek towards peak valvu towering over us majestically. We leave back our sleeping mat and back packs in the camping site and move towards valvu with just water and food. The group refereshed by a sound sleep, moved with great energy and enthusiasm  ”here we come valvu” I heared some saying this.

valvu- 2380meters…
A good nights rest and the fact that we had just 400 meters of climb to reach the highest peak of Western ghats north of Nilagiris kept us going. The climb was not as steep as the day past, but it did not help to have to clear a trail among dense thorny bushes, that soon started developing a great affinity to sweaty, smelly T shirts and bare limbs. We walked, we climbed, we swung, we crawled, we ducked, heavily bruised we kept moving to tame valvu. The final climb up to valvu was through a dense bush, where no path existed. The guide said Valvu is just behind this bush, that was the command to CTC to walk right through the bush without an iota of fear. There it was, mighty valvu, and we atop it. The view that these tough mountains offer you is breathtaking. It is defenitely worth the climber’s grit .

 

the climb down…
Chapattis for lunch at 2400meters, we start our climb or rather our run down. Thorns, bushes, stones, boulders nothing could stop us and we reached vellarimala in less that a third of the time it tookus to climb up. At vellarimala democracy prevailed when the group was decided to be split in to two. One group would continue their descent down and the other group will stay at the summit for some more sightseeing. From here my journey down continues with the first group. 26 of us continued our climb down, our target was to reach a waterfall enroute to camp for the night. 400 meteres of ascent and descent had sapped our energy and the prospect of having to trek 4 more hours to rest was not exactly fun.  The group began its climb downhill. I remember telling on the way up that coming downhill would be a breeze, but it was all but that, to step down a feet every step with a still heavy backpack. The group was slow, thanks to injuries. The journey was tough, thanks to slipping stones. We kept on as very little time was left for sunset.

one more step…
Just one more step, I kept telling myself;  Members kept slipping off their foot, twising your ankle was the last thing you would want in a mountain when you are racing against time. Finally we reached our intended campsite at dusk.  We emptied our backacks for soup powders, ready to eat food. Fire was started and the pot was bubbling, we had the taste of dinner with the marvellous soup (anything hot is yummy after a day long ordeal). Soup was served in cups fashioned out of water cans cut in middle (both the ends were used). Dinner was ready to eat MTR mixtures. Some members of the group had the energy and patience to makekichadi, while some set on make noodles ! 

Soon the group set about securing flat surfaces to sleep in. Though the night was less colder than tah day before at vellarimala, it still was cold for your cosy bedroom. Small camp fires were lit to keep the group warm in their bed and zzzzzz…..

back home…
The next morning (on the third and final day of our trek), we stared our descend down after a chill batch in the stream. The climb was interesting and easy as home was closer with every step we took.  The climb back to muthalampuzhalasted just over 3 hours. A sweet surprise awaited us when we walke in to the home were we had dumped our extra luggages, in what seemed like eons ago. The house keeper was ready for us with steaming noodles. After having our fill we spent the next hour washing off our tired bodies in the small but beautiful waterfall in his backyard.

The second group reached us an hour past noon, and we started towards to the smelly, polluted, dangerous city life.

Written by: Stalin Sathitharan

Organized by: Peter

Image Galleries:

Karthick Ramalingam
Karthik
Raghuvir
Indra
Sreekumar
Sankar
Hariprasad
KPS
Nara
Vinodh
Sriram
Saran
Kannan
Dinesh nair
Pravin
Ramesh Azhagar
Shyam Ramachandran
Guru

Kodai - Munnar Escapade, May 1 - 3, 2009

Kodai - Munnar Escapade [Trekking between the 2 most beautiful hill stations of Kodaikanal and Munnar, over the top station, May 1 - 3, 2009]

What's in store:
This trek offered one of the wonderful experiences of passing through the Mathikettan Shola forest to open grasslands, to pine forests, to beautiful large lakes, to Wonderful water falls, and different types of flora. There is so much of freshness with cold climate of high altitudes and so much greenery one would barely want to come back to the hot concrete jungle of Chennai. From time to time I just kept my eyes wide open to let in the freshness cleanse my eyes. We had to trek, walk, run, slide, hurdle jump, long jump, high jump, bend, squat, crawl, stumble (fall) and what not, complete action packed 3 days in the wildness of nature.

Shola Forest:
Sholas are found in sheltered pockets to valleys over 1000 mts. Altitude belonging to 11/Ac southern montane wet temperate forests. The trees are evergreen. The lichens epiphytes and mosses are thriving over the trunks and branches of the trees Heavy leaf litters and moulds are formed to a measure of 6 inches by retaining maximum rain water and thus acting as a “living reservoirs”. The predominant shola species are Rhododendron, Vaccinium, Syzygium and Microtropis. The Eco system provides shelter breeding and feeding ground for varied species of the Mammals birds amphibians and invertebrates. The sholas are called as the “Living Fossil Community” as they are disappearing day by day. (One of the Board said all these) More info in wiki.

A Bit of History:
The Munnar-Kodai road was made motorable during World War II to facilitate the evacuation of the planters from Munnar to Madurai and beyond in the event of a Japanese invasion. It is not at all in usable state today, large sections are broken and overgrown. As a result, denizens of the forests roam wild, making it a much sought after trekking route.

Who are we:
65 young energetic fellas from the 2 most thriving IT destinations Chennai and Bengalooru have conquered the jungles of Kodai - Munnar on those high peaks. To beat the heat of this harsh summer, Kodaikanal (TamilNadu) and Munnar (Kerala) are the most sought out hill stations by Tourist. But we were not tourist and we were not there for that reason. Our mission, to retrace the Old British route between these 2 hills. This is quite a bit of challenge in retracing the roads, which hardly exists in its original shape. It is quite obvious that a least used route for ages from the period of second world war would hardly be motarable and it will surprise you quite a bit.

Kodai - Munnar Escapade: Day 1
Kodaikanal - CapsValley - Berijam - Forest Staff quatersFriday May 1, 2009

People say "Everything that begins well, Ends well". Remixed version for this trek it has to be "Everything that begins late, Ends late". To begin with the Chennai city traffic and then the highway traffic, Dinner at wee hours of the morning (1 Am), and then get up in the morning to know that we are still in Vathalaguntu at 10AM. We had more than 6 hrs of trek planned for
the first day and we are good 1/2 day behind schedule. The uphill journey was a pain (slow drive), that you would not miss out even a single tree or rock that passed by your window seat. The bus was in such a condition that even a snail would have got better maneuvering capabilities to reach its destination quicker.

