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
……. 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.
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
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
