An adventure trip

A ride for just the heck of it

What was planned few years ago materialized when a conversation got momentum and intensity between the break at work. One fine day my director NSK came to my desk where I and my senior GS and junior ST were sitting. He started speaking about his idea of riding a bullet from mysore to ooty which he discussed with GS few years back who himself owned a bullet. He said that the route will be scenic and the chance of coming across wildlife was good on the ride. The idea of an encounter with a tiger, an elephant or for that matter any dangerous animal thrilled me and I conveyed my immediate participation in that ride. So now the count was three but we had only one bike. The excitement spilled over and ST who was hearing this also expressed his desire to join the ride. He has a Honda unicorn and now the proportion seems to be just fine, four people and two vehicles. But then MK was also in the room and I didn’t want to make him feel bad and I asked him his idea of joining us and the reply was as expected a positive one. But now we are running short of a bike and so I decided to call up another junior (PV) of mine who owns a bike. He is a bubbly character who nods his head for anything and everything in agreement to whatever crap you say. So by now the team of six and three vehicles was complete. It all happened in a matter of five minutes that I started wondering about the strange behavior of life. This plan was laid few years back by NSK and GS when they hardly knew people like me and my juniors existed. But then it eventually materialized now and NSK started booking the tickets online immediately. We planned to make the trip in april as we had a Friday holiday giving us the liberty of three days till Sunday to make this trip happen. As it was only February we didn’t have any problems booking the ticket.

So april came and we were excited to start the journey. We packed the bikes to mysore a day before we started so that there isn’t any delay to collect the bikes when we reach mysore. Getting it packed at the Chennai railways was a headache and it took us a day to do it and we started on 8th april from Chennai which was a Thursday. We took the 9 o clock Cauvery express from Chennai which acted as a passenger train after crossing Bangalore. It scrolled and stopped in every station until it reached mysore by 9 in the morning. Getting the bikes at mysore was a cakewalk as we didn’t see too many bikes and laborers mobbing as was the case in Chennai. We had some trouble starting the bikes as the fuel tank has to be emptied before packing. For the same reason we carried 500 ml petrol to help ourselves reach the petrol station without pushing it. ST’s bike didn’t respond to the minor portion of the petrol it was allocated with, 500ml petrol for three bikes comes around 166ml approximately for each bike. Luckily the petrol station was not too far and I and ST pushed it all the way. God was kind enough to leave the road to the petrol station down slopped that we rode the bike without petrol for few meters to reach the station.

The ride started once the tank was filled. The idea was to move as a bunch and in case any one of the followers is beyond sight and missing for more than 20 minutes then the leader has to wait until everyone joins. To begin with NSK and GS who decided to lead the pack were on the bullet followed by PV and MK in Apache and behind them all chasing it out was ST and me in unicorn.
The weather was warm and it got hotter as we went into the day. ST took over from me in between and we had a chance to have a date with yamadharmaraj. We were speeding in as were the other vehicles ahead of us. It happened so all of a sudden the SUV before us halted with a screech. ST despite putting forward his best efforts to stop the bike ended up kissing the tires over the rear of the SUV which left a naamam like mark. The thing to worry about wasn’t the kiss of the bike but this big truck that just pulled over in time from kissing sitting in the rear. I had to pursue ST to hold on for sometime to get his nerves back before he starts all over again which he adamantly ignored. I persisted and succeeded for I know how it will be to get jolted and how difficult it becomes to concentrate on the ride thereafter. But later the same became a topic to laugh about as we noticed the same SUV with the mark in its rear as we all pulled over for a break.

The route map is shown below for a better understanding of the route we took. We took the mysore-Nanjangud-Gundalpet-Bandipur-Theppakad-Gudalur-Naduvattam-Pykara-Ooty route since the other route was steep and not so friendly to go uphill and we reserved that for the return ride.

After several breaks and change of riders on the way we reached ooty around 4 in the evening. Riding in the hills is a pleasure. To bend with the roads and not knowing what to expect as we turn without speeding down is a thrill by itself. GS’s bullet showed some sings of creating trouble on the way but then bullet being bullet moved up like the sturdy guy it is. We were joined by VR and BG in ooty who came up from coimbatore for the same purpose. We had the dormitory booked at TTDC (Tamilnadu tourism Development Corporation) very much earlier as we know that getting a room in ooty during the season is a tougher task. We rested for sometime and while refreshing I noticed my exposed part of my hands being tanned than usual because of the ride under the sun and the wind. My hands had a clear demarcation of the exposed and concealed part and I felt felicitous to see the designs of nature over me.

As it was to darken soon we headed to the botanical garden which seemed to be the ideal choice for its vicinity. Fossil tree is the only thing that captured my attention of the lot in the garden. There were other trees with monstrous trunk and bulky barks very likely to be more than a century old. We had an opportunity to meet one of the few non corrupt IAS officers Mr. Gagandheep Singh Bedi with his family. He was gracious enough to share a picture with us. Posing and taking pictures kept us occupied for most part of our visit to the garden. As it dimmed we pushed off to take our bikes and return to our dormitory to finish off our dinner after a drink before we retired for the day.

to be cotd......