It had been a while since I went
for a long ride and nothing seemed like a better time than the 3 day weekend of
15-17 August. Earlier I was planning to ride to Horsely Hills, Andhra Pradesh
which is like 270 km from Chennai. But someone told me that it’s not worth
going alone so I dropped that idea. So I posted in KTM 390 Facebook group
if any of them was riding this weekend. One of guys(Dhannan) replied that he
was riding to Kolli Hills. I immediately googled about it and found that it’s a
beautiful place. What immediately sparked excitement in me was the fact that it
had 70 hairpin bends! Then I started imagining myself leaning around the bends
hehehhe.
According to Wikipedia, Kolli
hills is a small mountain range located in central Tamil Nadu in Namakkal
district of India. The mountains are about 1300 m in height and cover an area
of approximately 280 km². The Kolli Hills has 70 hair pin bends to reach the
top of the hills. The Kolli Hills are part of the Eastern Ghats, which is a
mountain range that runs mostly parallel to the east coast of South India. The
mountains are relatively untouched by commercial tourism and still retain their
natural beauty. The Mountain is named Kolli Malai behind the name of Goddess
Ettukkai Amman(KolliPaavai).The Goddess has been guarding the hills from evils
and the same is believed even now.
I asked Dhannan if I could join
him for the ride and he was kind enough to let me ride with him. The plan was
to start early morning on 15th August, reach Namakkal where we would
have a break for sometime at his friend’s place. From Namakkal, Kolli hills is
25km /an hour’s ride away. The route we
took was this :
And the hairpin bends :)
So I woke up early on 15th
August and met Dhannan at Vandalur. I was not surprised to see the road full of
cars and bikers even at 5am ! Guess
everybody had their plans to escape from Chennai this weekend. The place I
waited seemed like a regular meeting point for bikers. Spotted few RE riders, a
Yezdi group and a Triumph Bonneville, FZ1, Triumph Street Triple, and few
Harleys waiting for assembly. Dhannan came at 6:10am and we started riding at
6:15 am. After riding for about 190km, at 8:00am we reached Villupuram highway and
decided to have breakfast. We were doing good speeds of 120-130kmph. Two stops
for petrol during the ride as we were riding fast and one full tank gave us
about 210km to ride.
We had lot of time so we decided
to take some pics on the road. Because both of us felt that when you are riding
solo there is no one to take pics haha.
The roads are just smooth so by
10:30am we reached Namakkal and waited at Dhanan’s friends house. Now he was
coming in his Maruti 800 from Chennai and was far behind us. He reached
Namakkal at 3pm. After having lunch and taking rest, we started riding to Kolli
Hills. As you are closing in the hills, the lush greenery around starts giving
you the feel of it. Even the hill roads are very smooth to ride on. Some pics
while riding up the hills:
I have never had so much fun
riding up hills. I had changed the rear tyre just a day before this ride so I
had full confidence in leaning around the bends. The experience can’t be explained
in words. With every bend you take in the right line, it’s just the feeling of
winning and happiness. Apart from the 70 hairpin bends, the road in general was
full of curves. Sadly you can’t stop at every bend to take pictures because you
have to continue riding. Although I really wish there was some invisible angel
photographer with every rider who could click pictures anytime the rider
wanted.
And finally
We reached Kolli Hills top at
around 5:15pm and started looking for a place to spend the night. Here we faced
our bad luck. All the rooms in all the lodges/resorts were booked. Luckily we
got a room at one place but it was very shady, but we did not have any option.
There were people searching for
room in their cars at 7-8pm. We had an early dinner and went to sleep as we had
to wake up early next day.
Thankfully I had a good sleep and
woke up next morning at 5am. We decided to ride even further to the top as
there was a temple and a view point where we could see the sunrise from. But we
reached a little late and missed the sun rise. There was a famous temple up
there, no pics of the temple as I stay away from temples. But yes, other pics
from the top:
From there we had to go to see a
waterfall. I forgot the name of the water falls and I felt that water was
somewhat less than I had seen in the pictures online. But it was great to be
here.
After we were done with the water
fall, we still had plenty of time so we decided to take more pictures around. Plenty of greenery around is pleasing enough.
So after our photo sessions we
decided to head back to the lodge. We geared up and at 11 am we started back to
Namakkal from the lodge and reached there at 12:00 noon. Took rest for some
time and left at 12:30 from Namakkal as we had to reach Chennai as early as
possible before it got dark. We decided to ride a little fast.
Oh boy the ride back to home I
can never forget and I was wondering why didn’t I enjoy this much while going
to that place. I have never cruised at 140-150kmph ever for this long time. For
the longest time I got to use the 6th gear of my bike. Because NH 45
is butter smooth and the traffic was less, we were able to do these speeds.
Also I touched 160kmph for at least 3-4 times for good duration of time. I am a
ton up boy now! I found my bike rpm has been blocked so could not cross 160 :-/
. Here I would just like to say that riding fast does not mean riding rash so
please do not assume that we were riding irresponsibly. Thanks :)
At 2:00pm about 25km from
Villupuram we stopped for lunch.
After the lunch we kept varying
our speeds , overtaking each other, riding slow, riding fast otherwise it could
get a little boring. So you have to play games like these to keep the fun alive :P. Although this highway
was such a welcome change from the boring Chennai-Bangalore highway.
At 4:30pm we were entering
Chennai and faced traffic jams near Vandalur. Crossing that I faced another
traffic jam at Adyar, tried my best to find my way between the traffic and
finally I was home at 5:00pm. feeling satisfied with the time we did to reach
Chennai.
It was absolutely amazing to ride
with Dhannan. He knew that we had to keep up the speeds and he knew his lines. Always
wanted to ride right behind a wheel doing such high speeds, and it’s a great
feeling and gives such a rush to your adrenaline. I conveyed this to him and
thanked him for letting me ride with him.
With every ride you learn
something new, you bond more with your bike, you become a better rider and with
every ride, you get one more experience, which makes you want to hit the road
again..to a new place. Waiting for the next opportunity to ride again :)
Keep Riding. Ride Safe.
