Hundreds of Miles of riding!!!
Scorching Sun all around!!
Away from the mundane city chaos!!
The motorcycles beat, the only sound!!!
It was due on my part to share this write up. This trip re instigated my desire to own a Royal Enfield and now I own an Electra ( it took some time to earn some thing which I paid at the Royal Enfield dealer against the machine).
One fine Monday evening while wrapping up days work, saving & closing excel files; I got a call from a friend. Are you joining for an extended weekend biking trip? Have plans for Valparai.
I was neither aware of this place nor heard this name before! I said Yes, without a second thought all due to my unexplored passion for exploring the world riding.
In no time itinerary was ready and it reached me through mail.
I was taken aback the moment I saw it! The place called Valparai was 570 kms from Chennai and this stretch was to be completed in a single day, the next day some 130 kms of riding in the mountains Valparai to Munnar, and then back to Chennai by Sunday night.
The very next moment I called up and checked up if the plan can be extended by one more day thinking the unusual miles in plan. The answer was an obvious no as everyone had to be back to chores. I felt it was very unlikely for us to keep up with the schedule, but as a MAN in his adventurous twenties never discourages another, no matter how outrageous the plan may sound. I wished all the best to me and hanged up the call.
I organised required stuffs for the ride!!! Partial Safety gears that were brought with an eye on such riding adventures, hand gloves brought for passion etc. was all in place for the mission. Machine on tyres was given a check to make sure it bears the pain it was about to endure. 2 packs of Tang for keeping me away from dehydration under the burning Sun, a couple of denims to keep my pals pleasant, T-shirts to replace the sweated ones and some medicines to treat me in wilds where no professionals can be caught to do away my ill. With all these, I felt equipped for my venture with one known and some unknown riders.
5.30 am Friday (Good Friday in fact) was the time we yearned for the start of the ride. Journey started from Perunglatur!!
There came Das (Anna- as he was my college senior) on his herculean 500 RE Desert Storm. Man riding it is no less herculean weighing some 120kilos. I got to know from him that our team will be a group of 4 guys, riding alone with no pillions. No Backpack Aasim, you will get tired soon came the 1
st advice from anna as he offered me a nylon string to tie my backpack on to the rear of my bikes seat. Within 15 min the other two guys arrived, Bhuv on a RE Electra, and Hem on a CBZ Xtreme. Bhuv the electra guy asked Is this your 1
st long ride? I nodded in affirmative. I am not sure this question of his lowered my confidence level or he became a little more confident with my answer. These guys were like used to sleep on bikes during college days said Das, and these words of his for me was enough to fill me with beaming confidence required for taking up the ride.
After a cup of tea and a group snap we started the ride at 6.30 am. Ours was no less than a professional biker gang, 2 bullets loaded with saddle bags and tough young men, and two 150cc machines and riders matching the machines. A cruising speed of 70-75 kmph was agreed with stops every 80kms. Idea was to get clear of city traffic ASAP to maintain a good cruising speed. After small stops at Chengalpet, Tindivanam we stopped at Villupuram 150 kms from Chennai for breakfast. The hotel had life size portraits of the Sooperstar Rajini hanged all around as we had authentic south Indian tiffin. Not to mention we got a lot of public attention, but no one was there who caught a little of our attention.
We geared up to start just to realise that the real ride starts now. It was 10.15 am and the sun was about to reach its peak. Our plan of halting every 80+ kms was not working as we again stopped at one toll booth to have some coconut water and the tender pulp. After clicking some snaps, we started and reached Perumbalur at 11.15.Under the bypass flyover we parked our bikes which by now required some shed to cool down. Iced sweet lime juice was on offer and by this time we required at least 2 glasses of it to compensate the amount of precipitation we had. The first sip of the juice made me feel for the moment this was the best juice I ever tasted.
Here we left the NH and motored the state highways to reach Karur through a short way. Passing through small towns, villages taking water at wells, hand pumps. These town/village roads are so very good sometimes that you dont bother to reduce throttle at all At a particular barren stretch of 20-25 kms there was almost no flora and fauna and sun was on its scorching peak, I was actually feeling fluid from body getting sucked out. We badly needed a halt, expecting from each other to get sign of stopping. That is when I realised, group biking is all about keeping your individuality in the group. Bhuv stopped at a bus stop and within seconds all 4 of us were under the shed. This moment was just like a blessing in disguise for all of us. I just wondered whether that stop was meant for halting of bus or to give shelter to headless bikers like us, as I were not able to find even a single house or shop in proximity. Water in bottles which we were carrying was no less than boiling.
After a brief halt we reached Karur and found one AC restaurant for lunch. AC was the most important factor for us to stop at that hotel. A full lunch and some 40 mins in AC rejuvenated us as we headed for Pallachi. We did stop for some aromatic Degree coffees in route.
We reached Pollachi at 7 pm which was 2 hours off our actual schedule and some local suggested its not a correct time to move to Valparai in the night. Somehow we found an ill maintained hotel for a very necessary rest to drained bodies.
Next morning we refuelled our bikes and headed towards Valparai. Our 1
st halt was at a picturesque coconut garden. .Das rolled out his tripod and the DSLR and that was enough for giving complex to a small time professional photographer who was busy taking some photos of a newlywed couple. Pollachi is a picturesque town and shooting for Tamil cinema is very common here. Someone said the flick Billu Barber too was shot here.
