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V Ride: Mysore-Kanyakumari-Rameshwaram-Mysore

Having heard about Kanyakumari and rameshwaram in the geography/History books in School, it was quite overwhelming to think about a ride to those places, let alone actually ride there. We from Bulls of Mysore, had long standing plans to ride to KK. It finally materialized on 27th Sep 2009.
Five Bullets , Five riders were all set to conquer our dreams.
For all of us this was going to be the longest ride to date. hence the excitement knew no bounds. Even sleep eluded us on those nights, before the start of the ride.
I should not forget to mention about the ayudha pooja we did on our Steeds a night before the ride. We were blessed by the almighty for our mission.
Let me introduce you the riders and their Steeds before getting into the ride.

1. Wilson D'Souza on his Silver Electra 4S
2. Prathap(Self) on Optimus(Mach 350)
3. Bharath(Body) on his Mach 500
4. Diwakar(DJ) on his Black TBTS
5. Akshay on his Iron Hide, Black Std 350.
27th Sep'09
We were all set to start from Mysore by 5 30AM, starting point being in front of Mysore High Court. Me, Willy and Akshay started from the spot by 5 45AM, towards Nanjangud road. DJ and Body joined us at the ring road junction at 6AM. So after a short tea break we started our ride towards Gundlupet.The weather was just perfect, with light breeze and acceptable traffic. We were cruising at a stable speed of 75kph, feeling the wind through our helmets . We were feeling like GOD, deluged in to the ride.
Five bulls moving in tandem must have been quite a sight to the bystanders. Our first stop was after tackling the rough roads from Gundlupet to Bandipur. The forests have evolved into green haven for birds and animals alike. There is something with the curves and men, isn't it? (Pun Intended) the bandipur section till Gudalur, provided one beautiful curvy ride. We were enjoying every sweep of the curves. they were smooth, with good grip and broad enough for us to relax while banking. We made it a point to fill up our tanks in Gudalur, as it is cheaper by 3rs from Karnataka.We stopped at Gudalur for Breakfast, had sumptuous food, we could feel the heat of the day, I removed my warm liner from the riding jacket to counter the heat. had loads of cold water. The second leg would see us riding through Nilambur and Thrissur to Kochi.
At a crossroad after nilambur, a deviation to Thrissur was missed by DJ and Body, so three of us had to wait for them to realize the absence of their friends behind and return the unanswered missed calls. They had rode past 10Kms. After having realized, they unassumingly came back to join us at the crossroad. The roads were a bit bumpy, giving a test to our backs and bottoms. We stopped at Thrissur for Lunch. We had already covered close to 320Kms. We continue our ride towards kochi after replenishing our systems. It was very dry and sultry during that time of the day. We reached Kochi by 3 30PM, had a tea break, and decided to reach Kollam by day break.
We took the NH47, towards Kollam, It is well laid with double lane, Throughout we were challenged by the traffic, and all along we could see human habitation. Which delayed our plans to reach Kollam by day break. We reached Kollam by 7 PM. Searched for rooms and got one at Ambadi Hotel at a good price. We dislodged all our luggage, on came the beach wear, moved towards beach for dinner and to have some fun. Wilson was on cloud nine and stole the show with his funny comments and Jokes. Body's laughter caught everyone's attention too!! Me , DJ and Akshay were being a part of the fun with our own contributions.
We went to bed by 12AM resolving to wake up by 6AM and start towards KK and reach there by earliest.

28th Sep '09

Woke up to the alarm ring tone of Akshay, the most punctual among the group, closely followed by me and Body doing the last honors . We started by 6AM towards Kovalam Beach, and stopped at beach side for breakfast. We were absolutely surprised to learn about the rates, a plate poori was priced at Rs.60/-. So deciding to have breakfast elsewhere we pushed off from the beach towards town. We had Dosas and parathas with Egg curry.

