Thursday, June 17, 2010

Part 2: Ride to Terelu, South Coorg: Bulls Of Mysore 1A

Sitting here wasted and wounded
at this old piano
Trying hard to capture
the moment this morning I don't know
'Cause a bottle of vodka
is still lodged in my head
And some blond gave me nightmares
I think that she's still in my bed

No-No, that never happened just yet. We kick-start to black coffee and a good morning meeting with our hosts. Skanda seems to have a football and we guys got playing in the rain.


boys playing ball
My fall....


I had a severe fall on my neck.. Yep the neck and I was so goddamn lucky… i know I told it but I never had so many close misses in 2 weeks. Thanks Nahas Pareekutty for the shots…. Its really immortalized for me :p

Its time to head to Bangalore. The 2 of the 3 bikresses come with us. The rain has got to our bones

frames!

We enter Bangalore at dusk, and we finally regroup at NICE bypass. Zigzagging thru the Bangalore traffic I reach home. That’s what this ride is about – real fun, adventure, risk, making new friends, getting to know great people! Till the next ride – see ya!

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Part 1: Ride to Terelu, South Coorg: Bulls Of Mysore 1A

The Switzerland of india  - Coorg has always fascinated  me big time. I missed the RTMC cloud valley ride and was really feeling spaced out. The last ride I did was to rappa in shettihalli of hassan  district and the ride before that was a camping ride to kudremukh.

The happenstance -, Bulls of Mysore were celebrating their first anniversary and we were invited. This had to be a great occasion to get know more people and share ride stories. 
 
The concept of this ride was black and white photography. I only dreamed in black and white, all I could see was ginger plants, tea leaf buds, deers grazing in the mist, foggy weather and smiling kodagu men and women in traditional dress.
 
Woke up at 4 irrupting my log Z's and my black and white dreams, packed up my rainproof tent for two and the sleeping mat, some shirts from my Himalayan-Duo ride that said “ADY” just so that, people know where to find me. Took with me my Canon 5d Mark II, a 24-70 mm f/2.8, a 100mm f/2.8 macro an a 70-300 f/4 lens. All mounted on my lowepro backpack. I knew the weather would be all about sweetness and fragrance in coorg and so I slipped in a bottle of vodka :/
 
My Dalmatian pet – win-e doggie knew his master was leaving him and was really unquiet. Making all kind of sounds which I bet no musical instrument can reproduce. So I hugged him tight, and left him to cared for by my parents. I reach this NICE road overpass on Mysore road and I am waiting for my riders to turn up. I am ride captain for this ride. Laxmi has dropped out and other two are riding from mysore with the BOM team. Vivid thoughts of my riding alone is cropping up and I see Rajeev Paripurnan taxi down to my side.
 
Misty Palms is the destination (http://www.mistypalms.in/) the route we are planning is Bangalore - srirangapatna - ilwala - hunsur - gonikoppa - ponnampet - shettigere - teralu - misty palms
 
1st regroup point: Indradhanush restaurant on the right for breakfast
2nd regroup point: rangannathittu on the right
3rd regroup point: left turn to gonikoppa 5 km after hunsur
4th regroup point: gonikoppa at the left towards ponnampet
5th regroup point: right of shettigere (there is an orange building out there) towards teralu
6th regroup point: after 5-6 km on the left (U turn)
 
I hogged lavishly into incoming plates of tatte iddlies, khara bath, iddlis and vadas at Indradhanush. But I must admit I was just hungry and the food was really not special.
 
Not much to do in 2nd regroup point
 

holy mama Coconut

……. but photograph. I found a strange temple and a bunch of strange women manning a huge SUV now that was fun.
 
As we entered hunsur, my Classic 500 EFI had a strange sound!  I pulled over by instinct jus to see the freaking air-filter box was open. I looked closer and I found the key shaft lock and the shaft. I was on my knees thanking god profusely. I would have been outraged if the open suction hole in the air filter box would have swallowed the tiny lock. I buy 2 rolls of duct tape to shut this airfilter up. A few KTMC riders turned up and were amused to see my 1.5 lack rupee bike, gagged up in gaffer tape
 
Mysore has some amazing tobacco plantations. Staying with win-e doggie for over 10 years, I am kinda good at my sense of smell. Lol what can I say its true. Rajeev can vouch that I could smell a tobacco field. A few minutes later Mr Badri turns up hotfooting his 500cc enfield. So now the team size is 3. We see a few of our hosts from the mysore bullet club thundering down, while I get acquainted to Mr Badrinath.

