The RED pill or the BLUE pill.
The scene : Morpheus sitting in front of Neo in a dimly lit apartment says "This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arcJksDgCOU&feature=related
10:40 PM March 11
The scene : A red Tata vista is parked on 1st E main road, with a Rockrider and Merida MTB bikes sitting tight on the affixed cycle stand. Inside the car I play Morpheus, and give the other 3 occupants the same choice. Blue pill we go back home and probably join the next month cycling ride as its too late already. It would take us at least 4 hours to reach Gundlupet where we break for the night and it wont be fun getting up early again and start cycling. Red Pill lets just start driving and take things as they come. Harsha's head says blue, heart says red. SK is silent. Anil jumps for the red pill and seeing that all of us go for the red pill. The trip is ON.
FLASHBACK
8:00 PM , March 11.
"Picking you guys in 10 minutes", says Harsha over the phone. I find my cycling gear from the nook and corners of my wardrobe (having been used only once before) and pack them in my kit bag. Dinner done, I settle in front of the TV watching Bangladesh staring in front of defeat against England. SK is on his way to Anil's place and by 8:30 PM we should be off towards Mysore. 8:30 turns to 9:30, Bangladesh have turned the tables around and seem to have a chance , frantic calls from Anil asking where Harsha is, start coming. I put my patience to test by not seeing the big wall clock and concentrating on Bangladesh's batting instead. 10:15 PM, Bangladesh have finished beating up England, now I have nothing to keep my attention off the clock. Finally at 10:30 PM the sound of horn outside confirms the presence of Harsha. A glitch at getting the cycle stand onto the car took Harsha all this time. The universe conspires to make sure that Harsha lives upto his reputation !
Bangalore-Mysore-Gundlupet.
Hotel Pathan International
Flight re-scheduling 101
Harsha had a flight to reschedule and on the previous night, attempts to do so while driving towards Mysore in the middle of the night had not quiet worked out. We already knew half the Kingfisher airline customer care personals by their first names. As we started towards Bandipur from Gundlupet the decreasing cellular signal strength meant that Harsha had very little time to finish re-scheduling his flight. The main cause for the delay was getting password for authorizing credit card transaction over the phone. After another 10 minutes of frantic calling Harsha finally had the password, by this time however we had entered Bandipur forest area and the signal strength of the mobile was all but a single short bar at one corner of the mobile. Harsha came close to re-scheduling a couple of times but during the crucial password entry part the call would drop off. Anil finally brought the the car to a dead halt where the signal strength was a little better and the midst of chattering monkeys and chirping of birds Harsha placed the call and finally all things worked out, the cellular signal held on and the re-scheduling was done. we all let out a sigh of relief once the operator blaring from the speaker of Harsha's mobile confirmed the re-scheduling ! Check out the audio below !
FLASHBACK
8:00 PM , March 11.
"Picking you guys in 10 minutes", says Harsha over the phone. I find my cycling gear from the nook and corners of my wardrobe (having been used only once before) and pack them in my kit bag. Dinner done, I settle in front of the TV watching Bangladesh staring in front of defeat against England. SK is on his way to Anil's place and by 8:30 PM we should be off towards Mysore. 8:30 turns to 9:30, Bangladesh have turned the tables around and seem to have a chance , frantic calls from Anil asking where Harsha is, start coming. I put my patience to test by not seeing the big wall clock and concentrating on Bangladesh's batting instead. 10:15 PM, Bangladesh have finished beating up England, now I have nothing to keep my attention off the clock. Finally at 10:30 PM the sound of horn outside confirms the presence of Harsha. A glitch at getting the cycle stand onto the car took Harsha all this time. The universe conspires to make sure that Harsha lives upto his reputation !
Bangalore-Mysore-Gundlupet.
There was very little traffic on the road and Harsha after getting a gauge of how wide his car was considering the two cycles on the stand behind was driving at ease. In 2 hrs 30 minutes we had crossed Madur, Mandya and had reached Mysore. We had managed to jump across each and every speed breaker that the road had thrown at us. Spotting speed breakers at night devoid of any boards/signs requires 6th sense which all of us in car seriously lacked. On reaching the Nanjingud road, Anil took to the wheels, the road from Mysore to Nanjingud turned out to better than expected and in an hours time we were sitting at a coffee day, Gudlupet having hot chocolate and some sandwiches.
Hotel Pathan International
At 1:30 AM we arrived at the gates of Pathan international. The ambiance around did not do much justice to the name international glowing on the board. The manager who was woken up from a deep sleep quickly acknowledges the prior booking and even though being half sleepy conversed with us only in English even though we were talking to him in Kannada (he was talking to his subordinates in Kannada though) ! We were given two rooms , while a dorm waited for the people who made the journey by bus. We occupied our rooms and quickly went to bed with a liberal use of odomus the mosquito repellant. The good part was that the mosquitoes did not bother us but the bad part was that the bed bugs were not bothered by the odomus !
