7/25/2009

Escape from the heat! A massive ride to the hills!

Day 0: 29th May, 09.

The preparation


With our college getting over and it’s the point of time in our lives where we are going to be separated from each other as we move on, a long ride was the first option for us to spend time together. So as per the plan we five- Vignesh on his RTR, Dilip on his CBZ star, Vicky on his Pulsar 220, Guru on his Unicorn and myself on my Pulsar 220 were set to hit the roads on our four day ride. Our plan was to visit Valparai and Munnar. We tanked up our bikes and packed our stuffs including few spares. Set the alarm to 3:30 am and I hit the bed by 1:00am.

Day 1: 30th May, 09

Chennai - Pollachi: 650 kms.

The Start

Woke up to the sound of my alarm by 3:30 am sharp and gave wake up calls to my fellow riders. Got ready, geared up, tied the bags to the bike, bid adieu to my parents and assured them that we will be safe and left to the meeting point. It was 4:45 am when everyone arrived and we were set to roll. We were on the famous Golden Quadrilateral road that connects Chennai – Bangalore. We kept it easy on the throttle as the engine was warming up and soon started to pick up speeds of 80 kmph. Our first stop was at some 70 kms from Chennai. We stopped to clean our helmet visors which were looking like warzone with the bugs splattered all over the helmet.







We had tea and resumed our ride. Our next stop would be for breakfast and wanted to do at least 100 kms non-stop. The group of 5 split into two with Vignesh, Vicky and myself moving ahead with cruising speed of 100 kmph and the other group was Dilip and Guru doing speeds of 80 kmph. We passed Vellore and stopped at Ambur for our breakfast. After the quick stop we were back on roads.





Our plan was to reach Krishnagiri to change engine oil for Vignesh’s RTR. Soon we reached Krishnagiri and found that there was no automobile shop on the outskirts so we decided to stop at Dharmapuri and search for oil. Found the oil and changed it at Dharmapuri. Our next halt was for an early lunch by around 11:30 at the famous Bharath Petroleum Ghar Dhaba in between Dharmapuri – Salem. We had a pretty long break there and tanked up again.




This is where we calculated our bikes mileage and I was so happy to get 45kmpl in my P220 :) . Everyone managed a good mileage and was happy! Lubricated the drive chains and off we went.






Drenched!




As we progressed dark clouds were appearing above us. We were sure about facing rains and soon it came! It started to rain cats and dogs. We managed to switch to rain gears and started to ride in the rains. It was raining so hard that the visibility was less than a meter! We were rolling at very slow pace as long as the rains lasted. After a while the rains receded and we stopped to re group. It was a great experience to ride in the heavy rains. We felt like having something hot and what else can beat hot bajjis! Yes we stopped at a shop in the next town for hot hot bajjis. After this we took the diversion to Pollachi without going to Avinashi. The roads were good and the rain gods started to bless us again. This time it wasn’t so hard. Few kms before Pollachi we rode through this patch of road which was surrounded by huge wind mills on either side of the roads.






The sight was spectacular and took pics to capture the sight. By the time we reached Pollachi it was around 7:00 PM. We managed to find a decent hotel to crash in for the night. After the dinner we hit the beds dreaming of Valparai!



Continue to Day 2

1 comment:

VICKY GAMEBOY said...

Thanks to manoj who wrote this log and took his time to finish this.. It was a great xperience as he mentioned.. Thanks to the fella riders.. RCD Rocks..