I reiterate, I hate Hills and the climbing involved (from a bikers perspective). But some force keeps the strings attached. I end up head on with the arch rival.. "The Highlands" !! So you probably are wondering where did he end up this time? The title sure didn't give away the location.
Ooty...!!!
There's almost always an overhaul of plans with every trip planned. The Saturday's agenda was to ride a new route just before Hoskote. Major Srinivas was the ride buddy this time along and destination changed to (kalatti) Ooty. We decided to start on friday night and drive to Bandipur, park the car and ride to Ooty. I had work on Friday which finsihed by 3 and then got busy with preparations for the trip. The 'preparation aspect' skipped the most important check - the condition of the car. Major reached house just by 9pm and the luggage was all packed and ready to be loaded. Just before installing the bike rack, I turned the key but no crank. Damn.. the battery had died. Not this at the last minute. But then, whats an adventure without something exciting happening and this was just the start. So Major, my brother and I started racking our brains for alternatives.
There's almost always an overhaul of plans with every trip planned. The Saturday's agenda was to ride a new route just before Hoskote. Major Srinivas was the ride buddy this time along and destination changed to (kalatti) Ooty. We decided to start on friday night and drive to Bandipur, park the car and ride to Ooty. I had work on Friday which finsihed by 3 and then got busy with preparations for the trip. The 'preparation aspect' skipped the most important check - the condition of the car. Major reached house just by 9pm and the luggage was all packed and ready to be loaded. Just before installing the bike rack, I turned the key but no crank. Damn.. the battery had died. Not this at the last minute. But then, whats an adventure without something exciting happening and this was just the start. So Major, my brother and I started racking our brains for alternatives.
Major :: We have an option to jump-start the car using his friend's logan. Worst case scenario was to take the Logan on this trip. Very kind of Vijay who agreed to loan us his vehicle in case we weren't able to start the car.
My brother :: Being a just dial freak, like the google for the techies he has just dial (a local search engine) :-). I hate to say this but it WAS Just dial which helped. Called in a breakdown service (Damn..500 bucks for starting) and those guys arrived in just over half hour.Managed to jump start it with a spare battery. Once started, left the engine running while we installed the bike rack and then mounted the bikes with the wheels off. Loaded the rest of the luggage and started to Ooty finally at 2am.
I :: We can either do a night ride with a place yet to be decided. Or make it a two day trip which includes riding all the way to ooty. Return journey was to be flexible. Ride or by bus.
Ride was a little as usual, smooth all the way to Mysore and then I relied on GPS for a while within mysore then followed the sign boards to Nanjangud. Nice night drive on the State highway to Ooty. Good road conditions except for the stupid multi-hump speedbreakers..!!!! Some without even a signboard or a marker. Managed to reach the Bandipur checkpost by 5:30 and tried to get a powernap. Vehicles lined up waiting for the clock to strike 6. After that it was quite a rush hour and every body wants to be the first, not us. Once the traffic cleared we started towards the Bandipur lodges. But after 3-4 kms from the checkpost we saw the roads were good, there was a climb, and elephants were seen grazing. Major quickly snipped, lets ride right from checkpost so we turned back and parked the car at a shop near the checkpost and switched to "ride mode". A quick Dose of Tea for Major and we left for Bandipur. A welcome drizzle ever so fine welcomed us as we climded the first 'mini ghat' to reach the Bandipur lodges where there is an office for the tourists willing to go on a Safari. Soon we were riding through Bandipur and it looked like it had rained a last few days. The lush greenery and pure oxygen kept our minds alert as we scanned the surroundings for any wildlife. Soon I ended up losing all air in the rear tyre and that was a bummer. I could clearly see the expression on Major's face " Dude, Tell me this is not happening again". To know why, here's a chance to review the trip report to Yercaud the first week of September 2011. This time I was carrying a new spare foldable tyre taken from Kiran(The tusker). Thanks to that as it saved the day. Discarded the old Kenda continental ( 2500kms) and put on the new Rubino. This one sure blends well with the bike. After a 25 minute ordeal and a quick warning from the forest guard to watchout for "WILD" animals, we left for Kalatti. At Masinagudi stopped