Reached Kodai at 2 hours post noon. Met the gang from Bangalooru who had reached well ahead of time. Quickly (hmmm not so quick) grabbed lunch and packed ourselves in 3 vans and headed towards caps valley passing through the Forest check post. We had got all the required forest permission and our Guide Mani had good contacts with the Forest guards and the locals. Vans
left us at the "Caps Valley" and we pack our bags and click a few snaps to begin the trek. Picked up the energy bars, glucose and water bottles for next 3 days. Accepted the greetings from the monkey battalion assembled by the van. Assembled at the caps valley near the fence, head count and off we go into the jungle.

It is around 4.15 PM as we begin and evening sun glowing up the hills opposite of us. Surprise, within just 15 mins of the start, we had dead Bison decaying by the woods, with all the flesh eaten up, left with the bones and skin. Crossed it and we went into deep woods. Hours pass by as we cross different logs of wood, small streams, jump over the rocks, bend down to move under the trunks of trees that are grown all over with no order. Reached a beautiful scenic place where there were lots of bushes and tall trees. Ate the food packets that were packed (ROtis and sabji). Hoping that was our dinner and within minutes the sun says bye for the day. Relying on our alternate source of energy and other than the usual Solar power, we dared to cross dense forest in the dark. The trek became a little more demanding with more logs to "cross over and under" and streams with steep rocks. And suddenly to the surprise of all, there is a beautiful Tar road in the midst of the jungle. Probably better than the city roads. All dropped their backpacks and rested for a while. Head count starts and we are on our foot again. This was peace, no trouble - walk on the road for atleast 5-6 km, talking, singing and enjoying the beauty of nature. Then we reached the forest
guard's staff quarters. The cold was taking its toll as we all wore jackets/ jerkins and mufflers. It would be 8.30 to 9 Pm and we all put down the backpacks and rested on fresh green and wet grass slopes with the wide open sky as the roof.

And just before this as we crossed a lake, there was a Board saying the following things about the things around the Berijam lake
1. Swamp Eco-System
2. Fresh water Eco-System
3. Nature Trail
4. Bridge
5. Medicinal Demo-Garden
6. Museum
7. Nature walk
8. Grass Land
9. Shola

As we settle down in the grasslands, the organizers shouted, get out the soup packets that we had distributed. There were people arranged for cooking with big big vessels, and firewood and they had been cooking for a while in that cold, the dinner for us. But starters first, so we wait for the soup to be cooked, and we enjoy hot hot soup in the cold cold weather. Before the soup distribution is done, the food queue is formed and what good Rice, Sambar, Rasam and Cabbage sidedish were served hot hot. There were hardly any light and the whole scene is happening in pitch dark with the help of torches we had. I took some snaps and got my serving. Figuring where will I get light to eat this!!, there was one very good gentleman holding his torch high up and 5 other people were around him like a round table and eating. I just sneaked in to get some light and quickly gorged down my food. Dinner is over and we all move into small 1 room buildings adjacent to each other, which were supposed to be Canteen and store room, and lay our sleeping bags. Cuddle inside hiding from the cold. 2 tents were to be laid for the spill over.

Kodai - Munnar Escapade: Day 2
Berijam (British Transit camp) - Kavunji - Poondi - NattampattiSaturday May 2, 2009

Still cuddling inside my sleeping bag, denying the fact that some Sun rays have touched this part of the land. Got on the foot, ready to discover tranquility, peaceful location to answer the Nature calls. Came back to the base, had some hot lemon tea. Geared up, packed the bags, then had breakfast. Probably only place we had group snap, in front of the "Britisher's Transit Camp". Getting ready for the day ahead. This day I would call as a peaceful, less adventurous and enjoy nature walk. 70% of the day was through pine forest. You could find nothing but dead pine needles on the forest floor, pine cones and tall pine trees. We have passed through real dense forests that we could even find red colored pine needle leaves. As we moved on we found open grass lands with no trees in the vicinity, and then moved up the hill to find more pine trees, cones and found a small red thing on the ground. Guess what it is a very small mushroom, bright red color with white/yellow dots. Its official name is "Amanita muscaria".

More info on wiki
Clicks and moved on to find a few more of them on the way. Soon within next 10 mins we found another Bison skeleton. All bone parts scattered with bright skull with 2 well shaped horns. Had to run many a times as I stopped to take more photos and let the team walk past me. Then we reached a very brilliant pit stop. A large lake, with one end of bank we all marched down and on the other 3 ends had tall trees, some dry and some very green. There were a few small streams running on the other side of the bank, and many had a dip and wash in the stream. After a very good break for more than 30 mins, we moved on the terrain up into woods, basically more work for the leg. After a while we stopped at another very beautiful lake, which proved lot better but smaller to the previous one. But smaller means time to take a dip. A gang rushed in with all spraying water on others bringing them back to their childhood days. Spent a real good 1 hr here, combo lunch halt. Found some real good flowers, bushes and lovely trees.

We noticed some local village women cut loads of wood and carry them on their head. Good news after seeing them is that we are near some civilization, and it will not be a steep uphill from here. We moved further and within next few kilometers we started to see large terrace cultivated mountain slopes. The whole of the slope had nothing but cultivation. Most of these were barren or no crops, and I felt how could tea be cultivated like this. Upon a small conversation with the locals learnt that they cultivate Carrot, Beans, garlic and other crops. Now I realize oh carrots are root crops. Few steps a man working on his form plucks out fresh carrot from his garden. And steps down a girl had a sack full of carrots and all the people ahead in my group had picked a couple of carrots each. I too did the same, washed in a near stream and ate them. I just offered some chocolates I had to them. Moved on further, walking by the women who were all the while carrying the logs of wood from jungle, gave them the last bit of energy bars left in my bag and learnt that there is a small village near by with "TEA SHOPS". Wow, time for tea. Rushed into the tea stall next 500 mts. This place is called "Kavunji". Before I could complete my tea, rain starts. Man fresh mountain rain is something not to miss, but no one (except one) was ready to get their dress wet. Waited for patiently for the rain to subside. Then we have to move to the guest house which is good 15 kms away. Hired one van which fitted only 25 people odd. Others walked along the road, crossing small places which the name board said as "Poondi". Then we had covered quite more than half the distance and still no sight of the van for the next shuttle. There was a big gang in front, and we were in the fag end slowly dragging a bit. Van arrives to reach the last person on the trail and picked up us on the way. We all sat on top of the van, which gave us the feeling of a "Fast elephant ride in the hills". Wow... Then reached the guest house in "Nattampatti", welcomed by hot lemon tea.

Changed and all set to stroll around. It was evening 5ish. Suddenly people wanted to play kabadi and we formed 2 teams and all had v.good fun, though I could not personally perform well. Participation was important. Okay, the guide promised us for a falls near by, and all started walking downhill at around 6.15pm, where the sun started to say bye bye. We reached the place to find that the falls is way below and we had to jump from terrace cultivation platform to other, and like that reach the bottom after some 50 such jumps. And there is not much of water down, so a bunch of people returned after first 4 or 5. Then we strolled further down to some village and back to our guest house. Nice place, we setup campfire, and most of us settled around it till late night. Singing basically for most of the time. Picked up the food in between, aaaaaaahhhh what a hot side dish for the semiya upma we got. Man it was nothing but hot chilly. Slowly moved to have more participation from the crowd for the songs, dominated initially by Hindi and then forcibly moved on tamil songs. Adjusted in the limited space to sleep and this night was much better and warmer than the previous night.

