Kalpetta - Dec2006 version

09Dec2006 Saturday

We wanted to ride out but didnt have any concrete plan like where & all. The previous night Kadamba discussions didn’t yield any result. Hence , Saturday was moving with out any events.

Around 2pm, vicky calls up..
Me: Hello..
Vicky: what..
(both of us laughing..)
Vicky: what man..you are not going.
Me: I am waiting for you guys..ok tell me where..
Vicky: we will go there only..(kalpetta)

Later dragged pkm in to the plan, who was busy purchasing a Santro with all that year-end offerings.

To make things little interesting, we decided to ride through Muthanga wildlife sanctuary in the night.

Started from Bangalore by 6pm..Vicky started well ahead to complete his remaining run-in kms..comfortable ride till mysore. Noticed this honda accord..it just flooded my rvms with a white light..monster was too fast...while behind him, i see the whole road like a lightened-up stadium..very powerful blue vision with him. Had a heavy dinner at Kamat Mysore. No signs of vicky..fella was busy dragging his cousin’s rxz and it takes hell lot of time to put him back in the plan. By the time we were out of mysore , it was 10:00 pm.

Now the road was not that great, but still we were ripping. Praveen was too happy with the performance of his CBZ after the modifications. With over-joy, he sometimes overtakes us and ride in the front with his stock torchlight..there was a close call when Praveen missed out that suspicious divider placed strategically on the road. god sake why they put that divider where there is no curve at all..on the last sec, he was literally bending towards his left..i was behind him few meters away..since both of us were on the same line, I couldn’t spot that little thingy ahead.... by seeing him, all I knew was some fun out there milliseconds ahead of me and I too leaned ditto... during the course , I see lotsa stones thrown out there to pull my leg..bike was still not stright and i kept going till avoiding the divder..we both just managed to come out and I immediately turned back to see vicky’s future. Fella happily riding on the wrong side of the road away from the divider after seeing us doing circus :D

Now its tea time at Gundulpet..it was cold and we were about to enter Muthanga wild life. Decided to keep it down on the turns since we can always expect an elephant or Bison on a turn. We ride watchfully…after 20mins, we see a dark bulky element few mtrs ahead of us on the road side. Yeppee…its elephant. We just crossed over it.
After 10 mins, again we see couple of elephants. This time, one of those elephants was standing very close to road..we stopped..a slight panic situation within us on what next? Myself trying to turn back for a safer distance..but we just overtook one van and that van was blocking my bike from behind.

ok lets go..we pulled the throttle to max..we were screaming while crossing the elephants. Stopped at a checkpost where forest dept people were standing. They had put up a small fire and we were standing close to it to kick the cold. Later reached Kalpetta and slept for the day…but not before a long chat.. and it was 4am when I hit the bed.

Morning Vicky & Praveen went out early to checkout Pookut lake and Lakkidi view point. Later I joined them for Meenmutti water falls. A small trek..and the falls looked charming by this post monsoon season. Later we started our return journey by 7pm..at the entrance of the forest, there was a small hotel and we camped there for about 1.5hrs. Simply chatting without having the mood to ride back. Reached mysore by 10:30. In-between some horrible roads..to make things worse, it was raining as well.. Praveen & Vicky decides to stay back at Mysore on their relative’s places.

I was actually worried too much about, that day’s night ride. Because I havent slept even couple of hours together the previous day..and this meenmutti trek added lots of tiredness as well. I know if i start feeling sleepy, then it will be very difficult for me to handle. But the Redbull I drank by then did some magic. It was 11pm and I was coming out of mysore and just entering this sweet 4lane stretch towards Bangalore....not many cars around..road was almost deserted.. I had just cleaned the visor which was muddy after rain ride.
the view was just amazing..my eyes were lightened-up and I was seeing everything on the road. Didn’t feel any pain or tiredness in the body. Unlike my usual solo cruising speed which is always around 90, I just took it at max this time. After some time , this Indica..errr.. Indicab was overtaking me casually when i was still on 125 :-) …even on a slight turn, he will come down drastically from 130 to 80..but I will just keep it at 120 constant and go past him. Later he will catch-up and fly above 130. He was my only company on that night and it was little fun.The last time I saw him was near Ramnagar, stuckup behind a truck and finding no clue on how to overtake.. throughout this ride, the ipod music inside my helmet kept things pretty interesting. Reached home in no time and went to bed.

Didnt click any pictures this time..just took one video of Meenmutti falls and i will post it soon.