We reached KK by 11 AM, All of us parked our bullets next to Gandhi Mandapam to celebrate our accomplishments. We all congratulated each other on such a marvelous ride. Willy came up to me and said that, he felt he was a complete rider, I replied with a grin, saying that we still need to complete the ride for you to feel like that. My father is a traveler himself, so he had contacts at KK, which helped us find the hotel at reasonable price. We surrendered to some rest after lodging in.
With great anticipation we freshened up to have a sight of the Vivekananda rock memorial, on a ferry. But to our utter disappointment, the day being Vijayadashami, the ferry services were closed for the day. However, we moved towards the temple and had a view of beautiful Kanyakumari. On this hand, the people were is lesser numbers, allowing us to move around with ease.

After a nice tea and bajji's we got ready with our cameras for the spectacular Sun Set.
overwhelmed with the nature's beauty, we returned towards our rooms.

All of us took a walk around KK after dusk.When five people full of attitude get together, then the fun is altogether different, needless to say, we had one hell of a laughter session. The walk was also for the search of a place where we can find some Beer. At last, we found it, Akshay was jubilant about it. The beer didn't seem like beer. Disappointing we returned to hit the beds.
We were to start towards Rameshwaram by 5AM. The Hotel warden gave us some useful information regarding the route to be taken.

29th Sep '09
Unfortunately, after a tiring evening , we woke up only by 5 30AM. After freshening up we thought of starting off, but since it was time for sun rise, we stopped for the sunrise. Here the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and the Thiruvallur statue are quite a sight at this time. captured few photos had tea and started towards Tuticorin. It started drizzling after few kms from KK, the road was curvy with lot of bumps. I took a turn(left) a bit like one in dry conditions and paid the price for it, my rear tyre slipped plunging me into a fall. the speed was around 50kph. I had a scratch on my left leg. Others helped me out to remove the bend in the gear lever. Akshay had some Old Spice after shave, which he applied as tincher, my god it hurts when its poured onto flesh. Bruised but not beaten, we started back again, keeping a steady pace. Wilson keeping a close watch on me. There was a huge conglomeration of people in one of the towns we were traversing. many people were dressed up like Eunuchs, or may be they were eunuchs. We had a hard time to get through the blocked roads, my bruise worsened it for me. We reached Tuticorin by 12PM for Brunch, where I picked up Ear buds and dettol for cleaning up my wound. DJ insisted that I took a TT shot there itself and took me to a clinic. After an unprecedented delay of 2 hrs we started towards rameshwaram.

The East Coast Road is well laid but for the bumps. The winds were very strong on this straech making us bend our bikes about 5deg to left to counter it.

A bridge leads into the city of rameshwaram, without which, it would be isolated from rest of India. The bridge is around 2Km in length with picturesque sea surrounding.We checked in to a AC room, for a good price, costing each 250/-rs. Freshened up and left to the temple for 22 theertham snanam. For me this was an ordeal of sorts because of my open injuries. the theertham waters were salty hence giving a burning sensation to the wound. Filled with contentment of having the theertha snanam and darshanam we went back to the room.I picked up my camera and with dry clothes returned to the temple for few snaps. The Rameshwaram temple is one of the biggest in India with 15Acres of it. Got few snaps of long corridors with carved stone pillars on either sides and paintings on the roof.

There was also an Elephant ( read Tusker) inside the temple. We retired to bed after a light dinner, planning to go to Dhanush Kodi early morning.

30th sep '09

Akshay woke me up at 5 45AM and said that we going to miss the sun rise as others were still were asleep and we needed to get ready. but I suggested we push off status quo, without even brushing our teeth, me and Akshay pushed off towards Dhanush Kodi.

The place is 15km with road, and another 10km on sand . We almost caught the sunrise. but the obstructive clouds anyway spoilt the view. I have seen nothing like Dhanush kodi before, both of us were transfixed at the sight of it. We rode till the tip, where the land meets Water. Spent few minutes and started back. The ride back felt very fast, in no time we hit the tar road. We met Willy, DJ and Body on our way back. Took the room key and instructed them about the route. Got back to the room, freshened up and used up my last pair of fresh clothes. By the time we had our breakfast and packed up the others were also back. So we bid adieu to the great city by 11 AM. Next destination was Madurai, where I insisted on visiting the Meenakshi amman temple, for the structural beauty of it, than anything else. It pretty hot ride. Had a nice lunch at a seemingly large restaurant. The NH 7 starts from Madurai , so the traffic is very bad on the road leading to NH7. This is where Body had a fall, when he took an evasive action to avoid hitting to a rickshaw. He had a light scratch on his forehand, Helmet saved his temple. Slight damage to the front mud guard. Now it was bruised, battered but not beaten.