 

Kodai - Munnar Escapade: Day 3
Nattampatti - TamilNadu/Kerala border - Kovillur [- Munnar - Theni, on wheels] Sunday May 3, 2009

If I may say, this is the real day of action, adventure, and real experience. Other days were just picnic. Day with regular activities, packing bags, food, water bottles and hit the road. Oh my god what a day of activity. No one will forget the uphill and the downhill of the day, who were part of this trek. we started walking in the jungles, uphill, within hours our water bottles emptied and finding very little streams on the way to refill. Adding to the thirst is the uphill climb with people already taking breaks in the first 2 hours of walk. Still we are very much in TamilNadu and crossing the hill top to reach the other side, to enter Kerala. Keep following track, stopping very little time to click photos. Just keep pushing yourself to keep the pace. Still lots of pine trees, on the open lands, sun shining harsh on us directly, though in the hills we could feel the heat and I was sweating a bit atleast shirt as was carrying a heavy backpack. I truly realized the meaning of "Travel light". You could live without some extra fittings, like a sweater, second pair of clothes etc, but cannot carry it along.

After few hours of walking we hit a much wanted water spot. Yes the falls. It was a good 100ft water fall with sufficient water. Filled in bottles (filtered the water), and all settled at the top of the falls. I wanted photos of the falls from the bottom, so couple of us decided to climb dowm. The route was very dangerous. There is not a single hard rock to step on, it was full of some kind of grass/ red needle leaves and soft bushy slope. We stepped on soft floor which went in, as much as we pressed it. Just moved on top of it like a cat without creating much of pressure. After 15 20 steps down, I found a large trunk of tree, green in color and was almost the root side of the tree grown horizontally. I thought I got some good hard place to move on in this unstable ground. Greater surprise, this was much softer and possibly went in like a sponge or rather a hollow straw. Man thinking twice whether to make it further, we managed to move on, and reach the bottom. Only 5 out of 65 made it down here. Trying to click all the possible shots of the falls with smoky falls, droplets and rainbow and all the fun with camera. Spent quite a bit of time here to find the whole team has left ahead of us and a bunch of 10 are left behind. People from top shouting for us to start up and move.

Came up and rushed to join the gang, running through the grasslands, pine trees, crossing the burnt trees (an effort by the forest department to control forest fire), more pine, red pine needles, green pine needles, marshy landscapes, uphill and soon reached another small water spot to refill. This was the last water spot for the whole trip. So we had to save water. Now comes the time for hurdle jumping. There are trees fell all over the place. Every 30 mts, you have a big trunk blocking the way. Either jump over it or go under it. With the heavy backpacks, climbing the trunks, which sometimes add to 1,2,3 in a row. Actually climbing is easier than going under them. Most places you had to bend down, squat, on knees, crawl to get to the other side. You are now double your size with your backpack on the back. Sometime had to remove them to go under these trees, real pain. One place I just came out of such crawl and just getting up, found a big thorn from the other tree in front making a good scratch on my forehead, narrow escape from my eyes. Many a times I got pierced by these thorns on my hands and legs but it is part of the game.

We were able to see some kind of a clear road, but though very native or not so clear path. We could see hairpin bends and roads in the middle of the forest. And people started to climb the hard way instead of traveling through the road near hairpin bends, just to avoid covering additional miles. And further up in the middle of some plants there is a milestone, clearly proving the fact that there was a road. It said 6 and other letters were not so visible. And we happily thought it is 6 miles to destination. Very wrong thought, as the guide refused to give any hint of the distance ahead to cover. He said just keep walking and you will reach there. Sooner we had a stop for lunch. With little water in hand, the price of one water bottle touched 100rs in the bid. All were real tired with all the parts aching and people spraying volini/Iodex spary like body spray. Okay after a good rest, we moved further and quickly spoted a small stream flowing down the road. Many got down to fill bottles for them and others as all the bottles were empty.

After this spot a steep uphill into the woods which looked lot like barren trees, without any leaves, and with lot of sticks overgrown pricking us and backpacks like thorns. Avoiding these we reach the top to find that that was just the beginning of the uphill and we find another steep uphill. Then we move into an interesting puzzle of thorny plants, fully dry thorns, with
no greenery. Then we manage to cut break through this and this path created the maximum damage to our dress and backpacks.

Took 10 mins to get out of this 300m stretch. The roads started to visible more clearly. And we reached to border of the 2 states marked by concrete stones like truncated pyramid shape. Gone past that we found clear mud roads with tracks. These were like green grass in the middle and 2 tracks on either side. We traced the path for nearly 2 hours, with steep steep steep uphill climb. Slowly loosing all the energy, crossing one uphill just to find another big one is waiting around the corner. And one more at the other end. It goes on like this for on & on & on. Finally some down hill for a while and then again some uphill. It is very easy to read past this, but to really understand the effort we had to put in is not explainable.

We had to take diversion from the roads into the jungle at one spot. This spot probably no one will forget. Time for long jump. A large swamp / ditch kind of with soft ground on either side. To cross over, you had to run with your backpacks and make a long jump (I felt happy being tall, could do it with ease). 2 of them fell in and had to change their pants and wash the shoes. Took a very long break after the uphills done. A bunch 5 of us stayed back and let all others take a good 45 mins lead ahead of us. Then we started to move, to some extent we had clear visibility of atleast someone in the front. Later started to collect pine cones, enjoy nature and like this increased the gap between the last 5 and the front gang. Then we would shout and hear back some guidance of the directions, which faded after a while. Then at one final shout we heard that we had to climb down the rough terrain, leaving the path to reach the place quickly. This was already 5.30 pm in the evening, its like getting lost in the jungle if we did not get it right. At the end of the down climb we find no one from the whole gang of 60. Decided to move on with some intuitions, and found that we landed in the middle of a track and don't know which way to go. Luckily spotted an arrow made in the ground in the mud pointing to a direction, which was the unlikely one I would have taken if I had to go with my instincts. Ok thought that these arrows are made by our gang in front to guide us, moved on further in the direction to find more arrows in each of the juncture of 2 roads.