for a quick refill and I had to discard an electrolyte solution that I had bought in bangalore called "Electrobion". You have the right to wonder why...The first sip and my mind goes, did you just put the outlet hose from a washing down your throat? It tasted like soap water. So empited the rest and filled up Gatorade. I took an oath right there, No more electrolytes of new brand. I'm happy with Gatorade, so I'll stick to it no matter what, for any rides in future. Had chappatis and aloo curry prepared by mother. Then it was a non-stop ride to the summit. The elevation wasn't that bad I thought as soon as the climb started but about half a km later we started maintaining single digit speeds. A km later I see the marking Hairpin bend 36/36. Lovely a countdown in reverse.. !! I kept watching out for rest of the the boards. A steady pace ensured that we didn't get tired too early. Astonishing gradient, not an easy one compared to Yercaud which is twice the distance of the climb but the same height. The worst slope is about 200 mts and the going gets tough. I was searching for a lower gear not knowing that I already had hit the lowest. Stand up and pound till reaaching the top of this slope then more of the steep gradient followed. About 6-8 hairpin bends to go. Phew..!! I thought about the sipping chilled soft drinks once I reached the summit. Humming songs and weaving about I was excited when I saw the last hairpin bend and took it with quite a bit of pounding on the pedals. Then looked back if Major was closeby and he was a few metres away. You demand more excitement... here it is.. Another cleated fall where I managed to uncleat when my palm was 2cm from ground :-). No injury and I asked Major to continue as I quickly mounted and cleating in such a gradient was a pain. Soon Major was ahead and I had trouble cleating my left foot. After a lot of tries once I heard the blissful click didn't look back or stop till reaching the summit, where the gudalur and the kalatti roads meet. Time taken :: 1:38:40.
Had 7-up .. finished the gatorade and refilled the bottle with last pack of gatorade. I'd forgotten to carry the Relispray as I ended up with sharp pain in the left shoulder.Anyway it was going to be downhill now and it should be tough. I was mistaken and by a HUGE margin. I would anyday consider climbing a hill than a going downhill on a gradient like Kalatti. I was confident of the bike's braking power but not the power left in me to hold on to the levers. Most of the downhill braking was on the hood but switched to the drops as the pain in the shoulder was agonizing. I simply wanted to get to the base as soon as possible but that wasn't going to happen because I almost ended up in a small gully as a TNSTC bus going to Ooty, swerved at a curve leaving just a cm's gap and this guy wasn't considering slowing down in-spite of seeing Major and I from a distance instead he went full throttle. Damn..!! a close call..!!
Kanakpura-Bannur detour >> http://g.co/maps/f63pr
So a Drive of 485kms coupled with 120kms of cycling with an elevation of 1222mts. With just an hour's sleep in the last 38 hours..!!!
http://g.co/maps/b8f5d
More pics here.
Hey! I've got a similar discovery jersey too!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes. I hate electrobion too.... The only stuff i like are gatorade, gluconD-isotonic and electral (in that order).... On shorter non-strenuous rides i like Tang (yes, it has electrolytes too)
And abt the brakes.... Its always best to get into the drops, as you'll get more leverage, and its easier to feather the brakes....
And 1:38 for Kalhatti is AWESOME
Hey Neruomancer.. Thanks bud.. Yeah.. my oath is to stick to gatorade no matter what..!! And I simply love the discovery jersey.. Friggin cool colors.. Best jersey i've ever owned.. !!
ReplyDeleteGanzy Boy! That was one insane ride. Driving overnight and climbing Kalhatty without much sleep and driving back. Marathon effort indeed! Great ride and good post. May the force be with you to keep the craziness going! :)
ReplyDeleteHey Venky. Yep insane it certainly was. If there is a companion to share the insanity then the trip gets better :-). We should ride together sometime.. :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat ride..reminds of the pain in the shoulder when coming downhill ..and most often the difficulty to break on the hoods due to the steep gradient.
ReplyDeleteTrue Mayank. I had sharp pain in shoulders and I kept changing from hood to drops. Drops gives better leverage and control power on braking, however you have to stoop too much and that clubbed with the gradient makes it worse. I wanted to try the gudalur route but somehow it skipped my thought. I might ride this again sometime in August or Sept. But nothing is confirmed until a couple of days before the ride ;-)
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