As we enter coorg, we are welcomed by winding roads riddled with potholes. Rain lashes, and my Classic 500 is responding to the rain.

One inward curve, I was so confident on the bike, but the bike skid a bit. There was a truck on the other side, so I had to choose between skidding and getting out of the road. I chose the latter and was sitting all calm for a few minutes thanking my stars. The past few weeks have been progressively bad to me, at first I fell out of my trek 6000 MTB – on my chin and hands. 4 stitches on my face and bruises in the thorax, arms, and the derriere ?. Then I was training and I twisted my ankle. I have never trusted in god so much!

Misty palms is located in a very remote location of terelu, coorg. This makes this ride all the more amorous! The weather was all bad by now. Bad for a photographer! But just apt and lovely for the inner me !

This weather - It was foggy, rain drizzling for miles, mist settling in. really cold. Visibility not beyond 30 feet, sounds of water all over, no soul around !
Here are some shots I took of the tea estate.
 

gloomy

:/

:/
At the deviation to misty palms, I see Rajeev and badari smoking cigarettes’ waiting for me. And we get into Misty Palms. PC (I think he is the founder of the mysore bullet club) is right there to say hello to us. We meet up with some riders there – Wilson, body500 (bharath), suprith, anand et all. Oh wow – we have 3 bikresses here too! The weather is awesome, the company is great and that vodka bottle pops out! – the good times begin
 
Skanda – the owner of Misty Palms gets me specially requested vegetarian starter – avvyal. This dish is prepared by cooking all the vegetables in coconut oil and grated coconuts. – Awesome.
 
These are the last images I shot during this ride

Mr Sanna

Wilson solving a complex sudoku


I slept for 4-5 hours and woke up to notice that the party has already started. The mysore guys had organizes a cake and there was a bonfire. The rain was intense, the heat was intense and it really felt awesome being with this entire crowd. There were some photographers out there and we even had a small talk on photography techniques.
 
The rains subside; foods’ done and it’s time for more sleep for me.
 
There’s a day 2 episode in the next post

Saturday, February 06, 2010

TRIP LOG: Nandi Hills - My debut bike ride

This is a different bike - a green one!

The usual suspects - Cup, Shobit Bhatnagar, Jishnu, and rotten (Rattan gangadhar) and me planned a ride to nandi hills last week. Shoved the bike into my car, and drove down to cafe coffee day after yelahanka.

Rotten has this funny bike called rockrider with some funny shoes that latch to the pedal, every time he tries to get off the bike, he falls down sideways.


Cup was concerned if this is the way he always gets off the bike.

Nandi hill top is 40 km from CCD. The first 30 km is flat and then the climb starts. The last 3 km is really tough for a debut rider like me.

Cycles arent allowed into Nandi Hills but 4 wheelers are. It was so funny to see us sitting outside the gates while polluting gas guzzling SUVs are in.


The ride down was FAST !! My trek bike touched 60 kph and i went berserk - psycho! - What if the brake cables snapped? Is its Goodbye Lensman ? RIP


Rotten has had 4 falls and is at the base camp. And we catch up with the poor soul. Au Voir, have some whisky for the pain.



At NH7 we are stopped by cops - We like to call them Sarkari Kutte (Government Dogs). These SK's harass the people. Oh well lookie lookie some president is here and we the people - the poor bikers are left on the road with the hot sun and the damn pollution for company. Do our presidents enjoy the same in other countries or are we just "gulaams" after 63 years of independence ?

Oh Mr president and delegation hope you spend some time at the south end circle traffic.

We ignored the cops and moved on.. WTF ? Are u gonna charge an unregistered vehicle ? Or me ?

The ride ends at CCD and i drive back home. Slept like a child!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

RMX - Day 11

Route: Kolhapur - Bangalore

I promised my mom to be home for lunch so i leave from Kolhapur to bangalore (620 km) at 5. The sky is awesome, like the heavens are open

The Light - _MG_8688

Heres the picture of what i saw :) - I was photographing all the way - and reached home at about 5. So thats the end of a 11 day ride!

Rider Mania 2011 is now claimed by Eastern Bulls !

Next stop - Calcutta

Monday, January 25, 2010

RMX - Day 10

Route: Vikramgargh - Kolhapur

Woke up at 5 and got riding from Vikramgargh with Rajesh.

Regroup with amit, praisy, bumboo, prateek, haren on the route and some where in the middle of the ride, prateek, haren and i decide to go to bangalore while bumboo, praisy, rajesh planned to go to goa.
I Knew that goa ride is gonna be tough in the dark, so we ended up at HOTEL SONY in kolhapur. Awesome place!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

RMX - Day 9

Post breakfast, we had a dirt track race. Amit and me represented RTMC. Mine was the 1st Classic 500 to race in the dirt track. But before that was a recce ride (BTW no points for this ride), Many of the riders did better in this recce than the actual dirt track.

