My first long Motorbike ride

South India Ride  

Being a South Indian myself, why this “South India ride”, you may ask! Well, I did that to myself too. 

It all began when I wanted to have a short ride in Leh and had rented a Himalayan there. This was during the “Landrover Defender Journey from Leh to Chandigarh” (https://nsmcyberdude-thoughts.blogspot.com/2024/07/journey-in-himalayas-leh-chandigarh.html)

I met a distinguished young gentleman (for me young or old is nothing to do with biological ageing) name Mr. S Bhat who was from Hyderabad. He had just then finished the Landrover journey, as we were to begin. Seeing me in a riding gear, he enquired and later mentioned that I must do a ride in South Africa and a ride in Alps. He recommended a group called Goodwind Moto Tours.(https://goodwindmototours.com/)

 Now, you know how it works, the seed was sown! I reached out to Mr. Amit Desai of GMT. I always believe that we should go from the “known to the unknown”. The known places (even though I had not gone by motorbike to these places) was South India and they had one on their program list. I quickly signed up for it before I change my mind and opt for something more unknown. Amit and I had a few messages exchanged before, as he mentioned that this is moderate to high technical ride. I sent him the video snippets of some of the training that I had undergone (Aruani Grid, Bigrock dirt park) and he confirmed that I can do it.

Aruani grid training UV f77

Big rock dirt park. Training

As the luck would have it, I had a left knee problem in End September’24 when I was on a business trip to USA. A quick check revealed meniscus tear that had to be attended to immediately. So, Arthoscopic surgery, it was. Dr. Srinivas of RV Aster hospital who performed that, assured me that I can ride in January and need to do my physio. Dr. Gladson Johnson again helped me out with my Physio regimen. Still, I was limping with some pain. Decided to take a plunge. I got my bike ready with the help and advice from Arun Ramdas (Bosky - Bigbear Bangalore),  Lakshmikanth (KK of HSR, REML) and partly outfitted by Mr. Balaji (https://orionmotorsindia.com/)

19.01 

Day 1
Bengaluru - Mysuru

I started my journey, a motorbike ride, not on a motorbike but in a car! Anita, her cousin sisters Bilwa, Rani & I started from Bengaluru, came to Mysuru & I checked into Metropole hotel. Nagaraj (our Chauffeur for the past 9 years) rode the bike from Bengaluru to Mysuru. We had lunch together and they left for Bengaluru (I felt like a school kid, wherein the parents come to see you off on a school trip 😀)

 In the evening at 5:30 we were given a briefing of the tour by Anil Nair and John Francis. Later we had a very good dinner together.

In all that excitement, I forgot to get my riding boots from Bengaluru!! There was no other alternative and Nagaraj had to make another trip from Bengaluru to Mysuru and back, just to get my bag with boots!! He came at around 8.30 PM and delivered the bag. 

All safety gear checked and I was looking forward for the first day of ride starting on 20th, January 2025.

20.01 
Day 2
Mysuru to Ooty 

First day ride climbing up the steep bends to Ooty 

 This route passed through Bandipur and Madhumalai forests, where we turned off at Masinagudi and started the climb towards Ooty.

Briefing at Mysuru before we started to Ooty 

The day started off with sumptuous breakfast at Metropole and at 7 AM the bags were all out for loading. At 8 sharp we had a briefing for the day and at around 8:30 we flagged off and had to pass through reasonably busy traffic of Mysuru, Nanjangud and Gundalpet. After Sultan batheri cross, the traffic thinned down and became much more easier to ride and the 36 hairpin bends were awesome and we reached Ooty.  We had a lovely lunch in the downtown area of Ooty. Later we checked into a place called Sherlock, a lovely quaint old British bungalow themed after Sherlockholmes . Evening was relaxed with a bonfire. and the temperatures was probably in the upper single digit. So obviously it called for rum and whiskeys to be out with accompanied snacks. The Andhra home made titbits from one of the riders was a great find for all of us. We ended the day with a nice dinner.

Relaxing at Ooty “Sherlock”

21.01 
Day 3
Ooty - Valparai

An anticipated first long ride with both down and uphills. We started after a good breakfast at Sherlocks and after filling up fuel at Ooty town, we started with our downward descent. It was a lot of twisters and hairpins again, but all down hills, after which we climbed to Kotagiri and went down again to Metupalyam. From there it was plains via Annur, Karumathampatty, and to Pollachi. This route was absolute fun to ride through the Nilgiris mountain range. We did about 40 hairpin bends. 

A pit stop @ ZF Windpower 

We made a brief halt at ZF Windpower Coimbatore plant (the one which I was closely associated with in setting it up). Had lunch at Pollachi and started for Valparai and passing through Aliyar Forest area. 

From Metupalayam and onwards it was hot sunny weather after having experience the chilling / cool weather at Ooty. We had to de-layer ourselves on the way as we got towards Coimbatore (we skirted Coimbatore). 

The climb towards Valparai was another fun ride with a lot of twisters and passing through picturesque tea gardens. 

We had a short photo stop and later in the evening reached another lovely destination called Stanmore Garden Bungalow (Briar Tea Bungalows), again an old British days tea estate manager’s bungalow now converted into a quaint hotel. 

