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Our Cycling trip to Kerala
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"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness".
- Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)
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Prologue:
I had an inkling that Luke is hatching a plan with Manoj for the weekend of Indipendance Day.. "to please the Goddess of Travel" as they put it..
It turned out to be a real grand one, too tempting for me to look any other way.. It acted as a placebo, for I's having 'itchy feet', especially since all my plans to make the long cherished dream of trekking the snowy slopes of the Himalayas this season collapsed, and to compensate, I's looking for something that could be substantially satisfying.
"What about cycling southward to Kerala ?.. a 4-day trip.." Sez Luke, trying to rope me in. My wide-eyed look with a glint of excitement soon got morphed into Ah-I-know-who-might-be-the-inspiration-for-this grin.. Manoj, the Thadiyan (fatso) is a cycling aficionado. Later Manoj gave details of route and discussed some strategy. If everything goes according to plan, tis gonna be close to 400km, upto his home in Shoranur (Palghat, Kerala). I bought a bike, the new Hercules 18-gear ATB, and limbered up biking to office.
*** DAY 1 ***
)
Finally the day arrived, and 4 of us, equipped with a vacuum pump,
tool kit and puncture kit, tied our bags to carrier rack, and set off
by 5:30pm on Wednesday.
The first thing to face was the Airport road traffic. It seemed,
within the city you can go faster by cycle, the average speed being
higher than the rest. At traffic junctions curious eyes peered at us..
some queried where we were headed. Observing people's responses
was one thing uniquely interesting and entertaining about the whole trip.
People had interesting range of expressions and conversations we got hooked to.. it ranged from admiring looks to r-u-Nuts? looks, with their further queries, advices etc following.. near villages sometimes other cyclists would join me for a km or two.. breaking into conversations, I responding in broken kannada.. later they'd part with goodwill wishes.. some motorists waved and gave thumbs-up signs.. those used to be our chat topic during most of our pit-stops :) .. when we refuel by munching chocolates and gulping down water/glucose/rehydration salts etc..
By around 7, we got outa city traffic on Mysore road. Soon we were pedalling hard in the glare of the vehicles passing by. The planned stop-for-the-night is @ Ramnagaram, 50km from Bangalore. But at about 9pm, when our planned halt seemed at least an hour's ride away, we stopped by a 'Rooms available' sign.. Luke and Manoj went to check it out, but came back amused.. they were told "No rooms for all-guys party" !
The climbs started getting strenuous. Back started aching.. body is just getting used to the riding position for long stretches. Luckily my foot didn't show any signs of trouble- During previous week's Monsoon Trek @ Kudremukh, I'd some nasty falls on the slippery rocks of the riverbed and sprained my ankle.
It's 10:30 when we stopped for the night at Ramnagaram and checked-in to Palace Lodge by the highway. Ravenous as wolves, we sat at the dinner table, ready to pounce on and wolf down anything that came our way. But alas, our furious voraciousness was met with just a few items left. We were a bit too late. Twas 12:30 when I caught up with much-needed sleep.
*** DAY 2 ***
Up by 5am, we hit the road by 6:30. Our destination for the day being 150km away, we wanted to start early. Aches and pains of Day1 were all gone, and the morning beckoning with its dewy freshness, and festivities of the Indipendence Day in the air, we pedalled with small plastic tri-colour flags fixed to the handlebar. There were many children wearing uniforms, but in festive spirit, unfettered from the drudgery of classrooms. Just after Channapatna, the tiny town of traditional toys, when I's riding alongside Manoj engaged in small talk, noticed a truck behind. I dodged to get off the road and in the process lightly hit on Manoj's bike and I hit the ground on all fours. Leather gloves saved my palms, but knee's bleeding.. skin got scraped off. 3-4 villagers nearby came running for help. But I said I'm OK. First Aid's with Luke so waited for him to patch it up and we carried on.
)
The highway's flanked by paddy and sugercane fields for some kms. Soon
with the sun gaining shine, and it being a holiday the tourist-traffic
to Mysore steadily increasing, we started getting uncomfortable.
To add to it all, the terrain was also not conducive with its
ungrateful gradients, which made me think that the 150km target set
for the day is too harsh..
at the sight of each curve up the slopes, we hoped for a downhill..
the lure of freewheeling down fuelled the spirits to pedal harder.
But many a time, taking the turn, our hopes were dashed
.. I's telling Manoj, " every uphill seems to
have another Up round the corner !"..
By noon we were dog-tired, and took a nap on the green patch of grass by the highway..
with dried salts from the sweat leaving powdery white
trails on the faces, Luke says it's time to have supplements of oral rehydration salts.
After late lunch at Srirangapatnam we carried on.
)
)
It was getting dark when we stopped by
Mysore Palace, went onto Ooty road. With 50km more to reach Gundulpet, we decided to hitch a ride
in some truck since it's better to relax and get ready for the next day's mountain stretch than
to burn out in the night.
