Exploring the Niligiris with the Beast

The entire world is going through a tough time. Covid 19 had brought everything almost to pause. But thanks to the super heroes who are fighting day night to defeat this pandemic. The situation was worst in India in early 2021 but things have improved a lot due to fast vaccination and prolonged lockdowns.

Being a responsible obedient citizen I was also locked in my house almost for a year to keep myself and others safe during this pandemic situation. From last few months the government has started opening the tourist locations once again to resume the tourism business as the tourism market has been downward trended from last 2 years due to this Covid crisis.

I have just come back from Kolkata in mid-December and I did not have any plans for ride because I knew in December, it doesn’t matter where you go, everywhere it will be over congested and overpriced. So moral of the story, if you want to plan your vacation in December, then plan it early, then it will be economic and also well planned and well organized.

This time credit goes to our star rider Faraz Sheikh. One fine evening he just casually called me and was checking if we can plan for a ride to somewhere nearby Bangalore in the Christmas weekend. I knew Anand will be travelling to Chennai in that week so he can’t join us. I checked with Mamta and she was available in that week. So now the trip was on but the only things required were to decide the place and book an accommodation. We decided to explore Ooty and Connoor this time. While finalizing the accommodation we realized that we have planned it very late. But at last, we managed to book a descent hotel at an overpriced cost.

So it was a 4 day trip starting from 24th Dec to 27th Dec. We started early. Two bikes (RE Classic and Thunderbird) and 4 riders. Before briefing about the journey, I would like to introduce the new rider in our group this time. She is Rakiba, Faraz’s wife. She is a lovely, jovial, brave and courageous lady. Very lively and energetic. She did not let us realize that this was her longest bike ride. You already know rest of us (Mamta, Faraz and myself) as I have already introduced ourselves in my previous travel blog.

We decided we will not take the Mysore road as construction work was in progress over there and so we took the Kanakpura Highway. Luckily there was no fog on 24th Dec morning and we were able to ride out of Bangalore within 1.5 hrs. We maintained a descent speed of 80kms/hr. to 90 kms/hr. But although we took the Kanakpura highway but when we touched the highway we saw that the maintenance work was going on over there also. We reached Bandipur at 11:30 AM approx. There was huge queue for 4-wheelers at the Bandipur Mudumalai check post. But as we were on bikes, we had the privilege to skip the queue and enter Tamil Nadu. After crossing the check post I realized that the right chamber of my saddle bag is touching the silencer pipe and unfortunately the realization happened very late. I found that the 60% of the lower surface of my saddle bag had burnt and few of my clothes had also burnt. It was discovered as such a place that nothing could be done or arranged. So I just changed the allocation of the chambers and started riding again. As Ooty was not that far from Mudumalai forest.

We were lucky enough to see wild elephants on our way. From Mudumalai the complete topography changed and the roads were narrowed and hairpins started. We enjoyed the ride and the moment we touched Ooty, we can feel the downfall in temperature. The scenic beauty was so good that we forgot about the tiredness of the ride. We reached the hotel by 2:30 approx. The hotel was below average but the staffs were friendly. We did not go out anywhere on that day apart from having lunch as we were super tired. We just allowed our body to relax as it have already taken lot of stress throughout the day.

Day 2 was very crucial for us. It was 25th December and entire Ooty was crowded. Looking at the roads we felt that the entire Bangalore has gathered in Ooty to spend their Christmas. We started a bit late as we had decided to visit the local Tourist locations on that day and had kept Connoor for the next day. We went to Pykara Falls, Wenlock Shooting Point and Kamraj Sagar Dam. We planned to visit Ooty Lake also in the evening but could not enter the lake as it was over crowded. By the time we reached Ooty Lake, we saw that at least 100 people standing at the queue to take the tickets and that would take at least an hour. So we decided to drop Ooty Lake from our plan and visit Botanical Garden but when we reached the place, we found the same story over there. Hence Botanical Garden also had to be dropped. We decided to end our day over there and but also agreed to start very early next day as we did not want to miss anything in Connoor.

As decided, we started very early in morning for Connoor. The road was very good and the scenic beauty was awesome. We rode through lot of tea estates and small villages. Connoor was not too far from Ooty, its 16kms only but due to high altitude and multiple hairpins, it took almost 45 mins for us to reach Connoor.

We visited Dolphin Nose, Sim’s Park and Avalanche Lake. Dolphin Nose and Sim’s Park was in Connoor but Avalanche lake was on the way back to Ooty. It’s an offbeat and less commercialized place. We all liked it very much and spent a lot of time over there. Although this was my second visit to Ooty but I did not come to this place during my first visit.

Day 4 was going to be very crucial and hectic for us because it was a long way to go and we have to reach Bangalore by evening. Although, we could not finish as per plan as we were sent back from ooty Mysore road by the Tamil Nadu police telling that’s one way and we are not allowed to go through that road. But we did not have any clue about this in the google maps. This made us ride additional 15 kms. I can say riding additional 15kms in hilly roads is almost similar to riding 50kms on highway. And for me and Mamta it was super difficult, as we were carrying an extra duffle bag because one chamber of my saddle bag was burnt while coming to Ooty. But a big and special thanks to Mamta, she managed everything on her own not letting me feel the burden at all. At every moment, she proved herself to be pro sportswomen…  We reached Bangalore by 7pm and I dropped Mamta at her place by 8:30 PM. Faraz and Rakiba also reached home by 9PM. I reached my place at 9:30PM and the trip came to an end.

This was a lovely trip and we enjoyed a lot. Probably the secret of success and enjoyment in these trips is our bonding. We understand and respect each other. We do not have any leader in our group but we always listen to each other and vouch for the best opinion. Let’s see when we can plan our next ride.

Things to remember before visiting to Ooty

• Ride with safety gears and use helmet, if you are going on bike

• The mobile network is not so good in the hilly areas, so you have to be very careful while following Google Maps

• Niligiri is a plastic free zone and so you won’t get 1litre water bottle anywhere. So its recommended to carry water in your own bottle

• Do not stop anywhere between Mudumalai and Bandipur to take photos. If you do so, it might happen to be your last photo.

• If you are planning to travel in this pandemic then please follow the covid rules and restrictions.

Safe Drive…Safe Life…