After the abysmal failure of Ooty cycling attempt one, the plan was fine- tuned. We headed out and bought a BSA cycling rack. It looked quite promising when we tested it. World environment day had happened on June 6th, and we wanted to mark the occasion by launching a second raid to Ooty, that fabled land.
The day began early, with me heading to 550's place to help secure shadowfax onto the rack. Harnesses were double-checked, lest something give way! Heading to my place, Shadowfax was secured too. Both cycles had their front tyres removed, to decrease weight on the rack.
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| On ring road. Forgot to set the lens to auto focus |
I spent the journey looking back to the cycles, we were very anxious that that rack would give up and the cycles will fall :| so ultra care was taken to glide over undulations slowly, much to the chagrin of fellow motorists. A few in bandipur pulled over, fooled into thinking that wildlife has been spotted :P
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| Not supposed to stop in the forest, but did so , to secure the harnesses |
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| Looks a little scary now! |
Crawling through bandipur and Mudhumalai, we reached theppakaadu, where we thought we could park the car. Unfortunately the proprietor of the hotel said we could not, which meant we had to go to Masinagudi in search of a parking spot.
At masinagudi, a kind gentleman agreed to help the cyclists. We kept the car, unloaded and fixed the cycles.
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| Unloaded. To be assembled. |
Jing was kind(confused) enough to listen to us, and designed a logo for the trip. A wheel and the earth, with a leaf appearing to connect the two. It was beautiful, and we stuck the logos them to our bags and let them flutter in the wind, spreading the message to go green! We are yet to pay him for this, though :P
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| Dreams fluttering in the wind, raring to go |
550's wardrobe malfunction delayed t=0 slightly, and off we went at 10:30 Hrs! First stop theppakadu, junction where paths bifurcate to Mysore, Gudalur. 7 Km till here. From here to Gudalur it is 17 Km and we made short work of it, aided by the pleasant climate and generous roads.
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| Sandwich break |
We rolled into Gudalur by noon, and had a big lunch at a really nice place. 50 Km from here to Ooty, a seed of doubt was planted now :D
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| Speciality parking, primary prerequisite. Cycles to be in line of sight/ accessible at a moment's notice. Paranoid about this fact! |
Post a sumptuous lunch, we pedalled on, to be encountered by a big gradient. Something like this was not tackled, so we pedalled on cautiously and slowly. Half hour into the ride, we felt that we were in soup :P to add to the lingering confusion, a few muscles decided to play havoc to test our decision making :P
A swift regrouping later, we enumerated our options - haul a truck, head back to Gudalur? Entirely unsure, we decided to 'at least push the cycles towards Ooty'. Equations of average speed/ time were shredded, to unmask more shades of uncertainty. The constant drizzle further engulfed minds in fogs of doubt. So we ate some corn:
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| The cinders did a great deal to the souls cold to the bone! |
And moved on towards Ooty, thinking that Ooty would be the destination for the day somehow. Dragging our feet, we pushed the cycles up the slopes, hoping that some truck would stop and haul us till Ooty :) To make matters worse the rain increased and now it was a steady pour. Fortunately, a goods auto chap took pity on the cyclists pushing their cycles and offered to haul us till some place Unfortunately, he did not take us the whole way, and we ended up just shy of Naduvattam, a picturesque village by a lake.
The next 1.5 hours was spent in Naduvattam shivering in the cold and rain, waiting for the truck chap to finish cleaning his truck! When we did get hauled into the truck, the rains kind-of increased, and I guess we came close to freezing on the top of that truck, struggling to maintain balance while the truck swerved on those curves!
The remnants of the day was spent in discussing 'Will power', 'The 50Km theory' and 'How much to pay Jing (for designing the logo):P', in high spirits.
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| Cycles secure in the room! |
Day two was a more relaxed affair as it would be downhill on the kalhatti hairpins :D It was a very long time since I had gone on this road so I was raring to go! With 36 Hairpin curves, this section was the most steep I have seen ,around here. More care was taken to check and double- check brakes and the quick release.
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| On the way down - day 2 |
Soon the hairpins began , as announced by the board below. At this point, the view opens up and it is breathtaking to see the road snaking through the forest. A few clicks, and we were off.
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| The famed Kalhatti hairpins! |
There are some beautiful views along the way, but you have to be careful not to take your sight off the road. Speed builds up rapidly here. One cannot go without braking for more than 5 seconds, the gradient is that high. All along the way down, one smells burnt rubber and metal, as vehicles splutter to make it up (and the novice's burn their discs on the way down). It takes some understanding of how things work, on this route.
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| It is a pleasure to sit and see these houses on the hill |
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| Kids in a village on the way down |
I remember Bharath speaking about one straight stretch, where he struggled even with the lowest gears, with people walking past him faster than he could cycle. I knew it when I saw this :
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| Scary gradient, straight road here with speed breakers on one side! |
Going up here would be a true test of ones resolve, pure mind over matter stuff. It will take a strong will and huge lungs!
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| :) |
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| A lot of fun to go downhill here |
There is a very perceptible change in temperature upon completing the slope and hitting the plains. Cycling down, we made our way to Masinagudi, Theppakaadu and Bandipur reserve. Post Gundulpete we hauled another truck to take us home :D
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| See the little one ? :) |
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| My cycle named after this cafe :) |
With two failed attempts at scaling Ooty, many lessons were learnt, and we promised to fine - tune the plan
for the final assault!
