Biking is my fascination! Biking is my passion!! Cheers to Biking!!!
It was indeed a long dream for myself and Kaushi (Probably, sometime from 1 sem of our Engg) to go on a long ride (Just not drive!). Initially, we thought, lets goto northern India - Leh/Ladakh and all. It became more stronger when we got 'Royal Enfield Thunderbird'... But, then realised, we have to make shorter trips inorder to get ourselves on to the track. Since this Jan ('10) 26th was a tuesday and moreover a holiday (After becoming Software Eng, we have realised the importance of long weekends... :) ), we decided to hop Kanyakumari as our initial Venture. We shared our thoughts with Praveen, Solle, PJ, Raghu and Karthik. Praveen, Solle and PJ eventually dropped out for their own reasons... It was then 2 Thunderbirds, One pulsar to gear up!!! Kaushi was bit free (compared to my work pressure), he spent enough time jotting the routes. Finally, he came up with the plan which I felt as most appropriate...
Initial Planned Itinerary -
22nd Evening 7PM - Bangalore to Mysore - 160 km approx
23rd Morning 7AM - Mysore to Munnar - 400 km approx
24th Morning 6AM - Munnar to Kanyakumari - 450 km approx
25th Afternoon 3PM - Kanyakumari to Madurai - 250 km approx
26th Morning 7AM - Madurai to Bangalore - 450 km approx.
Round trip - 1800km approx
After all tough times for getting the Thunderbird ready, finally, we got it at almost 8PM from the service center. (A piece of suggestion - Never leave bike for servicing just before the start of your trip!!! Atleast a week prior, so that, if there are any minor problems, you can get that fixed!). We left Nice road junction (Mys road) @ 11.30PM after packing our luggage to Thunderbird.
Our next destination was Mysore and for our luck - Thanks to Shravan for making our stay easier - It was 2 AM midnight when we reached his house. (169km). We were Five of us to Mysore. Myself, Kaushi, Karthik, Raghu and Shravan.
@EOD - 1 - Bangalore to Mysore - 169km - 3hrs of Biking approx.
Next day, 23rd morning, we had a nice breakfast @ Shravan's house and started gearing up for our next destination - Munnar.
We packed our luggage to both Pulsar and one Thunderbird and then started @ about 10.30. Took the outer ring road to reach Ooty road. We took Chamrajnagar road to reach Sathy. From here, we had a little tough time to follow the sign boards as most of the sign boards carried Tamil letter alone! Satyamangalam road from Chamrajnagar is amazing!! Roads in Tamil Nadu are far better when compared to that of Karnataka. (This conclusion is drawn after so much of Biking!!!) Especially, Ghats - 27 Hairpin curves is truly a Biker's paradise. Myself and kaushi shared riding and hence found it more easier.
From Sathy, just before reaching Coimbatore, there is a deviation to reach Udumalpet (20km from here - Satyamangalam Forest range starts!). There are two routes to reach Udumalpet One route is via Tirupur which is bit far. Other route is via Palladam. Make sure, you reach Udumalpet before 4 so that you reach the Forest check post in time (Before 6, after which they usually dont allow 2 wheelers to enter the forest!) We pleaded security guard a lot telling him that we have to reach Kanyakumari and all and finally he warned about elephants and left us. To our surprise, elephants roared next to us! And this sound sounded that of a suspension to Mr. kaushik!!! We were laughing after hearing this from him!!! :)
Then, suddenly, deer came on the road and almost missed hitting Raghu (We had just passed by 2 or 3 sec and Raghu by probably, by 0.5sec!!!). So, better, dont take any risk, reach in-time.
Munnar is 80km from Udumalpet. Almost 50km is through forest. We'll have to pass Tamil Nadu and Kerala Forest check posts. Since it was too late(9PM), we were 40 km short to Munnar and found a place to lodge - Chandana Residency @ Marayoor.
@EOD - 2 - Mysore to Marayoor - 330km - 9 hrs of Biking approx!
Next our aim was to reach our ultimate Destination - Kanyakumari! We packed up and our enthu still grew further when we saw around 6 Bikes @ the hotel (All of them were yamaha freaks! R15, fazer, FZ)!!!