We woke up at 5:15 AM. A phone call from Yathish at 5:20 AM confirmed the arrival of the bus load of 33 riders. By 6:30 AM we were driving towards Bandipur, the start point of our ride.
We woke up at 5:15 AM. A phone call from Yathish at 5:20 AM confirmed the arrival of the bus load of 33 riders. By 6:30 AM we were driving towards Bandipur, the start point of our ride.
Flight re-scheduling 101
Harsha had a flight to reschedule and on the previous night, attempts to do so while driving towards Mysore in the middle of the night had not quiet worked out. We already knew half the Kingfisher airline customer care personals by their first names. As we started towards Bandipur from Gundlupet the decreasing cellular signal strength meant that Harsha had very little time to finish re-scheduling his flight. The main cause for the delay was getting password for authorizing credit card transaction over the phone. After another 10 minutes of frantic calling Harsha finally had the password, by this time however we had entered Bandipur forest area and the signal strength of the mobile was all but a single short bar at one corner of the mobile. Harsha came close to re-scheduling a couple of times but during the crucial password entry part the call would drop off. Anil finally brought the the car to a dead halt where the signal strength was a little better and the midst of chattering monkeys and chirping of birds Harsha placed the call and finally all things worked out, the cellular signal held on and the re-scheduling was done. we all let out a sigh of relief once the operator blaring from the speaker of Harsha's mobile confirmed the re-scheduling ! Check out the audio below !
DAY 1 RIDE
After a quick breakfast, close to Karnataka -Tamilnadu border we had our bike assigned to us by Yathish, I had the pleasure of riding Yathish's Trek 3700. Anil and SK quickly learnt the gear operation and by 8:15 AM we crossed into Tamilnadu and started pedaling across the Mudumalai forest towards Ooty. The Ride was a comfortable one to start off, with flat stretches along with a few slopes and drops. Myself, Anil, Harsha and SK stuck together as we pedaled across the Madumalai forest.
We pedaled across the forest filled with chirping birds. The deers held their head high to watch with curiosity as 30 + riders rode across. We did see a couple of tamed elephants being led by the mahout across the forest. The day was getting hotter but the cool breeze as we rode across provided relief. The canter was always hovering around us and provided water whenever needed.
Slowly and steadily we made our way past Mudumalai forest. A ride of 25 kms took us into the town of Gudlur. We had covered this distance in approximately 2 hours. The map below shows the route that was taken by us.
After a quick T-break at Gudlur we braced ourselves for the all uphill climb to Ooty.
We climbed the initial few uphills with a lot of vigor, meticulously changing gears going to lower gears to take on the uphills. The sun was now in all its glory shining down at us as we rounded off one uphill after the other. 30 minutes into the ride and now we did not bother to change gears anymore, we tried to peddle harder and leave the uphills behind. But one uphill lead to another, our eyes would expectantly look out for the downhill round the corner only to be met by another uphill. 45 minutes into the ride we felt we had been riding all day and broke our journey for rest. We continued after a 10 minute break only to stop riding after another 20 minutes.
We were fast running out of our water supply and after an hours ride we were now pushing our bikes across the uphill terrain and riding intermittently ! Another few breaks and we were out of water. The afternoon sun along with the uphill terrain had us now looking for the canter to sweep us off the road. A small girl from a tea estate who was waving at us as we pushed the cycles along when asked for water took us into the estate where we could fill our bottles. Water along with the peppermint found in Yateesh cycles front case gave us a new vigor to take on the climb. The canter with many riders stopped to inquire if we wanted to join. We waved the canter away and continued to pedal. After another 15 minutes we found ourselves in another break trying to overcome the fatigue. Yateesh came along in the car and told us that the spot where they had stopped for lunch was 2.5 km away. We resisted the temptation of putting the cycle on to the car and riding with Yateesh. Instead we pedaled along. It took us 30 minutes to ride the distance and the sight of all the riders having lunch was a welcome relief.
Lunch
It was 1:20 PM by the time we reached Naduvattam, the designated spot for lunch. The vessels with the food soon were all empty bearing testimonial of the calories expended by the riders during the climb. From Gudlur we had climbed approximately 2000 ft in 14 kms and had taken 3.5 hours.
After lunch we relaxed under the shade of a bus stand, this was followed by a cup of tea. There was another 5 km of uphill after which the terrain was less punishing with a few uphill and downhill. Most of the riders after lunch started towards Ooty. We as a group decided that we had done enough for the day and based on previous rides experience knew our limitations. The cycles were strapped to the car. Yateesh got his cycle in exchange to the car key and off we went towards Ooty. We doubled up as support vehicle provided water to other riders, helped folks who were facing problems with the bike and also those who were suffering from cramps. We took multiple breaks to enjoy the lush green scenery and of course the famed Ooty carrots.
