The best bike trip...

Eyes were still opening up from the long sleep, and after numerous attempts, I finally got out of the bed. My stomach gave its SOS signal for food and because of my acrimony towards mess food, Manish and I thought of having lunch at a nearby restaurant (hardly 2kms). After reaching the restaurant, we saw that Murphy's law had affected us !! Now, with some distinct feeling that I had seen a restaurant on the Wayanad road, we thought about going some 4-5kms further to check for any places to eat.

The weather was awesome and with the picturesque ghats infront, it was a lovely sight to watch. So got the strange idea to go further for some more distance and return to campus to have food at NC. After some 8-10 kms, we came across rubber plantations, which made an wonderful visual treat along with the ghats.

Out of curiosity, we asked some passersby about the distance to Tushargiri falls. As they replied that it was 15kms further we thought of visiting the place as we have reached more than half the distance. After some 8kms or so, the skies opened up and continued their relentless showers for the next part of the day. We continued our travel without stopping anywhere in between. We reached some nondescript town and after enquiry we found that there is still 18 more kms to travel!! (BC,MC etc) We were told about two roads that reach to the destination.

Because there was 3 kms difference between the two roads and heavy rains, we took the shorter route. By any means, it cannot be called as a road. It was a long chain of potholes with intermittent presence of tar. But, after some time these potholes vanished and we thought luck was once again shining upon us. But how can Murphy leave us so soon, we experienced almost vertically inclined roads for the rest of the journey. Not only that after every km or so, we find a junction and had to stop at every junction to enquire and proceed further.

After the last enquiry, since it was only 4 kms away we decided to take rest. Hmm...but the rain gods provided no respite to us and after travelling the remaining 4kms, we asked a stranger about tushagiri falls. With a stern look on his face, he said "4 more kms". Now giving all the MC, BC gaali, we finally reached the destination. Since we were damn hungry (our original reason to travel!!), we went to the only hotel present there and ordered for chapati and tomato curry (or is it some red water with 1-2 tomato pieces!!). For the fist time, I felt the mess food was better!!.

Already 6PM, we started our return journey and after some time we met a police vehicle at a junction. When asked how to reach Kunnamangalam, the policewala said "take the left road but we can go by the right one x-(". After our good experience, we decided to take the long route this time and we were back to square one, enquiring and going further. I believe people here underestimate the distance and I have learnt that in a hard way.

After an hour and so, it became dark and because of the absence of streetlights and heavy rains, the visibility was close to zero. Since we took the alternate route during the return journey, we are on an entirely new path altogether and frankly it isn't so easy to travel through frequent S and U turns. By the end of the journey, my thumb finger became numb and I could only hear the horn, not feel it.

But all through the journey, we only laughed. We laughed when the rains came, we shouted like kids when we used to clear the upward slopes, (forgot we went on a 100CC splendor of 2000 model!!!), and though we thought of stopping at some place, we always procrastinated to the next possible place. It's the most memorable bike experience that I ever had in my life. Those 90kms travel in heavy rains, through bad roads, zero visibility, body shivering in the latter part of the journey (wore only shorts n t-shirt!!) is an experience to cherish.

As is always said the unplanned tours are more memorable because of the uncertainty involved in them. More uncertainity (risk), more excitement (return)!!!

Signs Off

Urs Ved