TFNTen Day 2: A ride in three parts

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Day 2 started off well. Though there was some uncertainty over the route for the day, it was settled overnight. The route was now shorter than the initial route and I was happy. The weather was cool and the fields beside the road reminded me of my hometown. Yogesh found a jaggery workshop on the way. We all stopped there and snacked on fresh sugarcane juice and jaggery. SS1 arrived quickly. There were tender coconuts at SS1 alongside the usual snacks. Sun was coming out and I put on some sun screen (a first for me) and started off from SS1.

The roads were good for sometime after SS1. The roads were treelined. There was a beautiful lake we passed.Sadly after this stretch, we had to take a diversion from the highway and the roads were bad from this point. The Sun was out in full force. All I had in my mind was that I wanted to complete the days course. I kept pushing forward not even stopping for photographs. Not too much enjoyment in this strecth.

SS2 came up in its own time. As always, the location was quite good. SS2 was pitched beside a pond under shade. We waited for a little for lunch to arrive from SS3. In the meanwhile, I tasted a weird combination. Peanut butter with Good day biscuits. Different but tasty. Lunch arrived shortly and I set out after refueling.

The roads were quite bad. There was one stretch of gravel that was made me nervous but my cycle got me through it without any issues. All this while, the wisecracks on the road from the marking team provided some relief. These were getting funnier as we went further. I eventually arrived at SS3 quite spent. I was ready to chill out and wait for the sweeper truck. One of the volunteers was so surprised when I asked for peanut butter and biscuits that she took a picture. I guess it was not the flavour of day at SS3.

While I had resigned myself to being swept from SS3, Dr. Kumaraswamy arrived. He spent a little while at the SS and started off. I was feeling a bit energetic by this point and tagged along with him. Kumaraswamy was one of the charity riders. He had chanced upon TFN a month or so back and wanted to ride. Since all the rider positions were taken, we opted for being a charity rider and collected donations for one of the charities being supported by RACF. The kids from this charity were waiting to meet him in a village further down the road. I felt great to be riding with this guy.

Unfortunately Dr. Kumaraswamy had a accident a little distance ahead. He was riding ahead of me and hit a speed breaker at the end of a incline. We called the TFN support staff and one of the support trucks reached us quickly. We helped Kumaraswamy into the cabin of the truck and it was on its way to meet the ambulance coming from SS4. Thankfully the injuries were not very serious. They required a couple of stitches in the mouth and Dr. Kumaraswamy was put on a liquid diet for a few days. I was quite surprised to see him riding with us on the all the other days of the tour. Being at the same pace, we rode together quite a lot on the rest of the days. The Dr. was quite a motivation for me on the tour and one of my strongest memories from the tour.

By this time, I had no intention of finishing the day. I was just enjoying the ride and looking at the scenery. One of the guys from the truck rode along with me on Kumaraswamy's bicycle. We just chatted along until the sweeper truck caught up with us and we happily climbed into the truck. As we moved towards Bandipur, I slowly realized how much further I had to ride.

We stayed for the night at Country Club, Bandipur. Their welcome banner called us "Raiders of Tour of Nilgiris". Someone was aware of how hungry the riders are at the end of a day's rider. After dinner, I had a chat with Vishu and Yogesh who were sharing the same cottage. One of the things that I did after looking at all the fun stuff they did on the ride was to stop thinking of completing the ride as the goal for the day. I decided to enjoy the local stuff and indulge in photography and have the maximum fun. I crashed to sleep thinking of the Ooty climb the next day.

TFNTen Day 8: The last day of the tour

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I was actually happy that the tour was coming to a close. I woke up early and went for a short walk on the Gonikoppal main road. I was quite suprised to see the utter flop telugu movie Saleem playing there. They must be quite short on movies in Gonikoppal.

The ride started unhurriedly. The distance to be covered was around 80km, short compared to the previous days ride. Before we started, we took photographs of the riders and the organizers together. As we moved away from Gonikoppal, the roads became poorer. I guess the roads are not so well maintained in the national park.

We stopped at a school on the way to take photos of kids. The kids were so excited at seeing us we felt like rock stars. This was definitely the high point of the day.