After doing first aid to Body, we were determined to reach Salem by 10PM. We stopped at Karur for Body's TT shot and dinner. We halted at Salem for the night. The NH 7 leading from Karur to Salem is simply great.

The reason we wanted to reach Salem by the day was the idea of visiting Hogenekkal Falls. We were told that, there is only one route to the falls and that is through Dharmapuri. Which I felt would be very strenuous, so decided to call the plan off, and rather disperse from there to Mysore (Me, Willy and DJ) and Bangalore (Akshay and Body).

1st Oct '09

A day filled with surprises, we bid adieu to body and Akshay for a wonderful ride, and wished we could do more of them in the future. Started off towards Mettur. Missing Hogenekkal falls weighed heavily on our minds. We had breakfast in a thatched hotel. As we entered Kar border, a big arch welcomed us. So we stopped for few snaps. A few hundred meters ahead, we saw a diversion and a mark board saying, 28kms to Hogenekkal Falls. We were cursing our luck for not having known about this route. So the remaining three of went to the Falls, for a great body massage and bath in the stream.

The background was filled with mountains of MM Hills range. went around the falls on a rented round boat. Had fun to the brink. Packed up and left Hogenekkal Falls, with a desire to revisit in some time. The final stretch was no less attractive, it was through the MM Hills. The road is not good, needs complete renovation.Our final stop was at Gargheswhari 30kms from Mysore. The ride was something remarkable in all our lives.

Photos : http://picasaweb.google.com/prathapchandra.sp/VRideKanniyakumariRameshwaram#

We Ride therefore we Exist.

-PC

Looking Into the Future

Keeping in mind, that my blog readers will be very few.
I will try to make the reading a bit worthwhile.

I have had a year so eventful, that this will be etched in my memory as the turning point in my life.Which has seen me grow as an individual. The way I see it from now, I am destined to be a traveler, a philanthropist and an Engineer, barring other social responsibilities.
I have been into biking from the past year, There have been rides of varied distances and varied terrains. There has been dry and sultry highways of TN, winding ghats of Kodai, munnar, Chikmagalur, Kundadri. Offroading at Kakabbe, coorg. I feel I have done it all!!

But a couple of days back when I got introduced to the Landscape of Rajasthan by a wise friend of mine, that I realized how vast India is with respect to tradition as much as the area in it.So I see what lies before me is a sea of opportunity to travel/ride. Provided my employer is going to patronize it.
Biking is always an individualistic phenomenon, group riding just for sake of safety is meaningless.Especially when you are better off alone. After all these rides, most of them in group of varied sizes. The feeling has crept to me that riding alone will make you realize your own self.
Though solo riding means, the rider should have the basic knowledge of removing the Tyre, or replacing the punctured tube, or a cut clutch cable, or tighten the chain, etc. Assuming that the rider carries all the necessary tools and spares including a foot pump.
So the coming rides shall be a flurry of solo rides, perhaps the first ride will be to Kanyakumari.
Hope the wind of intuition is strong enough to carry across the river called Life.

Riding the Coast and Deccan

Talk about a ride filled with rich experiences,
Talk about a ride with a team work,
then this is it.When Gokarna ride was announced on our website, we received a lot of positive intents from fellow riders. The route plan was chalked out, keeping the varying opportunities we had to ride through different places, so the "To" route was different from the "Back" route.
We had nine Bulls all well prepared for the D Day : The Independence Day ride, 14th Aug to 16Th Aug. In celebration of the Freedom and respect to the martyrs,we had The Great Indian Flag tied on two of our bikes, The Lead and the Sweep. In a great sense of respect to the country I almost went into an emotional connection having the flag on my bike as well.

