A Ride n 1/2: Granite Mntn n GSHill-Ooty
One more weekend well utilised. Saturday a small ride to a Granite hill with arun and keerthi some 30 KMs from home. Sunday endurance kinda run to GopalSwamy hill and ooty all in a day with keerthi and santosh.
Saturday evening we were up the Granite Mountain for the sunset. Amazing view from top all so near to home. Thanks for arun discovering it. But it takes some 10 KMs offroading through mud, slush, dust, stones gravel, steap climp n all to earn it. But once on top its all worth it.
Was all dark by the time we climb down. Not a sunset at full glory due to clouds but of good enough. The view of small village lights spread across was nice. Ma bike took a fall while goin donw. Lessen don use front break decending a steap gravel strewn rock face:D. Pretty tough for me got cramps in the hands;) Plan for next day already hatched by keerthi there. GopalSwamy hill and Ooty it is. He wanted a long ride looking at he bleak biking opportunities in country cos he likely to go on a long stint to malasia.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE PIX
Peace, salvation ..... what ever it was :D but felt real good being there. :)
Woke up at 3.45 am thinkin whether to go or not. Sure wanna bust ma A$$ with an endurance kinda ride but ma hands sore cos of the prev day's offroading with keerthi and arun. 20 mins thinkin and call keerthi up saying may not be joining.!!
me: up and running?
keerthi: up but running in 10 mins, will be there 15 mins.
me: ok will come there by that time.
did i say yes?? i did and am on a roll. felt energised instantly. no thinking just do!!:D was out of the house in 30 mins. find lone keerthi at family mart at 5.10. no sign of santosh whose mobile no good and was supposed to be there by 5. We leave lookin at the heavy schedule.
Mysore highway good dood nice rip. santosh calls from a booth and he's comining in. joins us shortly and make a dash to mysore with breakfastbreak at mtr. in mysore by 8.00 and off to nanjungood and at gopal swamy detor by 9.30. with a sea of livestock. the All red keerthi pearces cows,bulls etc honking n we follow. find the detor for Hydroxide's Perfect lake!! get there to find a car n some gyes occupying the spot and so we offroad along the perimeter of the lake to find us a thambu gaading spot:D, could see $hit on the path, no bull$hit infact elephant $hit:D. found a place and side stands donw on the edge of the lake and the motographers go click happy. not heat here, gentl cool winds beating the sun. 11 time to start towards gopalswamy hill.
me goin there third time and it all looks completely different this time too. find some gyes on bikes, dunno if they were bikers cos pillions were not wearing helmet. pic stops and at the summit 11.30. sun pretty high but cold winds was welcome reprieve from bangy heat. went inside the temple with a big congregation waiting for the blessings. but the priest was giving a lot of gyan and was going on and on. felt the need for space and went out and sat in a shade lookat the mejestic mountain range while i wait for the gyes to come out. that was soothing.
gyes out and a short trek plan is made by keerthi and we do some. was awsome walking along the light green grass made by the first rains of the year. take a small break under a tree and find ourselves as perverts disturbing many a milliped matings:D continue to the next hill and cross some ruins and ancient wall. have a stone just enough for the tree of us. dump stuff and chillax. with constant coool breeze and cloud cover coming intermitantly. could have spent the whole day sleeping on the stone(disclaimer: all 3 of us are straight, no pervertial interpretations:D). 1pm and being scoured by santosh to beat it we head to the road. with still ooty in the itenarary and all royally hungry. trek back to find elephant dung even there!! and get to the temple. rinsed our faces with the cool borewell water.