We hit the only support station for the day around the halfway mark. A little while later, we reached the highway to Mysore. After the rides on the last few days, the route felt positively ugly from this point on. The only motivation from here was finishing the ride and the lunch waiting at the end of it. After a couple of coconut stops, I finished the ride and packed my bicycle for transport to bangalore.

I had a lazy lunch and boarded the bus back to Bangalore. The traffic as we entered Bangalore was in stark contrast to the free roads we had for most of the tour. Me and Prithish managed to hire a omni to transport us and our cycles back home from the dropping point. That concluded the most physical activity I had done in my life so far. A completely different experience, where I switched off from my work for the first time. I plan to go again next time, this better prepared both for the ride and for capturing the scenery along the way.

TFNTen Day 5: The two puncture day

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Till this day, I was looking at the TFN as a cycling trip to Ooty and back. I had not looked beyond Ooty on the tour. In my mind, getting to Ooty was the hardest part. Everything else was afterwards was a piece of cake. On this day I found out how wrong I was.

When we woke up, there was a light drizzle. By the time we finished our breakfast, there was a steady rain. The start was delayed by 30 mins waiting for the rain to subside. We were going back from Ooty the same way we made the climb. I was looking forward to the payback. All the gruelling uphills we faced on day 3 would now be a downhill. There were a couple of uphill sections but now I was sure that I can grind through them.

When the ride started, we were forced to ride in groups due to the Ooty traffic. Once we were clear of the town, the groups broke apart based on the pace of the riders. I had reverted to my own photographer self. Frankly, I had gone a little mad at this point. There were a few places where I actually circled back and took photos. One of these stops was the so called "Shooting Point". Amazing scenery. I was glad that I decided to stop at that place. Naturally by the time I did all this, I was the last of the riders.

Once I started from "Shooting Point", I was looking forward to the Pykara lake. The lake is at a nice trough in the road and is very scenic. The road to the lake also had a heavily banked turn I was looking to take a good speed. Sadly I realized that I had a puncture in the back tire of my cycle. I walked my cycle to Pykara but could not find any puncture shops. Apparently the closest one was in Naduvattam further down the road. Luckily for me, Dr. Kumaraswamy came by. One of his friends had come down to meet him in Pykara. With their help, I got the punctured tube out somehow and put in a new tube. But I could not get the tyre back on properly. Thankfully the doctor's friend offered to give me a lift to Naduvattam in his car. On the way, we found Jas and the TFN mechanic who were checking the riders brakes before the real downhill starts. The mechanic quickly got my tire back in place and I was ready to go.

The rest of way to Gudalur was a nice downhill. I made a brief stop at SS1 where was I once again part of the rear. From Gudalur, the roads took us through tea gardens. The roads settled into a familiar pattern. A winding climb to the top of a hill. A small section inclined down and then another winding climb. The sun had come out by this time, increasing the effort required. Apart from the good scenery around, the fun on this stretch can from the musical chairs we stragglers(Me, Dr. Kumaraswamy and Shilpa) were playing. All of us were riding at the same average pace. Each would stop for a photograph at a different place and end up being the tail for sometime. This kept happening all the way till SS2.

We had a quick lunch at SS2 and I started off determined to make SS3 atleast before being swept. Accidentally I left one of my water bottles at the SS reducing the weight on my bicycle. This and the lunch gave me a boost. There was a gyan session from Rakesh Nair the previous night where he was talking about pushing oneself on the uphills and enjoying the downhills. I decided to apply his words and I had a lot of fun. I started pedalling harder on the uphills as opposed to going to the lowest gear and plodding upwards. The terrain was also helpful. The downhills were longer than the climbs and the sun had started to set. I made to SS3 earlier than I expected. Now I was dreaming of making SS4 before being swept.

I left SS3 quickly and started pushing myself. The roads on occasion were potholed. I passed a couple of roadies fixing a puncture. I was quite happy that my cycle was holding up well. I was making quite a decent pace when I realized that my front tyre had a puncture. It was getting dark and I decided to wait for the sweeper truck instead of fixing the puncture. When it did arrive, I had a whole truck to myself. Another benefit of bringing up the rear.

By the time we reached the hotel, it was dark. This time though the rooms were great. After a quick shower and dinner, I got around to changing the tube on my front tire. All in all, a good days ride.