We had covered about 240 kms of intense ride covering various temperatures and through the mountains and plains. 

After an evening with a bonfire (with Telugu and Hindi songs being belted out), it called for a well deserved dinner and rest.

22.01
Day 4 

Rest day

It was a day of “Do nothing”. Just relaxed. Started to write this blog. Eat-sleep and repeat. Most strenuous task done was to clean the bike and lube it. Some went out exploring and with a pro bird watcher amongst us (Phani Ravi), some set out to “capture” them with their cameras.

23.01

Day 5

Valparai - Kodaikanal

After breakfast and the briefing, we set out to descend from Valparai to Pollachi. We retraced our route and riding through the misty tea gardens was an exhilarating experience. Some parts of the roads were wet due to mist,  we had to be careful negotiating curves and bends on a wet road which would have probably had some oil spills from the heavy vehicles (one cannot easily distinguish oil spills on a wet road). 

After refuelling just on the outskirts of Pollachi (and relaxing a bit), we started towards Palani. The route was through many villages. At the entrance and exit of almost all the villages, there were speed breakers. As I was riding a Cruiser bike, there was no chance to stand up on the pegs and ride over them in the “attack position”. I fully “experienced” every one of those speed breakers. Not a nice experience, when you see your fellow bikers sailing over it as they were on bikes which allowed them to stand up and ride!

We passed the holy town of Palani and saw quite a few pilgrims walking bare foot to the hill shrine. 

Stopped for refreshing tender coconut water before we started the climb towards Kodaikanal. Riding up the “eLu malai” or the seven hills and again through the mists needed every bit of focus on riding the bike. The roads as we approached Kodaikanal became bad and in some cases, felt that we were doing “off-roading”. 

Reached Kodaikanal and had lunch as a nice restaurant serving interesting food items like wood fired thin crust pizzas, some “Mongolian” (at least that’s what it said) dishes. Post lunch we rode to the hotel “Le Poshe” 

24.01

Day 6

Kodaikanal - Rameshwaram

This was our longest ride in a day (340 kms.) & a full day ride with adequate stops. Once we got down the mountains, we were riding in the plains. While the challenge of mountains and forests is not there, I thought that it will be navigating through the “Civilisation jungle of villages, towns and cities”. Surprisingly as we came down from the mountains, we hit the Highway. We stopped for refuelling and had some amazing tender coconut (yeLneer). Then it was all about “GoDa hain, maidan hain”. All the big bikers had a field day opening the throttle. With my bike I did my best as it is more for a relaxed ride. Did a sincere attempt to make my elephant fly. Nevertheless, it was a fun ride almost all the way till Rameshwaram. The roads are fantastic. We passed by the holy town of Madurai Meenakshi. 

It was also a day of transitioning from cool / Cold mountain weather to the hot weather of peninsular south and ending in the hot and humid coastal weather at Rameshwaram. 

We had layered as we left Kodai and somewhere down those mountains, we stopped to remove the layers and be comfortable.

We stopped for lunch at a very hyper local food joint called “Swati mess” in Sivaganga. The locals got excited seeing all the  bikes and wanted to talk to us. I gently told one of the excited guys that he should speak to our “Captain” and showed Anil Nair 😂. 

Anil and John got besieged and were “interviewed” and were given traditional “shawl maryaada”. In between some of us had fun mentioning that one of the riders is actually a famous Telugu movie actor 😃. 

All in all, it was fun and good food.

Captains getting local media attention 

Thought all that food would make us sleepy, strangely enough, the speed that we were at, needed full focus and as we were enjoying the ride, did not feel sleepy at all.

The very first sight of the sea was so exhilarating as we neared Rameshwaram. 

Then came the Pamban bridge and we had a photo stop, before we proceeded into the town and checked in at Residency Towers hotel.

Evening at Rameshwaram temple was the grand finale for the day with some local philter kaapi & surprisingly very nice cookies at a road side shop near the temple.

25.01

Day 7

Rameshwaram - Dhanushkodi - Karaikudi (Kanadukathan)

Crossed 1000 Kms (1K + 105.6)

An early ride was planned from Rameshwaram to Dhanushkodi - more specifically the Indira point, which is the south western tip of India and is hardly a few kms away from Srilanka. 

We started at 6.30 AM with a briefing and left the hotel at 6.45. After passing through some busy early morning traffic at Rameshwaram, we hit the highway taking us to Dhanushkodi. The changing landscapes was astonishing and then we saw that famed strip of land jutting out into the sea which just accommodates only the road  sometimes ! To our either sides was sea. We had a lot of wind buffeting. As we reached Dhanushkodi, we saw a dilapidated structure. Anil Nair, our lead, stopped us near that and explained the significance of that structure and a piece of history that we never knew. In 1962 (the year that I was born), there was a tsunami in much more bigger scale than what we saw in 2004. Prior to that, Dhanushkodi was a very rich and prosperous south trading post (more richer than Karaikudi) and boasted of the largest railway terminus in India! All this was washed away by the devastating tsunami and left behind the relic that we were seeing. 

