[Ride_4_Fortune]

2 days of hard riding, 3 National Highways, 4 National Parks, 5 Dams, Hundreds of Waterfalls, Zillions of Wild life encounters, 600 kilometers and so on. All these with 5 psychic riders with 3 tamed Bullets!!!

Vital Statistics:

Route: Coimbatore ---> Pollachi ---> Udumalaipettai ---> Munnar ---> Kothamangalam ---> Angamaly ---> Chalakudi ---> Athirapilly ----> Makkapara ---> Valparai ---> Pollachi ---> Negamam ---> Chettipalayam ---> Coimbatore

Distance covered: 600 km

Steed: Royal Enfield STD 350

Miscellaneous Info:

Ride through
i) 3 National Highways - NH 209, NH 49, NH 47

ii) 4 National Parks - Indira Gandhi National Park, Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Eravikulam National Park, Parambikulam National Park

iii) 5 Dams - Sholayar, Upper Sholayar, Poringalkuthu reservoir, Idamalayar reservoir, Aliyar

iv) Innumerable Waterfalls - Athirapilly and so on and so on….

v) Zillions of Wildlife Encounters - 3 Wild Elephants, 2 deers, 1 Scorpion and millions of monkeys and leeches ..!!!!

Touring and Team-BHP are the recent add-on in my addiction list ! After getting bitten by the touring bug heavily, I am just trying to find reasons to get on to the saddle of my beloved RE STD 350. This is a travelogue of my recent trip to the gateway of worldly pleasures (??) and my first post in T-BHP (I am a Newbie to this community). So here it goes.....

Day 1: 18th Dec 2010

The alarm stuck at 4.00 AM and I left home at 6.00 AM (needed 2 hours for warm up!!) which was this time the scheduled time of departure. I rode to the nearest fuel station, filled the petrol tank up to the brim which led to some fuel overflowing. My friend Anwar and I met near Central cinemas (T-BHPians from Coimbatore might know this place) and we were now ready to leave in search of unknown roads. The route from Coimbatore to Udumalaipet via Pollachi had sparse traffic in the morning. We reached Udumalaipet by 8.30 AM, met Anwar’s friends, had breakfast and started for Munnar. Within the city limits, Anwar’s bullet started giving some troubles related to fuse, electrical wiring, sparking etc. (is this a kind of ritual for Bullets ???). It was fixed in a near by mechanic shop as our own efforts to fix didn't help much and we were now ready to ride through Western Ghats. Made few pit stops to take photos and relax. The route was scenic with some bad stretches. The road conditions were generally OK. En route we spotted some monkeys and deers. We reached Munnar around 2.00 PM, had a heavy lunch with all sorts of fry and gravy, relaxed for sometime and left at 3.30 PM. Our next destination was Chalakudi via Neriamangalam, Kothamangalam, Perumbavoor and Angamaly. En route my bullet started giving trouble with the head lamp due to which I rode for few kilometers without headlamp on the NH after dusk (Is this suicidal or homicidal ???). After some electrical checks, we found the wire connection to the headlamp had shorted and damaged. We had to spend around 1 hour to fix it at Angamaly. We started again at 8.30 PM and reached Chalakudi by 9.00 PM. Now the question is whether to stay at Chalakudi or Athirapilly!!! You know bulleteers never plan their place of stay..!
For obvious reasons the place of stay was Athirapilly and called up one Bethania Resorts, Chalakudi for confirming the room. We generally carry the phone numbers of few resorts and hotels just in case we don't find one. We drove through the Chalakudi-Athirapilly route around 10.00 PM with no other vehicles in sight and only with 3 bullets thumping. I think this should be experienced to understand what I am trying to put down on this paper. We reached the resort at 10.30 PM, had a heavy dinner and crashed!!! We called it a day!

Kindly have patience as I am trying to upload some photos and continue with this travelogue.....

[Ride_4_Fortune]

Now the continuation......

Day 2: 19th Dec 2010

Day 2 started with an aching body to get prepared for another long and adventurous trip. We got ready and had a heavy breakfast at the resort as we already knew that there is not going to be a single eatery for the next 100km. The bullets were given life at 9.00 AM and we rode towards Athirapilly falls. The waterfall was at its prime youth due to the recent monsoon rains. We spent around 2 hours trying to flirt with the nature!!! We then returned to the resort, got refreshed and checked out at 11.30 AM for our next destination "Valparai" which was 110 km away.

The route which we took for our ride was through very dense forests. Actually the access to these routes is restricted from 6.00 PM to 6.00 AM due to heavy wildlife population. Forest department boards cautions that these are the areas of wildlife crossing. We learnt that Elephants, leopards and many more have their own peaceful kingdoms in these forests covering many thousand acres of land. In fact, 3 of those jumbos blocked our route near Makkapara en route Valparai (forgot to get a clear picture of those jumbos due to excitement!) . On the way we saw numerous waterfalls and dams. Nature was at its best after the North-east monsoon rains.

We reached Makkapara at around 3.00 PM and had heavy lunch. Our next destination was Upper Sholayar dam. We reached the dam, spent some time and then left for Pollachi. The route was scenic and roads were in good condition. We reached Pollachi around 7.30 PM. We made informal send off to others and after a brief halt Anwar and I sped our bullets towards Coimbatore via Negamam and Chettipalayam. We chose this route over the normal highway due to less traffic. We reached Coimbatore around 9.30 PM, bid good bye to each other and reached home at 11.00PM after a light dinner. I called it a day after a tiring and interesting ride!

Now I am looking forward eagerly for rides again!!!

Few photos from the trip

[MohsinRoadster]

Another bikers Travelouge!!! Nice pics there. Had planned to to Athirapally this season but did not materialze.
Awaiting pics of the "Innumerable falls" and jungles you rode through. Unleash nature.

[Acclero]

Good ride on the three highways as you said.
Just upload more pics and the pics of the bull as well.!

[San Phrangmung]

Welcome fortune rider and a great introductory travelogue indeed. Your new addiction is surely going to keep you busy on weekends.
Looking forward for more incredible journeys from you and your mates.

[sami316]

Really good to come across a Biking TL after a long time. The pics look really amazing and making it more harder for me to wait for the next update. Thanks for sharing again. Cheers.