Bangalore-Ooty Ride

This was second longish ride for me. We started off from at Bangalore University at 7AM. Six bikes -Deep on his TB ,me on my Std, Gokul R15,Prasad TB, Kalyan with Phani Electra and ofcourse Jay on his LB 500, (he got rechristened to Bindu Rani will come to that later :). Jishnu and Nai Roast were going to starting late. So was Manas and Adrian.



The initial stretch was the Mysore highway SH17. Long four lane straights meant we could have clipped at 80+ but the cross winds made the going a little tricky. Deep did a good job of keeping the group together. After riding 70 odd kms, we stopped at Inderdhanush for Poori Sabji breakfast. It was decided that Deep would point and Bindu Rani(correction he was still Jaygay then) would sweep.



On reaching Mysore we took the bypass to Ooty. Close to Bandipur , there was 15 km stretch where the roads were littered with potholes. We enjoyed the bumpy ride, atleast I did- woke me up from the morning slumber :). We stopped for lunch at PugMark restaurant. Adrian on his RD350 was already there. Wonder how long it took it him to get there- Probably a couple of hours for 200 kms :). We had Manas, Jishnu and Nai Roast joining us there.



After a sumptuous lunch of phulkas, sabji and chicken we were on the road again. Twenty kms on and we were going through Madumalai forest. This section had some nice curves(no pun intended, what do you except in a jungle afterall amdist a horde of elephants:)). Finally after crossing the jungle, it was the hairpin bends. As we made the ascent, the temperature dropped gradually and before you knew it was the mountain air atlast. There is just something about the hills, probably its to do with the altitude and the greenery around, which is so refreshing. Been a while since I last took to the hills. Had done my class 1 in Wellington, 1990 it was. Brought a lot of nice memories gushing back. Wellington is a few kms from Conoor- swell place I must say.

Ooty was just a few kms now.Deep had organized our stay some 4kms off Ooty. The view was just something else. Do have a squint at the photographs if you can. We reached the place around 3 30. It was about 310 kms from Bangalore from my odometer. The weather was great. The spitting rain gave way to some sunshine and we had a beautiful evening ahead of us, the chilly air notwithstanding.

Must say the arrangements were great. Around eight, there was a bonfire lit where we all congregated. Jay was given the name Bindu Rani as he kept saying 'bindu' in his kannada for -thats the point. Then we had snacks followed by dinner. Great food rounded off the day.

I hit the sack early as I had to reach Bangalore in the afternoon, for which I had to make an early start the next day. Next morning at 8 we were off- Kalyan and Phani too joined in. The descent was a little tricky, given the light drizzle made the roads slippery at some places. Consequently, we went slow downhill, stopping in between to give the heated-up brakes some much needed break.

The ride back was uneventful as far as breakdowns go, thankfully. We maintained a decent pace after breakfast at Pugmark. We hit Mysore by noon. Here we split up. Was nice riding with Kalyan and Phani on the way back.

From Mysore it was steady riding, uneventful except for getting chased by the rain. Managed to elude the rain till the outskirts of Bangalore. Was back home by 4: 10 ish, a little damp, but content.

The ride was just out of this world. Great gang to ride along with. Thanks Deep and everyone else for making the ride happen. Had a blast.

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