Post the short interesting history lesson, we hopped onto the bikes to reach the tip of the land which is called Indira point. It was a very busy place, even that early. We managed to click some pictures with lots of people around.

We started back and in between stopped for more relaxed photo shoots. Had some fun standing in the middle of the road which had sea on either sides.

We got back for a good breakfast. 

I had a problem with my right rear view mirror and had to do this leg of the trip without one RVM (that too the right side one!)

Post fixing that problem (thanks to John), we checked out and started for our next destination - Karaikudi / Kanadukathan. Enroute we went in front of Srirangam temple. 

An uneventful ride to Karaikudi and a vegetarian “Saapaad” at the original “Annalakshmi” and later to Kanandukathan was a breeze. 

In the evening, we walked around the heritage village and had local tea (Cha) and had an amazing Chettinad Saapaad. Oh! What a spread it was and in a wonderful setting inside a Chettinad mansion. 

During the entire ride the weather was extremely benign and cooperated with us. We crossed the 1000 kms mark on our odometers & my first mile stone of crossing 1K in a motorbike road trip was achieved. 

We had great fun, fantastic ride, wonderful weather and superb food. 

26.01

Day 8

Karaikudi (Kanadukathan) - Yercaud

After our customary early breakfast at the same Chettinad mansion, we set out traversing the hot plains of Chettinad area and towards the Yercaud. 

This is in the eastern ghats and the nearest hill station for people from Salem and Chennai too!

We had an amazing lunch at the famous “Junior Kuppanna” hotel, which was spacious with a lot of parking space, clean rest room and an amazing selection for both “Plant killers” (as Anil & John used to joke to us, vegetarians) & for the hardcore meat eaters.

We went around the hot city of Salem on a ring road and started to climb up the ghats with 20 hairpin bends to reach the pleasant weather at Yercaud. The stay was at a lovely place called “Shambala” and was nestled in a 40 acres or so of coffee estate. 

That evening was an evening of fun and nice bonhomie as by that time, we had come to know each other reasonably well.

27.01

Day 8

Yercaud - Kolli hills - Yercaud.

This was the highlight of the entire trip and involved climbing down and up 20 hairpin bends at Yercaud, riding through the Salem city traffic & later hot plains to reach the foot hills of Kolli malai to take on the 72 hairpin bend challenge.

We were sufficiently warned not to speed and take it easy and in the words of Anil “Everyone gets a Kela (banana). There is no first kela or second kela. Ride safely”. Got the GoPro readied on Phani’s helmet mount and I switched on my iPhone on the handle bar to record. We set off to take the challenge and to be rewarded with the promised “Red banana” and an other type of small banana. We had a strange concoction made out of some root, pepper and such stuff. With that being had, we rode up to a “view point” and started back. 

On this day we must have done 185++ hairpin bends and maybe near to or crossed 200!

We got back to Yercaud and made a beeline to the spa to get a good massage done &  followed by some light banter, a round poetry reading by Rishi and yours truly and an introduction to the book written by Anil called “Licensed to fall”. We had a sound sleep that night. 

28.01

Day 9

Yercaud - Bengaluru.

The final day of our ride and we did our 6-7-8 drill (up at 6, bags out at 7 and briefing at 8). Anil during our briefing was cryptic and enigmatic. He had shared a google map for us and mentioned “do not follow that”. He was taking us through some back roads and towards Thopur ghats (we were not crossing the Salem city). While he did not sound very ominous, there was a set of warnings. “This is the last day, do not relax, we still have a ride to do. The roads are broken in this route, very steep downhills and hairpin bends. We will pass in between hills and it will be picturesque”. 

Least that we knew that this would have been our acid test for off-roading skills. Easily this became the toughest ride for many of us and definitely for me. Once we reached the state highway, we let out our breath and started to ease off. 

The ride from the there onwards was lovely Tarmac and we could twist the throttle a bit before hitting the traffic of Hosur and later the chaos of Bengaluru traffic. 

In between, we had a break at Krishnagiri at the famed “Murugan idli” and devoured podi idlis, halwa and sakkar pongal (Sweet Pongal). A grand finale to our ride and a gastronomic adventure.

I managed to get Mysurupak for my fellow riders from SriVenkateshwara sweetmeat stall (https://www.venkateshwarasweets.com/) & thanks to its owner, Mr. Hariprasad who got it specially delivered to us.

It was time to bid goodbye and move on. Move on to the daily grind and the Bengaluru traffic all the way home, drove in the reality. All that happened in the past few days stayed back as memories and an experience that cannot be described in words.

A poem that I had written in November’24 resonated with me as I turned in and parked my bike with its long lost partners, my Himmi and UV.

Rode a total distance of 1826.9 kms!

My three beauties.

https://nsmcyberdude-thoughts.blogspot.com/2024/11/with-my-boots-still-on.html

To conclude, I’m looking forward for my next long ride and till then will be happy with short and around Bengaluru rides  and end with a quote …

Ek na ek shamma ko jalaaye rakhiye
Subah honeko hai, maahaul banaye rakhiye
- Tariq Badayuni. 

Keep some or the other flame intact and glowing...
Dawn (Morning) will be coming next, keep the spirits alive.