Move on the road until you find 2 paths, look down on the ground and surely find an arrow. Move the way of arrow. Then we crossed more than 5 to 6 arrows. On the way we had to climb down completely to move closer to civilization and could see some solo huts in the height of hills and some distant road. But the end seemed a distant dream. The sun almost set and with very little light had to figure out the way and had to be in a group till we reached the end. I took the lead to find directions and path and waited for the team till the spot and moved fast ahead. One place, before I could reach a separation, I found a villager woman carrying logs of wood, felt a sigh of relief and asked her what is the way to bus stand. Couple of steps down she pointed a way that goes on the right. I happily would have followed her and I did not find any arrows made on the ground. I found some sticks on the ground misplaced, actually there were no sticks all the way and suddenly some sticks on the path.

By thinking these in mind, I kick one of them and suddenly realize they meant something and reassembled the way it was and saw an arrow formed. Moved 2 steps to find a bigger arrow. This was exactly opposite to the direction the lady pointed. Oh my god, we tracked the arrow and moved further into the bushes and then to some steep rocks and finally reached the backyard of some houses. Asking help from them reached the "Tar road". Then moved further to reach the gang readily boarded the Jeeps.

This place is called the Kovilur. From here we took the jeep to Munnar a rally to reach there in time. The moment we reached Munnar, there was a bus waiting to take us to Theni, (last bus of the day 9pm). Reached Theni at 12.30pm had dinner at 1 Am and back to Chennai from Theni. OOOOOOOOO what a long day.

"That's all Folks"

 

Written by: Ashok Rajasekaran

Organized by: Ravi Ghosh / Ravi A

Image Galleries:
Mithun
Prabu
Madhukar
Gaja Ravishankar
Ramesh
Ramani
Anand
Ravi

The Biking Trip - Western Ghats - May 22nd - 24th 2009

11 mean machines, 11 bad boys, 11 fearless gals, 3 sweepers, 500km of ghat roads, countless mind-blowing valley views, endless tea gardens, lush green jungles, vast lakes & huge dams were the ingredients of a 3-day road trip through the Western Ghats on May 22-24. Here is a recount !!!

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Bike Trip through the Western Ghats, May 22nd-24th - Akshaya.T.J

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If I said the three day bike trip had been a wonderfully exciting adventure, it’d be an understatement. It was a blessing to get to travel through the Western Ghats taking in all the exotic rendering of nature that we are bestowed with. Every single day was so different from each other each one that can be drafted into a short story full of adventure and fun.

I have tried to summarize the 3 day Bike trip through the Western Ghats through Madurai >Theni >Idukki >Munnar > Valparai > Coimbatore below with almost every memorable detail.

The night before

“The bus to Madurai is in 15 mins but I am still at home!!!” I was almost screaming into the phone to Amal on 21st night (whom I was yet to meet in person). While Amal replied in typical CTC style “that’s ok,you take your time” and I really thought “Is this guy crazy, how can the bus possibly wait for us??” and of course the bus did wait, when 90% of the bus had CTCians traveling how can the bus possibly not wait?

Out of the 25 member contingent Selva, Bala traveling by car to Madurai, Arun, Ramya and senthil were traveling from Bangalore to Madurai, The rest of us cruised our way to Madurai in this sleeper bus of KPN .While a significant part of the journey we spent playing UNO and card games; the rest of the journey while we were awake was spent each one of them advising me, pitying me on the choice of my biker, Amal. During the entire journey while one person asked for my insurance details, the other person took a photo which could be my last photograph and Lastly, Peter spun the zinger of them all: to take Amal’s safety jacket while am on the bike. So finally when we all called it day it goes without saying that I was filled with nothing but trepidation and it was quite a sleepless night!

Day 1

In spite of the traumatic (jus kidding!) episode the previous night, I was filled with a surge of excitement when we reached Madurai on 22nd morning around 6 am. While the bikers set out to pick up their Machines from the parcel service the rest of us hogged on delicious south Indian breakfast. By the time the bikes arrived we were all starting to feel the adrenaline rush with the atmosphere so charged and so positive. The upbeat spirit took a slight set back for a few minutes when we realized that Peter’s bike keys had been left behind In Chennai. The damp moments lasted hardly a few seconds immediately after which guru and the others set out to find a lock smith. While the Sun was slowly rising and scorching down mercilessly, we were all waiting for the lock smith to work his magic:” The art of Lock picking”. Well, the Lock picking procedure consisting of taking in the shape of the lock and filing the grooves accordingly on to a dummy key. So after 20 minutes of maneuvering, burning and filing, Voila! Peter had keys for his Bike! Yippee!

As we were approaching midday we were having the final preparations to hit the road. While all our big backpacks were being dumped on to Selva’s Car, The essentials needed on the road were transferred to saddle bags and petrol tank bags. The bikes got their fuel tanks filled, minor adjustments in the bikes were being taken care of. .Finally, a slather of sunscreen, donning our Scarves, Jackets, Sunglasses and Helmets (Phew!) we were good to go. So there we set out on 22nd may …to conquer the Western Ghats...making history.

The CTC battalion…11 biker dudes (err!!)…10 daring gals and Balaji as pillions on 11 Mean Machines and Selva, Bala and Senthil on their Verna. The itinerary for the day was to reach thekkady via Theni and Idukki. With the sun scorching down we weaved our way out of the erratic Madurai city traffic and hit the highway. While the other bikers cruised along side throwing a knowing smile at me and Amal; I was overcoming my initial trepidation and was getting acquainted with my biker .After an hour of riding with Amal not only was I confident that I would survive the ride, but having a laugh riot especially when he abuses the bus and lorry drivers using English expletives. J.

Even as were approaching Theni, we were able to view the Western Ghats in its full glory; so overwhelming and scenic with the clouds grazing beautifully on the Mountain tops. It was one of those moments that you are thankful for being able to witness such unadulterated beauty and can’t get enough of it. So jus before we started to climb the ghats we had stopped to take pictures, we were approached by a local tabloid and were interviewed and photographed. We were stars already!

After appeasing our hunger at Theni all of us except for Peter and Madhu whose bike needed to be fixed started from theni planning to go ahead and wait somewhere along the highway. We found this perfect spot, a small clearing with a well by the cornfields. As usual Guru dove into the well, followed by Amal and Nisha. The rest of us rested on the grass and some of them feasted on the corn cobs. After regrouping with peter we set out again. We progressed further down for an hour and ahead of us guru pulls over to the curb but this time we are looking at this lovely vineyard! Like it has been copied and pasted from some exotic foreign land. We got to feast on some heavenly and a little sour black grapes directly from the creepers. Though we got screamed at by the watchman later it was so worth it.

The day was turning to night; we progressed steadily on the ghat roads towards Idukki, visited a tree top view point and got a breath taking view of the valley below. Slowly as the twilight disappeared and darkness began to engulf us the roads began to get difficult ride. The rugged roads combined with the rain and mist weaving in and out got the best of us.Paari and Balaji miraculously escaped with minor injuries from a fall due to the rugged terrain.