The path wasnt any good at all. sad that atleast 3 bikers fell down at the curves. The trophy went to i guess baljit singh from roadshakers pune

Every rider mania i photograph some one!. Last year it was DJ Black Jack from 23-ONE. His last year pic is on http://www.flickr.com/photos/100kph/3234360830/

WildChild AKA Dipesh Shah of 60kph was this years calendar boy

Dipesh Shah (_MG_8616)

DJ Black Jackk of 23-ONE played some awesome rock - loved it and then Sheetal, Anup Taxx and Anukran Singh, Ashish prabhu got on to form a band called "Joint Venture" hehe you know "Joint Venture" the band that ROCKS and ROLLS


A Face In the crowd _MG_8650


THE CROWD!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

RMX - Day 8

Rider Mania opens after breakfast

The raffle bike is a "Mountain Dew" branded green bike that sounds like a - bullet.

Anukaran Singh, makes a grand entry with the wander lust motorcycle club. Revs so much that his engine catches fire. LoL - Feeling the heat @anu ??

There was the disassembly wars, basically one strips a bike bare, and when its done, a rider rushes to get the key of the bike. and the reassembly starts. The first to start the bike and ride it after the reassembly is complete is the winner. RTMC got third place - but that was no reason for not cheering

Slept like a child on the lawn and woke up to a rock show by a hindi band (no clue who). Riddhi from Mumbai weekend shoots was here,DJ Blackjack (The poster boy of 2009 RM) was there too! So many old pals

Sleep Late!

Friday, January 22, 2010

RMX - Day 7

Route: Aurangabad  Shirdi Nasik, Trumbakeshwar, Jawahar, Vikram Gargh, Sajan Nature Trails
This morning in aurangabad, i saw a strange path made in the sky - didnt have my ultra wide lens but captured it on my smartphone.



















Awesome!

Guided my google maps, we reach shirdi for a darshan (But not before i got a got a 4 inch nail in my rear). Darshan was an awesome experience, was in the queue for 2 hours. - Never took shortcuts for there's no cheating in gods own home. The guys who took shortcuts - oh well they were the last to leave !

Nasik is a pensioners paradise! Hmm what ever that sign means. The route to Trumbakeshwar was average but then the ghats started later en-route to jawahar. Dine at a nice place at jawahar, and Prashi from RTMC suggests we come to the venue and not to Manor as planned.

The night ride to vikramgargh was awesome fast and dark ! As i reach vikram gargh i see almost 10 bikes - RTMC bikes - Whoa thats a RTMC reunion.

Reach the venue, Inddie Thumpers made us park right. Some friendly guys from the roadshaker club pune, come over and talk with us, the Late night talks go on until 2 am and then i sleep

Thursday, January 21, 2010

RMX - Day 6

Route: Ajanta Caves ñ Aurangabad ñ Elora ñ Biwi Ka Maqbara


We head back to Aurangabad - rajesh goes to the Royal Enfield Showroom called cherry corporation. I go hotel hunting. So many hotels - Aurangabad is costly to stay at. Its enroute to both Ajanta and Elora. Had to settle for a dampy room for 800 bucks a night. Not my kind of stay place but what can i do - we could not camp.

CUP's bike is at the service station and we go on my bike to Elora. This place is awesome, we hire a guide who has an autorikshaw for 150 bucks. He thought i was israeli and wanted to charge me 400.

Ellora is made up of Hindu Caves, Buddhist and Jain caves.

Ellora - _MG_1320

My favorite pic is Shiva Parvati on mount kailash and ravan trying to lift it.


CUP was very adventurous and he went exploring the unexplored. He discovered a girl with her top off, making love. The sculptures in the indra Sabha are explicit, maybe they could not wait. He came out screaming - would'nt you ?

We get back to biwi ka maqbara - "the poor man's taj mahal" and i get to photography again

Biwi ka maqbara _MG_1381

Biwi ka maqbara - full _MG_1362

Rajesh's bike is ready. The owner of cherry was really helpful to us, treated us to some aerated juice. That night we head to a place called Hotel Sagar at aurangabad. The owner Junaid is a hard core biker and wanted us to come over there. I feated on egg biryani - Awesome Must Have!

