I believe trips have the potential to change the thinking about life.When i started to think of a trip, bikes are always my first choice whether its solo or group. I have a Royal Enfield Classic 350, he is my companion for most of my trips from 2016. Once, Me and my friend planned to visit ooty. At the day of trip, we saw a news that, due to heavy rain there is landslides happening in ooty and Mettupalayam. We left with no choice other than cancelling the trip.
The very next week, i decided to make that plan happen. But this time alone, because my friend have no leave and i can't postpond the ride, as i have to join my new project team within the next two days. Its just a 200 km ride to ooty from my home. The route is so nice and beatuful with the forest views.
It was a saturday morning, I started at 8:30am from my home and ride through the busy highways to reach Nilambur at almost 11 in the noon. I stopped at the beautiful road infront of the Teak museum, Nilambur and clicked some photographs of my companion, the Classic 350. Usually when i go for a solo trip, i never take much photos, but only some photos of my bikes and some foods. And i always surprised that, i get a wonderful frame whenever i tried to click my bike.
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| Travel and Food |
I forgot to backup my powerbank and my phone keeps crying for some energy. I started my ride again and stops at a small shop at the starting point of Nadukani churam.I had a nice coofee and snacks, and the main idea of stopping there was giving some energy for my phone.
The Tamil Nadu check post is a few kilometers away. I need to reach Ooty before 4pm, because almost all nice hotels were sold out at online apps and so i have to find out one my own. The roads were good at some parts and at some parts we can see the effects of flood that happens few months before. This area was widely affected in that flood and most of the times, i cant find a proper road.
My next destination is Gudalur. I ride without any stop after that cooffe till Gudalur. I had a plan to have lunch at Gudalur. But seeing the busy town and due to heavy sun i didnt stop there. I take a right turn from the signal to the beautiful road to ooty. I was earlier than expected and then i was sure that i can reach ooty before 3pm.
After the small continous ride i stopped at a beautiful small shop just before the start of hairpins to ooty. Had a masala chai and started the ride again. The climate started to change, from the angry sun's hot to cool winds. I didnt realised that wind was a sign of heavy rain. Each kms i ride up, the visibility started to reduce. The road was all covered with fog and i cant see anything clearly. Rain started to shower.Just before 25kms away from ooty i stopped again. This time, beacause of the reason i am very cold and can't see the road properly.There is a small shop without much covering, with lot of carrots and some vegetables, I asked for a tea, but the reply was funny, the water is not boiling due to this climate. I was stucked there, thought of returning down. Then two kerala registered bikes came and stopped nearby. They also stopped due to the same reason. Other travellers returning from ooty give us warning that, it is raining heavily there and zero visibility. I started to talk to them and we are stucked there for almost 30 minutes. That time is enough for a rider to start a friedship with other riders.
Then we found some Karnataka registered loud superbikes including hayabusa and superduke coming to us, stopped and talk to us. They have powerful fog lamps installed on their monster bikes. They are from banglore to enjoy the weekend ride. Those super bikes are the leader for us for the rest of the kms. We followed them, none of us can't go beyond 40km/hr. That moment was a heaven for me. I never experienced such a ride through the ligh rain, heavy fog and chilling climate.Haha, it was a romantic ride for me and my 350cc engine.The rest of the 25kms takes us almost an hour to reach ooty. I saw the ooty at its full beauty, i never saw ooty this much beautiful before.Those friends from banglore already booked resorts. Its time to say good bye to them.
It was again a surpirse for me, that the new friends of mine was all foodies. One of them told, "lets go and have a biriyani from Thalassery Restaurant, and discuss about the rest of the day". That moment was awesome, meeting those guys with same wavelength. We rushed to the restaurant and ordered 5 Chicken Biriyani. I just googled about the restaurant and found that it is the top rated kerala style restaurant in Ooty.A very spacious restaurant and it was almost 4.30, still there is rush ther.We are all wet and shivering. A full table was needed to put our helmets and jackets. The food arrived, the hot biriyani was priceless for the shivering us.The food is not up to the expectation, but still it is good. I feel a little over priced there, but remember all tourist places are like that. I even had a 80 rs single plain dosa from munnar, At that angle this biriyani is very cheap.
We ride again through the light rain about 30 minutes to find an average hotel to stay. We dont want to see any tourist places.We are there to enjoy the weekend ride and the wonderful climate there.We chilled out that night by sharing our life stories. Yah, new friends have a lot of common things to share. And the next day morning we had our breakfast from a small shop and started our ride back to our busy life. But comparing to the previous day, it was sunny and we didnt took much stops and reached Gudalur. They were from Calicut and they goes straight from the signal and i waved a bye and take the left to my house, to my weekdays ahead.
At the end, the point is i ride all the way to ooty to have a chicken biriyani with my new friends. Yah some rides are like these, it gives us new tastes which we never forget and new rider friends and moreover new experiences. Hope i can ride agian with those guys. Comment below your favourite rides and your dream ride you are planning about.
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