[abirnale]

Exam seasons are the best season if you want to drive in India - what happens after the exams are over is a typical cacophony on the road with a lot of impatience, and road rage, and every place feels like a vegetable market!

Now, it's another story that our Ninja Rider goes to Ooty every other weekend to just test his bike on the hairpin vends and as a bargain for this trip, collect some vegetables from Ooty for his kitchen in Bangalore. Having tossed this many times in our meet-ups, we needed a better reason to run away from the city chaos and busy work schedules! That is when the retired and passionate people come to the rescue - Coach had been to this place a few weeks ago and mentioned on WhatsApp that this place is amazing - especially away from the commercial Ooty scene. He didn’t just stop there - shared more pictures on his legendary ownership blog of the estroil blue GT 3er! This reason still wasn’t good enough, maybe, so Chetta brought a 330i and we needed to see it, and make the world see it by doing a quick photoshoot too!

That was it - a last-minute plan, a non-coordinated stay, and a lot of luck in our favor to get us the rooms in the same resort at an extremely ordinary destination near Ooty, Green Nest in Kotagiri turned into reality. I couldn’t resist the chance - chucked my 10k race plan with Virat Kohli’s One18 and joined my buddies with my son. Luckily, my son’s exams are done and he is already enjoying the summer vacation so things just fell into place like magic. (Not that he would have resisted a Bavarian company over some 4th-grade exams! - shhh, this is off the record.)

So a simple plan is hatched:
- Saturday, March 25th, head to Kotagiri via Mysore - Bandipur - Masinagudi (the road-side stalls here serve yummy Mirchi Bhajjis) - 36 hair Pin bends - Ooty - Kotagiri
- Return on Sunday via Metupalyam - Avinashi - Erode - Salem.

Our two other friends - Coach GRaja in his blue GT joined us from CBE while Mr & Mrs. Tilt joined us from Chennai in his Thar. From Bangalore, we had Dr.AD in his forum-famous Red Hot 3er, Senior Chetta, and best overnighter planner and executions Rsudarsanan in chetta’s new white 330i. Probably we needed a ZERO vehicle as an escort and KarthikK decided to bring his Japanese beast - Kawasaki Ninja 1000SX! And yes, of course, I joined the gang with my XUV7OO along with my son.

As a last-minute surprise, our other buddy RobiMahanta dropped out of this plan owing to a crazy work schedule. And hence we missed another Bavarian fireball - the orange m340i.

The place of stay that we had secured last minute - thanks to GRaaja: Green Nest Resort https://maps.app.goo.gl/6eme74cSMErtzcC86?g_st=ic

The place is in Kotagiri - surrounded by a tea plantation, secluded from the hustle-bustle of the commercial Ooty! The folks at Green Nest took great care of us - helped set up the separate place with a bonfire, took all our custom food orders, made nice veg and non-veg BBQ, and kept filling our supplies for snacks as we continued our chatter through the late night!

What makes things special? Even these ordinary destinations extraordinary is - the people, the machines and the time we spend together chatting about every damn thing in the world, machines included.

Since this trip involved seeing the white 330i and meeting after a long time, there is nothing extraordinary to write about as a travel log. The reason this thread exists is - our travelogue legend Dr.AD mandated that someone start the log and we will chime in with our quick notes about the trip and let this thread be more of a photologue!

So here we go - treating you with some actions captured by us all on this trip in the hope that pictures truly speak more than the words!

[abirnale]

An early morning drive on the newly built BLR-MYS expressway is great only if you can dodge those slow two-wheelers and overloaded taxis heading into the Mysore: The highway is great, except for two unfinished bridges where you need to get on service roads.



A quick break at The Atrium for breakfast: they serve a buffet for Rs 199 - pretty good for the kind of food and spread they have.



We continue towards gundlupete:



Only to see our Royal Escort (sorry, couldn’t resist), modern-day Ninja Warrior already close to Pugmark Restaurant for his breakfast:



The legends catch up for an energy drink:



The oldest and youngest - both super youngest at heart, at the Masinagudi Mirchi Bhajji Stall:



The Bavarian stalwarts inducting the new joiner with mirchi bhajjis :




And they continue to disappear on those twisties while my RedSparkle keeps catching up on its breath:




What do they do after reaching the point ahead of time? They click and click: Chief did not get his blue 3er this time - was riding shotgun with white 3er:



And when the sweeping cars join, they click more:



The welcome our chetta big boss received after joining the Bavarian club, the actions speak louder!