This is BOM's ( Bulls of Mysore) second long ride. with an aggressive plan and rough roads, we expected a bigger challenge for this ride. So it was, nothing fell short :-)

The riders:
Ramchandra on Electra 4S 350 with naveen as pillion.
Prathap(PC) on Machismo 350
Bharath(Body 500) on Mach 500
Nahas(Pixel) on Electra 4S
Diwakar(DJ) on TBTS
Abhijeeth on TBTS with Supreet as Pillion.
Anand on TB 350.
Appanna on Electra 5S
Sunil on Electra 5S.


With the stage set up, the to route was
Mysore- Kushalnagar-Madikeri-Mangalore-Honnavar-Gokarna
We started off by 5 AM, towards Kushalnagar, The stretch is very good. Very conducive for Ride starters. We had our first stop here for Tea. as all of us parked our bulls in tandem facing the road, the site enthralling each of us and the locals. This is when i could see a lot of passion among the riders, the comradery and the excitement. We were slated to stop at Madikeri for Breakfast, so we did, and had breakfast at the west end hotel. I switched on my MP3 player for nice songs, as I dont prefer to listen to songs while riding.
Interestingly and Luckily, we did not have to encounter rain for the better part of our ride.

The road conditions worsened at this point, so we stuck to a disciplined riding pattern to tackle this. Which indeed did work out well, the road eased out after sulia, we were again able to cover some good distance. Once we entered the NH17 stretch after bantwal, we had our worst fears, of a Flat Tyre. because the road was full of gravel and stones Intermittently, due to unfinished and poor work.
But thanks to the ruggedness of our Bulls, we did come out unhurt, but only for Sunil, who had a weak tube, which was then rectified by replacing it with a stock tube, which Nahas was carrying as spare. We crossed Mangalore with great challenge from the rough road, and the reckless and helpless truck/car Drivers.
The vehicles were swaying to right and left as they moved, we had to pass through the traffic, a lunch break was much needed as the road sucked out our energy, and weather being Humid, didn't help as well. We stopped at Mulki for the Lunch, everyone feasted on their food like the beasts. After a sumptuous meal, we started off towards udupi. Body 500, Abhijeeth, Sunil and Appanna had few problems with their bike, so they wanted to visit the RE dealer at Brahmi Motors in udupi, for check up. Rest of us headed towards Murdeshwara.
This phase was encountered with coastline and bridges crossing few rivers, out of them one was netravati river. We stopped at Marvanthe Beach for Refreshment.Murdeshwara is completely owned by one man, RN Shetty, who has built and established this site, i was even told that he even owns some part of the great indian ocean !!!!
The huge statue and the gopuram are a super combination of sight. These are really large scales.Shiva is truly with RNS:-)


We had coffee at the hotel overlooking the Sea here. This part was very refreshing, which set us
up for the remaining 90kms towards Gokarna.
This stretch belonged to Ramachandra, he had powerful head lamps, which helped us cruise
through the section at night at very good pace. We Zipped passed other road users, only to be sweared at :-)

We reached Gokarna by 9 30 PM, rest of the guys were catching up with time to reach Gokarna at the earliest. The place to stay was found out by DJ, a very nice place, named Khushi farm house, got it at a good price, due to off season. We all partied and marveled at our own achievement as a group, The Bulls Of Mysore. Everyone pitched in well, to structure the Club.

The second day, was Beach Day :-) The famous Om beach was the main attraction. All of us moved towards Om beach for fun. Me and Nahas trekked our way through, Gokarna main beach to Om Beach. A great day, all in all.

We had to ride back on Sunday, we started by 7 30 AM towards Honnavar for breakfast.
We covered the distance in 40mins, (62 Kms). Amazing, Isn't It? Even i couldn't believe my Watch. The Idli and vada at The Kamat restaurant was very tasty. Having our stomachs filled and taste buds satisfied, we started towards jog falls, All the way the road was very good with great banking.

