"You must be in Bangalore on 1st and 2nd of October! No excuses, Ok?".
It was quiet unexpected on that August afternoon in office hours, that my phone rang and it was my schoolmate. "I bought a flat there and you must be there for the housewarming, I'll be calling others also. Make the trip as per your convenience". So, no excuses. In the first instinct, I checked MakeMyTrip and done - booked the flight ticket for return journey on 2nd Oct, as the rate was very low and I didn't want to miss the offer. Rang up other friends and fixed that they would book my ticket also for the onward journey by train. They will be staying two more days in Bangalore and won’t be coming back with me. All done.
Days passed. Then one day came a spark in my mind : "Could have made it a RIDE, why I booked the ticket". It was an offer ticket and no cancellation was possible. At last, the urge to ride won and decided to ignore that booking and ride. Applied for three days leave at office - Friday, 30th September and 3rd & 4th of October - Monday and Tuesday. With weekend coming in middle, I would get 5 days in total. Sanctioned. Now planning and preparation to be done.
I always prefer circular rides - one route for onward trip and another for return. I am from Trivandrum and the plan was to ride to Bangalore via Ernakulam - Kalpetta - Sulthan Bathery - Mysore in two sessions. First day ride upto Kalpetta or Bathery, stay there and next day reach Bangalore. Then, on third day, after the function, go to Coorg via Kunigal and visit Sravanabelagola, Bylakuppe Tibetan settlement on the way and stay at Madikeri. On fourth day, visit places around Coorg like Abbi Falls, Raja's seat, Tala Cauvery and then ride to Virajpet - Gonikoppal and reach Mananthavady and stay there. Fifth day ride from Mananthavady to Trivandrum and reach home. Then I disclosed the plan to my friend Anil, who was also planning to attend the function. Like me, he usually rides solo, and on hearing the plan, he was also ready to join. But our steeds are of no match. Mine is an Enfield Electra and he owns the pocket rocket - KTM Duke 390.
Serviced and prepared my bike three days before the ride. Replaced engine oil, brake shoe, throttle and clutch cable, routed another spare clutch cable along with the current one, so that in case of cable break, I can change it fast. Anil's Duke needed just oil change only. As always, everything done by Mithun Kumar of BigFoot Customs, Trivandrum, who himself is also a passionate and experienced rider. No need to describe him what to be done.
On the previous day evening changed the helmet visor with a new one, bought one more pair of gloves, to use if it rains and my leather gloves becomes soaked. Filled the tank. By night, packed everything in my saddle bag and kept the camera and other valuables on tank bag. Could go to bed at 12:30 in the night.
Day 1
Our plan was to start around 4:30 am. But I couldn't sleep well. Woke up by 3:30 before the alarm rang. Got ready, put on the riding gears, tied the saddle bag and attached the tank bag on bike. Covered the saddle bag with a rain cover, as it was cloudy since the previous day. Time was 4:30 by then. Called Anil. He was also getting ready. His home is just 2 minute ride from mine. Started the bike and after warming up for a couple of minutes moved on to Anil's house. He was fixing his saddle bag and that was his only luggage. Riding gears on, and we started the ride at 5 am. At that early hours itself there was moderate traffic in NH47. We passed via Kollam and after Haripad it started raining slightly. I stopped to put on my rain cheater under my riding jacket. Anil was riding just ahead of me, but I lost him from my vicinity somewhere. I didn't know whether he was ahead of me or behind me. Continued and soon after passing Alapuzha it started raining very heavily and I had to stop as my glove became soacked and the visibility through the helmet visor became poor because of the pouring rain. Parked the bike in front of a closed shop and I sought shelter in its verandah. Then I saw Anil passing. Tried to ring him up, but he didn't notice it. The heavy rain lasted 10-15 minutes and then I started. After Cherthala, I checked my mobile and got his message that we would meet at Kochi near toll booth. At 09:15 I reached the toll booth and couldn't find him there, actually he was behind me again. He stopped somewhere to message/call me but I didnt notice him in the traffic. Soon he reached and I called another friend Benoy who was staying near Edappally and he told he would wait for us on the highway. We stopped where he was waiting and as I had already told him that we would not visit his house because of time constraints, he came with two boxes of 'cut fruits' for our refreshments. We put it in our bag, spent 5 minutes with him and continued. Then we stopped for breakfast at Pai Dosa after Edappally junction on NH17 (Now known as NH66). We had the famous "quail egg dosha" from there. Yummy!!!
