Day 4: 06 -June-2011 ---One Crazy Ride!
It was a calm and beautiful morning, I woke up with a plan to visit Nelliampathy, Athirampalli and reach Thrissur or anywhere after that. Got ready by 6 00 AM and another 20 minutes for packing things. 6:30 AM, I had checked out and was well on my way towards Nelliampathy. I did not want to stop by much as there was no rain ever since I landed in Pollachi. My first stop was at Kollengode, Kerala some 35 kilometres away from Pollachi. Sipped up some fresh tea and moved on slowly. I had to stop every now and then to take some random snapshots and for other nature calls.
I decided to use the tripod more today as I have not used in the trip until now. However, I was too lazy to set up the tripod, mount the camera and then wait for it to fire. Using the gorilla pod seemed to be much easier for me and I continued to use that. I stopped once again at Nemmara to confirm the directions, and to have one more cup of tea. I gave lift for a small guy to reach his school some 2 kilometres away. If not for me or someone else giving a lift, the local kids used to walk the two kilometres every day! I could sense the happiness in the kid’s eyes as he got down from the bike – I gave him some chocolates and few biscuits I had – he went into the school so happily.
I continued on, the winding road from Nemmara to Nelliampathy is so green and serene, which is very much pleasurable to ride on. I reached Pothundy Dam by 7:45 AM – But the gates open by 8 AM IST, which means it’s going to take some time and I went up to Nelliampathy and decide on Pothundy when I come back the same route. I stopped by the forest check-post to sign the register. The officer rather turned amused seeing me in my riding jacket and the other gears. I am asked to wait for a while and after some 5 minutes; I was let off after signing the register with Name, Address, Vehicle Number and contact Information.
I had earlier visited Nelliampathy with my parents a few months back and so I knew where to look forward to in there. As soon as I started the climb the vistas started changing, the weather becomes much cooler yet comfortable and relax able environment. I stopped by the Pothundy Dam viewpoint for some pictures and moved on. The hairpin bends are a bit steep and hence had to resort to lower gears. Saw a few monkeys running around the roads and few jumping around from one side of road to another. Few kilometres up the hill, the rain started pouring down. My bad luck there was not much cover from the trees in that stretch, so I was completely wet. I had packed the raincoat and boots since it was not raining in and around Pollachi. I rode on for a few hundred metres in search of a shady place to unload the saddle and get the raingear out. To my utter disappointment, I had left the boots and raincoat folded in the room itself and forgot to tie it along with the saddle.So, There I was completely wet, I was almost near Nelliampathy so that means I have to go back another 140 kilometres to get the raincoat.
I had earlier borrowed my friend’s boot since mine was a full-size touring boot and was feeling uncomfortable on the calf where couple of leeches bit yesterday. If not for the raincoat, I had to go back to get the riding boots.But if I go back I have to miss visiting athirampalli, and if I go toathirampalli I would have to cover a lot of distance again. I decided to take a call after seeing places in and around Nelliampathy. First things first, as soon as I entered the town I had my breakfast – very good for the locality and the food was cheap and awesome. Had Dosa, Idly and some chayakerala style along with chuduvellam (Pink coloured hot water).
The rain seemed to have stopped, but as soon as I came out of hotel, it started again. The hotel owner asked me to give my riding jacket and he will dry it up in his kitchen until I see the first sightseeing place, Kesavanpara.So I let my jacket, knee guard there and started towards Kesavanpara. I was wearing the Wrangler T-shirt, Wrangler denim, Normal leather gloves and just the helmet to support me!I was shivering so much and another school kid came to the rescue, he had an umbrella and I had the bike so I picked him up and dropped him at the school near the viewpoint and I was saved up a bit.The Viewpoint is few hundred metres away from road where we have to walk up a little into the forest (Rather private forest)
I took my tripod, gorilla pod and the tankbag with camera, lenses and umbrella. I would use the tripod to take my picture and umbrella to save up the bags and camera. I walked up to the viewpoint, since it was raining I could not see much of the scenery around, so had to turn back.Took some pictures of the tea estates around and fewself-portraits.I would have wasted at least some 100 images by using the “Self Timer: Continuous” option. It was getting dark and the rain seems increase every minute. I was just wondering what I would do for the next 130 odd minimum kilometres.Took few more pictures and the rain stopped, but fog picked up. I could not waste much time and so quickly went back to the bike, rode to the restaurant picked up the riding gear.
