TFN day 3: Bandipur to Ooty

Read the rest of the posts on TFN here

Day 3 was the ride I dreaded. A 40 km climb to Ooty. I was not quite sure I could finish the day. The road out of the hotel was a small climb on a mud road. I was already on my lowest gear, struggling up the climb. Some how, I decided to go ahead. May be it was the chance to ride through Bandipur or most likely I did not like being thrown around the sweeper truck all day. In a little while, a group of late starters passed me and asked me to ride along. A little saddle height adjustment with their help and I was riding along feeling better.

From From Right, Raghavendra, me, Vinay and ?. This was right at the start of the ride into Bandipur. There were deer grazing on the other side of the rode unconcerned about the vehicles passing on the road

. The ride through Bandipur was uneventful. The road was good but it was rolling through out. I felt as if I will be worn out before the start of the Ooty climb. I stopped at the first tea stall I could find. This was at Theppekadu from where there were two routes to Ooty. TFN was taking the longer but less steeper road via Gudalur to Ooty. I was glad. The other road via Masinagudi has a lot of hairpin bends and is hard to climb. From Theppekadu, it was a monotonous ride till Gudalur where I first saw what we were attempting. It was daunting but the ride mood had kicked in and I kept going.

From TFN_day_3	From TFN_day_3

From this point on, the scenery was amazing. As we rode up the hills, every turn would bring a new vista. I had good company as I rode. Initially there were Priya and Anand who had this talent to find anything interesting on the way, be it a beautiful view or a bird up in the trees. Later there were Sameer, Supreet and Mayank who were completely enjoying whatever the road had to offer. We stopped at road side shack for lunch of omlettes and chapati's. It felt like I was back in college.

From TFN_day_3	From TFN_day_3

Unlike the earlier two days where I had some intention to complete the ride, I was just riding along and enjoying the scenery on day 3. In addition to the normal water stops, I stopped at whichever road side shop I fancied. At places it was so beautiful that I had to stop. The lake at Pykara was one such place. As I covered the distance, I started believing that I could finish the climb to Ooty. Sameer who was riding with us had done the recce of the route earlier in the month. His information that we had finished most of the climbs by the time we reached Pykara was very motivating. I doped myself with coca-cola and dry fruits and set along to finish the ride. On the way, there was a false alarm where I took one of the villages for Ooty itself. In the end, I reached Ooty around 6.30 PM in the evening. Lots of riders had reached a lot earlier. I was justglad that I finished the climb. Now I could just enjoy the day off and prepare for the rest of the tour.

From TFN_day_3 Supreet, Sameer and Prem at "Chinese" hill	From TFN_day_3 False alarm for Ooty