Breakfast time at Pai Dosa, Edappally
Felt very refreshed after that break and we were ready to go and started at 10:15. Had a fuel stop near Varapuzha and continued through NH17. Upto Chavakad there was moderate traffic and from there towards Ponnani the road is straight and traffic was less. On the way we were stopped by Highway police with interceptor vehicle. We were riding not more than 75 kmph but the speed limit on that road was 70 kmph. Had to pay the penalty for overspeed. The policemen were very friendly and enquired the details of our ride.
We continued and reached Ponnani soon, then turned right towards Kuttipuram. That road is also very straight and with very less traffic. At Kuttipuram the road joins to Thrissur - Kozhikode road and then onwards there was traffic. We stopped near Kolappuram to buy water and had the cut fruits and hydrated ourselves.
Refreshment break on highway side, Kolappuram, Malappuram District
That was our only lunch as both of us didn't felt hungry. After 10 minutes we continued and passed Ramanattukara and it was again heavy traffic in the Kozhikode bye-pass. Turned right at Pantheerankavu junction towards Thamarassery and the traffic continued upto Adivaram. Then the view of Wayanad hills appeared in front of us and we were soon climbing the famous Wayanad churam. The climate suddenly became cool and I raised my helmet visor to enjoy the refreshing cool wind and the greenery around. Excellent winding roads and cool climate welcomed us. There is a famous viewpoint near Lakkidi and we stopped there to capture some photos. A photograph cannot show the real beauty of the winding roads and depth of that vast valley we passed.
Wayanad road
Twisty-curvies, Wayanad Pass
At Lakkidi view point
Panoramic view of Wayanad pass
Wayanad Pass
Time was 5pm by then and we continued towards Kalpetta. We hadn't booked room for stay, as we were unsure how far we could cover. We wanted to cover as much as we could in daylight. Stopped after Kalpetta and called our friend and colleague Gokul and told him to book a room online for us in Sulthan Bathery as it seemed we could reach there before the night falls.
Soon after Kalpetta
We headed towards Bathery and on the way Gokul called and informed that our room is confirmed at Hotel Mint Flower, Sulthan Bathery. Checked in at hotel at 06:30 pm. Had a bath, took out our bikes and filled the tanks again. Had dinner and went to bed at 10:00 pm. Total 518 kilometers covered on day 1.
Our steeds resting after a day long ride
Day 2
I woke up at 6 am and I just went out for a walk. The otherwise busy Bathery roads were almost empty, and it was cool outside. Small tea shops were open and had tea from one of them.
Cold morning at Bathery
Went back to room and Anil was still sleeping. I took bath and was feeling fresh in that cool climate. Anil also got ready soon and we went out for breakfast, as we were told that the hotel’s complementary breakfast will be ready only after 8 o’ clock. Only one hotel was open at that time nearby and we had breakfast from there. Came back to hotel, and lubed both bike’s chains. Then packed everything, vacated the room, tied the saddle bag and we started at 08:30. I kept the helmet visor open to feel that fresh cool air. Soon we passed the Muthanga forest checkpost. Night travel through that road is banned and the checkpost opens at 6 in the morning only. The road goes through the forest. We could see long row of trucks parked on both sides waiting for the checkpost permissions.
Near Muthanga Checkpost
Muthanga forest road
Road was good but there were a lot of speed breakers because of chances of wild animals crossing the road and there were incidents of speeding vehicles hitting them. Within the forest, we crossed the Kerala-Karnataka border and soon we were out of the forest area and long straight roads and vast agricultural lands of Maddur - Gundalpet welcomed us.
That area is famous for vast lands of sunflower farms. The season was almost over. To see the flowers in full bloom, one has to visit the place in July- August time. On the way, I spotted a farm of marigold flowers in bloom and stopped there to capture some photos.
Marigold flower farm, Gundalpet
We continued, the road condition was excellent with straight long stretches. At a point, we stopped and exchanged our bikes, as I wanted to feel the adrenalin of KTM390 on that straight road. Blasted off and as soon as we passed Gundlupet I gave back his bike and I was on my Bull again.
Nearing Mysore
At 11:30, we reached Mysore. Stopped near Mysore Palace. The Dussehra festival was about to begin the next day.
Mysore Palace
Then we continued towards Bangalore route. Stopped for lunch soon after city exit at a Kerala style hotel. Then we headed towards Bangalore. Filled tanks on the way. Very heavy traffic welcomed us nearing Bangalore. We reached Kengeri.