By now the jacket was a bit HOT! The shop owner advised me to put the jacket on top of Tea boiler or some closed vessel that heats up something which would absorb the moisture in the jacket. The shoulder, back part was OK but the hands were cold, very cold. So everywhere I stopped, I had to remove the jacket and put it on the boiler vessel or simply remove it and let it dry in a warm place. I then rode into the Poabs estate for seeing Seetharkundu, the suicidal viewpoint in Nelliampathy. There are many other placed like waterfalls, lakes and much higher viewpoints available but one has to trek or drive on a 4x4 vehicle. The rain again started by time I reached the tea estate. I had to stop by shady place every now and then.At the top, the rains were intermittent. There was no one else (except for the tea plantation workers) to visit the viewpoint. There was a Tea shop and the estate powder factory show. I left my jacket there and took my tripod, umbrella and camera.
Initially the rain was too much to handle and later it was fog. I literally waited some 20 minutes in the same place for the rain and fog to let off so that I could take some pictures. I sensed something was irritating my legs, and I saw there were 4 leeches!! So much blood is been sucked by the Leech, I was feeling awkward that something is irking in the leg all the time. I quickly came back to the shop and I was asked to apply salt and the guy in the shop gave a small pack of salt to use on my trip. A rather effective tool is to use snuff powder (MookuPodi in Tamil)
After Seetharkundu, I did not have any other place to visit but to reach Athirampalli. I may be dumb, idiotic, and crazy or whatever you name it – I decided to take the forest route to Pollachi, covering Athirampalli falls, sholayar and Valparai. It was a decision that came by itself and grew up on me.Finally I’m going to wander along the forest route with my Wrangler Jean, without any gear to cover up the denim.Till now, I haven’t got the mobile signal to reach the hotel to check / confirm if the boots are there. So I quickly rode down the hills without stopping much and called up the hotel from Wadakkanjery only from where my mobile worked. The hotel staff told me the room is not yet cleaned and is still the way I left it as, I asked them to check out if the boots and raincoat are still present and that I would call up in a hour or so.
I rode on towards chalakudy, On the busy traffic with so many potholes. I really feel pity for the truck drivers and the ambulances that have to ply along this route.It took me about 90 minutes to cover the 56 kilometres.I called the hotel staff again to confirm, and he mentioned that he would keep it in the room itself and if I am staying there again he would allocate the same room for the night. I confirmed and the room was booked. Had some tea and snacks there in Chalakudy, and proceeded to Athirampalli where I faced one of the toughest rain rides in my life. It was so severe that the visibility was bare minimum. I decided to take it easy and slowed down my speed and proceeded on with utmost caution. The oncoming vehicles aren’t of much help as they tend to take advantage of two wheelers and come bang on in front of the lane. It took me about an hour to cover the 30 beautiful kilometres.
As I reached the Athirampalli waterfalls Viewpoint, The rain did not stop and so the visibility from the viewpoint itself was worse.So I went to have lunch at a nearby hotel which offered a nice view of the falls. Took some snaps, videos – had some parathakuruma for lunch and thankfully the rain receded for a while. Went back to the viewpoint to take some more snaps, videos and started back towards Sholayar.
It was around 2 PM when I started from Athirampalli towards Valparai, famous for the forest route with just no roads. The first few kilometres were good,but as kilometres passed by the roads became worse with too much potholes and boulders.I was stopped near the Vazhachal falls for the mandatory register information. The forest officer warned me of Elephant trouble on the way and asked me to return back if there is any issue on the way.I’m riding solo and he was very sceptical and asked me to go only on my own guarantee that I would take care of myself. The words weren’t encouraging but I had no other option but to ride.
As the forest route went deeper, the climate got worse – there weren’tmany options to wait as I may even get stuck or there could be wildlife along the way, so I did not stop much – or even I didn’t stop at all. I was forced to stop at few places as I sensed the clutch plates getting heated up. I had seen only one car went by over taking me and none that came in the opposite way. It does seem very scary for a normal hearted guy like me to ride solo into a unsafe terrain but with the only hope, trust or belief that I’m a wanderer at heart and would wander to at least achieve the self-esteem.