As we progressed further the mist surrounded us completely offering zero visibility forcing us to move really slowly with caution. Our only bacon of hope was the tail lamp of the bike going before us and the thought of reaching this resort where were to have our dinner. Post dinner we set out to search to for a camping site to halt for the night. After rejecting the idea of sleeping at a bus stop and a graveyard we finally got allowed to stay at the front yard of a church in Idukki. So with the rain lashing away and a gazillion frogs croaking we all fell into a blissful sleep for the night

Day 2

It was somewhere around 6’oclock in the morning when a bell started ringing. It was almost romantic, waking up in a church on top of the hills, to a beautiful cold morning. But the romance of the morning stopped there. What with the Pastor ringing this huge bell signaling us to wake up and leave. So 15 minutes later after scrambling to freshen up and pack up we were heading out to Munnar; but not before a quick photo session and swapping the bikers and pillions for the next day.

After a pseudo breakfast of Chai and biscuits we were proceeding towards Munnar with full josh. We rode through the exhilarating landscape savoring in each inch of gorgeous tea estates, exotic flora, the mist that grazes along every few minutes, the distant valleys, the serene mist covered lake. All that one could do was to be thankful for being alive and with the fresh air filling our lungs and cleansing out the entire carbon monoxide one feels alive. In the mesmerized state we had somehow reached a point above the club mahindra resort near Munnar when Peter announced a surprise trek!

Well, the trek was to a 400M peak on top of the club mahindra resort; was a relatively easy trek. The rise was gradual, the terrain was also favorable. The only villain was the altitude which caused breathing difficulties for some people, especially me panting my way to the top. We reached the top in ah hour’s time. The view down the valley from the peak was simply breathtaking. The nearby peaks, the far off picture perfect houses, the winding roads, the tea plantations, the roofs of the resort were a visual treat from that altitude. It was a true gala time up the peak with Peter’s stunts at the edge of the cliff, all of us forming a human chain, arun lifting three people.

During the descent some of us got bitten by leeches. Before leaving we went to this placid lake with freezing water at the base of the peak onto which most of them dived and refreshed while the rest of the non swimmers sat and watched. After a small run-in with the club Mahindra guys on trespassing we were on the move again. By afternoon we had reached the town of Munnar for lunch and after the meal there was a small discussion as to where we were heading next as we were behind our schedule. So finally we settled upon going Valparai via Udulamalaipet and Aanamalai.

After a quick lunch at the outskirts of Udumalaipet, we proceeded towards Aanamalai in search of a camping for the night.We proceeded down this dark not so wide road looking for a place to stay. After being denied to stay in a couple of buildings, rejecting a saw mill; we grudgingly approached a Lodge at the foothills of Aanamalai.The lodge was a small neon orange building which was apparently full. We got a shed for the girls to stay. While the Men crashed on the parking space of the lodge.

Day 3

Most of us woke up early the next day at the prospect of having a bath. Most of us queued up for our turn. Some went to the stream nearby and bathed with cattle alongside. After a quick chai and gathering our things, we proceeded towards Valpaarai. The ghats road to Valpaarai consisted of 40 hair pin bends; through the wildlife reserve of Aanamalai; the natural habitat of endangered species of lion tailed macaque. Right after the 9th hairpin bend we stopped at Loams View point; at the huge Aliyar dam water reserve below. With the wind rippling and sun rays reflecting of the surface; we were all mesmerized and lost in thought for a few minutes. After a group photo session and cruising through the tea estates we reached Valpaarai for breakfast.

After breakfast; the plan was to head out to the sholayar dam which was 28 kms from Valpaarai. One group headed by Peter set out to the dam. The other group consisting of 5 bikers, we somehow lost sight of the first group. As none of us were really sure as to where to the first group was headed we took the road out of pure intuition. We headed out of Valpaarai and tried asking people on the way. We got mixed responses from the locals about spotting group of bikers. So after a good one hour of adventurous riding and checking with the locals it became evident that we have indeed come the wrong way. So we headed back to Valpaarai

This time we took the other way from the city and thankfully the locals clearly told us they had seen the other group an hour back. After 15 mins of riding on the right track with the rain lashing down upon us, we spotted the other group returning from the Sholayar dam. Apparently, there was not much water and hence we did not miss much. It was absolutely hilarious when we proceeded back in the same direction where the 2nd group had proceeded earlier. So thus we began our descent down the ghats to reach Coimbatore via Pollachi.

During the descent we had a very memorable time with peter riding with 3 people first: Sheetal, Balaji and Nisha and then with four people Sheetal and Ramya on the petrol tank, followed by Peter, me and then Nisha suspended at the back. After swapping back to our bikes we stopped at the Aliyar dam for a dip. At the sight of water all the pro swimmers plunged into the water. While the rest of us watched. Hardly after few minutes Peter came and dragged me and Madhu in to the water.

I was being floated into the water to a shallow point, followed by Madhu, Sheetal and Ramya. While we yet to comprehend how far into the water we had come, Peter already had other plans. He wanted the girls to be lifted on their shoulders by the guys! Yeah, next thing we were all lifted walked a few feet forward, photographed and promptly dropped back in to the water. On our way back to our bikes from the water we had a small tiff with the locals who were tying to bully us for money. Balaji told them where to go and we stormed out of the place leaving behind only smoke and dust for them to devour on.

Well, with leaving the Aliyar we had left the ghats L and heading to Coimbatore via pollachi. We were back to the plains with all the heat and humidity. We reached Coimbatore with just enough time to load the bikes at the transporter and scramble our way to the bus stop to go back to our respective destinations. The three days were so refreshing; being away from the concrete jungle; nestled on nature’s lap. In a way the experience was holistic and almost spiritual. The days had no Outlook Express or Pizza Delivery or Air-conditioning but we felt completely relaxed, rejunivated and completely ALIVE!

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Anna Campbell

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Transport the toys of eleven boys to a land where misty, meandering mountains roll out of ride roaring roads; throw in ten perfectly poised pillions (and one Balaji); bask in the luck of last weekend of calm before the south-west monsoon strikes - don’t forget the usual spoonful of CTC adventure and Indian randomness before leaving for three days to explore. Makes for a memorable weekend.

I’ll not give a blow by blow account – just offer three of my favourite moments for use as enticement to potential future riders and pillions. It’s worth mentioning that I know very little about bikes; to me Enfield is a dodgy, dirty place in the suburbs of London. I certainly never expected to find myself closely acquainted with three of them in one weekend as we pillions made a daily rotation; each bringing far more positive connotations to the word and transporting me through the Kerala countryside in stylish safety.

After arriving in Madurai on the first day we made a long, eventful drive into the Ghats. The threat of rain was apparent from our first, distanced sighting of the mountains – clouds rolling over their peaks, shielding their valleys from view and creating a perfect picture (not that CTC photographers need that much of an excuse). As the gradient of the road increased it became obvious that, ‘il pleuvra’ and soon the fat drops fell from the sky. As sensation-filled as this watery drive was, it was but an appetizer to the post-dinner digestif; mist.