Kaushik's friend had suggested a resort located on the hill top @ Munnar. But, since, it was late, we had to stay at Marayoor. Resort is located at awesome place! Deshadun resort. Take my words, 
make sure, you stay there when you are in Munnar. You'll be stunned by its location. We had nice breakfast @ Saravana Bhavan in Munnar and hopped on to resort! We spent almost close to an hour and started. As per our initial plan, we had to goto Idukki dam and then to Allepey via Kottayam. But, since, we had language problem, we had to reach the coast - Cochin to continue to Trivendrum and then on to Kanyakumari. From Munnar to Cochin, road was very nice and it was very scenic. Once we reached Cochin(By around 3PM, had lunch! Ofcourse Paratha and Kadala curry!!!), it was very tough time for us to reach Trivendrum. Traffic sense was really hopeless! And even the road quality was not that good to add to our fate! We stopped at Kollam (Almost 80km before Trivendrum) to have our dinner (It was close to 9 by the time we reached Kollam).
We then started to Kanyakumari and reached by midnight 1.15AM. Zeal to completed it never stopped us in between!!!
Our Odometer had just clocked over 1000 and it was exactly 1000.7 km from Bangalore when we reached entrance of Kanyakumari! It was great sense of feeling and felt proud of ourselves that we have achieved something gr8!!! We were very tired and to our luck, we got lodging @ Vivekananda Kendra (Which you'll have to enter if you want to watch sunrise! ) Arch had a hoarding - Awake! Arise!! Stop Not!!! until you reach you goal!!! It was very affordable and rooms were very good! It even has a in house canteen which serves good food!
@EOD - 3 - Marayoor to Kanyakumari- 507km - 15 hrs of Biking approx!
Next day morning, all of us got ready by 6AM to watch the sunrise! It was really a great Experience for all of us to watch the dawn before sea!
Myself being a photography freak, it was testing time for my photographic skills!
Then we came back after watching the live show, had breakfast and then back to bed. We got up by around 11, then took bath, went to Vivekananda Rock.
It was indeed a fantastic experience to watch Vivekananda Mantap and different colors in the Ocean. Even though, we could not shoot this properly, it was treat to our eyes! We had nice amount of PJs... Like, how do we make this saline water sweet.... Lorries would stop till Kollam and then make holes in the road where in the lemon would be placed...underground tunnel directly to ocean so that nice Sharabath is prepared and such ones... It was really great! Hats off to PJ-Kaushik!!!
Then by around 5.30 in the evening, after having our lunch by around 4.30, we packed and left to Madurai! This is when, before it got dark, I crossed over 100 and reached Tirunelveli very fast! It was almost constant 110, from madurai to Tirunelveli! I'm a person, who would like a blend. You cant be doing the same thing forever! We never get a opportunity to do this again... So, masking mileage factor, I tried this driving since I know, i cant ride more than 80 during night! This is where Kaushik started speaking of Mileage, carbon emission,bla,bla.... and I was bit upset! :( But, from that time, I rarely crossed 70! We reached Madurai by around 10.30. But had a tough time finding a place to stay since we had a constraint of parking! It was almost 1.00 when we found a lodge next to Meenakshi temple!
@EOD - 4 - Kanyakumari to Madurai - 250km - 5 hrs of Biking approx!
Next day, we went to temple by around 7.30 and took a special entrance ticket by seeing the queue. Temple is so huge that, Initially, I thought, at any cost, need to come back in the same entrance in which we had entered! But, could not :(. It was right next to where we had entered. Had breakfast, packed up, left to bangalore by around 9.30AM. Due to heated arguments regarding mileage in the morning, I never crossed 60 right from Madurai!
We reached Salem at around 2.30 or so... Had lunch and left to Bangalore.
This is where mine and Kaushi's story got a twist! It was 115 km to Bangalore where myself and Kaushi fell down from the bike hitting divider. To our luck, anywhere we both go, we both wear helmets/seat belts. This saved our lives. Both of us had jumped out of the bike and I rolled almost twice on the divider(Which had grass!) and kaushi almost 5 times... (Ofcourse, weight factor saved me!!!) I had scratches through my leg and buts! I was not able to lift my leg then! Even now, I'm not able to sit properly ;-).