One lorry driver directed us to the lorry booking office from where we can get into some lorry loaded with sugar or vegetables bound for Kerala. There we waitied till 9 for the lorry, making the stacked old tyres as our seat, chatting with some mallu drivers etc. who were curious about our unusual trip. After loading the bikes we hopped into driver's cabin and I dozed off. It's drizzling when we got down at Gundulpet after an hour and a half. In fifteen minutes we found a lodge but unfortunately, there was no dinner available at that time :'-((
*** DAY 3 ***
Buoyed by the prospects of cycling through the forests of Bandipur National Park (Karnataka) and
Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary (Tamilnadu), we started off by 8:30.
It's pretty different from the previous days.. conspicuously absent were the honking of horns,
blaring noise, smoke n dust, and the sun.. markedly different terrain.. and morning beckoned with
a welcoming drizzle.. we went past sunflower fields on the valley at the 'edge' of The Deccan,
with the view of The Nilgiris and The Western Ghats stretching afar.
I tried to click some close-ups of bees doing their business with Sunflowers..
)
When we stopped by a culvert to take a sip, there were some Black breasted Finch Larks pecking on some grains on the road; my first sighting of the species. Soon we enter Bandipur- we were not sure whether they'd allow us to cycle through the National Park. But there were no uniformed security guards at he entrance of the Park.. was too low profile for a NP. All too sudden there's change of terrain, and we were gaining altitude.. for me even first gear didn't help, and we're all pushing the bikes.. We discussed about the possiblity of elephant herds coming our way.. best strategy would be to just turn and go down the slopes..
All kinds of warning signs for drivers started appearing like.. "Animal Crossing: Drive Carefully", "Animals have the right of way", "Do not feed deers" etc. With each such sign I grew more anxious to meet some beast. But the most interesting CAUTION sign read "RIGHTAIPINBENPS, DRIVE SLOVLY" !! While pushing up those hairpin bends, first in our way, Luke was narrating this incident of his friend in IISc who once came to Bandipur in his motorbike, and stopped by the road to relax and was leisurely looking at the scenery thru his camera, when suddenly a leopard appeared in the viewfinder ! This chap couldn't gather enough courage to hold on and click.. of course, instincts took over, and he scrammed.. but it seems he still clicked holding the camera down when frantically scanning the scene with naked eye to just to make sure he's got enough time to escape. But we were unlucky (or lucky, may be ;-) as far as animal sighting was concerned, but the forest was all calm and the clime as cool and soothing.
After we went past the office of the National Park, there were some spotted deers and a troup of Bonnet monkeys. From the cars and jeeps passing by, people cheerfully waved at us.
)
After 12km through Bandipur National Park,
we reached the territory of Tamilnadu state- It's entrance to Mudumalai WLS.
On the bridge at the border, it's written "Nilgiri District Board".
The signs read- 1080m above MSL. Ooty is 72km away, and Gudalur 22km.
Two police inspectors there stopped us and wanted to
check the baggage to make sure that we're not carrying any liquor bottles.
They warned us to be careful and cycle close to each other as the chances of
spotting elephants are more here than in Bandipur. It started drizzling
as we moved on. 5km from the border, we reached Theppakkadu, the headquarters
of the WLS.
"2002: International Year of the Mountains", proclaimed a billboard with bio-geographic details of the important peaks of the Nilgiris. I remembered reading about the UN Environment Program declaring this year as 'International Year of the Mountains'. And there we were.. having the best of mountain biking !
Did some shopping for T's and caps at the WWF Nature shop. Heavy downpour started and we're stranded there for more than an hour. Killed some time listening to Manoj explaining his experience of operating Ham radio. When the rain subsided, by 4pm we decided to carry on towards Gudallur.
Drenched from head to toe, 'feeling' the rain, listening to it pattering on my cap, breathing heavily the damp forest air, I traversed the ups n downs of the Mountain terrain, disturbed from my rythm by vehicles passing by once in a while. After a while I caught up with others. All are eager and alert for the the jumbo encounter. And finally, less than 100m from us, across a muddy stream we met three of 'em, one a baby.. they climbed the slippery slope and disappeared into the forest. Now there's more energy and excitement in the air though we didn't have lunch. We're moving faster. Within a couple of kms we had the second sighting, this time closer, just about 50m. First I saw a mother and a baby, then there's another tusker. I stopped to pull out my camera. Manoj urged not to stop and clear from their sight ASAP. Inorder not to appear boorish, I decided to abort the photo session and followed him.
When pedalling by a thicket, suddenly two spotted deers jumped high above the bushes and disappeared.. heads turned to all sides.. but what caught my eyes the most was the fleeting, flustered look on Manoj's face.. and he blurted out, "are you sure they fled 'cos of us.. or S-O-M-E-T-H-I-N-G E-L-S-E ??!" I figured it's the hallucinations triggered by an under-fed, over-sized stomach and overworked muscles. "Huh, may be a leopard !", I retorted, moving on.