Mist is something I am familiar with as it envelops London in an atmospheric blur for months on end – I’ve always avoided driving in it, in fact it makes you want to huddle as close to an open fire as possible, preferably with some kind of toddy. This was a similar consistency of mist (note stereotypical British weather obsession), equally treacherous but at a far friendlier temperature. It made what had been a roller-coaster ride through pot-holed ground on the way to the restaurant more of a ghost-train – the ominous music provided by a chorus of frightening (or frightened?) frogs. I can imagine it took all of the fatigued rider’s attention to negotiate the road – indeed, as a pillion I concentrated hard knowing that four eyes are better than two, even if two only have the power to passively yelp rather than instinctively act. Shoulders relaxed as the mist lifted and the road smoothed out and we continued on our quest for accommodation. Possibly this is an odd incident to describe but with hindsight the tension made it an enjoyable one and it represents just one of the exhilarations enjoyed on the trip.

For the next exhilaration, I move to day two where the reputed Kerala beauty really revealed itself as wild flowers mingled with dense undergrowth to create a mêlée that would please the most fastidious of English gardeners (my parents spent years training creepers that here run spectacularly wild!). Here too the olfactory tour began, sinuses cleared from Chennai smog I could smell fresh… and after Chennai smog, fresh smells good; it makes breathing a joy rather than simply a necessity and allows the spectacular scents that flowers exude to be truly appreciated.

The drive through undulating scenery – vibrant jungle complementing ornamental jigsaw puzzled tea plantations - was truly breathtaking, as the photographs testify, and it made me think that nature really does know what she is doing with regards design and perhaps we should leave her to her work more often than we currently do. The bike, of man-made design of course, enjoyed this journey immensely and actually, in my opinion, is the best mode of transport for appreciation of this countryside; allowing for 360 degree panoramas of the intriguing landscape. Too many times I saw pillions opening their arms to feel the freedom of traveling at speed through such a backdrop. It was during this part of the trip that I decided that retirement to Kerala would be the optimal way to spend one’s dotage – waking each morning to feel the life of the hills breathing around you.

The final anecdote takes place in exactly the opposite location to the previous one – perhaps to illustrate diversity, or perhaps because no tour of India is complete without the experience of a Metro and its associated stresses and chaos. The journey back into Coimbatore had me perform my only significant pillion duty (apart from posing for photos that is). When Amal’s bike had drunk its last gulp of petrol and stopped exactly in the middle of a level crossing, at the precise moment that the lights changed I could not help but laugh at fate’s joke. Any other moment would have been fine – this was probably the worst possible. However, using initiative and strength I didn’t know I had I leapt off my aching bottom and shoved the bestial bike, guided by Amal, out of the way of the honking, impatient sea of vehicles. A small act of thanks (and self-preservation) for all his hard work driving us through the various conditions the day had thrown up. It also set the tone for the predictable difficulties associated with guiding eleven bikes through the Sunday night rush hour to the bus loading location.

Even the disappointment of having reached the end of the trip and beginning the journey back, combined with the tiredness of three nights with minimal sleep could not dampen the spirits of the participants of the first CTC biking trek. The positive and energized attitude the weekend fostered took a battering by the loss of the bikes in another of fate’s jokes (the lorry accident) but it remained admirably intact and I doubt it would stop anyone repeating the adventure on another occasion. Thanks to all the organizers and participants for making this weekend AWESOME (an over-used but appropriate word in this context) – I couldn’t recommend such a trek highly enough to others and would only provide one piece of advice; pillions: take a cushion!

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Hari Balasundaram

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Day 1: May 22nd: Madurai to Nedumkandam: Apprx 180 kms

Day 2: May 23rd: Nedumkandam to Munnar to Aazhiyar Dam: Apprx 220 kms

Day 3: May 24th: Aazhiyar Dam to Vaalparai to Coimbatore: Apprx 200 kms

Terrain – Plains and City traffic to start with - Hills and Ghats Section for most of the 2nd & 3rd day and close the formalities with city traffic at Coimbatore

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The Road runs on and on

From thy doorsteps – begins its journey

To pursue it – be our destiny

The Road runs on and on

Only to meet a larger one

Where another thousand roads meet

This in summation – was how our bike trip across the Western Ghats began in earnest; the goal being not just in mere pursuit of a reaching a destination in time nor taking known roads to ease our way through the Ghats but by breaking this single minded vision into a kaleidoscope of little simple breaks ala be it stopping for a cuppa chai or for a walk through the tea estates – Every step into the wild and the greenery was taken at a sedentary but childlike fashion that simply bought nothing but sheer joy in the minds of the lucky few who chose to tread into this taming of the machine trip – that believe me – on a paradoxical note bought nothing but sheer peace and tranquillity into our otherwise cranked-up confused minds.

The journey although chosen to look like a walk-through a maze in an uncomplicated fashion was indeed planned in detail from the start to finish – the ‘ifs and the buts’ villains showing their nasty ways of what could go wrong and the team ever so clinically addressing the issues in clock work like fashion helped us ease through the last stages of the trip with little or no difficulty at all.

Elsewhere in Kerala – Monsoon Magic had begun already and while we were counting in hours to the D-day – News had already begun ‘pouring’ in from Kerala of an impending burst of showers across the Ghats – And would you ever lose heart being a CTCian – what better way to romance the monsoons than be there when it arrives on the shores of God’s Own Country – Kerala. Such was the mood and the mindset that nothing could have ever stopped us from breaking into the wild with our beasts of a machine and a beauty to tame him on the tail when needed!!!

We had packed our bikes off to Madurai in advance to avoid last minute blunders. Our problems of carrying excess baggage on a bike trip was finally addressed by a brute of a machine – the Verna - driven by equally ‘mad-max like’ brothers – Selva n Bala who drove all the way from Chennai to Madurai to Coimbatore – quite a ride ey !!! Monsoon Magic worked in my favour with my clients delaying payments – we chose to stop work at the site and Voila – three days of no work meant – no phone calls and superfluous masti on the road trip and with nothing to stop me now – I was on cloud nine waiting to see the heavens meet earth in the beautiful western Ghats and watch life begin all over again.

The sleeper coach bus from Chennai to Madurai helped revive ourselves for a gruelling start in the Sun; Madurai finally was in our sights at 8 in the morning – Periyar Bus Stand on a Friday morning looked deserted – strange in’ it !!!