We ended it by a proper nawaabi paan specially made for yours truely "ADY BABA" by that panwaala.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

RMX - Day 5

Route: Lonar - Sultanpur - Ajanta Caves
Lonar Crater is a deep trek down from teh PWD house - We left our tents and went for a run aroud the crater 4.65 km pebbles, shrubs, bushes.

Lonar Crater shot by a Nokia E71 Camera phone



















It has a cool monumental temple in the base. After this run i had a shower in the lonar waterfall and the water was warm! Totally Kewl! We had to give a pass to the daitya sudan temple and rush to ajanta caves.

Ajanta rocks, really elaborate carvings, hidden for 1300 years and rediscovered. The place if blooming with tourists, some naughty child threw a stone on a honey comb and rajesh got stung by bees. Hes ok Hes ok.

Ajanta Caves _MG_1186

We hired a guide - a funny guide who showed us a view point right opposide the caves - thats where we camped that night

This is how Ajanta Caves looks in the morning!

Ajanta Caves _MG_1191

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

RMX - Day 4

Route: Pune - Ahmednagar - Aurangabaad - Pimpri - Sultanput - Lonar Crater
CUP had to meet up with an old janagraaha collegue and so we caught up at German Bakery Pune. Kavita was right there. While the old collegues were catching up on lost time, I tried some toast with some roasted eggs - awesome.

German Bakery is quite close to Osho Ashram and its frequented by disciples and some weedheads too

After the meet we lash out on the roads to Aurangabad. The traffic is killer! A night riding session to lonar crater follows. We camp at PWD guest house Lonar. The guest house overlooks on the crater. I attempt some night photography of the crater, but the light is rapidly diminishing and i give up.

Light Painting this night- under the cross beams of the headlights of the bikes - kudos to rajesh for helping me out here!






Lonar (_MG_1110)














Night Night! Good Night!

Monday, January 18, 2010

RMX - Day 3

Route - Wakaar Shop - Strawberry Fields - MAPRO - Panchangi - Parsi Point,Panchangi - Table Top, Panchangi - WAI - Dhom Dam

I wake up to see the KRISHNA river WoW. This is must see place. Definitely in the "top 200 places to tent at before i die" list. We pack the tents, clean the place and move to "Vaibhav baug" strawberry fields. The lady is from karnataka and is thrilled, her son shows us the fields. Amazing seeing fresh red strawberries. Incidentally Vaibhav baug is a home stay too.. Check it out

PratapGargh fort is the next destination. The second largest fort constructed by Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. 4 watch towers, dual lines of fortification and walls on all sides, amazingly strong fort - is owned by the 13th descendant of Shivaji - something like that.

We ride back to mahabaleshwar after the tour of the fort, buy more strawberries for Rajesh's collegue Kavita.

Panchangi is really close to mahabaleshwar, and we head to a place called "table top" - which is a big flat ground on the top of panchangi. I do some horse riding on a sweet white horse called kohinoor.

Horses and Bull (_MG_1045)

Kohinoor and Me 2 (_MG_1092)

Rajesh Choudhary (_MG_1048)

It was hard to pitch camp on table top as its very dusty. We ride to Dhom Dam - the sun is setting - faster faster - pitch the tents.

Tripod, Framing Setup, pitching tents all in 10 minutes and the sun was gone

This is what i got (look at it hires on flickr)

Dhom Dam













CampFire at night - Night Night!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

RMX - Day 2

Route - Belgaum - Kolhapur - Panhala - Kudoli - Kasegaon - Karad - Satara - Kanher Dam - Mahabaleshwar
 
Chorge Misal is a place in kolhapur which serves just 1 dish - the MISAAL PAAV. The exact contents of the gravy is unknown, but its spicy and i oh well -forgot of food for some 5-6 hours. Now coming to know of me, you would find me not thinking of food - very funny.


Misaal Paav (_MG_0976)













We then get to Panhala Fort. Nothing much here - move on. On well there was this marathi girl who talked me in to believing how nice she made salted butermilk - 3 glasses and that solved the Chorge Misaal problem!

The mercury dropped as we enter Mahabaleshwar, Kates Point is a nice tourist spot about 5 km from venna lake. The other location Echo point - echos your voice

Kates Point (_MG_0985)













The monkeys at needle point are funny. This guy climbed up and took a leak right in front of me.

Monkey (_MG_0987)

We set up tents at Needle Point - at a place overlooking the krishna valley. And i went down to the city to get food and firewood. Its really like shimla at night, and the maharashtra police was really amazed of how 2 dudes from bangalore are here on bikes.

