Road Burners- Ooty

it was out of blues my collegue(Ganesh Rao- GG) msged me and asked me if we can go to Ooty

and i rplies why not how abt going on bikes.........thats it he was ready and so was my cubile mate (Abhi) and my roomie(Harsha) and his cousin (Suresh)

we decided to go on the weekend on three bikes the five of us

i was all excited more was my roomie as his bike is yet to cover some kms. he he he he he he he :-))

i was supposed to get up at 4:30AM get ready and pick up Abhi from Domlur and all of us were scheduled to meet at the Ring Road-Mysore Road junction at 6:00AM.

Fortunately i got up at 5:00AM as the alaram did not go on.

I was racing the very instant i hoped on the bike vroom vroom......vroooooooooooooooooooooooooom

By the time we all met upit was 6:45....and we headed to our first stop Mysore. The bangalore -Mysore road has undergone a lot of changes. A four lane road was all there to welcome us...........it was great to ride on this strech. few parts of the road are yet to be completed. We stopeed twice to attend a few call by mother nature.

There awas a peculiar scene to watch on the highway after Mandya, a bullock cart lead by a dog kinda difficult to explain this. I hope u all have seen the leaping cheetah on Jaguear Cars.....it was the same way the dog was standing on the wooden platform next to the bullocks and the driver was steering it a great scene.

We reached Mysore at around 9:45 and ppl were hungry and looked liked they eat the whole hotel out. we had breakfact in my fav hotel in Mysore GTR(Gayathri Tiffin Rooms). ihad a burping breakfast,,,,,:-)). another of my friend Ponnana joined us for a few hrs frome here, we headed to Chamundi hills, the headquartes of Lord Chamundeshwari. Spent some time there shot a few photos and departed with my friend (sigh :-(( he was supposed to travel with us but a god damn PDF document was more important to him.......waaaaa:-(() and went towards Bandipur. On the way is a place called Gundlupet, frome here we had two choices one got to Sultan Batheri a treking place in Kerla or head straight it Ooty. Sultan Bathri is 80 Km from here and logically we would require 4 Hrs to enjoy the place with the travelling and reaching the border before seemed impossible. so we decided to go Gopalswamy Betta and Bandipur. Gopalswamy Betta is a hill and on top of the hill there is a Lord Krishna temple, the drive to the top s really good. I never expected such a drive, it was damn steep, the moment u enter the Forest area it roads lead u to the top all up up n away.....phew wonder how much my bike cursed me and me cursing for buying this powerless machine on such a kind of road.grrrr grrrr grrrr grrr we reached the top of the hill and guess wat there was a traffic jam on our way up. reason being there was a Jathre (Local festivals) there and a lot of ppl had flocked in for the event. the scenary from the top of the hill is realy mind blowing and soothing. Had never seen such colours of green in my life. the place was cool and filled with all kind of ppl. we came down the hill and then our next stop was the Badipur Forest Reserve, we had lunch in a private resort called Jungle Resort. The food was really good and all of us were hungry. Then we went to the Safari. there were no expected animals to see, the usuall Deers, monkeys and Peacock. Harsha took this glorious moment in the safari to take a short nap.

After the safari we rushed to the border. There are two routes to reach Ooty from the Madumalai Forest one is via Kallahatti the road is with 36 Hair Pin Bends and the other i dont know a longer one though. After 6:00PM we cannot take the Kallahatti route, we were there at the border at sharp 6:00 Pm and started our journey to Ooty from there. the drive is cool up the hill bending my bike (which i like to do a lot) to negotiate the turns and climbing the hill......phew. On the way as we climbed up the hill it started to get colder, we stopped at Kallahatti for a cup of steming tea. Bikes were crying and coughing for a lease of life. We had two pulsar and a Unicorn with us these arent built for the Ghats, they are best for the planes. When it was around 2 Kms from Ooty my bike was not ready to climb even in the First Gear........we stopped again and Ganes switched over to his bike. From there on there was no uphill ...........damn. In the entarnace of Ooty we checked into a Hotel Comfor Inn and made ourselves comfortable. Had drinks to chill out and a good dinner and slept tight in the cold weather.

The next day we visited the Ooty Boat House, a lake and boats floating aroung in the lake nothing much to boast abt. after that we went to a place calle Coonoor 20 Km from OOty. The drive was good with some beautiful scences. From Coonoor we went to Lambs Rock. On the way there were many Tea Estates. We spent a lot of time in the estate and Lambr rock. (I have nothing to speak abt these places:-((). We headed back to Bangalore the sameday at around 2:00 PM. Filled up our tanks as the fuel is Rs3 cheaper. The way back we had lunch in Jungle Resorts and after that the drive was terrific. Straight good roads and I was racing all alone witha Maruti Zen. The occupants of the car were kinda encouraging me to do this(no gilrs though :-((). We reached Mysore at aroung 6:00 Pm and went to our college SJCE(Harsha, GG and Myself are from the same college). From there met a few more of friends on the way and went to Kool Korner a must go place in Mysore for us. We left Mysore at around 7:00 PM. At around 9:30PM we had dinner in Kamat Janapada Loka abt 55Km from Bangalore. Exotic North Karnataka food for the empty bowels. from there we continued our journey back to bangalore. We reached bangalore at 10:45 PM and by the time I reached home it was mid-night. Had some Vodka and slept. awww wat a sleep was that i guess i did not sleep like a log I SLEPT LIKE MODHU ;-))

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