Our bikes were safely ensconced at National Travels – a healthy breakfast and filling our beasts to the brim with fuel – We were ready to take off but for the fact that our machine of a man – peter had to attend to his beamer with a minor glitch. Arun, Ramya & Senthil joined us at Madurai from Bangalore - We finally hit the roads at around 11 not wanting to look back at the civilisation for anything at all. Our sights were now set for the theni – kumuli highway – via counties and beautiful sun kissed fields of paddy, corn and bananas – the journey was very comforting indeed – given that my machine would not do more than 60 an hour – I was more than happy to listen to him rather than push him to the limits and was fully rewarded the next two days with one hell of a ride with no complaints whatsoever..

My Canon kept egging me on to stop wherever possible and being the last of the herd – I did not want further delays therefore kept my canon in the sacks until we reached theni for lunch. A sumptuous lunch that sure would have put us all to sleep if not for the drive ahead – we strode off in a typical Harley Davidson fashion ‘vroom - vrooming’ all other vehicles out of the way until we hit the highways yet again.

Peter’s monster hit yet another snag and we were given a well deserved break off the highways and some of us chose to hit the sack for whatever possible time we got – whilst Guru n Nisha chose to jump into the well with aplomb n ease. Amal in his very own ‘characteristic’ apparel chose to dive in the well too and they all clambered upto safety. Peter’s two wheel wonder was finally ready to take the roads and we were all back to where we belong finally...

A break at the vineyard, a pit stop, and a heart-craving stop for mangoes later – we had reached kumuli – Our journey into the Western Ghats had truly begun.

Kumuli – the sleepy little town plays host to thekkady - a beautiful little nature reserve that forms part of the Mullaperiyar dam and also plays host to the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. We were to take a right to our gateway to the Western Ghats and our road to Munnar.

Our first break in the Ghats thankfully bore fruit as we chose to trace the tracks for our first rendezvous in the night. Cutting chaaiya, vada and sweet bun on the menu added to the fan fair.

Now Began our journey into the unknown – a road that led to a sedate soothing outgrowth soon gave way to a watch tower; a glimpse of the little town below that could have been theni for all we know and we were back to the roads treading our way back to Munnar and may be – on the way – hit the sacks before another exciting day out.

We soon hit upon a resort where we hogged as much as we could on a buffet menu replete with keralite and south Indian specialties and toasted the dinner with a special kheer and chocolate pudding dessert.

And all the while – the Rain gods chose to stay put in their alcoves drizzling a bit here n there but no significant monsoon shower had come upon us to scare the living daylights outta us.

Just when you thought that the day had been successful in terms of zero incidents; Paari and Balaji misread the median of a newly laid road completely and skidded down to a halt. Preliminary scrutiny revealed nothing serious had occurred and we were off in a flash to find a spot soon.

The event of the day however - irrefutably belonged to the mist that covered us pan 360 degrees whilst our ride down to Nedumkandam – near-zero visibility and no fog lights to help show the way further - Peter simply led the way as if he could see through almost anything in thin air.. Me right behind could make out nothing and the only thing left for me and Petra was to bang our heads with our head gear and laugh all our way out of the mist amidst eerie silence from the rest of the team.. Diwakar suddenly strode across in non chalant fashion reminding me of the importance of tailing Peter and he chose to lead the rest from Peter’s tail – A red light can be seen even in zero visibility and Diwa’s tail lamp was the shining armour at that moment.. I needed no further excuse but to follow RED ... we cleared the fog in minutes; me n Petra banged our head gears yet again to announce the successful arrival outta the mist.

As a CTCian, the rule of thumb when hitting the sack is to find a place in the open and be one with nature – in ‘it ... Our problem here was not that we could not find a place but to be invisible in the ambience that surrounded us, which you would have guessed by now, was near impossible with 11 bikes and a Verna to park their boot on. A school, a residence with a big front yard and church that offered to show the door to 25 mavericks – we finally hit the jack pot at yet another beautiful church with a big enough front porch – but the catch was that we leave the church premises at 6:45 as mass would start moments later and so it was that we slept early that nite and who would ever complain after such an eventful day.

I would – with Rumble in the Bronx competitor – Paari to my left and add a voice-over to the proceedings – Arun Gowda had taken his place in history – the man with the gift of gab would not even shut shop while sleeping and such was his panache that I had to wake up to see if he indeed was on the phone explaining how the trek went – “The trek was amazing – ahem ahem ... yeah yeah ... you should have been here” – at 2:30 in the morning – would you ever find such beautiful company in an otherwise peaceful and silent as a dead leaf wilderness – I forced myself to sleep and thankfully though – Paari this time roared back in delight at Arun’s comments – the music and the mayhem was too much to bear for me – and when the clock stuck 5:45, the tinker bell had raised its alarm in the jungle. The insect world came alive yet again and my sleep went off in a flash – I had to sit up and listen to the roars of Paari and the incongruent yet clear blabbers of Arun went unchecked by everyone else but me lying next to him.

So much so for a good night’s rest – not a trifle of a recollection from either of them only made me go mad on a beautiful misty morning. My canon chose to help me this time and I was only happy to get the group together and click a moment or two outta them.

A new day and a new partner – Nisha joined me for what I chose to be a great day for my Canon –Fight unto death option!!! And so it was – the tea estates and the lilting landscapes adjoining the forest reserves to choose from – devikulam was at our sights early morning and we chose tea over breakfast – an hours’ drive separated us from Munnar and we jauntily drove out to meet her highness in the hills of Munnar. Meanwhile a king fisher and a cormorant toasted our presence in a small jeel for company – we had reached the outskirts of Munnar when Peter chose to trek one of the hills adjoining Mahindra Resorts.

The trek bought bloom n sparkle into our tired legs – it was “breath – taking” indeed in every literal sense of the word – the climb steep enough to accentuate the proceedings – was worth every penny not spent on a puttu and aapam curry - How else would you dictate the terms of endearment when a couple of chai and biscuits would drive u up the hill – Peter delightfully called it the test of mental strength – and indeed it was – fun on the run as I call it – my canon for company delivered some of the best pics here – Arun as ‘kaaka kaaka’ – the police man – would sure agree with me.

The return was as eventful; with the local guide announcing the presence of a lake nearby and no water goes untouched by CTC – jumping jacks and hobbits took to the wild side of things and our sound was too much to keep the officials away. It was later known that the lake we jumped in was private property and it was a drinking supplement for the tourists visiting the resort.

Our return back to the machines was uneventful to say the least and soon we rode out yet again – this time with only one thing in mind – FOOD.. Munnar finally came to the rescue. A sumptuous lunch yet again with no limits of time this instant – we were full and ready to take on the Ghats yet again.

Our destination – Chalakudy – was misread and misdirected and we ended up touching the outskirts of Marayoor instead – a tranquil county that housed the forest reserves of chinnar and also home to the thoovanam water falls; which we could see from the point where we chose to decide on where we were to head next.