Cold Night, 1 kilogram of strawberries, Late night photography and here is what i got ! (Look at it hi res and mail me what you feel :)


Needle Point (_MG_1013)













Done with the day - Night Night!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

RMX - Day 1

Route - Bangalore - Chitradurga - Belgaum

Background
On the 19th of Jan 2009, when we (RTMC) was hosting RM 09 at Ooty, Inddie Thumpers lay claim to host Rider Mania 2010 (we call it RMX). Its now a year since - For n00b's Rider Mania is an event run by a host club where all bikers come over to network, and participate in fun and games. We make a mess of the place :p and exit

Rajesh "CUP" Choudhary and me were the firsts to leave from the bangalore club - RTMC. We plan a Maharashtra Darshan covering Panhala, Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani, Aurangabad, Ajantha and Ellora Caves, the Lonar Crater and Shirdi before we touch base at Vikramgarh where the RMX is being hosted. This ride has always been planned as an eclectical mix of touring, history, adventure, camping, camp fires, food, running, and people. It never was a Point A to Point B ride. and "some one" in his wise frame of mind envisioned this ride as a "Weight Loss" ride and planned to eat only salads and fruits, lets see how it goes


Today we met up at 5AM at mekhri circle and did a straight ride to Chitradurga Fort. Stole some "Channa" from the fields, photographed some sunflowers and the farmers with them

Sun flower _MG_0879

Chitradurga fort is a a very impressive fort built like a snake, built in a span of 800 years. We hired a guide who showed us around for 2 hours.

chitradurga fort _MG_0915

We were looking for a guy called "kotiraj" (monkey king) the spiderman of india, but unfortunately could not get to see him.

Chitradurga fort _MG_0909

Back those days the way to break into a fortified fort was  to break into the doors with a huge log. Now this needed a good distance to achieve momentum - thats how the passages to this fort are shaped like a snake

This is a FUN, Photography ride - that's me!

Halted at Belgaum - the only city which has all the 3 armed forced in the same place - or is it

Friday, January 15, 2010

Rider Mania 2010 - RM-X

So we are leaving to RM-X by inddiethumpers in about 12 hours. Rajesh has a plan i am pasting verbatim.

We are mobile blogging with pics on http://www.twitter.com/theBikerBoy

cheers
-ady



----------------------------------------- START CUP'S MAIL -------------------------------------


Hey Guys,

I and Ady are starting for RMX trip tomorrow 5 am. Its a camping, photography and riding trip and of course party at Vikramgad and goa with our folks.

We will visiting Panhala, Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani, Aurangabad, Ajantha, ellora, Lonar Crater and Shirdi before joining you guys at manor. 

We will join the rest of the gang at Manor on 22nd or 23rd morning depending upon our group plan.

Cheers,
Cup
9739660000


Following is our ride plan

16th January - Reach Panhala via kolhapur,  night halt. Enjoy kolhapuri mutton, 620 kms
Photography - chitradurga

17th January - See Panhala Fort, Leave for Mahabaleshwar from Panhala ,
Route – Kolhapur – Panhala – Kudoli – Kasegaon – Karad – Satara – Kanher Dam – Mahabaleshwar
Photography – Panhala fort – Kanher Dam - Mahabaleswar

18th  Jan see less of Mahabalewar more of panchgani, nearby pratap garh fort, strawberry fields, night halt panchgani
Photgraphy – Strawberry fields, Pratap Garh Fort, Panchgani

19th Jan Leave . Early morning drive from Panchgani to pune vai wai and catching up with friends on at pune german bakery at goregoan park and then head for Aurangabad. 320 kms
Photography - WAI


20th January – See Biwi Ka maqbara and Ellora, Dulatabad fort.. 70 kms
Photography – Aurangabad, Ellora

21st January – Head for Ajantha early morning, see Ajanta caves, head for lonar crater, night halt at sultanpur.
Photograhpy – Ajanta Caves

22nd January  –Leave at 10 am after visiting Lonar crater and Diatya Sudan Temple for shirdi and and head for manor  400 kms
Photography – Lonar Crater, Daitya Sudan Temple, Shirdi

Below is the route from Ajanta to Vikramgad via Shirdi, Ajanta -  pahur – Pachora-Challisgoan – nandagoan – Manmad – kopargoan – Shirdi – Vavi – Sinnar – nashik – trimbak – Khodala – Vada -  Vikramgad- Kudan

23rd morning RMX starts
25th Morning start for goa with the group. 600 kms
26th halt in goa, party in the night.
27th head for bangalore – 600 kms. evening reach bangalore.
----------------------------------------- END CUP'S MAIL -------------------------------------