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Ooty is and has always been one of the best ride trip destinations I have
ever had ,its not too far for a weekend ride,you get to see the jungle (Bandhipur)loads of deer,bison and maybe if you are
lucky a panther,there is a smal hamlet called Masangudi which also makes for a great stop before the 39kms of ghat section
before Ooty ,the cool Ooty air that meets you on the ghats just as you are about 10 kms away from the town and a lot of other
little things that made me do this ride 3 times now.
Our First Ooty Trip
Panax,Adil,Yazo n Me
It was a bright April Morning and my friend Adil and i were on our way to work when we stopped
for a smoke and chai at a shack on the way and built up a conversation about riding as always ,and again as always planned
a trip to Gokarna by the end of the month ,since i had never taken my girlfriend on a bike trip before we decided against
a bike trip and planned to go by bus.......comfortable & safe......not generally my style but what to do ....compromises
had to be made for the lady in my life ,neway just as we were thinking about it we decided to ask our other friend Dennis
to come along as he had never seen Gokarna.......my self proclaimed home town.We finally decided to leave on a tuesday
and i told my gal about it and she was all thrilled......this was not the first trip we would be making to Goks but the 4th
,so we packed light as it is pretty hot in Goks and all we needed were shots and a few t-shirts.There was still a question
about tickets and to our dismay there were none available , we had to take a trip to the bus station and take the next
available bus to Kumta or Shimoga and then carry on from there ,as luck would have it we reached the bus stop at 11:30pm and
there were no available buses to anywhere close to Gokarna or Kumta ,We were not ready to give up though and since we were
all set for a holiday we had to leave Bangalore that night so we checked with the Bus ticketing dept who obviously were not
in a position to offer us anything at that hour .So we went out of the bus station and sat on our bikes and wondered what
was the next best option and then i realised.......we were sitting on it.
There was almost a wierd excitement when i exclaimed "" Why dont we ride to Ooty tonite""........"What
the f---"said Adil .
Our bikes were in no condition to make the trip or thats what we thought ,the Enfield 350cc
(My Gasolina) needed an oil change and Adils Yezdi 250......well it needed a lot of things too and there was no way we
could find a mechanic at that time in the night.......but nuts as we were that night we decided to risk it ,top
up our fuell tanks and ride to Ooty in three hours ......we planned to leave by 2 am,but what do we do about something warm
to wear for the trip ,all we had were shots and t-shirts ,and Ooty was pretty damn cold for that attire ,thanks to my gal
who had a lot of warm clothes in her room (Shes from Arunachal Pradesh) we all managed to struggle into warm, small sweaters.
After that we tied the baggage onto our bikes with the hamock strings i had taken along for
the beach ,filled oil in our bikes ,fuelled up and there we were at the Petrol bunk on MG Road ready for the Highway.
Yazo ,Gaso and myself on the road between Bandhipur and Masangudi
My parents had no idea what we were up to and were under the impression that we were going
to park the bikes at the bus station and take a bus to Gokarna....ha ha ha......i had a silly smile when i called my home
and was wondering how to break it to my parents and when i did my mom was furious as usuall due to all the experiences i have
had in my riding carreer ,I have caused my parents a lot of concern in the past with the accidents and the hospitalisation
,yet they always knew there was nothing that could take me off my Gasolina.
So at 2:15am we left on the Mysore road leading out of Bangalore and we were as excited as
a pack of grey hounds at a dog race track.
On the way somwhere next to Bidadi ,we passed a couple of CBZ and Pulsar Bikers who we waved
out to ,but they did not seem too friemdly so Adil overtook them and reved his accelerator and took of ,As soon as he did
that i followed leaven the lilly asses behind , but then in a blink i could hear them catching up and i did the best thing
we could do i asked Adil to slow down just before a hill in the road ,by the time they reached us we were at the apex of the
hill and this was when they passed us ,then Adil said "NOW" and using the downhill we opened up our steedz and blew the CB...whatever
into the past.............."Architecture of Aggression".
CLICK HERE to read about some of the craziest road trips i have been on.
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| Adil n Panax |
Panax and Adil on his Roadking ,stoned as ever,there is no bike trip like a bike trip with ma ol'
pals Adil and Panax,seen here STONED on da road.
There is something about riding at dawn ,everything
is a shade of blue and the air is cool and clean,the sun is hovering just above the rice and sugarcane fields and a couple
of swallows are shooting passed green carpets of nature,the morning seems to coax you into feeling great and it seems
to be doing a great job, we stoped for some tea and a "J" to soak in the scenery.