make it the paws restranunt for lunch. fond memories here, where last time there it was with the big group of 15 strong. buffe it is for 100 bux. who cares just fill the plates please:D, me in 2 minds to continue for risking attending a friend's wedding and santosh not in an endurance mood, but keerthi all in enthu to continue looking at his bleak riding opportunities in future;). n ma jacket zipper goes kaput. time to innovate wear it the zipper back and belts off the pant and on the jacket. smart ehh!! pretty dumb looking:D. wat the hell come so far and lets do it, coerse santosh into it too;) now keerthi is running at the risk of getting beaten up by santosh:D
damn!! ate too much and now on pretty bumpy roads well desinged to throug u off the seat regularly. but got to move on and get in to the bandipur sanctuary beautiful roads. weather as perfect as it can be. just tailer made for riding. nice curves. deers, monkeys and peacocks show up briefly every now and then. cross the sanctuary with the tamilnadu cops interrogate our whereabouts. ooty 35 kms to go. now comes the mother off all climbs i did. last time a come donw this ghat. but din look as steap that time while goin down:D. me struggling between 2nd and 3rd gear. 2nd taking the tacho to 8-9k RMS and 3rd with full throttle does only 4.5 rpm and bullockcarting up. :mad: each of those 35 hair pin bend being a challange which is quite narrow and vehicles comeing opposite. finally up and pykara lake it is by 4.20. all the way from ooty infested with the worst possible roads and nasty two wheelers driving like crazy(but not fast :D). if only they lay proper road will make for realy good curves.:( 325 Kms says keerthi's sigma and only 300 more to go;)
knew gonna be pretty late by the time we get back. walk for the lake spend some 15 mins there. now we gotta head home. a round of masala tea and back on the bumpy road till ooty. now roll donw the steap road. pretty challenging but enjoing none the less. another flying run in the sanctuary. we where hardly doin tripple the speed limit:D its dark by the time we hit gundle pet. and now its the dance with the opposing lights. found the zma taillamp were attractive:D. in mysore by 8.30. atleast its 4 lanes now. estimating 11.30 to home.
first time riding this road will the the lanes well painted fresh. Rip time it is. the traffic and the darkness really making the ride fun on the other wise boring road on my underpowered bike. we watch the vehicles zips past us in reverse direction. :D dinner at MTR. and similar rip to bangy. byes and home by 11.30.
one awsome ride after so long time(one month it is:D). enjoyed every bit of it. all 625 KMs of it in 18.5 hours. new stuff i did? leaning like crasy on the worst possible bumpy ooty roads:D
Saturday evening we were up the Granite Mountain for the sunset. Amazing view from top all so near to home. Thanks for arun discovering it. But it takes some 10 KMs offroading through mud, slush, dust, stones gravel, steap climp n all to earn it. But once on top its all worth it.
Was all dark by the time we climb down. Not a sunset at full glory due to clouds but of good enough. The view of small village lights spread across was nice. Ma bike took a fall while goin donw. Lessen don use front break decending a steap gravel strewn rock face:D. Pretty tough for me got cramps in the hands;) Plan for next day already hatched by keerthi there. GopalSwamy hill and Ooty it is. He wanted a long ride looking at he bleak biking opportunities in country cos he likely to go on a long stint to malasia.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE PIX
Peace, salvation ..... what ever it was :D but felt real good being there. :)
Woke up at 3.45 am thinkin whether to go or not. Sure wanna bust ma A$$ with an endurance kinda ride but ma hands sore cos of the prev day's offroading with keerthi and arun. 20 mins thinkin and call keerthi up saying may not be joining.!!
me: up and running?
keerthi: up but running in 10 mins, will be there 15 mins.
me: ok will come there by that time.
did i say yes?? i did and am on a roll. felt energised instantly. no thinking just do!!:D was out of the house in 30 mins. find lone keerthi at family mart at 5.10. no sign of santosh whose mobile no good and was supposed to be there by 5. We leave lookin at the heavy schedule.