All the storytelling you get to read on this forum from that Red Hot 3er, this is the fella who works hard to bring it to you:



And what does he click - of course the Red Hot cars!



We did see a drizzle enroute - that made atmosphere too good to take breaks and see around:



The Green Nest Resort was amazing - their rooms, the facilities, and the setup were just right for a closed group to enjoy the serenity around there.





Every room had a sitting area - balcony, very large and spacious:





The rooms were large - can easily accommodate a family of four with extra beds!





So what do you do when you reach your destination? The first thing you do is go back in memory lane, talk, and talk and talk! Until someone reminds us that we need to freshen up and be back to start our chatter again!

[abirnale]

At the resort - we spent the evening walking around, watching birds chirp, clicking them, and searching for a place to line up and click the machines.

The place just outside the resort was perfect for Indian machines to play around: the great off-road trails. Thar and XUV7OO went on to explore if the trails are Bavarian friendly:



This are the pictures which almost influences folks to buy the SUVs and then can’t take outside city or beyond the malls:



This abandoned farm house is what we had in our direct sight from where we had our cars parked for the picture above - in the hindsight, this would have been a great object to click too:



Watching the sunset in the tea plantation is as serene as watching it on the beach!





The entire plantation, village in valley in the twilight:





The purple tree was my favourite spot - loved the setting it offered: not a great pic though:





I also met another Thar owner from Thrissur, KL who did a fantastic video of our cars while on the exploration trail using his Drone:

https://youtu.be/GwDZh9uJ0oM

We already imagined the 3ers being clicked tomorrow



And then the evening was spent around a bonfire and non-stop chatter with good food.

Some of us spending time watching the valley from the observation point inside the property:



Chief in the guise of Kalainger:



I happened to shoot some more drone shots of my car with that beautiful purple tree and tea plantations. I did not click many pictures thereafter for the evening about food, etc. In the hope that other friends from this trip will post it, I will move to the next day’s photo shoot and at the end add a few videos!

[abirnale]

Some birding pictures from around the tea plantation, property, and portraits of the company:

A flame-back - we spotted this on our stretch from Bandipur forest towards masinagudi:



This raptor, Black shouldered Kite was probably locking its target: the eyes are scary! Inside Bandipur forest stretch -



The house sparrow in Green Nest - the wire net on the window made it hard to focus:



The Indian Blackbird - made such a nice songs and calls, it was out of this world to hear it sing to glory!





The jungle babbler - the eyes stand out, don’t they?





The usual Red Vented Bulbul:



The prized catch - Tickel’s blue flycatcher:









Some random flowers around the property:





This looks like some bush chat:



Dr.AD clicking the flowers while junior abirnale searches for more birds:



Dr.AD trying to smile under direct sun rays on his face:



GRaaja - searching for a location where he can give the SRK - Rahul pose!




This is a great pair - if 3 series are famous on this forum, it’s because of these guys mostly:



I sometimes wonder if he will turn out to be a rider or driver of these fine machines? Asking for both would be too much!



Dr.AD - super energetic effort to capture memories:



The big boss having a relaxed time:



Merlin's Bird ID is a constant companion along with his trusted Nikon M7:

[abirnale]

The photoshoot with Bavarian machines & ninja, including some DP material in no particular order and just the size reduction, no post-processing or cropping (a.k.a. The Men and Machines)

Probably the only machine that was bored to death for riding slower than it is meant to be - just before Masinagudi town



The white is mean:




Red colour is my all-time favourite and if its a 3er, its the best (and a A-Q3 in red)!



On the way to Resort, after crossing Ooty into Kotagiri direction, the descending Ghats offered a nice view and parking space to click our rides:

The sweeper:



The Showstopper:



The gangsta feeling: ninja warrior asking all of us to keep moving:



Probably the only time we were all together as convoy?





3GT and Ninja spent the night being neighbours!



The Red colour on a sedan, that too a fast one, makes all worth it!



The red with morning dew!



TheRedSparkle continues to sparkle without any treatment for about 40K kms and 14 months!




Coach and Chetta all smiles while Dr.AD continues to shoot the cars in morning sunlight!



The new inductee of the group - the G20 Bavarian machine!



Dr.AD thinking and directing the cars to line up so that he can click some fantastic pictures: wait for him to process his pictures and post!




I took the chance to pose with Bavarian machines: I can use this for my tinder profile if I was alive there!




Our coach GRaaja with his 3GT



This was the Blue 3GT earlier in the morning under the purple flower tree:



These two almost always stayed close to each other: just like the VIP convoy with security cover:





The 3GT with it’s roof top carrier is the heartthrob!



