Suddenly our phone rang and it was my brother who wished me for my birthday and gave me a good news about his new born baby girl. I was more than happy, may be not because of my birthday, but because of addition of 2 extra feet and palms to to our family. I gave a quick call to my bhauja (sister in law in Oriya) and wished her for the same. Now we just settled down our stomach with available Vada, Appam and latter have to compromise with Parotta as it was very late for the breakfast. We are running out of fuel from our electronic equipment's, so decided to spend some time here to get all those equipment's recharged. While those equipment are getting energized, I am trying to get some ink out of my pen to fill my diary with our experience earlier today.
Last night there were no cake, no candle, no balloon. But it was the best birthday celebration of my life with freezing temperature in side our tent. Though we did not have any thing to celebrate my birthday, one quarter of brandy gave us a good companion. Even after using the sleeping bag, the chilled air penetrated inside; thanks to the brandy which kept us warm all through the night. Today we woke up the same time as yesterday and had the same Kata chai (Black Tea) at same the place, but a slight deviation, we took a different route for our journey.
Chilled climate, mountain ranges, curvy roads and those tea gardens forced us many times to stop and capture those beautiful mountain valleys covered with clouds backing with a clear blue sky. Starting our journey early in the morning helped us a lot to avoid tourist traffic on most of the view points. Though the route was quite filled with lot of good view points and we were travelling during the early hours, it was below our expectation out of all those good feedback's from our friends about the stretch. We still kept Pollachi to Valparai on the top of our list. There was very good valley view we found and clouds were tipping out of the mountains. We did really miss the wide angle lens and Neutral Density filter, with which we would have satisfied ourselves more. As an experiment, we used our helmet visor as a filter, though it wasn't up to others expectation, it was very a good try. While we were riding, we were also looking for a place to get freshen up and luckily one nice water fall fulfilled our all requirements. Right after finishing everything at the water spot, we stopped here to have the first meal of the day. I guess in another 15 to 20 minutes, all our electronic belongings will get charged. We are planning to reach Thekkady as soon as possible to explore and halt for the night.
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| Near to a tea shop on the way to Thekkedy |
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| Near to a tea shop on the way to Thekkedy |
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| On the way to Thekkedy |
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| On the way to Thekkedy |
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| On the way to Thekkedy |
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| On the way to Thekkedy |
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| Experiment from inside the helmet |
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| Using my helmet visor |
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| On the way to Thekkedy |
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| On the way to Thekkedy |
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| On the way to Thekkedy with my camera |
Now we are inside the tent and we have two guests Milind and Sagar with us. These kids are cycling entire Kerala for a good cause, they are spreading the word to save the nature and impact of plastic on the environment. Hats up to these two champs.
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| The pamplate from Milind and Sagar |
Earlier today after having the breakfast, we started and the journey got bored towards Thekkady as we did not find anything interesting. It was at Nedumkandam we spotted a automobile shop and wanted to give a try for fixing the speedometer. Though it wasn't an authorized RE spare part dealer, he had a RE speedometer. Shakila was happy with her speedo fixed, and started showing us how fast she can beat the road. There were so many spice gardens on our way to Kumily. Idukki district is where one can find most of the spice garden in Kerala. We also visited one of the spice garden to experience the details of medicinal herbs and also to understand the processing of the Indian spices post harvest. Rosy at the spice garden helped us as a guide to understand the importance of some of the plants and what all diseases can be cured. It was again fun interacting with her with those funny sounding english words. "
This cardamom plant, leaf up, cardamom down" was how she explained us about the cardamom plant. She insisted me to taste one verity of small chilly and pepper, as those were meant for strong men like me. We were obliged her calling us strong men. Santhosh was at his best to make the moment more lighter by teasing her more and more. Santhosh spent sometime writing down all the details of the plants and their medicinal values. After a warm see of from Rosy to Santhosh, finally we started heading towards Thekkady which was around 25 KM from there. Though Rosy suggested us couple of good hotels, we found the hotels were mostly blended for tourist requirement. Pleasing our cruel stomach there, we reached Thekkedy at around 2 PM and realized the place is highly crowded due to year end holiday season.
Periyar Wild Life Sanctuary conducts boat ride in the forest, which happens five times a day from 8 AM to 3 PM. They take around 340 people at one go using around 8 boats. Though the entry to the wild life sanctuary costs INR 30/-, one has to pay INR 200/- for the boat ride, if the ticket is purchased from the counter. According to the forest office, one can buy boating tickets on line by paying INR 500/-. Buying ticket from ticket counter need much time and even hard luck at the long standing queue. We heard people started forming queue at 5 AM this morning. There are local adventure organizers, who rent bicycles at INR 500.00/- per half day and INR 900.00/- per full day. They also assist complete package for the village ride in bicycles. The other interesting places near Thekkedy were Gavi and Kakki. Bad luck with bike; no two wheeler is allowed to Gavi and four wheeler travelers need to take prior permission from the forest department, where only 100 vehicles are permitted in a day. Gavi to Kakki route is open for only one state transport shuttle which makes one trip per day. It was good decision for us to return back from this year end traffic jam, not even reaching the Periyar Wild Life Sanctuary. It would have been more disappointing. Again we repeat, please avoid any tourist destination during the long weekends.
Santhosh tried his best to find a good hotel with some sophisticated ambiance for my birthday, but we both behaved according to our nature and ended up at a small village hotel looking for traditional local food. Some how it never work with me and Santhosh to try something other than the local food and we are more than happy for this. We were quite hungry and forgot every other thing to satisfy our hunger. Right after the lunch, we filled our fuel tank and headed towards Kottayam on the way to Sabrimala. We saw two kids cycling hard with their MTBs and stopped ahead at a tender coconut shop. It was Milind and Sagar from Dharward, cycling the entire western ghat. We spent sometime exchanging each other's travel plans and headed further. On the way myself and Santhosh decided to spend tonight near by with those kids. We stopped Shakila for some time and communicated the plan to those two kids, to which they equally agreed. Soon after that we headed in the front to look for a place and found Rajeev's place for tenting just before Peermade town.
While we were removing our luggage from the motorcycle, Milind and Sagar reached at the camp site and helped us to set up the tent. I road Sagar's bicycle with Milind to get some extra maggie for the night. When we came back from Peermade town, Santhosh and Sagar were ready with the camping and cooking equipment's. As our tent was just in front of Rajeev's house, we figured out a road side place for cooking. Putting fire in front of the house is meant to be for bad ritual according to hindu mythology, its done only when some one in the family is expired. Today we made it very quick to finish cooking out of camp fire as it was very near to the highway. Now we are all inside the tent and discussing about the routes from Kerala to Karnataka. The discussion is now getting to the next level and I also need to provide some of the route details I know. I am stopping my write up here. Good Night and hoping for an other adventurous day tomorrow.
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