But, Kaushi had a ligament tear near the knee and doctor advised 2 months of rest. :( :( :( I could not believe when the ambulance came within 4 minutes of our accident! (I felt, India is improving! With the pain :-P) Then, we decided not to take up ambulance as there was a need to register a case with Police for our vehicle, our bags and all and then discussed that we'll not tell anything to our parents and started off from there! Vehicle was damaged very much. By then, for both of us, pain was mounting! But, somehow managed to ride almost 20km. Then could not bear the weight of the vehicle! Called up Sharad (Kaushi's bro) to bring the car!! The moment he came, he congratulated us!!! Felt laughing with so much pain!!! :) Sharad along with his frds took us to hosp and Xray report didnt harm me anything... But, for Kaushi, it did. I was advised to take two or 3 days of rest so that swelling and pain goes down... But, still, it hasnt! :(
Anyways...With even so much of pain at the end, we had so much fun and time which we'll cherish through out our life! But, really feel lot guilty when I see Kaushi's stage! :(
(have to add kaushi's leg photo... But, dont have as of now ;-))
@EOD - 5 - Madurai to Bangalore - 450km - 8 hrs of Biking approx!
more pics of the trip @ http://picasaweb.google.com/manu.srishti123/DreamBikeTripToKanyakumari?authkey=Gv1sRgCLmW_u-58fnuwAE#
Bigger dream to ride on World's highest motorable road - Kardungla (Leh-ladakh region) still awaits!!!
Cheers,
Manu.
Labels: adventurous, Bangalore, bangalore to kanyakumari bike trip, Bike trip, Kanyakumari
We packed our luggage to both Pulsar and one Thunderbird and then started @ about 10.30. Took the outer ring road to reach Ooty road. We took Chamrajnagar road to reach Sathy. From here, we had a little tough time to follow the sign boards as most of the sign boards carried Tamil letter alone! Satyamangalam road from Chamrajnagar is amazing!! Roads in Tamil Nadu are far better when compared to that of Karnataka. (This conclusion is drawn after so much of Biking!!!) Especially, Ghats - 27 Hairpin curves is truly a Biker's paradise. Myself and kaushi shared riding and hence found it more easier.
Next our aim was to reach our ultimate Destination - Kanyakumari! We packed up and our enthu still grew further when we saw around 6 Bikes @ the hotel (All of them were yamaha freaks! R15, fazer, FZ)!!!
Kaushik's friend had suggested a resort located on the hill top @ Munnar. But, since, it was late, we had to stay at Marayoor. Resort is located at awesome place! Deshadun resort. Take my words, 
make sure, you stay there when you are in Munnar. You'll be stunned by its location. We had nice breakfast @ Saravana Bhavan in Munnar and hopped on to resort! We spent almost close to an hour and started. As per our initial plan, we had to goto Idukki dam and then to Allepey via Kottayam. But, since, we had language problem, we had to reach the coast - Cochin to continue to Trivendrum and then on to Kanyakumari. From Munnar to Cochin, road was very nice and it was very scenic. Once we reached Cochin(By around 3PM, had lunch! Ofcourse Paratha and Kadala curry!!!), it was very tough time for us to reach Trivendrum. Traffic sense was really hopeless! And even the road quality was not that good to add to our fate! We stopped at Kollam (Almost 80km before Trivendrum) to have our dinner (It was close to 9 by the time we reached Kollam).
We then started to Kanyakumari and reached by midnight 1.15AM. Zeal to completed it never stopped us in between!!!
Next day morning, all of us got ready by 6AM to watch the sunrise! It was really a great Experience for all of us to watch the dawn before sea!
It was indeed a fantastic experience to watch Vivekananda Mantap and different colors in the Ocean. Even though, we could not shoot this properly, it was treat to our eyes! We had nice amount of PJs... Like, how do we make this saline water sweet.... Lorries would stop till Kollam and then make holes in the road where in the lemon would be placed...underground tunnel directly to ocean so that nice Sharabath is prepared and such ones... It was really great! Hats off to PJ-Kaushik!!!
But, Kaushi had a ligament tear near the knee and doctor advised 2 months of rest. :( :( :( I could not believe when the ambulance came within 4 minutes of our accident! (I felt, India is improving! With the pain :-P) Then, we decided not to take up ambulance as there was a need to register a case with Police for our vehicle, our bags and all and then discussed that we'll not tell anything to our parents and started off from there! Vehicle was damaged very much. By then, for both of us, pain was mounting! But, somehow managed to ride almost 20km. Then could not bear the weight of the vehicle! Called up Sharad (Kaushi's bro) to bring the car!! The moment he came, he congratulated us!!! Felt laughing with so much pain!!! :) Sharad along with his frds took us to hosp and Xray report didnt harm me anything... But, for Kaushi, it did. I was advised to take two or 3 days of rest so that swelling and pain goes down... But, still, it hasnt! :(