So what do you do on an otherwise boring Saturday?? Plan an instant ride on Friday evening to Yercaud, head out with you rider folks early Saturday, tear your jeans, guys meeting with a small accident yet enjoy the ride, rain, mist, twisties and nature.
Ideally this Saturday I was supposed to be in Tirupathi – doing Lord Vishnu’s darshan. The package guy gives a call to Atul and says “Sir, darshan will take 20-24 hours due to peak season, so we are cancelling all darshan trips, please come-by and take complete refund of cash. This leaves us with absolutely nothing to do on Saturday. Around 4pm on Friday evening – Atul gives me a call and says we are going to Yercaud along with few of our other rider friends.
Yercaud was always in our to-visit list but due to some reason or the other could plan it. So when Atul called me and said we are heading for a day trip to Yercaud – I instantly agreed, since I love travelling and to top it up – some super amazing views. Full-tank petrol and air check was done on Friday night, set alarm for morning 3:45am, packed our tank bag with camera, lenses and few other necessary stuffs for the way, and off to sleep for the next day ride.
Riders – 3, Atul, Arun, Abhijit
Pillion – 2, Me as Atul’s pillion and Shailendra as Abhijit’s pillion.
Bikes – 3, two Pulsar 200NS and a KTM Duke 390
Meeting point – opposite Renault Showroom, Service Lane, Silk Board.
Start time – 5 am
Route – NH7 (Silk Board – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Salem – Yercaud Ghats road – Yercaud)
Atul and me left home (BTM) around 4:55 am and reached meeting point exactly at 5. Always on time, Arun was already there waiting for us. After a 5 mins wait, even Abhi was there along with his pillion, Shailendra (Abhijit’s roommate). After few group clicks we started our journey towards Yercaud by 5:15 am. We didn’t take the elevated expressway as it was quite early and the normal Hosur road wouldn’t have any traffic at that point of time. 28kms and we crossed Karnataka boarder and entered TN. Cool morning breeze and absolutely no traffic made the ride amazing. After some 30 mins zip zap and zooming in NH7, we reached Krishnagiri – by this time the Sun showed us it’s red round sparkling face. We stopped by for some sunrise and group pics. After reaching Krishnagiri junction, we took NH7 towards Dharmapuri and Salem. This is a well laid four lane highway – super scenic nature on both sides of the road makes the ride even more breath-taking.
Around 7 am just after crossing Dharmapuri, we reached a newly open restaurant called ‘Shree Annapurnaa’, decided to stop by for breakfast as by now all of us had growling stomachs making noise for food. I really liked this place – ample place for parking, decent clean rest-rooms and splendid interior and exterior ambiance. Place was pretty much empty and looked like they just started the day’s business. We quickly ordered and hogged on – onion dosas, puris, masala dosa, pongal, tea and coffee. All these for Rs 484. Relaxed for a bit, we planned to start again at around 8. This is when the first event of the day happened – while trying to get on the bike, I tore my cargo around the front knee area by the sharp edge of Duke’s rear-end number plate. DAMN!! With four guys around me, what do I do now? I told Atul about my plight and he assured me we will do something about it on the way so for the time being I tied my handkerchief around my knee to hide the torn part.
Passing through all toll gates with paying absolutely nothing, we reached Salem toll gate at 8:30 am. Atul and I reached first, followed by Arun. Abhi and his friend didn’t turn up for couple of minutes so we got off the bike and decided to wait for them till we stretch ourselves. After waiting for 10 mins, some of the passing by local people asked us if we are waiting there for two of our friends. An affirmative answer and we were there, with the second event of the day – we were told both of them met with an accident. DOUBLE DAMN!! Apparently, they were hit by a moron who was seeing somewhere else and turning somewhere else with no indicator, his sudden turn and a slight touch to Abhi’s bike, both of them fell with their right legs below the bike. The hitter fled the scene, some of the local folks helped them and by now Abhi gave us a call narrating the story. Surprised and shocked we headed back to the spot they were waiting for us. Both of them got bruises around knee and elbow, but majorly on their right foot. No swelling but too much pain, we decided to take them to a nearby hospital for dressing and medication. We entered a village in the outskirts of Salem city, managed to come across a small clinic ran by a female lady doctor. She was kind enough to check on both of them - bandage, dressings, apply ointment and some massage. She advised them to take some rest for a while and we decided that we should be heading back to Bangalore. Abhi and Shailendra insisted on going ahead to Yercaud. We felt really guilty as Abhi came out with us for the first time and he had to face this. Abhi was guilty as because of him we are abandoning our trip. So with all these guilt trips, discussion, debates – we finally decided to head to Yercaud, it was already 10 am. Arun took Shailendra behind him and we asked Abhi to ride super slow not to strain his leg. Don’t forget I’m still in my torn cargo.
Around 10:20 am we entered Salem city and much to our luck, we found few friends of Abhi who were riding to Yercaud as well - they were planning on an overnight stay as well. One of the guy volunteered to ride Abhi’s bike and take him to the hotel where they were supposed to stay. By now I spotted a local garment shop – a smile on my face and immediately asked Atul to come with me and buy whatever damn jeans I can and get rid of my torn cargo. A brand-less somewhat ok ok fitting jeans for Rs 750 – shopkeeper definitely took advantage of our situation and was not willing to bargain at all. Finally, we settled for 600. Anyways, now I was feeling ok and relieved.
