After a wonderful Day 1, it was 11 in the morning when I woke up
the next day. Got freshen up in no time and we went to the wedding
function. We left Kottakkal in the afternoon with our first destination
set as Kappad beach. It started raining heavily just a while after we entered
the highway. But, we were prepared for that.
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| Route Map - Day |
It was cloudy and very dark when we reached Kappad beach,
but luckily rain stopped for a while. The historic beach where Vasco Da Gama landed
for the first time in India five centuries ago, was completely deserted that
evening owing to the heavy rains. The dark sky, yellow sandy beach, the nicely
maintained walkways altogether presented a wonderful view.
We saw a lone vendor in the beach selling different kinds of fruits kept
in saline water. He had fruits like apple, guava and a host of others. We tried
almost all of them, especially a lot of pineapple.
Once the rain mellowed down, we started off without forgetting to click
a few selfies in front of the memorial describing Vasco Da Gama’s landing.
We rode slowly through highway along the beautiful Kozhikode
beach. It was the only place where we couldn’t manage at least a single
click because of the heavy rain.
We visited the SM Street popularly known as Mittayi
Theruvu, one of the busiest streets in
Kozhikode, lined with innumerable stalls with majority of them selling various
kinds of sweets. We also stopped at one of the shops in the Halwa Bazar just a
km away, to buy some world famous Kozhikodan Halwa or Sweetmeat. We were
welcomed by an eye catching as well as mouth-watering collection of halwas of
various types and colors. The guy in the shop was very cordial and kind enough
to let us taste almost all of them before buying any. We left the place after a
really satisfying purchase. The hospitality of the staff in the shop is
commendable.
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| Kozhikkodan Halwa Bazaar |
With no more places to visit that night, we left Kozhikode with our halt
for the day planned at Mannarkad in Palakkad district. At some point we thought
we will not make it till there, because of the heavy rains. But somehow we
managed to reach Mannarkad as planned, and found a cheap stay there for just
400 rupees per room. A day’s ride completely in the rain, we had plenty of
stuff to get dried up. Had some light snacks as dinner and we retired to bed
for the day. The only disappointment we had was the lesser opportunities we got
for photography because of the rain. However, at the end of the day it was the
ride that mattered...
The final day...
The plan after the second day’s ride was to wake up as early as possible
in the next morning, the final day of our trip. But as always it was almost 9
AM when we set off from the hotel, after having a nice breakfast.The route
we were gonna take was the more thrilling part for us, Attapadi – Mulli –
Ooty – Masinagudi - Bandipur – Bangalore.
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| Route Map - Day 3 |
The drive through the Palakkad Gap was again a
wonderful one. This Gap in the Western Ghats is a low mountain pass surrounded
by forest. Our companion rain came back just when we started climbing the pass.
This slowed down our pace, but made the scenes around more beautiful. The road
was almost covered by the thick foliage of trees on both side, which made it
feel like we’re passing through a dark green tunnel. We came across plenty of
small waterfalls created by the rain on the steep escarpments of the pass.
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| Palghat mountain pass |
On the way, we stopped at the Silent Valley National Park, just to click some pics at its entrance. We were not interested in
visiting it, as we had a lot to cover that day and the ride was our priority.
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| Clicked on a friendship day with some really good friends |
By the time we left Silent Valley, rain left us for a while and we drove
along the Attapadi – Mulli road. A river runs in parallel to the road making
the route more serene.
Only at the Kerala check post at Mulli, I realised that I don’t
have the RC book and other documents of the bike with me. We forgot to check
that in the hurry of completing the formalities while hiring the bike. A
huge mistake. We contacted the vendor and got copies all those through watsapp,
and the officials in the check post where satisfied with them and permitted us
to cross the border. They were very friendly and cordial and needs special
mention. The Tamilnadu checkpost is just a few hundred meters away. They too
permitted us after checking the documents, without making any trouble.
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| Ride through the forest at Mulli |
From there on it was drive through another mountain pass amidst thick
forest. Here, it was not as green around as we came across so far. This was the
only leg in the entire journey where we felt the warmth of the sunlight. We
were stopped at another check post just after a few kms. It was the Canada
Power House check post. Photography is prohibited here. They too let us after some
inspection and documents verification.
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| Distant view of the Canada Power House |
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| The huge pen-stock pipes running down the hill |
We saw a board nearby warning about presence of Maoists there, also
displaying photos of several Maoist criminals in the ‘Wanted’ list. The Steep
hair pin bents, forest with elephants and other wild animals, no network
coverage for mobile phones, threat of Maoist attack- altogether it was a
dangerous proposition. That said, this route is a paradise for any adventurous
bike rider.
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| Another view of the Mulli route |
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| View of the valley from a Viewpoint on the way |
We reached Manjoor after more than an hour’s drive through this
mesmerizing landscape and had lunch there. After Manjoor, the tea plantations
started showing up, different landscape from the previous ones. Drizzles that
left us for a while too came back. We stopped number of times in between and
went into the tea plantations, pine forests etc., and had enough clicks. The
nature was so tempting that it forced us to bring out the cameras despite the
drizzling.
The view of Love Dale railway station from the pine
forest looked like a beautiful painting. Ooty Lake, Chocolate Museum were the few other places we visited there, and didn’t forget
to have a clicks at the renowned Ooty railway station as well.
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| Love Dale |
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| At the Chocolate Museum |
Few of the many models made of chocolate displayed in the Chocolate
Museum:
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| Ooty Railway Station |
It was getting dark and we had to reach Mudumalai before the gates were
closed. We took the Ooty – Bandipur route via Masinagudi
which itself has a lot to offer, but since we were already behind the schedule
we couldn’t spend time there. We just passed through the place, without
clicking even a single picture.
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| Spotted on the way to Masinagudi from Ooty |
We reached Mudumalai on time and continued our journey through the
Mudumalai and Bandipur National parks. The ride through the forest in the night
was a different experience. We spotted plenty of wild bisons and elephants so
near to the road. But stopping on the way in the night is so dangerous and we
were not willing to take the risk of stopping for photography.
It was almost 9 in the night when we reached Gundlupete after crossing
the forests. After a short tea break we continued to Bangalore, stopping once in between at a Punjabi Dhaba somewhere near
Mysuru for dinner. Our eyes showed strong signs of tiredness when we finally
reached back Bangalore after 1 AM. Since I had to catch the flight just a few
hours later, I quickly packed up, took a cab and left to the airport. I somehow
kept myself awake till boarding the plane. I fell into sleep the next moment
the flight took off.
When I woke up, the flight was hovering above the Trivandrum airport,
time for me to get off. I couldn’t believe how fast those 3 days went. More
than a 1000 kilometers, through 3 states, 8 districts, it went so fast.
Snowy hill stations, cascading waterfalls, lakes, rivers, thick forests, landscapes of
different types, beautiful mountain passes, we came across all. All in the
throughout company of rain. My legs were struggling hard while walking out of
the plane, but my refreshed soul had the energy to go another thousand miles.
But for now it’s time to check my inbox and see how much I have to travel to
complete another milestone at work. Tomorrow it’ll be the start of another
several weeks or months of work, and that means the refueling for the next trip
too begins. Let that happen not too late.
Before signing off, a big Thanks to my friend Sreerag for making me part
of this incredible ‘Monsoon ride’...
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