Although wanting to stay back in the Ghats section but without an iota of information on Marayoor and its rich environment – Nothing could have been done anyways and with the forest guard ruling out any chance of trekking to the thoovanam waterfalls alone by us – there was little chance of doing it without any consequences so to speak. After deliberations within the group, a decision was made to head to the Aazhiyar Dam – stay put for the night and head to Vaalparai early morning. We drove out into the night – half expectedly to catch a glimpse of any wild life but none really came to our aid.

A final stop for dinner about 45 kms from Aazhiyar; with our fill for the night complete – we rode into darkness of the night looking for a place to crash and rise early to begin the ascent to Vaalparai. As luck would have it and it’s a known pact anyways with the local community around udumalpet, hell bent on keeping strangers away to the maximum in the nights i.e. – there was little chance of us finding a safe shelter in the open.

The Balaji lodge – the only one in the Aazhiyar County opened its doors with whatever space was left and we chose to hit the sack on the parking space for a cost whilst the ladies were given safe cover to rest within a room.

All our thoughts about meeting the Sun rise at the heights of Vaalparai were now nonexistent considering the time at which we crash landed in Vaalparai. My sleepless nights continued with me waking up to charge my camera batteries and for drinking water. I woke up yet again at 5:45 to welcome the insect world for yet another beautiful day and with the local chai wala up early helped every bit. A cuppa chai helped ease myself a bit and I soon was ready for the next day clean and comfy.

With plenty of time on our hands, some of us chose to ride down to the river to take a bath. Fresh water, curious locals and a pink fly made it a memorable outing and I was further enthused when a scarlet minivet / black bird which I still know not chose to pose for the camera for a very long time - a rewarding experience in the end.

The team finally ready for the ascent rode into the valley of now barren Monkey falls & attakatti waterfalls. Professor Ramya chose to ride with me and we were soon chatting away about our last trek experiences and life otherwise.

My last visit to Vaalparai was in 99-00 with my schoolmates whilst we also drove up n down the hill in a Yamaha RX 100 & all I could remember was the drive around the numerous hair pin bends and the Balaji temple. The roads were fresh and well laid and inviting nonetheless to put our machines to the test.

If you aint doing it – you aint riding it – and with no requiem to drive slow around the hills – I cautiously chose to drive the hills with a very little freedom that you seldom get from a pillion who would otherwise taunt you to choose a safe path rather than be sorry about it later. Ramya had no qualms about the drive otherwise and thankfully – I had found a great pillion for the day – no disrespect to any of the other members – mind you!!

But then – she gave me enough rope to play around – just enough to a point sometimes that I was actually having fun with my bike – a nonexistent synergy suddenly opened up in the vestibules of the numerous hair pin bends – Me and my little Honda Shine were now one soul in two different revved up modes – the zone , the moment , Nirvana – that very altar that very few seek it and so less achieve it was finally there for me to feel and live within – my bike was driving me into soulful bliss and here I was with one heck of a pillion having it all without remorse or guilt and yet whenever I chose to ask her how she felt – Am perfectly fine - came the answer.

Breakfast at Vaalparai was pretty much a local affair – dosas and chicken for some while the rest chose to happily gobble chutneys and sambar instead. At around 11 – we still had time to go around Vaalparai. Sholayar dam was the chosen destination – Some of our bikers lost track of the lead team and woefully fell back - Being the last of the group and having known the destination – it was decided that we join the team at any cost and not make our own way instead. The confusion did cost us time nonetheless – the group managed to stitch together and a tea break ensured we all had our minds set for the return to the native.

Peter thought differently and he chose to drive down the Ghats with 3 and then 4 pillions. It was a pretty sight alright with only the primates and I waiting for them to cross my Canon – and Ramya with her camera readied up for the challenge and we did end up winners in the end.

After a nice drive down the Ghats – would it be aright if you aint swim and chill in the Aazhiyar waters – we rode into the residence of a local and the dam waters was soon in sight. A quick dip and a cross over to a mound across the waters – we were all ready for a group click.

It was the return from the rock that taught me yet another lesson in swimming – No matter how half baked you could be as a swimmer – you are no better than a non swimmer when it comes to panic attacks and the moment when you think you are gonna drown; No amount of reading or practice of floating in the safe waters can help you when your brains decide to switch off everything else but the panic mode. I had fallen into the deep yet again without proper practice and this time there was no respite atleast for a few seconds when I could have drowned both Nisha and Maelle – two brave souls who chose to escort me safely back to the shores. The sleeping mat in my hands from Bastien laid my brains to rest and I could finally feel air filling my lungs yet again.

A moment of panic so uncalled for, which could have been duly avoided if I had chosen to put my brains to use rather than test its strength with impudence and ignorance in the deep waters - although happened in a spur of the moment – remains etched in my head for another day to erase it completely – the day when I shall swim across free as a fish would in any waters – and this to me – is the ultimate task at hand right now – Go Kill yourself swimming – but no more excuses about drowning another brave soul trying to save yours.

A few moments of rest to breathe easy and we were finally off to the target point – Coimbatore where we would board our bikes and bus back to Chennai.

Although – an indifferent end to the proceedings marked the last part to an otherwise brilliant biking trip – I soon had to shrug it off to ensure that we reached Coimbatore safe and sound on time. A group click on the way bought me back completely to the group’s content and we drove off comfortably to Coimbatore touching base just in time to load our bikes and board the bus to Chennai.

Looking back – there has never been a dull moment – Be it the pre – prep mode when emails were shot at almost every minute – to the first day drive across the valley – sleeping amongst T-rexed nosed snoring competitors and a somniloquist who blew my brains apart at 2:30 in the morning – to the sun kissed tea estates and the little birdies and homies who posed every bit for my canon – From a moment where I was in Elysium riding my new Honda Shine and to one where panic and blood gushed into my veins and arteries of almost every blood vessel in my head – the effect was pretty much similar – the only difference was that – whilst one moment - was calling for action to help save myself, whilst the other - was driving me nuts and I loved every moment of it.

There was nothing amiss from the whole trek and I can’t help but think – And with the Monsoons playing perfect hosts this time choosing not to wish us good bye in their alluring fashion - If, How would it be – If we had lost way yet again in the night on our way to Aazhiyar?

Until our next biking trip when we chase the Athirampalli waterfalls – Dream on folks and think of the various adventures we could have really had by taking the road not taken!!! Only to meet another large one and who knows where we would have gone from there on!!!

Written by: Akshaya T.J, Anna Campbell , Hari Balasundaram

Organized by: Peter

Participants: Peter,Julien, Bastien, Diwakar, Vikram, Vetri, Paari, Amal, Arun, Guru, Hari, Selva, Bala, Senthil, balaji, Anna, maelle, petra, rosaline, nisha, ramya, sheetal, madhu, akshaya, divya

Image Galleries:

Hari Balasundaram

Selva

Selva

Roseline - day 1

Roseline - day 2

Roseline - day 3

Viki

Bastien

Akshaya

Julien

Maelle