Rolling off from the resort, this dirt trail is no mean road - but our Ninja isn’t lame either!



Look at it up close - what does it remind you of?



We asked our Ninja boy to give more and more pose - a photo shoot if you call it - more pictures form DSLR when processed further



When I say these aren’t garage queens, see it for yourself: the places where others wouldn’t even dare to lok at, they do it with ease.



The Bavarians went to places where most of their siblings won't even dare to - these are not the garage queens! See for yourself the stretches that Indians recce'd earlier!

[abirnale]

The off-road trails around the property where we spotted the large purple flowering tree were a great place to shoot too:



The sun was setting in the background and throwing direct light on the flower tree:








All this while, junior kept company for me - and messaged back to the group that we found some trails!


We called our other indian companion, driven by Tilt and KarthikK:






While we kept playing, junior just put up his chair and spent time watching around:



There is no such feeling as enough pictures! The winged rotary machine kept circling around and clicking as much as it could!









We took some aerial shots here - the basking sun rays on the cars was amazing to see in person.


These RWDs pushed back as much as they can on this tricky, muddy slope:


The icing on the cake was - @robimahanta was able to make it to our lunch spot at Saisangeet at Thopur with his orange M340i and to give him company in his blue 3er was Viddy and Suhas - great to meet them after a long time! And then back home before the chaos at the Attibele toll booth gets the best of us!

As I said, what makes the trip worthwhile is - the company. The destination doesn’t make a big difference - if it turns out like Green Nest, much better!

In a couple of days, posting the videos (once I get some time to comb through drone footage and stitch them together!)

Thank you for reading!

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by abirnale

So a simple plan is hatched:
- Saturday, March 25th, head to Kotagiri via Mysore - Bandipur - Masinagudi (the road-side stalls here serve yummy Mirchi Bhajjis) - 36 hair Pin bends - Ooty - Kotagiri
- Return on Sunday via Metupalyam - Avinashi - Erode - Salem.

Very good trip report @abirnale! Very nice photographs too. You have covered all the details with your enjoyable narration as well as the detailed photographs. I relived the whole trip through your travelogue. Thank you for taking time to write this travelogue.

This trip was a great fun for me. The drive itself was excellent. Driving to Ooty by climbing the ghats with 36 hairpin bends is always a great fun, and this time it was no different. I was chasing the White BMW 330i of @praveenbalan on these lovely hairpin bends, and it was a great sight to see this car take the corners in style! From Ooty to Kotagiri is another hilly drive with some nice corners and bends too. Totally enjoyed driving there.

Watching the "Red Sparkle" of @abirnale take the corners was quite impressive too. Impressed by how well the car behaved on straight highways as well as fast hilly roads. And the icing on the cake is that where the bimmers need to stop when the road ends, the Red Sparkle can go on driving well beyond that point. Overall very much impressed with this XUV700 of @abirnale.

No words can describe how agile, nimble, and fast the Ninja 1000 of @KarthiK is. Seeing (and hearing!) that machine on the road was an exhilarating experience! I could not keep up with that bike, but whatever glimpses of sights and sounds I got, were all fantastic! Loved that experience too.

The highlight of this trip for me was driving in the company of these mean machines, and enjoyed every moment of it!

Finally, last but not the least, as always, it was a great pleasure to meet my close friend @graaja in Kotagiri and spend some time with him. It is always a great (and motivating) experience to meet him and talk to him on various topics. And of course, it is always lovely to see his famous BMW 3GT too!

One of the main agendas for me in this drive was to photograph the latest acquisition by @praveenbalan, The lovely White BMW 330i M Spots! I am glad I got plenty of chances to photograph this car, as is evident from the pictures below.

@abirnale has already covered all aspects of this memorable drive with friends and friendly cars, and there is nothing much that I can add here. Nevertheless, please allow me to share some of the pictures I took, and share a few memories of my own (my apologies in advance for repetition of some of the stuff that is already covered by @abirnale).

The Drive and the Machines!