A few more stops like this and we were at the foot hills to Ooty and it was 9:00am,We
seen a diversion and there was a board saying Ooty 37km and when we asked a man on the road he said this was the
short cut an there was an easier way further ahead that was about 17kms longer but a lot safer and not too steep,then Dennis
says"Dude I know this short cut and its not much ,moreover we will be saving a lot in terms of distance and time ,lets
do it ".This was my first road trip to Ooty and I did'nt have much to say and so we took it ,after about three or four
corners we met our first hairpin and man was I freaked ,I was doin around 70kmph and suddenly the road turns up
about 160 degrees to the right ,so i tilted and tilted and still just managed to stay on the road.........phew ,only 21
more ,and by the 14th hairpin it was gettin a lot cooler and the bikes were gettin a lot hotter because of the strain
,i did not manage to get her to 4th gear throughout the climb ,and by the 19th hairpin ,Adil stopped and said "She cant
make it maam",he had Dennis's huge backpack on his tank and this was too much for the Roadking to take so we stopped
as well and I untied the bag from his tank and put it on my Gaso and started again ,i could feel the weight but she was
in no mood to give up and so she did'nt.
11:00am we were in Ooty town and again it felt great ,i noticed a very peculiar thing
about our bikes ,in the ghats they were struggling and straining up the hairpins and seemed as though they would
seize before we reached,but as soon as we reached the outskirts of Ooty where the vegetation changed ,we were surrounded
by huge pine trees and it was soo cold that we had to stop to put on sweaters (Yazo's sweaters) and wa la the bikes
were fine again ......a little too fine infact ,we were scorching the roads like a MOTOGP practice session,man.......something
had happened ,these bikes were rejuvinated somehow.
We reached Ooty town by 11:30am and were searching for a place to rest our sadlle sore asses
,but no go ,the rents were too high and we could not really afford 1000 bucks for a dingy room for 2.
Suddenly i realised i was doin all the searchin
and Adil ,Dennis and Yazo were chillin on some Ooty tea and dint give a shit about helpin me this psyched me
out,especialy since i had no luck and had spent about an hour searching the whole of Ooty for a 600 buck room for 2 ,when
i returned i seen them laughing and talkin about the ride n stiff ,sippin on tea............."f---kin lasy assholes" i shouted
at Dennis and Adil who were just blank at why did i just return and shout at them then, i let them have it ,they stayed quiet
and Yazo calmed me down she has a way of instilling peace in me when i am tensed and also has a way of instilling tension
when i am at peace.
Any way when we found no room in Ooty that afternoon we decided to have some lunch and we
stoped at this vegetarian hotel ,had meals and then started on our way to Cunoor where Dennis told us we could get reasonably
priced accomodation ,Dennis and Adil were not speakin to me properly and for good reason,just before we left Ooty ,Adil says
he needs to go get something from the town and so Yazo and I waited thinking he and Dennis were off for a drink before
we ride again,10 mins...........15mins.......man this f---kin idiot is takin too long
No stunts just trippin on the road,Adil and Panax doin their thing
Planning is obviously very important in a making a road trip.....................no way ,
Planning only makes you expect things it is just an assumption that these
things are going to happen when we all know "Nobody knows whats going to happen",and when we expect there is no
surprise and when there is no surprise there is absolutely no fun,well basic planing has to be made like when we stop for
food and when we stop for fuel but thats about it ,I really dont like to clog my thinking with plans that i have to meet like
time lines for reaching a certain place etc,I like to improvise ,I think thats why i never started studying for my exams
until the last minute ,but maybe thats why i dint do so good anyway,but thats a different story altogether.I dont like
to plan ,instead i like to be prepared for anything and thats tougher than planing but more interesting,and nothing else matters.
Well on our way down the hills we could actually turn our engines off and still do 60-70kmph
(courtesy GRAVITY) in absolute silence ,this was awesome kinda like racing with the MUTE on,We started racing again
and overtook a few busses at break neck speed,we suddenly came to a halt next to a lake , i say suddenly because we never
spoke or prepared we just....stopped, it was that beautiful .
We chilled our heels there for a while when we saw the bus we overtook a while back it was
a KA -....registration (Karnataka), Adil says"Macha lets see if Karnataka bus drivers are friendly da" and we waved ,the
bus driver smiled and we shouted as we smiled back then came a Tamil Nadu bus and we waved to him and he was over joyed ,he
shouted out at us happily and looked out of the window streching his hand out for a "high five".we could not reach though.We
looked at each other and smiled and we knew "Everybody smiles on the Highway".
Just as this happened it began to drizzle and we got on to our bikes and made a crazy dash
for the next town coz the rain was starting to get heavier and I did not wanna get Yazo wet and moreover Dennis was ill as
well but it was to late,it started raining hard ,so hard that it was impossible to see more than 10 feet ahead ,it was also
quite dark and Yazo my pretty roadie was bundeled behind me but still trying to wipe the water off my glases ,she also managed
to tie a bandana around my face coz the pelting rain was unbearable
Three become one.
