Ride to Yelagiri Hills

Where to begin…

Most of the time it happens that we make great plans out of excitement or just for the sake of it because planning is very easy but we fail to execute those plains because of several reasons. Right from the beginning of this week, me and my colleague had been planning to ride somewhere on weekend. We were first thinking to ride to Wayanad, Kerala which is close to 670km from Chennai but I found it a bit long for a weekend ride because we would have ridden on Saturday and I wanted to be back by Sunday night which means no time to actually see the place. So I suggested Yelagiri Hills which is about 235km from Chennai and easily doable in one day. We can even ride back the same day and that’s what I was planning to do. As Wiki says, Yelagiri is a hill station in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu and is surrounded by orchards, rose-gardens, and green valleys.

So I started looking at the route on Google maps. The route was fairly easy and a known one because I have ridden on this road several times.

 

Also check out the hairpin bends which were in store for me J

As we approached the weekend, what I expected actually happened. My colleague backed out saying he had to go to Bombay urgently. But this time I didn’t want the plans to fail and I had already decided whether he is coming or not I am definitely riding.

So the plan was to start riding by 06:30 am on Saturday(24^th May), take a breakfast break at 08:30am, reach Yelagiri by 11-11:30am and head back at around 2pm, have lunch at around 3:30pm and be back home at about 5pm. Fairly simple and doable.

Also my ViaTerra Velox had had arrived surprisingly after one day of ordering it. Carrying stuff while riding is much easier for me now.

Either or both of these two bags can be used while riding. I took only one of them and decided to observe their performance and utility while on the ride. Fitting it on the bike was like a piece of cake because these are specifically made for KTM Duke motorcycles(200 and 390) and it takes only 10-15 seconds for each bag to fit on the bike. Removing it from the bike is also very easy.

I also carried a GoPro camera borrowed from my friend. So at 06:45 am trying to fit the camera on the bike but unable to figure out certain mounting techniques because I was using it for the first time. Finally after spending some time on it I was able to properly fit it on the handle bar of my bike. I started riding at 07:20am.

I usually don’t take many stops on a ride. I kept riding and after covering about 100km I started feeling very hungry and stopped for breakfast. Meanwhile I was also manually clicking pics and videos of my ride on the GoPro. I felt there is some issue with the cam because it was not recording full length videos and was stopping after 11 seconds of recording. I figured that out much later.

So after breakfast I stopped for fuel and this was about 70km from Vellore which is about 133km from Chennai. A complete full tank(9litres) on KTM 390 takes me to a distance of 215km on highways.

I continued riding and the destination was not that far away now. I was doing good speeds of 130-135kmph and it’s just a pleasure to ride this bike. The acceleration is very quick and the engine can easily do these speeds throughout the day without taking much strain.

Meanwhile I had kept my DSLR bag in the Velox because carrying it on my back was causing me slight pain. And the Velox could take the medium size SLR bag in it with still some place left for gloves, a water bottle, keys. Riding became more relaxed after I took the camera bag off my back.

I tried to chase a Porsche Carrera for some time but then I let it go :P

So while doing these speeds, I managed to miss one turn for my destination and went much ahead of it. Ya right..

So much that I went almost 50km ahead of Yelagiri hills and I kept wondering what the hell just happened where the fuck is the turn I am supposed to take. Bangalore was just 90km from the place where I stopped to do some ride-meditation! I took my phone out and checked for directions. Yes.. I had come way ahead. It’s okay.. people make mistakes.

It was around 11:30am the timing I started heading back and in the correct directions. I enquired a little around and got to know that Yelagiri is almost 45km from the place I was. So what! We will ride.

It was around 12:30am when I reached the bottom of the hills and started climbing up. The route uphill has 14 hairpin bends and I was excited about it. It’s usually cold but it was very hot when I was riding.

Some pics of the view while riding uphill.

After taking a look down the valley when I looked back, I saw another beautiful view :P

Good opportunities for leaning as well!

Yelagiri is a great place to go trekking and there are several hills which require short treks to reach to the top and it offers a great view. However I didn’t have that time at my hands and I had to head back. I reached the Punganur Lake. It’s an artificial lake and now it has become a picnic spot and you can go for boating here.

It was about 2:00pm and the time to head back. I had wasted enough time already in covering the extra 100km. Any more waste of time now meant reaching home after sunset which I definitely did not want. I also figured out the settings of the camera by now to take full length videos.

Riding down the hill was also fun and I was able to lean at the corners recalling the skills I learnt on the track day J [KTM Track Day]

I started riding back and again I did not want to stop for lunch before 3:30pm. I continuously rode for 180km and decided to replace lunch with refreshments at the regular CCD we generally stop at while riding back on that route. I reached here at around 4pm. It was so hot that I wished it rained!