All the lakes, river streams and falls were full of energy and rather over flowing in many places. The clouds always seemed dull and gloomy. I had not seen Blue sky ever since I left Chennai last week; I was eagerly waiting for a bright and dramatic sky. There were usual places where I stop to take pictures, like the bridge across the river, the river entry point etc. There was not a single soul around for the last 15-20 kilometres in the forest. When you are afraid or unsure everything comes against your way. Even a big stone looks like an elephant. I did not have the luxury to stop by for pictures; whenever I stopped I took some random shots and moved on. The biggest problem is to take the camera out of the tankbag and put it in without having the lenses and laptop get wet.
After hours of struggle, I finally stopped by malakkapara the first village after about 2.5 hours of riding nonstop in the forest. Sipped one more tea and had some snacks, energy bars and moved on. Could not stop much again as rain was threatening to hit me any time. I reached Sholayar Dam by 5:30 PM – The clouds were dull and fog has started setting in. Few pictures of the dam and I was on my way to Valparai.
The roads were awesome and wonderful right from Tamil Nadu border (After Malakkapara) – The speeds ideally increased but due to wet road conditions I had to slow down to avoid fish tailing or skidding. Just as I was about to reach Valparai, I saw something huge, like a cow – but not a cow and as I went nearby it lifted its head up and started running away. Not realising what it is for a second I started riding towards it and found it was a B-I-S-O-N! The Bison was running across the road and I started riding behind it trying to get a glimpse on my camera. Thankfully it wasn’t raining so I simply placed the camera on top of the tankbag and moved towards it – It finally ran into the tea estates and I was on my way into Valparai.
Back into the town, I bought some coffee powder for using it back home and some fresh tea to sip in the cold weather. The clock turned 18:00! Damn, Its 6 PM and I have another 60 kilometres away from Pollachi. Now I realise, I’m indeed crazy.It’s going to be even crazierconsidering the fog setting in. With lady luck shining myside, I set on the crazy ride – for the first few kilometres it was all good. But then the rains started, the mist set in giving me no room to ride the way I wanted. I spot a bus going down so started tagging behind it.The bus was going too slow, so I overtook it and went for some distance in front and then even I was going at a speed lesser than the bus, so decided to tag behind the bus. There were a lot of high speeding cars going by, but I knew I cannot tail them; the cars were taking corners at 60 kmph where I could not even manage 15-20 kmph.
After hours and hours of gruelling ride, I completed about 30 hairpin bends. I spot a gang of guys chatting around on the Loam’s View point. There was nothing to see there now, or we could not see anything there now. I stopped to let my bike cool down a bit and tried some 30 sec shutter priority shots.I took some 20 minute break there, drank all the water I had, ate some more snacks and left from there. By then another tempo traveller was travelling slowly, but I had enough courage and experience to ride around the hills now. The mist too subdued after the viewpoint, so I took it easy and rode ahead. The rain stopped, fog cleared up and roads empty with few oncoming vehicles. I suddenly spotted a stream of cars going up, so I quickly took my camera, which was already, mounted on the gorilla pod, fixed it on my Rear view mirror holder, and tried some shutter priority shots. I slowly moved ahead and the cars kept passing by – the image too came out well for my satisfaction.
Soon, the forest check-post came in and this time I did not have to stop. From here on for the next 20 kilometres is plain and straight, finally some encouragement to open up the throttle. Since it was dark, I did not speed much and controlled my urge to speed. Took me about 20 minutes to reach Pollachi, and by mistake missed the road to my hotel and went on straight out of pollachi. So had to come back into Pollachi and time was 10:00 PM exactly.Went to the hotel, got my keys and crashed for some time. Ordered food in a nearby hotel and it was delivered to my room in 10 minutes flat. After quenching the needs for my stomach, I sat up to upload pending blog and edited the pictures and went to sleep..
There it was, One Crazy Ride..350 Kilometres, 15 hours, 1 Solo Rider – Wandering at his best.
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Total Kilometres: ~ 350
Fuel:– 700 Rupees at Pollachi
Food: 300 Rupees
Accommodation: 420 Rupees
No of Leech Bites: 4
Best Moments of the day: Riding through the mist &chasing a Bison in Valparai.
Worst Moment of the day: Athirampalli to Valparai – Heavy rains and No one else on the road for hours.
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