At the foothills of Valparai, by Aliyar dam is where our photographic instincts reminded us of some photos to be clicked. Crossing that we paid the fees for entering into the Annamalai wildlife sanctuary and moved in. We were cautioned for the moving elephants on the roads and of the ferocious leopards too.
The 40 odd hair pins turns that followed took away any tiredness or hunger one must have felt. Ghat roads awaken the part of you that wants to take those sweeping turns, those sideliner burns and footpeg scrapes. It was fun, scary and also made us respect the rubber on the roads. At the 40
th hair pin turn we had to take right for reaching Valparai. Not following the itinerary we took left and headed to some viewpoint suggested by Hem. The roads that we took were narrow, horrendous and full of potholes with no protections. Amidst all these it started raining and we were well enough soaked as we found an abandoned house for taking shelter. We moved up on the risky slippery roads only to be stopped by forest rangers and were not allowed further up the mountains. By now our stomachs started reminding us of their existence and we headed towards Valparai for a delayed lunch.
Luckily we found a hotel and the food served was delicious. I never had better chicken in any of my travels before. The aroma of the garlic chicken served was mouth-watering in the real sense.
Once we filled ourselves we headed towards Sholaiyur Dam. This is one of the largest rock dams in India. The length of the reservoir it impounds is about 20 km. The views in the route were simply wow. We reached the dam almost at dusk. Some tourists were hanging out there in the cool evening. Das again pulled out his camera this time with a 10inched lens. He even did some photography work for some tourists there, who were flattered as Das made them look better in the photos he clicked. The serenity of the environment there and an achievement sort of feeling made me light up a cigarette after months. I didnt pull much smoke out of that though.
Once dark other human species there started moving after sharing some pleasantries. We left the place at about 7 after some customary camera clicking required for our social networks. We planned to get some cottage nearby for the night stay. Das and Bhuv started there RE s and moved. Hem stopped after a while and I followed. We will get the cottages on the road going right said Hem. As we were having these talks the RE s scaled much down the mountains thinking we are following them. I took out my mobile just to find out no networks, same was the scene with Hems cell phone. We checked in a couple of cottages nearby to find no vacant rooms. Suddenly we were like lost in between nothing, group of 4 was split into two. We agreed to search them together otherwise we may get lost too and that would have been worse. We were riding the narrow Ghats in dark going some 2 kilometres in one direction again coming back and then taking other road for a couple of kilometres. We were about to reach Kerala border as we slowed down seeing a dim light coming from opposite. The dim light increased and so did the throttle sound resembling that of Enfield. Das, Bhuv, Hem and this poor lad were together again. All of us were relieved but no one expressed what they felt.
We decided to head back to Valparai but that was some good 24 KMs. And we were not sure about the fuel availability in all the bikes. Running out of fuel in dark mountains would have been a disaster. We always had the leopard warning in our minds. Accidently we discovered that the place we met had a cottage down the slope. Relieved on founding accommodation we parked our machines safely took our bags and took the necessary shower. Somehow we got some forgettable dinner to survive the night and packed ourselves in the cottage. The cottage was quite, ambient and we discussed this can be a great place for a honeymoon trip with great climate and no mobile networks to disturb.
Next day early morning 5.30 we paid the cottage charges, exchanged pleasantries with the caretaker and hit the roads. The ride back till Pollachi was exhilarating in a cool climate and awesome landscapes. We had breakfast in Pollachi, refuelled our bikes and headed for the Highway back to Chennai.
The ride back to Chennai was far tougher than the onward as our bodies were already tired, and we had to reach Chennai before late night. By afternoon we reached Trichy, had our lunch in a High class Veg restaurant and rest for a while. We still had about 300 + KMs to cover and the 4 lane monotony was not helping anything! But it was still a load of fun riding together and coming up with the occasional funny expressions as each of us tried our way in cooling our aching butts.
We maintained our cruising speeds and stopped at regular intervals. We again stopped at the same juice vendor, as he offered the sumptuous juice glasses to us I observed a feeling of proudness on his face for some obvious reasons.
Our next stop was at A2B outlet near Villupuram and as we moved in the compound with four lined up bikes in all biking gears; some people there couldnt contain their curiosity regarding us and reached us to have a word. Are you guys part of some biking club? Some were advising not to have this much long trip in this climate. As a last attempt we checked for some cute faces there, but in vain. By now we had rode thousand hundred plus kilometres and touched about 10 districts of Tamil Nadu, but we were not able to have a glimpse of good looking smartly dressed beautiful species.
We smiled and not wasting much time we migrated to another cafe for a cup of degree coffee and some water. The next 170 KMs of ride we knew was going to be tough as we needed to ride in dark and in some dangerous GST traffic. We geared up for the final stretch of demanding ride. After taking a couple of small hydrating halts finally at 21.00 we reached Chengalpattu toll plaza. I was 3
rd one to reach there, Hem followed me soon.
The joy of accomplishing such a long ride in 2 & half days on a motorcycle with small engine but a huge heart cant be expressed enough in words. I will cherish these memories, Das and the other two guys whom I never met before this ride and may I will not be seeing them in future unless any similar ride is planned, will be in my memory forever.
We dispersed soon from there as some cops were getting pissed off from the joyous expressions which we were releasing. Next 30 KMs we cruised in relaxed mode as a group, inviting gentle attention on the Ester evening. We parted ways in Tambaram with a small hand waiving gesture.
While I rode towards my home alone, the thought which came to my mind was, riding isnt a glam, there isnt any show, and its all about the correct safe riding attitude and the love for brotherhood of fellow bikers.