By 5 PM we had reached Ooty and made our way to YWCA where the lodging was arranged. We were pleasantly surprised to see a few riders had made it all the way to YWCA before we had arrived not even getting off the saddle but taking on the steep uphill that went all the way from the gates of YWCA to the reception.
At the YWCA reception there were room numbers against our names and within a few minutes of reaching YWCA we had our room keys. The room turned out to be a huge bungalow with interiors spic and span. The temperature had dropped to around 9 deg C now and had us get our jackets outs. After fixing up the air-lock in one of the taps the hot water flowed freely and we freshened up and slipped in our caps and sweaters to keep ourselves warm. We settled in front of the TV to watch India take on South Africa in a world cup tie sipping tea.
The option of having dinner at hotel Durga did not win the vote of confidence among the riders and all decided to care for themselves. We got into the car at around 7:30 PM and as we drove downtown, Google and some online reviews lead us to Sidewalk cafe famous for its oven baked pizza. And as we entered the restaurant we were greeted by familiar faces, 3/4 of the CAM riders were right there !! All had done their homework well to find the right place to eat. We had a sumptuous dinner with Pasta, soup and Pizza, the bill was taken care by Yateesh as a treat for his birthday which had just passed. The good food had taken away half the weariness of the ride. We got back to our room watched India loose to South Africa in the last over and tucked ourselves warm for a good nights sleep.
The option of having dinner at hotel Durga did not win the vote of confidence among the riders and all decided to care for themselves. We got into the car at around 7:30 PM and as we drove downtown, Google and some online reviews lead us to Sidewalk cafe famous for its oven baked pizza. And as we entered the restaurant we were greeted by familiar faces, 3/4 of the CAM riders were right there !! All had done their homework well to find the right place to eat. We had a sumptuous dinner with Pasta, soup and Pizza, the bill was taken care by Yateesh as a treat for his birthday which had just passed. The good food had taken away half the weariness of the ride. We got back to our room watched India loose to South Africa in the last over and tucked ourselves warm for a good nights sleep.
Day 2
By 7:30 in the morning we were ready and were getting our cycles out from the canter. The "expert riders" along with Yateesh had already started towards Doddabetta at 6:30 AM. Harsha fixed most of the issues brought up by the riders by the twist of the Allen key. With new break pads and vigor all the riders started towards hotel Durga for breakfast. Necessity they say is the mother of inventions and previous days "hard" ride had given enough motivation for people to be innovative, the picture below says it all !
As the last of the riders left we got into the car and drove towards Hotel Durga. After having Pongal/Vada in the Jam-packed hotel and settling the bills we decided to hop into the car and catch up with the other riders who had left an hour earlier. After about 30 minutes ride in the car and seeing other riders we stopped on NH-67 waited for the canter, got our bikes out and were all set to start the days ride at 10:30 AM.
The Roller-Coaster rideA kilometer into the ride and we were greeted with downhills, the legs rested on the pedal and it was left to the hands to do the controlling and breaking as we took sharp plunges one after the other. It took us just over 35 minutes to cross the first 10 kms of the ride, a few uphills were encountered but were always followed up by downhill rides. The downhill meant that we had more energy to stop by and take pictures at each and every scenic location !
In 1 hour and 15 minutes we had reached the previous days lunch point. We knew from the previous days ride that it was downhill all the way till Gudlur from here. The frequency of downhills increased and we were now traveling at an average speed of 30 km/hr. Cars were no match to us as we overtook them rounding the corners ! We hit a peak speed of 58 km/hr during one of these downhill plunges. In 2 hours we had covered a distance of 36 kms and reached hotel Archies in Gudlur for lunch. We could feel the change in climate as soon as we reached the flat lands of Gudlur the chill in the air had given way for the blazing sun. After lunch and sufficient rest we continued our journey towards Bandipur. We stopped more often for water breaks and steadily made our way. The terrain had changed from tea gardens to the dry forest land. The video shot through my mobile shows us ride across the Madumalai forest.
Another hours ride in the Madumalai forest and shooing off the canter once again from sweeping us we finally reached the Karnataka-Tamilnadu border. The waiting SRS bus marked the end of the ride. The map below shows our day 2 ride.
We rejoiced after completing the ride. All the water bottles were emptied by the 33 riders and now had to depend on the well nearby for drinking and freshening up.
Harsha and Yatish were back in business to sort out the cycles and to set them off in the appropriate canters. Another 45 minutes and we were all ready to head back to Bangalore. By 5:00 PM we had started back towards Bangalore and Anil on wheels took us back to Bangalore after a brief stop over at Madur Tiffany by 8:00 PM.
Once again a heartfelt thanks to the CAMS team for organizing this trip which would stay in our memories for a long time. Hope to join for more rides as the summer ends. Photos from the ride can be found here.