)
Just outside the boundary of the WLS, there seemed to be a sizeable population
with lots of plantations around. It's still drizzling.. we reached
Gudallur by 5:15, and headed straight to Indian Coffee House, and ate like
refugees from a famine-stricken country. We had covered about 50km from the
morning.
I went in search of a cycle shop to get the brakes fixed- they were in bad shape.
Also the rains caused more trouble. When approaching Gudallur there was a
helluva slope where I lost control and came down with such a force.. thought the
brake cable's gonna break.
Though initially we planned to halt for the day at Gudallur, we changed our mind and decided to go till Kerala border, Vazhikkadavu, some 30km down the road to Nilambur, since most of it would be down the ghat road, as we were told. But for the promised steady downhill to come, it took more than 10km of gruelling hill terrain.. with just enough twilight to make out how the road twists and turns.. well there are no straight stretches even for 100m. It's a very bumpy ride. By 7pm we reached a checkpost at Nadukani, 12km from Gudallur.
It's really dark, local people advised us not to cycle down the ghat road in the dark.. as elephants are frequently seen on this stretch. A jeep driver informed that the road is in pretty bad shape, and just the previous day, he saw an elephant on the road at around the same time.
'What to do ?'.. alongwith the beedi smoke lingering there, the air smelled of our confusion for sometime.. And we waited for some lorry to arrive. May be we can just trail behind the lorry, as they'd be fully loaded and would brake the engine by putting in 2nd gear mostly and so very slow and easy for us to follow. The first lorry arrived, the driver got down for a tea-break. We talked to him about our plan and asked for help. He suggested us to go in front instead, as we can see the road clearly and have better control. But then we'd be the first to encounter elephants, and for that case we planned to stop and let the lorry pass the elephant with us trailing behind..
Excitement revved up as the driver turned the ignition key.. at some turns the road was full of pools of water and scattered stones. For the most part, I was going with the group, just in front of the lorry.. hand muscles were getting stressed by keeping the brakes almost fully engaged- with the rains, they were less effective.. In one steep stretch, I felt the brakes have gotten a bit loose.. and I's losing control and hurtled down the bumpy road at break neck speed, in the drizzle and darkness, with the hissing of wet air whizzing past my ears, I braced for a crash any moment, leaning onto the handlebar.. frantically trying to brake, but to no avail.. I went numb at the thought of an elephant getting in the middle of all these !
Then there's this sound of clattering of the chain.. that's Anil approaching from behind and he zoomed past.. I's struggling to come to grips with my bike going outa control, but he seemed to be just freewheeling down! I yelled to slow down.. just when we turned there were two cars and a jeep coming up the winding road .. in their headlight I could make out the turn.. Anil tried to dodge to the edge of the road, but there was a small gutter formed by rainwater and he went tumbling down the road.. I braked by dragging my footwear and somehow managed to stop just before hittings his cycle. It took a few seconds for our guys and the lorry to reach the scene. Then with the glare of headlights from both sides, I's regaining my balance and getting up, Anil took time to get back from the shock.. he had a pretty bad crash, and hurt his leg but luckily no wounds and all are safe, and his cycle's still in rideable condition !
After 2hrs of the most gripping, jolting ride I ever had, with some moments of anxiousness and uncertainty, saw two torch lights being beamed towards us. Two policemen at the checkpost, having difficulty in understanding the motives of these crazy creatures coming out of the darkness without any lights fitted on their cycles, at this hour of the night when it's raining.. They started firing questions and we tried to convince that all the way down the ghat, we came in front of the lorry. By this time they had a cursory look at the lorry and let it go. It's all dark again and we proceeded. I's in front, just in the nick of time, I realised that there's one more road-blocking bar there and tried to manoeuvre around its edge, went off the road, hit somewhere and again I toppled, bruising my knee. Then the light turned on, I cursed the damn power cut which brought me 'down to earth'. Within a km we reached the Vazhikkadavu town, found a new lodge and anchored.
The day's trip-meter read 80km.
*** DAY 4 ***
It rained heavily during the night. It wasn't much different after the dawn-break. So we decided to abort cycling the rest 20km to Nilambur, and hired a jeep, loaded the cycles and left for Nilambur railway station to catch the 9 o'clock train to Shoranur. Reached the station by 7:30 and went through the rigmarole of 'parcel booking' for the bikes.
By this time we got used to the stares from people. Manoj's place at Shoranur was our planned cycling destination. After visiting his 'Mana' we went our ways. I'd booked my bike again to Kannur. While sitting in the train, tired but contended, changing vista of the experience on the road chugged through the mind as a train of thought.. thru the rain and shine, day and darkness, ups and downs..
Sheryl Crow's lyrics was playing in my mind while I flipped through a magazine..
Everyday is a winding road
I get a little bit closer
Everyday is a faded sign
I get a little bit closer to feeling fine...
...
I'm just wondering why I feel so all alone
Why I'm a stranger in my own life...
...
I've been wondering if all the thing I've seen
Were ever real, were ever really happening.
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*** E ***
*** N ***
*** D ***
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) Map: by Manoj
View my trip photo album |
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