After some time while i was trying to imagine Adils face sippin on a quart at
a bar with Dennis and laughing about how i looked when i was angry,i could hear the Roadie and seen Adil and he says "Follow
me " and I did before i could ask him where he had been for so long ,we rode for about 5 minutes around a hill and reached
a huge farm house in the midst of a carrot plantation on the top of the hill,Then Adil told me that he had a friend in Bangalore
and this was his vacation house in Ooty where Adil had stayed about a year back.
We spoke to the watchman and he was about 60ish and frail,had a toothless smile
and a staff he carried to chase rabbits away from the carrot field he was more than willing to let us stay especially after
he met Adil and remembered how much they drank together last year when they had met and looked forward to the same kinda evening
today.
That night we had peacefull sleep after a long drinking,smoking session
and then a huge dinner which we ordered from a restaurant nearby.
The next morning we got up by 10:00am and had a bath in the bitting cold ,luckily
the watchman had heated water in the bathroom tank without which we would have frozen stiff .
Dennis had fallen ill maybe it was due to the fact that this was his first ride
or maybe it was because of his self proclaimed ability to drink a bottle of cheap rum absolutely raw last night,one of the
two or maybe both,but it was sad seeing him so quiet ,we finally got him to a doctor who gave him some tablets and he took
them after a breakfast of dosas and vadas which he really could not stomach but had to for the medication to take effect.
By 12:30pm we decided to head straight for Bangalore instead of travelling to
Kodaikannal like we planed before coz Dennis was ill and Yazo was tired and there was no point pushing it i thought.
What became our regular stop on the outskirts of Ooty.
Finally we reached Masanagudi a small village near Bandhipur and it was 7:30pm and there
was no sign of the rain stopping so we decided to stay at a Resort named Green Park ,It was a great place nice rooms and good
food and drink and also it was reasonable so we stayed over that night and got up by 01:00pm the next afternoon totally hung
over but ready to ride ,it was still drizzling and we heard from the locals that this is how its gonna be for the next few
days when we asked them when the rain would stop.We decided to leave anyway coz we had no choice as i we had to get back to
work the next day.
We finally left Masangudi by 3:00pm after lunch and rode till Mysore in the rain ,it was
about 7:00pm when we reached there and we really could not go on, not with my gal drenched ,she was'nt complaining but i knew
she could not take it anymore so we decided to stay at a lodge till the morning hoping that the rain would stop atleast then,Screw
work.
The next day we got up by 10:00am and made our uneventfull ride back to Bangalore ,it was'nt
raining though infact it was pretty pleasant but our spirits were low and we had to get back to work the next day.
When we finally reached M.G Road we stopped for a cool drink and a victory smoke ,there is
nothing i like better than returning from a trip and hitting Bangalore in true biker style ,engines roaring and faces tanned
,dusty and rugged we sat next to our bikes Yazo was sitting on her and i admired her ,i always do especialy after
a trip ,she looks so much more beautiful now,Both my women.
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Our second Ooty trip
Yazo,Gaso & Me
| Me and ma GASOLINA in our habitat. |
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There is something about the highway that i really can get enough off ,maybe its the clean air as
compared to the gas chamber type air in the cities,or maybe its the scenery you are a part of on the road ,or maybe its my
GASOLINA purring at about 110kmph or maybe its creating symphonies with her exhaust notes through the Ghat sections,
or maybe its the look on my gals's face when she knows we're finally alone together on the highway ,or may be its the people
we meet on the way ,asking us friendly questions about the ride from Bangalore.........maybe its all of these and a lot more
that keeps me craving for the next roadtrip all the time ,Id like to share a few experiences and some snaps on this page and
i hope you get to feel the same way i feel some day on the highway.
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| The tractor lost the hill climb in Ooty. |
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The road to Ooty from Masangoodi is a twisty one ,its got about 29 hairpins ,there is an
easier uninteresting road to Ooty but those kinda roads do not appeal to me especialy since it is 10kms longer and 10000 times
less interesting ,anyways it was on one of the hairpins that i was stuned to pullover my straining GASOLINA for guess what
..........a tractor ,i let him overtake coz for one the road was barely enough for him and two i was freakin stunned man,
Yazo shouted "hello boss wanna drag" and laughed he was smilin too everyone smiles on a highway,after strugling up a few more
hairpins ,there was the tractor again and i had enough speed to overtake it so i did and kept the speed up to take the last
few hairpins when we had to stop to cool my GASOLINA's heels ,this is when we took this snap of the "tractor who lost" and as for my girl,the smile says it all. |
Ooty Trip 3
Ryan,Adrian,Vijaie & Me
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