We had another 5/6 kms to reach the Yercaud ghats road and now the third event of the day. All of a sudden and from nowhere super heavy rain – like literally pouring water. Shailendra decided to come along with Arun and we really felt bad for his condition. He was already in so much of pain yet now he is getting drenched too. From head to toe, all four of us were drenched in water. We took shelter in some shade and waited for the rain to subside. After some heavy down-pour of 20 mins, it started drizzling. We decided to start our climb up the HPB. It was around 11:45 am and we started with our first HPB out of the total 20. The ride up through the twisties was splendid. Fresh green leaves and grass, misty fog climbing up the mountains, rain drops, dew on the leaves, twisty turn lanes, awesome roads, smell of earth - all these were pure bliss – as if we were in heaven. It will be one of my memorable bike rides for years to come. We crossed 20 HPBs in no time, yet it is always better to be cautious around narrow and blind turns. 12:30 pm and we reached Yercaud town in the Shevaroy hills.
By now it again started to rain heavily and we decided to get into this Hotel called Shevaroy’s just opposite the Yercaud Lake. It was almost lunch time and we could wait for Abhi to join us. The hotel management was kind enough to let us in as we were drenched like dogs and dripping water - helmets, camera bag, tank bags, dirty shoes and puddle of water from our clothes. We removed our gears and by now Abhi called to inform that he reached the hotel where his friends were supposed to stay and asked if we could get Shailendra there as well. I thought that was a good idea – we wanted both of them to take rest rather than roam with us in that rain and make things worse. Before that we agreed to have our lunch there – some variety of hot hot soups, natti kozhii biryani, gobi manchurian. By 2 pm we were done and we headed to the hotel where we could find Abhi. Abhi was in this place called Clifton Inn, we had to do some Google mapping and local inquiry to reach this hotel – finally after some 15/20 mins, we found the Inn. Abhi was lying on bed, soaked in pain. Shailendra joined him too – at least they can rest now. After 15 mins chit chat, Atul, Arun and me bid bye to them, and moved ahead towards the Yercaud town. By now we all were extremely tired and didn’t want to go sightseeing.
We boiled down to three places to visit – Lady’s Seat, Gent’s seat and the Yercaud Lake. First we went to Lady’s seat – ideally, this place has a panoramic view of the plains and mountain ranges across Yercaud but due to dense fog we could hardly see anything. By the way, you get some awesome gobi bhajji here at Rs. 30 – try them, you will surely love it. Without spending much time here, we headed to Gent’s seat which is around a km from the previous place. Some random local ladies came and collected Rs 30 as entry and parking fees for 2 bikes, was doing the same for cars – must have been some frauds collecting cash – we didn’t have strength to argue – we paid. Gent’s seat was comparatively better than Lady’s. We could see some scenic beauty of Yercaud town and some amazing landscape of the valley. Cool breeze and the fog made us calm and relaxed. The guys had their small talks while I took some pics around. 30 mins and we decided to ride towards the lake and then make an exit. Within 5 mins we reached Yercaud lake – surrounded by a nicely maintained gardens and well-wooded trees. I quickly took some snaps of the lake.
It was already 4 pm and we called it a day – time to head back home. Once again came down through some nice lanes (the same 20 HPB road – Yercaud ghats road). This time mist was moving from lower to higher levels through trees, herbs and hills. We stopped at multiple places down-hill to take snaps. This moments just made us forget the toil we went through the entire day – it was extremely soothing. Around 5, we reached plains and headed towards Salem city.
Return journey was pretty uneventful, thankfully. Arun had to do some chain tightening of his bike so we stopped by in a Bajaj showroom on the way. Decided to have some snacks as well as all three of us were hungry. Got into some hotel and ordered onion dosa, plain dosa and tea coffee. Around 6 pm we once again started riding back home. Took some 2/3 quick breaks in between. It was 8 until we reached Hosur and to our continued bad luck – it started pouring again. Somehow we reached electronic city, took the same normal Hosur road. Finally, home sweet home by 9:15pm. Arun reached Indiranagar at around 9:30.
So a ride which started with so much excitement ended on a sad note – not because we couldn’t enjoy much but for those two guys who came with us to experience an awesome ride but had to go through the unfortunate. Nonetheless, each journey is an experience and I personally had my good memories associated with this. Total travel distance was 511kms. Hope to visit Yercaud soon again and this time, hopefully we will enjoy it to the fullest.
I know this may not one of those happy and adventurous bike trip that one would like to go for, but I thought not writing about this travelogue would not be fair on Abhi and Shailendra’s part – for all the pain they went through so that we don’t spoil our trip.
P.S. After medical X-Rays, Shailendra got three factures on his right foot and Abhi’s foot condition is not known by doctor as yet, he is under some bandage for next two weeks. Till next time, let’s all hope for speedy recovery of these two awesome riders.