The water at jog was not upto our expectaions. so we stopped for an hour and moved towards
sagar- shimoga for lunch. We reached Shimoga by 3 PM. had lunch at the hotel Bright.
and started towards Arsikere by 4 PM. This part of our ride is called the road hunting phase, we had a tough time locating the highway towards kadur. As the daylight was approaching fast, and there were awful signs of rain, we reached banavara for a tea break and geared up for rain.
It started raining cats and dogs from Arsikere, we stuck together close to get through to Mysore. This phase of the ride is called the, look for pot holes in the center of the road phase.
The road did not provide any grip, and the oncoming high beam, blurred our sights big time.
Result was missing few road humps, all minor, but for one hump, which caught us unaware.
We had a final stop for tea at KR Pet. My shoes must have been filled with litres of water :-)
We stopped at ring road to bid adieu for each other and congratulated on a great Ride, and dispersed.

Total Distance Covered: Appox 1050Kms.

Euphoric Ontour Kodai

Tuesday it was when I gave Nahas a call to ask his ride plans for the weekend. Nahas suggested Kodai, which was indeed overwhelming for me, it came as a pleasant surprise to me. Letting others know about the ride plan and inviting them was going to be challenging. Among other bullet enthusiasts Babu, read Bullet Babu was the only person who could make the ride. So here we were three of us Prathap on Mach 350 , Babu on Thunderbird TS , and Nahas on Electra 4S.

The plan was to ride to kodai on 30th of April ,and get to visit some places. Madras Bullet Club had their 7th Anniversary ride to Kodai on 1st till 3rd. So meeting the brotherhood was on our top priority list. The ride plan was to start by 4 30 am and ride to kodai via CHnagar-Sathy-Avinashi-Palladam- udumalai-Palani-Kodai.Babu was the late comer, we started at 5 20AM having some hot Tea.The temperature was not friendly even in the early morning, so wearing jackets was out of question. The quality of roads in karnataka is worth mentioning, we need to do a lot to catch up with TN roads. We were cruising a 70kmph till nanjangud, Babu had a fall on the way, as he could not see the roads humps, but he and his steed were just fine.We were riding in formation with sign languages to communicate.our next stop was at KAR-TN boarder, we were musing the difference between the road quality.The ride was very smooth from there on. We had breakfast in a road side hotel in Sathy, those booming pooris, spicy omlette. gave us the extra need calories for the ride. Sathy to Udumalai are straight roads, not much to savour, especially in the soaring heat.We had few pit stops for Babuji's smoke and our coconut milk chase.The ride got better after we crossed Udumalai, road to palani is very good, we were cruising at 80/90/100. Kodai is 70km from palani and there starts the ghat section, with mangroves and banana plantations all over.we reached kodai by 2 PM and checked into Hotel Tamilnadu, had lunch at a local biryani shop and rested till the sunset. Traversing within Kodai is not worth mentioning, so will leave it there. Our next agenda was to visit few good places at kodai and meet the guys from madbulls and RTMC,they were all pleased to know about mysore bullet club , which is still sprouting.Although we were not able to be there for the party, we still could make a lot of acquantaince with the friendly guys from madbulls and RTMC.

Ride back was even more thrilling, for the fact that we will be doing our first night ride. My Back Brakes was not working as expected so had to get them replaced at udumalai on the way, which consumed around 2hrs of our driving time.the bullet mechanic suggested a slightly different route to sathy, and we did follow his direction, which turned out to be too good, the roads seemed so deserted, we were the only people the road was seeing at that point of time, we were riding side by side at 80kmph, which was thrilling.as we entered sathy, the dimbham ghat was blocked by a truck and a bus, luckily we were able get our bulls through the narrow gap only just enough to smear past. We reached back mysore by 3AM.
The experience was euphoric, breathtaking, we congratulated each other for making it safely and moved on to our houses. Total distance of 800kms in two days.There were lot of instances where other people were admiring the Bull , like th Police, RTO,ongoers,etc but those instances comes along with Bullet, so haven't described them.