I had always had dreams and made attempts for a long bike expedition......For those who have read my previous blogs would have known about one such failed attempt. Since then there had been many plans running in my mind but none was executed...
The entire plan started when my cousin, Karthik, had mentioned about taking a long leave.....he had aligned the leaves to my company closure in the last week of December....initially the plan was to go to Pune and Mumbai to visit some friends there.....had to drop that trip for some reason.......
We had heard about Kolli Hiils and the numerous hair pins bends for reaching there.....we were looking for a right time to go there and used this opportunity.....The initial plan was to go to Kolli Hills and then visit some nearby places......the plan gradually developed to Bangalore, Kolli Hills, Trissur, Mahe, Kasarkod, Bangalore.....but the distance was too much to cover within a short span and so we decided to cover Kolli Hills and Wayanad.......a couple of days later i realised that both the places were hill stations and would become monotonous and moreover stay at Wayanad could become expensive.....with so many plans running in our head we decided to reach Kolli Hills first and decide on the other places as we go..... 23rd was decided as the start and return on 27th Dec......
On 23rd Dec
9:30 am: Started from my house after having delicious Pongal and Vada made by mom....this was just a three hours delay from the initial plan
11:00 am: Pit stop in A2B for a coffee...realised that i had lost my Harley Davidson key chain :( .....got a new key chain in the nearby shop
2:15 pm: Stopped for lunch at a small road side restaurant
few kms after lunch the ghat section started....the drive was very interesting and challenging as the road was quite narrow and full off curves and hair pin bends....there were totally 70 hair pin bends as per the records but actually there were even more...the bends initially were easy but as we climbed higher it became harder....
4:15 pm: Reached Kolli Hills....the major attraction was a waterfall and on enquiry we were told that it would be closed by 5:00 pm and it was 12 Kms from that place....
throttled the bike and reached the falls entry with few minutes to spare....to our disappointment we were informed that the entry was restricted to 3 pm and not 5 pm.....seemed like entire drive was not worth and with dejected hearts went in search for an accommodation.....by the time we found one it was only 6:00 pm and we did not have anything else to do....checked in the lodge and went to pick up some booze and parcel the dinner...also bought some playing cards to kill the time.....
next few hours spent chit chatting and playing cards....also finalized on the next day's plan....had dinner and hit the bed early.....
24th Dec
9:30 am - after a good sleep got ready to leave for the falls
10:00 am - Started climbing down by foot to the base of the fall....realised that it was going to be a tough time coming up....
It was an amazing to see the water flowing down from the top amidst the greenery...quickly changed to shorts and went to the base of the falls.....the first drop on us made us feel it was worth the effort to visit the place....it was very refreshing to bathe under the falls..... it was like having a massage and relieved us from all the pains....
Changed our clothes and started climbing up....we knew it was not going to be easy and had a very difficult time climbing up, especially me.......with lots of breaks finally reached the top and it gave a satisfaction of some huge feat accomplished.....was remembering my earlier trip to Jog falls a few years ago where we had climbed down and up twice this distance with ease...age has definitely taken a toll on my stamina....
around 12:00 pm: found a nearby hotel and gobbled few dosas and parotas...food was never so delicious
Went to another small falls (which was not worth the effort) and a lake...picked up our luggage and started driving down to Coimbatore as planned the previous night....
4:00 pm: Halted at Nammakal to take a bite....finally got to taste Chilly Gobi...
you must be wondering wats so special about Chilly Gobi....it is a preparation different from what you get in other places....
had a small debate whether to take the route via Karur or Erode...finally decided to take the Erode stretch...got stuck in the traffic near Erode and finally reached the Salem Eranakulam highway....ripped untill we reached Avinashi....the stretch between Avinashi and Coimbatore which has been under construction for years was adding on to our frustration.....
9:30 pm: Finally reached Gopi's house (a friend from ASB) totally drained....Thanks to Gopi for having the dinner ready and arranging for the night stay at his place.....
25th Dec
9:30 am: Started from Gopi's house and halted briefly to have some yummy Pongal and Vada.....Was always fond to Coimbatore food....
10:00 am: Left Coimbatore and the plan was to reach Kannur by evening and the route was via Kozhikode and Mahe...
The road were pretty bad till Pallakad...but we came across some good roads from there...though it was a two lane the roads surface was very good.....i had a tough time negotiating the curves while my cousin was enjoying his turn (pun intended)....it was lush green through out.......also i noticed that there were no spaces within two villages/towns.....never knew Kerala was so densely populated....being Christmas the roads were pretty empty and we did not have to face the dreaded bus drivers much.....the two lanes limited our speed and it was taking more time than planned.......also by this time our butts were soar and every few kms we had to take a break...
4:00 pm: Sitting in Kozhikode beach and sipping a hot coffee enjoying the beauty.......
4:30 pm: Planned to be at Mahe for the sunset...we had to travel 60 kms in one hour fifteen minutes and that was a big challenge considering the traffic....
5:55 pm: Reached Mahe just in time for the sunset.....had a long walk enjoying the sunset....after an hour left for Kannur
Earlier in the morning had enquired Kiran (another friend from ASB),whose native was Kannur, about some good place to stay and he had offered to stay in his place.....we were served with delicious dinner by his mom and had a long chat with his dad and brother before we hit the bed.....the next few hours we slept like a log......
26th Dec
8:30 am: got ready to visit the famous Bekal fort where the famous Uyire song in the movie Bombay was shot...went there with high expectations....
10:15 am: Reached Bekal fort.......to our disappointment it was very hot and dry.....roamed around and took some photographs....
With total disappointment started searching for some nearby places in the Google maps....spotted a place where the river was joining the beach...not exactly a estuary but some thing similar....it was located in the Chembirika beach.....we were walking in the beach with the blazing sun and gentle breeze for company...took a lot of photographs...we were the only two in the entire beach and were enjoying the loneliness.....
2:00 pm: had a heavy lunch and started back to Kannur...had to take plenty of breaks......crossed the 999.9 km mark....stopped and captured the feat in our cameras.....continued to Kannur with a sensation of accomplishing something great....
Checked in a hotel back in Kannur as Kiran and his family were busy with a wedding in their family and we did not want to trouble them any more.....spent the night chit chatting.....
27th Dec
The final day of our trip...return to Bangalore from Kannur....was one the most challenging stretch we faced of the entire trip....we covered all kind of roads starting from village roads, two lanes, ghat roads, road in between pot holes and finally well laid four lanes......
8:30 am: Started off from Kannur and the route was to reach Irrity and take to route to Mysore, bypass Mysore and catch the Bangalore Mysore state highway.....
Missed a left near Kannur and had to take typical single lane village road.....though the road was narrow it was well laid with lots of curves and bends.....later reached a two lane state highway to reach Irrity.... surprise was awaiting beyond Irrity......we were pleasantly welcomed by a beautiful ghat road section...the drive up was really refreshing....
the honeymoon did not last for long....few kms after crossing the Kerala border there was a sudden change in the quality of roads....the next 60 kms was a nightmare.....we were driving on potholes with roads in between.....it took us close to three hours to cover this stretch........finally we reached a four lane road and found a restaurant to settle our frustration and hunger.....the drive from then onward was hassle free with frequent breaks to rest our butt.......
5:40 pm: finally reached home........captured the final odometer reading which read 396....ooops forgot to add a 1000 which got reset....1396