Somewhere in the outskirts of Bangalore
As we wanted to go to Jakkur, contacted our friends to know which route to take. As per their advice, we took NICE road towards Nelamangala. The road was really nice and we could open up the throttle. We took the exit from the NICE road and again to heavy traffic and through Jalahalli we entered Airport road and at last reached my friend’s flat near Jakkur at 5PM. Other friends also reached and it was like a school re-union for us.
Except for the heavy traffic in Bangalore city, it was a nice ride and we covered 290 kilometers from the forests of Wayanad through the vast agricultural lands of Gundlupet and then through the historic city of Mysore to reach the city of Bangalore.
Day 3
We went to attend the function at the new flat which is about 10 minutes drive from there on my friend's car. The function was over by 2pm. As we got late and it was more than we expected, we were forced to change the plans to ride to Coorg the same day. And for some other matters at home, I was thinking to cut the trip by one day short and reach home by 4th Day night. It was a hard decision to take, I really wanted to ride to Coorg and come back through Wayanad. And finally decided to postpone the Coorg plan for another ride. Then the fastest route to come back to Trivandrum is by NH 7 (Now called NH44) through Salem - Madurai and Thirunelvely. It was 3PM when we started from Jakkur and decided to do as far as we could. Onto heavy traffic again and could escape it once we entered the elevated national highway from Silk Board. It was an awesome experience riding through the 10 kilometers elevated expressway upto Electronic City. Then we were stopped at Atebele checkpost by Karnataka police and directed to deviate as no vehicles except Tamil Nadu registration ones were allowed to cross the border due to the tension between two states over Kaveri water issue. We parked bikes on highway side and talked with a policeman. I told him that we were coming from Bangalore and going to Kerala. He allowed us to cross the checkpost and go to Tamilnadu side. Then onwards, there was very less traffic in the six lane road and we were riding fast so as to cover maximum distance in daylight. On the way, near Krishnagiri filled our tanks again. We were losing daylight and after sunset, it was somewhat difficult to ride and lot of insects were hitting my helmet visor and visibility became poor. So we thought of stopping for the day at Salem. We stopped on the way and contacted our friend Gokul to check for rooms there, he immediately booked online at Hotel Raj Residency, Salem.
Somewhere between Dharmapuri and Salem
We reached Salem by 7:30. It took sometime for us to locate the hotel as it was on a housing area away from the highway at a calm place. Checked in and and had dinner from there and went to bed around 11 pm.
Resting at Salem Hotel
Total distance covered : 247 kms.
Day 4
We woke up late and had breakfast from the hotel. We discussed which route to take, eventhough we liked to take the NH7 which will save considerable time and we could reach Trivandrum before night if we take that route. But the news about the health condition of TamilNadu CM and the possibility of hartal/bandh if something happens made us to choose the Kerala route by NH47.
Between Erode and Coimbatore on NH47
Fuel stop near Erode
We bye-passed Erode and filled our tanks again near Erode. Crossed Kerala Border Bye-passing Coimbatore and the good roads continued upto Alathur. The road works were going on and we saw the upcoming tunnel road under construction at Kuthiran. Passed Mannuthy bye-pass and stopped for lunch at McDonald’s. The time was 1:30 pm. It was the first halt after we started from Salem, except for fuel stop. Heat was too much outside and we spent almost one hour there.
Lunch break, Thrissur Bye-pass
Felt refreshed and started at 2:30. Continued to Ernakulam and next fuel stop was at Aluva. Continued and stopped at KR Bakers, Kalamassery for some refreshments. Time was 4PM by then. After 15 minutes we started again and it was heavy traffic and the most boring part of the entire trip - from Ernakulam to Trivandrum. After we left from Kalamassery I didn’t see Anil. He was riding ahead of me. I continued and it was non-stop ride to Trivandrum. The heavy traffic reduced after Kollam and I reached my home at Trivandrum by 9:30 pm. It was the longest ride of the entire trip. We covered 585 kilometers on this day.
Eventhough the initial ride plan had to be changed and it was cut short by one day, overal it was a nice ride for ride's sake. The missed part has to be fulfilled, and thus there is a cause for another ride.
#Wayanad #Mysore #Bangalore #Ride
Click for Idukki Circular - A solo ride travelogue.
Click for Wayanad Tourist Map .
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