Ladies and Gentleman, once upon a time there lived 4 brothers who lived in a small house in a small village in India. Everyday they went to the woods in search of food and fire, and came back by evening completely exhausted. The day would end with some wine and bread together, before they slept off prepping up for the next day's ordeal. Everything resembled routined monotony, but it kept them safe. However, they knew it can't go on forever, it had to change.
One fine day, enroute their usual search place, they came across 4 Stallions wandering with graceful roaylity in the woods, and it started to decrypt, what was missing. That precious thing, which can neither be bought nor be sold, neither be written nor told, it can only be sought and tyrant-ly felt. It is often described my many as Freedom, Contentment, Inner Peace, Knowing Thyself. I do not know how or what to name it, I just believe it tranforms an average individual into an Indie Person.
Those four brothers, there on, went on to ride far off places, from Mountains to Oceans, from kingdoms to Forests. Their bond grew stronger, and what unveiled eventually was the sweet nectar of brotherhood, freedom, contentment and they rode together happily ever after...
Cliche'd is it?
Ladies and Gentlemen! Introducing the four stallions!
Tamil Nadu celebrates Pongal with a lot of pomp and pride. For an "outsider" like me, it is a beautiful feeling to be a part of the vibrant celebration, and also it brings us, much sought after and rare, LONG VACATION. (A little about we 4, we come from the same college of engineering, placed in the same company, and stay together. We bought our dominars, more or less, at the same time smitten by how beautifully it blends into our requirements.) This long vacation we planned to ride through the beautiful terrains of South India covering about 2,700 kms in a period of 7 days.
A peek into our ride plan:
Day 1: (Chennai to Dindigul)
Saturday's are our half-days, and post work we started directly from office at about 1 PM. As it is with almost all weekends, GST was overcrowded with outstation buses and cars, added to that it was the on-coming pongal holidays, that put us completely off, as It was extremely congested all the way till tindivanam. The journey was rather uneventful, and our speed were restricted to 70~80 kph, thanks to the crazy crowd.
Caption 1: @ our Office Parking spot
[L to R: Sushant (aka Susu), Aravind (aka Golu), Karthik (aka Lala) and yours truly (aka Pujju)] Day 2: (Dindigul - Sholayar Dam - Coimbatore)
We started by about 7 AM after a good night's sleep. We had already fuelled up last night, as our general custom, to ensure we could hit the roads straight. We had to cross the holy town of Pazhani before we start our accent to Valparai. Dindigul to Pazhani was single lane state highway, the route condition, though good, was quite busy with pedestrian pilgrims walking on the shoulders of the highway.
We stopped by a place for some hot sundal (Boiled Chickpeas) and coffee
If you notice, there is a separate pedestrian pavement, however there would always be some rebels, walking on the highway instead.
As we started early, we didn't have time for proper breakfast, and we found this amazing place on the outskirts of Pazhani. It was a roadside small place run by this super sweet family. The place doesn't have a legit name or board though, but you will be smitten by the ultra crisp and delicious Dosas, which aunty makes with ot of enthusiasm.
Post our filling breakfast, it was time to hit the roads, since the time we started yesterday, we haven't experienced empty roads, to blissfully enjoy our dominars.
Post Pazhani, the roads opened up, and as you approach the foothills of Valparai, you are greeted by windmills and humungous farmlands.
Posing
Got BHP?
As we were about to ascend, we were caught by cops who had made up their mind in making some serious moolah. Upon being stopped, we were quite confident as we had all necessary documents ready with us, including PUC for a vehicle that hasn't completed 1 year, just to be extra sure! They checked our documents, and were disappointed, we cheered them up by saying they were doing a great job by checking on every biker reducing the risk of a mishap, and ended up making good friends with them. They gave us a thumbs up, and asked us to ride safe.
We were welcomed by picturesque mountains, and the serene tea estates of Valparai.
I'd let the photos do the talking for a while.
Lower Aaliyar Dam
We had decided to take a U-Turn at Sholayar Dam and reach Coimbatore before the sun sets to ensure we are not riding in the dark on the ghats.
Sholayar Dam can be seen almost 5 kms before you reach the actual gate. (Water was much lesser, you could see the water line when the dam is at its best)
We managed to descend before it was dark.
We reached Coimbatore, had booked a hotel via Booking.com. Nothing interesting to talk about, had quick dinners and rested for the night.