Mysore highway good dood nice rip. santosh calls from a booth and he's comining in. joins us shortly and make a dash to mysore with breakfastbreak at mtr. in mysore by 8.00 and off to nanjungood and at gopal swamy detor by 9.30. with a sea of livestock. the All red keerthi pearces cows,bulls etc honking n we follow. find the detor for Hydroxide's Perfect lake!! get there to find a car n some gyes occupying the spot and so we offroad along the perimeter of the lake to find us a thambu gaading spot:D, could see $hit on the path, no bull$hit infact elephant $hit:D. found a place and side stands donw on the edge of the lake and the motographers go click happy. not heat here, gentl cool winds beating the sun. 11 time to start towards gopalswamy hill.
me goin there third time and it all looks completely different this time too. find some gyes on bikes, dunno if they were bikers cos pillions were not wearing helmet. pic stops and at the summit 11.30. sun pretty high but cold winds was welcome reprieve from bangy heat. went inside the temple with a big congregation waiting for the blessings. but the priest was giving a lot of gyan and was going on and on. felt the need for space and went out and sat in a shade lookat the mejestic mountain range while i wait for the gyes to come out. that was soothing.
gyes out and a short trek plan is made by keerthi and we do some. was awsome walking along the light green grass made by the first rains of the year. take a small break under a tree and find ourselves as perverts disturbing many a milliped matings:D continue to the next hill and cross some ruins and ancient wall. have a stone just enough for the tree of us. dump stuff and chillax. with constant coool breeze and cloud cover coming intermitantly. could have spent the whole day sleeping on the stone(disclaimer: all 3 of us are straight, no pervertial interpretations:D). 1pm and being scoured by santosh to beat it we head to the road. with still ooty in the itenarary and all royally hungry. trek back to find elephant dung even there!! and get to the temple. rinsed our faces with the cool borewell water.
make it the paws restranunt for lunch. fond memories here, where last time there it was with the big group of 15 strong. buffe it is for 100 bux. who cares just fill the plates please:D, me in 2 minds to continue for risking attending a friend's wedding and santosh not in an endurance mood, but keerthi all in enthu to continue looking at his bleak riding opportunities in future;). n ma jacket zipper goes kaput. time to innovate wear it the zipper back and belts off the pant and on the jacket. smart ehh!! pretty dumb looking:D. wat the hell come so far and lets do it, coerse santosh into it too;) now keerthi is running at the risk of getting beaten up by santosh:D
damn!! ate too much and now on pretty bumpy roads well desinged to throug u off the seat regularly. but got to move on and get in to the bandipur sanctuary beautiful roads. weather as perfect as it can be. just tailer made for riding. nice curves. deers, monkeys and peacocks show up briefly every now and then. cross the sanctuary with the tamilnadu cops interrogate our whereabouts. ooty 35 kms to go. now comes the mother off all climbs i did. last time a come donw this ghat. but din look as steap that time while goin down:D. me struggling between 2nd and 3rd gear. 2nd taking the tacho to 8-9k RMS and 3rd with full throttle does only 4.5 rpm and bullockcarting up. :mad: each of those 35 hair pin bend being a challange which is quite narrow and vehicles comeing opposite. finally up and pykara lake it is by 4.20. all the way from ooty infested with the worst possible roads and nasty two wheelers driving like crazy(but not fast :D). if only they lay proper road will make for realy good curves.:( 325 Kms says keerthi's sigma and only 300 more to go;)
knew gonna be pretty late by the time we get back. walk for the lake spend some 15 mins there. now we gotta head home. a round of masala tea and back on the bumpy road till ooty. now roll donw the steap road. pretty challenging but enjoing none the less. another flying run in the sanctuary. we where hardly doin tripple the speed limit:D its dark by the time we hit gundle pet. and now its the dance with the opposing lights. found the zma taillamp were attractive:D. in mysore by 8.30. atleast its 4 lanes now. estimating 11.30 to home.
first time riding this road will the the lanes well painted fresh. Rip time it is. the traffic and the darkness really making the ride fun on the other wise boring road on my underpowered bike. we watch the vehicles zips past us in reverse direction. :D dinner at MTR. and similar rip to bangy. byes and home by 11.30.
one awsome ride after so long time(one month it is:D). enjoyed every bit of it. all 625 KMs of it in 18.5 hours. new stuff i did? leaning like crasy on the worst possible bumpy ooty roads:D
posted by Praveen at 7:30 PM
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