Cloud Valley Ride to Coorg with RTMC

As I was just thinking about where to do the next ride there came a post from prashi on yahoo groups about the cloud valley ride to coorg. Always wanted to ride to coorg and there was my opportunity to one of the most beautiful places in Karnataka and the place where Cauvery originates from.

The ride was planned to be on May 31st and we were to take the normal route to coorg
Bangalore -->Maddur-->Shrirangapatna --> Hunsur -->Periyapatna -->Kushalnagar -->Madikeri -->Cloud valley.

Well the day arrived and I had to get my gear patched up after the fall I had while coming back from Kodai. Gave the Jacket to my mom and she freaked out and almost dint let me go. But somehow got her convinced and was ready for the ride by Friday evening.

Meeting point was Bangalore university at 5 45 in the morning. Woke up early and managed to reach there in time. Already quite a few people were there Mr. Ratish (lamp) just came after I reached . After that arrived Praisy. People from Madras Bulls had come to see us off. Who were supposed to ride with us but stayed in Bangalore. :)

We were all set to go, the first regroup point was Indhradhanush where the breakfast was scheduled. There was a light fog cover reducing the visibility but riding was pretty easy. We were doing good speeds and reached the place. Had a good breakfast topped with coffee to clear the morning daze. Finished breakfast fast and hit the road. Next stop was Shrirangapatna at the Hunsur turn. We were doing pretty good speeds and managed to reach the point pretty fast.

Spent sometime here for sutta break left after everyone regrouped. Next the stop was supposed to be just outside Periyapatna where we refilled with some snacks and got some water. We were doing good speeds reached this place by 10 in the morning. Covered around 150 kms in 3 hrs of riding. Next stop was Madikeri town, I was excited about the next stretch as it was Ghats. I was pretty confident of the ghat riding after Kodai so wanted to have a rip at it.

But then Praisy who got her Bullet recently was going a little slow so thought will ride with her and was tailing her through the Ghats. We were doing decent speeds of about 50 kmph. We were just outside when Madikeri when Praisy had a fall. There were 2 buses one was going at 20 kmph and the other was trying to overtake this one at 25 kmph. The whole road was covered and Praisy tried to squeeze in from the left but then there wasn’t any road there she did a somersault and jumped over the bike into the small pit full of thorns. Luckily I was right behind her and helped her out. But I would not have been able to lift the bike by myself. Waited for sometime Sushil arrived and then kishore came.

Managed to pull the bike out after we had a nice laugh and clicked a couple of pics and left to Madikeri. Had a little break there and started to cloud valley which was about 20 kms from Madikeri. Again I started tailing Praisy but after a couple of kms I just couldn’t control myself and let go. Started ripping in the Ghats foot pedal scraping all over the road. Overtook balaji on the way with his wife who was lost and dint know where to go. :)

Stopped on the way and got some real good pics of Praisy riding. Finally reached the destination after abhi led us into the wrong road but managed to reach there by 1 30 to have a super coorgi meal with pork and chicken. Hogged royally till I could eat no more, Learnt that a few guys had problem with their bikes one flat tire and some other minor problems.

After that we were just lazing around when the biggest laughter riot happened. Mr. Krishna (Kinky Kong) arrived on his thunder bird everyone thought it was the great Anshuman Biswal and deepshit was all red to beat him up. But then we realized it was not actually Anshuman. It was some laugh we had.

After that came the fun part when we headed to the stream where everyone went into totally berserk in the water, we played along like kids we were all ten yrs younger. J
Then headed back to the home stay pulling each others legs on the way deepshit teasing Mr. Lamp and vice versa.

Evening was total full on fun we had one memorable introduction session with lamp and guy from Mysore bulls Pratap totally stealing the show with their foot in the mouth comments and questions. It was full on entertainment the best intro session I have ever witnessed.

Then came dinner some awesome pork and chicken again. Just when I thought the night was over after the sumptuous meal the fun started again. At 1 in the night me, poo Praisy and deepshit were laughing our guts out with various stuff. Till 4 in the night the 4 of us were just laughing it out. Then we decided to crash and somehow managed to find place to sleep.

Woke up at 7 on Sunday and drank some coffee while some people left early and decided to go to the Tibetan monastery on the way I got a small nap again. Woke up again at 9 and got ready to leave. Again had some real good coorgi special breakfast. Some kind of puttu with egg curry some tasty stuff. Then we decided to leave at 10 30 headed back with Praisy. Again I had a good ghat ride and we reached Madikeri where we fuelled up for the ride and hit the road again. We had decided to go have momo’s in the Tibetan camp in the way at bylkuppe.

Managed to reach here by 1 me Ratish and Praisy had a good meal here again. Met Manas and Arpita who left in the morning in the monastery. Again hit the road and managed to do good speeds and reached Shrirangapatna with just one stop in the middle. Clicked a few pics here and hit the road to get into Mysore road. With all the weekend getaway people driving back to Bangalore the whole road was busy with traffic and people driving like maniacs. People were driving like how they drive around in cities total irresponsible driving. With all the traffic reached the NICE road intersection at 6 with a stop at the Maddur coffee day.

Just then it struck me that the weekend is over. L Me and Praisy were heading back through the NICE road and just touched bannerghatta road when it started raining. This was a wonderful welcome back home. Reached home fully drenched in the hard rain and had a much needed dinner and crashed.

Was one hell of a ride coupled with full entertainment and fun…