Thursday, May 04, 2006

Mission Yercaud

10.30 PM April 28 2006 Animesh, Amithab(Mota), Syan, Biru and myself(huez) were at a fuel station in Madiwala, Bangalore filling our bikes with fuel. In the next few minutes we press started our mean machines and headed towards our destination, Yercaud.

Yercaud is a hill station near Salem, Tamil nadu. Its altitude is 4500 feet above sea level. Its about 220 Km from Bangalore. Our route was Hosur, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Topur, Salem, Yercaud.

This is my first night ride and I was more thrilled than the rest. We were 5 guys on 3 bikes, 3 black Pulsars. I was the one to zip zap first and squeze thru the hosur road traffic. The rest caught me after 5 km. As we crossed electronic city the road was open and we opened the throttle crossing speeds of 100km/hr. Soon Animesh zoomed and disappeared in the dark. Biru and I were hanging around overtaking each other.

We stopped just before Hosur for some breath and started again. The next stop was after 120 km. And then one more in Salem. Our salem halt was the longest close to an hour. We stopped at a Iyengar Bakery to have snaks. Since Iam the only guy from Tamil Nadu I had to speak to local people for whatever the team wanted! I really liked that;) The shop keeper was very happy to speak with me. We had a good chat on the sudden change of climate, it had been raining for past two hours. Luckily we arrived after the rains are over and the climate was very cool.

It's now 4.30AM on saturday. Biru was restless and wanted to start to climb the hill. We pulled up the socks and started towards yercaud. The base of hill was around 10km from salem junction. As we started climbing we say the salem city view which was breath taking. The lights of the city looked like start in the sky. We took a short break there. We saw local peope go for walking at 4:30 AM on the hills!

We started, taking every haipin bend with our power machines! 23 hairpins! ultimate curves! chill wind! dense trees!....and so on. Then we saw the sun rise as we go up. Awesome!!

We had a cuppa hot tea in Yercaud town arount 5AM. The locals told us we cant get lodging as this is the peak season. There is no other way so we had to settle down with a suite with rs 1250 per day rent for 2!

We had a good rest for a hour or two, then had breakfast took a quick bath and left for boating. But Biru and Animesh chose to take rest in the suite.

After Lunch we started towards Kauveri Peak situated 13km from Yercaud towm. The road was ultimate with splendid curves and ups and downs. We took every curve at the best possible speed, and enjoying every scenic beauty too. We drove each other's bikes and commented on them and on our riding skills too.

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We spent some time there in Kauveri peak and started towards yercaud town in a different route. This route was 22 km and was very enjoyable. We took a few snaps and rode back to Yercaud. We had a hot cuppa tea and went back to our suite and took rest.

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8 AM Sunday I could'nt sleep any more so I woke up and saw Biru still snoring hard! We ordered some sandwiches and watched some tv. Our plan was to vacate the suite by 11AM and head towards Hogannekal falls. We went down and took some snaps and a pre-lunch so that we wont feel hungry on the way.

11.30 AM we are on our bikes going down to salem. I decided to stop the engine and just zoom on the slopes. My bike is doing 60 - 70 km/hr without burning the fuel! But one has to be very careful as the bike will be hard to control when the bike is not on gear.

We then refueled our bikes and started towards Hoganekkal. Now the time is approx. 12.30. The route we took was omalur, Mecheri, Pennagaram, Hoganekkal. The route was very good with good road and greeneries all around. We reached Mecheri around 2PM and had our Lunch there. We had Meals with Fish fries. The food was very good and it only costed Rs 160 for 5 persons !!

At 5PM we are at Hoganekkal bargaining with the Boat guys. Finally the boat man aggread to take us around for Rs 300 + 50( for tickets). We floated for 1.5 hours watching the sunset. The falls were amazing, lots of the. There should've been atleast 8 - 10 falls there! We didnt take bath as we had to leave to bangalore.

(Pic blocked by server)7:15 PM we started towards Bangalore. Our route was Pennagaram, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Hosur, Bangalore. we stopped after 10 km just to see the pitch black sky with millions of starts twinkling. Adding to the beauty is the thin cresent of moon! The stop was for 15 min.

8.15 PM We are in Dharmapuri looking for a hotel to have our dinner. The locals suggested Saravana Bhavan near the 4road junction. The food was great and costed only 1/3rd of that in bangalore!!

Our next stop was in Krishnagiri around 9.30PM we had tea and snack. The Express way from then was superb. We started taking our bikes to our limit. I wanted to break my record speed of 117 Km/hr but couldnt as i didnt want to risk it at night. I touched 110 km/h. But I was not alone. Biru and Animesh were riding right beside me.

Once we saw the silkboard flyover we knew we're at home. As there were no one else on the city roads we maintained our hiway speed till koramangala. We reached our homes on Monday around 2:15 AM.

The trip thus ended but the memories we'll cherish for ever.

huez
hiwayREBELS

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