[ashwinprakas]

Prologue:

It was that time of the year again to attend the xBhp Kerala G2G and this year’s destination was set to be Suryanelli, which was a major let down for me as its very close at under 300 km’s one way and the ride was planned for 3 days.

For those who do not know me, I’m a minimalist who loves to ride hence I was torn between whether to shell up the moolah to ride 600 km’s in 3 days or to ride anyhow to meetup with my biker brothers who’re really close to me.

After a bit of persuasion I managed to convince the coordinators to arrange accommodation for a single night for me I,e Day 1 - I reach the spot and the following Day 2 - I ride back with the lot. But even then the thought of riding up to Suryanelli and back in 2 days was bothering me as Suryanelli was a spot I’d done in a single day a year ago on my TVS Wego.

After a bit of contemplation I decided to spice things up and ride to a place that I’ve not really heard much about before joining the lot at Suryanelli, the place in question was Amaravati Crocodile Farm, Triupur, Tamil Nadu, riding through TN to attend a KL G2G starting from KL did garner a few laughs but that didn’t hinder me one bit, the whole point of a ride was to haul miles and that is exactly what I intended to do.

Route:

Day 1: Home to Amaravati Crocodile Farm via Kollengode – Govindapuram route then to Munnar Pramic, Suryanelli.



Day 2: Munnar Pramic, Suryanelli to Home via Pathanamthitta.



Ride:

Day 1:

Woke up early and was about to leave by 4 AM but it was raining pretty hard, the original intention was to ride via the Madurai route towards Palani and then deviate towards Amaravati, had confirmed the route with HV Kumar Sir as well, but at the last moment instinct told me to stick with the Govindapuram route as it was raining cats and dogs and visibility was seriously compromised.

The practical option would be to wait till the rains settle but as the age-old saying goes, “If you don’t ride in the Rain, you don’t ride at all!” so off I went.

It was raining pretty hard hence I couldn’t do highway speeds, as a result the first stop had to made a bit early at around the 100 km’s mark from Home to attend to natures call.



Soon after I was back on the saddle and resumed riding till I stopped at Trissur to refuel, everything on my person was wet, due to riding with wet leather gloves on, my skin started peeling and to make matters worse the dye from the leather was staining my hands.







After filling up I set for Amaravati and made just a few stops to click some pictures, and reached Amaravati around 12 PM.































Also stopped to click a picture of the Amaravati Dam.



My next stop was at my final destination i.e Munnar Pramic, the resort where I’d meet-up with the my biker buddies from the Kerala xBhp chapter, I’d planned to click a few pictures on the way but I was stopped at Analamali check-post and was harassed a fair bit by the check-post guards and made to wait for over an hour until I agreed to pay a bribe of 700/- to be let off.

Reason? I was carrying a legally purchased, sealed bottle of liquor.

Anyways back on my way I was a bit hasty to reach my place of stay before the sun went down as the time wasted at the check post had me worried about time limitations at the check post at the other end, as once a few years ago me and a friend were forced to return at a different check post in the near vicinity.

So while hurrying did manage to scrape a few parts and almost washed out mid corner when a bus passed me at speed on a tight corner where I was beyond the point of return and had no choice than to lean hard and avoid the bus while making sure not to ride off the cliff, the rear did break traction but was able to recover as I was riding 20-30 PSI at the front and rear respectively, so even with the rear loose, I was able to power out with the front intact, though this did result in audible gasps from the passengers on the bus.

I was stopped at the Kerala check-post but they were nice and let me off after noting a log entry of my exit from the forest region.

While crossing Devikulam there was a bit of road clearing going on, but it didn't affect my pace as I was back in Kerala.



A bit later I was at my place of stay and the time was around the 4 PM mark, which was decent time considering the hour wasted at the TN check-post.





Do scroll down to the next post for the rest.

[ashwinprakas]

Day 2:

We woke up early but like always we took our own sweet time to say our goodbyes as the bunch was splitting up, a few of us would be riding to Trivandrum and the rest would be heading to other parts of Kerala where they call home.

Managed to click some pictures as we started;















The day was fine and we covered some decent miles at reasonable paces considering road conditions and due to following the strict biker code of riding only as fast as the slowest motorcycle in the group, which again if anyone was wondering is with reference to me as the lowest displacement motorcycle in the group was the Yamaha FZ Gen 1, but the rider on board being experienced was keeping pace with the bigger boys without breaking a sweat.









We reached Kottarakara by around 5 PM and that is when the rains started pouring, the guys pulled over but after honking a bit I decided to ride on as I stand by my quote:

“A Minute off the saddle is a Mile more on the highways!”

Plus I’ve ridden close to 400 km’s in non-stop rains the previous day so I was not going to call it quits just at about under 70 km’s from Home and since I wear specs I’m more dependent on the sun, also my faculties were exhausted so I couldn’t trust myself to ride at night in the rains.

Another rider who also wore specs knew of my intentions and followed suit so there we were, only the two of us riding at a steady pace doing city limit speeds on the inter-district highway.

A few hours later with me leading, a dog jumped in front of me, my ideal response would be to drop a gear and run over the dog as that is the most practical thing to do as it is a matter of life and death, but since it was raining I was pre-determined to go for a slow speed wreck if the situation arose and since it did, I anchored my brakes hard, the motorcycle held on as much as it could but eventually went into a wobble.

The drop in speed was enough for the dog to sense the danger and run but unfortunately the dog was run over by an auto-rickshaw that was trying to overtake me from the other side, this was witnessed by my co-rider who was trailing me at a safe distance taking compromised visibility and riding conditions into consideration.

Once the dog was off my path I cracked open the throttle and recovered from the slide, gave my co-rider a thumbs up and resumed pace as stopping to count my blessings would defeat the whole purpose of trying to maintain pace.

Also we’d had to ride through a patch of road that was undergoing construction as a result we had to ride through a temporary stream of water that was high enough to give my ride a few hick-ups, nonetheless she didn’t stop and kept limping homewards.

Nearing the end of the ride the rest had caught up with us as they’d resumed riding once the rains had gone down.

A snap with my spectacle'd biker brother when we split ways;



We said our goodbyes and then I headed straight for home for a well-deserved rest for both myself and my otherwise garage queen the TourMaster a.k.a Bajaj Pulsar 220 who had taken up the ride as my usual option I.e my beloved Bajaj CT100B was taking a break due to badly worn out tires awaiting replacements.

So until next time folks!



Cheers and Ride Safe,
A.P.

[Aditya]

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