I took some rest here for 35 mins and started gearing up to ride again and noticed that it had started raining heavily. Just what I was hoping for. So I covered my luggage bag with the raincover which came with the bags and started riding again.

But just after 10 minutes the rain stopped and it was dry again. However it did bring some relief from the heat. Chennai was about 80km from here now there was no stopping. I reached home at sharp 6pm well before the sunset J

Here is a nice video of the ride downhill I was able to capture. It’s a 4:44 min video and please watch it and see how much fun can hill-roads be J

Solo riding clears your mind of the worldly stress. It brings you closer to your inner self and gives you the much needed change from your daily routine. I’m glad I was able to stick to the plans and went for this ride. Hope you enjoyed reading this travelogue. Ride Safe.

We can't change India until we change ourselves

Be it Modi, Kejriwal or any of the Gandhis, I will consider India heading towards a bright future only when I see the following happening:

·         People stop littering on roads and at other public places. When they start taking ownership of their responsibility towards the environment they live in.

·         People start driving and riding more sensibly on the road. Stop using mobile phones while driving if not thinking about their own lives but of their children who are sitting in the same car or motorcycle.

·         People at power in politics understand and realize that they have been elected to perform their duties of improving the basics of utilizing the tax money in the best way for the benefit of the people in the society and not playing the games of throwing the blame to their oppositions.

·         People stop treating women as if they are a species from another planet. Leave alone providing equal rights to women, the very thought of ‘providing equal rights to women’ is shameful in any society. We should not even think of any difference between men and women which leads to making efforts in ensuring equal opportunities to women.

·         Mothers stop worrying about their daughters travelling alone in public.

·         When men of India accept that their pathetic sex life leads to sexual crime and abuse of women and children.

·         When government of India passes more strict laws ensuring punishment to the culprits of sexual crimes against children or women.

·         When political parties’ campaign around intelligent thinking and education rather than spreading divide based on caste and religion.

·         When people stop judging each others’ caste from their surnames.

·         When people stop spending insane amount of money in the name of religion and spend it on the simple cause of education., example.. crores of money as donation to Tirupati or Siddhivinayak temples.

·         When the people of India become sensible enough to elect more scientists and engineers to power.

·         People stop killing in the name of religion and caste and then kill the evils of religion and caste itself.

·         Population àIlliteracyàUnemploymentàPoverty . Let’s work on the very basics first.

The control of the drivers which could bring major difference to our society lie in OUR hands. We must stop being on a mind set that it’s the job of government to bring the change. The day we start changing, we will learn of the power we have in our own hands.

Take a moment

This is our planet Earth.

   

Take a moment ...look at it... Look at it's colour ...imagine it's sight when viewed from space. Try to imagine how different it must be from other astronomical bodies. All the other planets are so boring in their colour, Saturn could be an exception with its rings but still it's sight is not as delightful as our planet. All the water on Earth gives it it's blue colour which makes it a spectacular heavenly body according to me. It's so beautiful it brings me chills. This picture above is an actual photograph clicked from Moon. Let's thank the world of science for letting us see our planet in its most beautiful sight.

    

         I don't want to repeat the words of Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot here. You should be able to imagine the fact that all the humanity which has ever lived and that will ever live, will be on this planet.   Although science doesn't deny the possibility of an extra terrestrial life. You should be able to appreciate the fact fhat this beautiful piece of rock is our home in an endless and infinite universe. If you have a wild imagination then you must be able to imagine our place in this universe. You will realise how small we are. You should be able to imagine the round shape of Earth and always remember that we live on its surface, stuck to it due to gravity. Next time you fly and look down through the window seat, you should be able to imagine that you are viewing our planet from above its surface, i.e. from space technically..although by a very small quotient. Try to imagine the vastness of our planet, so big that it's surface looks flat. If you are able to view the sunset while flying, consider yourself lucky and enjoy the beautiful sight. Click a picture. 

        

Next time when you look up at blue sky, try to think, what gives the sky it's blue colour? If you are curious you will go home and Google the answer. When you look at the stars at night, always remember that it takes light years for the light to reach from the stars to us. Literally you are looking back in time. Some of the stars might be dead by the time it's light actually reaches us. 

Now imagine how we look at each other. How we have divided ourselves in terms of nations, religion, caste and colour. Try to look at humans from space, as an outsider what do you notice? It's only us who has created all the differences amongst us. Obviously you can't do anything about it. But you can take a moment to realise our place on this planet, and our planet's place in the universe, making it just one small ..very small piece of rock amongst infinite number of stars and galaxies in the universe.