The driving circuit with plenty of corners, hairpin bends, and forest sections gave us many opportunities to photograph the lovely machines we had in the convoy. Please allow me to share a few photos below:

This BMW 330i M Sports (of @praveenbalan) looks stunning from all angles, and photographing this car was one of my main agendas in this drive:



The "Red Sparkle" of @abirnale:



Our friend @KarthikK on his mean, lean and fast Kawasaki Ninja 1000:



The bike that lead the pack and set the pace:



My faithful companion on all these memorable drives, my Red BMW 320d:



One more photo of the stunningly beautiful 330i M Sports on the ghats of the Nilgiris:



My car somewhere between Ooty and Kotagiri:



The Red Brigade of our group:



One more shot of my red:

Arriving at the Resort:

The last 1km to the resort required us to tackle a narrow, broken road through a forest of tall trees. All the machines were at home on this stretch, although we had to crawl at very slow speeds. Since there was zero traffic and not a soul apart from us in the entire forest stretch, we got a chance to shoot a couple of quick photos there.

The 330i leading the convoy on the forest stretch:



The Red Brigade again:



The convoy on the final leg of the drive (the Ninja 1000 had already reached):



Parting shot of the lovely 330i on that forest stretch:

The Resort and the Surroundings

The resort was quite nice. It was a small resort and not one of those upscale luxury resorts. But it was located in a very nice hilltop location, offered great views all around, and has clean, spacious, and comfortable rooms. The food and the hospitality was top notch. We had a great time there. A perfect place for a small group of friends to hang out and enjoy the location and the hospitality.

The cottages overlooking the green hills and tea plantations:



View of the tea plantations from my room balcony:



Sunset over tea plantations:



Flowers, photographed during the nature walk next day early morning:



And there were plenty of birds too (this is Oriental Magpie Robin enjoying the views and the sunshine):



A pair of Babblers:

Car Photoshoot Around the Resort

My car under the morning dew in the resort parking:



The famous 3GT of @graaja:



Another photoshoot of the white 330i:



The 330i and the 3GT went of a small off-roading trail:



The 330i at the expert hands of @praveenbalan was at home even on some nasty mud trails:



Another shot of the 330i on the track where one would expect to see an SUV:



The two bimmers trying some hill descent on the mud tracks (kudos to both the expert drivers for handling this terrain so effortlessly):

The Return and the Parting Shot

The return drive was via Avinashi-Salem-Bangalore highway. Apart from the initial one hour of ghat drive with many hairpin bends again, between Kotagiri to Avinashi, it was all fast four-lane highway drive. Loved that drive too.

Our friend @robimahanta, who unfortunately missed this drive due to hectic work schedules, joined us till midway on Sunday in his Sunset Orange BMW M340i. Along with him, friendly moderator @Vid6639 driving his BMW 328i, with another friendly moderator @suhaas307 riding shotgun with him, joined us too. We all met midway for lunch on Sunday. Thanks to them for taking time to drive there on Sunday and meet us. It was fun meeting them.

I had a lunch with them, and drove back in the company of their bimmers. It was amazing to hear the sounds and see the sights of the lovely bimmers driving back together. Enjoyed every moment of that section of the drive too!

Parting shot with the three bimmers together at the lunch spot:


Overall, it was a great drive and a memorable weekend. Thanks to all my driving buddies who made it to this trip for the wonderful time we had. Special thanks once again to @abirnale for taking efforts to write this travelogue.

That is all from my side. Thank you very much for reading!

[graaja]

Awesome writeup and fantastic pictures Abirnale and Dr. AD. I did not get any pictures this time. But made great memories with car photoshoots, early morning birding walk, the great company and conversations,and dinner by camp fire. I am already looking forward to the next trip with you all.

[abirnale]

I was able to pull together a few clips from aerial shots and stitch them together on my phone: here is the link -

https://youtu.be/9zQwkTiuBfI

A few more pictures that I could collect from the phone and camera, are added below.

The mirchi bhajji's at Masinagudi Roadside stall:



The purple flowering tree inside Bandipur forest: looks more magnificent in person than in this picture!



The White G20 with it's owner:





If you ever wanted to learn safe riding, the rules of the road, and all protocols of riding safely, talk to KarthikK - his riding is extremely versatile. Suits every need and every rule.





A click of the blue 3GT with its owner:



And yes, I love red!



Blessed that junior doesn't complain of our stops or timepass - instead, he is on his own tangent, enjoying a trip of his own!



That is all for now - see you all soon after another trip! Have a great summer!

[Philomath55]

Looks like a lovely trip, enjoyed reading each and every bit of it! It's the company that makes the trip even more memorable irrespective of the location. Thanks for sharing.��

[nerd1200]

This seems to be a great weekend getaway, Avinash! Loved the writeup and all those lovely pictures of 'em awesome machines. The pics of the 3's inside the tea plantation is sure-shot promotional material for BMW India.

Congratulations to Praveen on his beautiful acquisition. The fast one becomes faster.