Hello there, as promised in my previous blog am
back with my blog on my motorcycle ride to Vagamon during the Independence Day
weekend.
4th straight year that am doing the longest ride of the year around August 15.Year 2011 rode to Rameshwaram/Danushkodi , 2012 did the NH 17 Goa-Ratnagiri,Last year was at Leh and this year it’s Vagamon. Though Leh holds a very special
place in my heart for the sheer beauty the nature unfolds, Vagamon is no less,
if Kerala is Gods Own Country then may be Vagamon is his personal garden. Such
is the sheer beauty of this place. Over the next few paragraphs I will try to
run through my itinerary and also share a few photographs of this amazing
wonder of nature. Hope you are with me.
A five day ride was cut short by a day as I had some
important assignments at office. I had never heard about Vagamon and my friend
and riding partner Karthik gottu know about this via a post in Facebook by
the Mysore Bulls Motorcycle Club and after a few Google checks we decided to
ride to Vagamon.Vagamon is in the state of Kerala in Idukki district started on
the 15th of Aug at 4 in the morning and caught up with Kande around 4.45 am
near the Devegowda Petrol Bunk and road towards the Hosur Road. The weather was
good and we decided to take the longer route to Vagamon, the route we took was
Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Salem-Coimbatore-Thrissur-Chalakudy-Muvattupuzha-Vagamon.Our
first stop was at 100kms from Bangalore at the Saravana Bhavan hotel 2kms
before Krishnagiri. We had breakfast at Saravana Bhavana and out next chai stop
was after 125kms at Salem. We had tea at Salem and targeted Coimbatore as our next
stop 140kms from Salem. We stopped at Coimbatore for tea and snacks and time
was 12 noon we had covered 380kms and almost half way to Vagamon. Once we
crossed Vagamon the buttery smooth road till now gave way to bad pot hole
filled dusty roads .The road from Coimbatore to Trissur via Palakkad is a pain
in the a** with bad roads and also heavy truck traffic. Our speed got
significantly cut due to this and we took around 150mins to do an 110kms odd stretch
with 2 breaks until we stopped for our lunch at Trissur at 2.30. Post lunch we
had another 130odd kms to cover and we road via the state highway and reached
the deviation to Vagamon. But we had a great struggle to reach till there as we
both don’t speak or understand Malayalam and people in that part of Kerala or
may be the people I chose to ask the route knew only Malayalam. Finally around
430 pm, may be time the college got over I caught up with a person who knew decent English , phew he told
Vagamon was 18 kms from there and the elusive Vagamon was just a 45min ride
away.
As we took the deviation towards Vagamon it looked as if we entered a new
world. Everything under the sky looked green and beautiful. At one moment we
saw lush greenery and the next moment everything was covered by thick fog. "Wow! Beautiful" that’s what we said. After taking a few photographs
we reached the Vagamon town by around 5.30pm booked a home stay which was our
home for the next day as well. 630kms of day 1 ride ended with dinner at a
place which was not so great, and Vagamon being a small town cannot expect
more.
Day 2 we decided to check out a few places around
heavenly looking Vagamon. The first of which was just outside our room. The
previous day when we boarded to our room in the homestay called the lake view
Karthik remarked “bloody! It’s called the Lakeview there is no lake around" and actually we did not see anything beyond our homestay as it was
covered with thick fog. But the next day morning when we got up we gottu know
why it’s called the Lakeview. Our homestay gave a lovely view of a gorgeous
lake overlooking the lush green mountains.
We went there and took some nice
photographs of the place and we went up to our owner to ask for places around
Vagamon. He gave a detailed route map of the places of interest around and all
these places were around the radius of 15odd kms. First we visited the Pine Forest.
It’s a nice place for photography and also just to sit and relax. From there we
visited the "Suicide Point ”, this place is possibly the most beautiful
place I have seen, the photos below does absolutely no justice to the beauty of
this place. The lush green landscape was covered with thick fog in matter of
seconds and made us wonder "WOW" .
After spending a good half hour here taking a few pictures we went to Kabakad Falls , such a serene gorgeous waterfall. Though it does not have the beauty of the atirapally or the ferociousness of the Jog or the Hogenakkal, this waterfall was so beautiful and the ride to the falls was also good with steep incline and in midst of lush green.
After the waterfall we decided to go to Vagamon Tunnel , and the much awaited rain was here , it poured and we waited for it to stop but it vein , it was around 2.30pm then and we were hungry , so we decided to skip the tunnel and headed to town to have our lunch. One thinks of improvement which needs to be done in is that there is no decent hotel in Vagamon and all the hotels serve Beef. Beef is a taboo among many Indians and I believe there is need to set up a decent Veg serving hotel at this place. I being a traveler am used to such places and I had curd rice and Karthik had his usual Kerala Parota .
After lunch we headed to our room and there was thick fog all around and it started pouring. No better invitation was for some sound sleep . Later in the evening we spent some time deciding about our ride plan for the next day and we decided to head straight to Periyar Wildlife Reserve at Tekkedy . We skipped our dinner as we knew we would not get anything other than parota and had some fruits before sleep and zzzzzz.
Day 3 started early and we started at 6 in the morning. The ride from Vagamon to Kumily is breathtaking. The 54 km ride is an absolute bliss with stunning landscapes and lovely twisties. The roads were so good I didn’t even stop to take a photograph. Just was cruising through the twisties and I especially love riding in the twisties it’s such an aderline rush. We reached the Periyar Lake which is inside the beautiful Periyar Wildlife Reserve which is abundant with its vegetation and animals . The cruise ride in the periyar lake is organized by the Kerala Forest Department is a must , but unfortunately we couldn’t go as all the seats were booked and we did not have enough time to wait for the next cruise(cruise timings are 8.30am , 11.30am,1.45pm,3.30pm) . After a good hour spent at the reserve we rode to our destination for the day Dinidgul which is around 135kms from Thekkady . The road from Thekkady to Dindigul via Theni is decent and we reached Dindihul by around 1.30pm and booked a room at a lodge near the Dindigul Bus stand and we badly wanted to have a good lunch as we were tired of the Kerala Parata , we went to a restaurant called Balaji Bhavan to eat some yummy Butter Roties , dal and Fried Rice and spent the rest of the day in dindigul watching avatar movie and basically discussing about my marriage preparations , upcoming rides etc etc…
Day 4 was our ride back to Bangalore from Dindigul
which was 380 odd Kms , we stared at 6am in the morning and did good speeds ,
the road from Dindigul to Bangalore via Salem which is the AH43 is a
masterpiece , the silky smooth highway makes you feel “One Way- Highway” slogan
so true . We stopped at Namakkal which is 125kms from Dindigul for breakfast
. After Namakkal we stopped at Krishnagiri which is 165kms from Namakkal
for some tender Coconut and a much needed butt and back rest . From Krishnagiri
me and Karthik rode together till the E-City flyover , Karthik who stays at
Banashankari took the E-City Flyover and I bid adieu to him and rode further and
took the Nice Road and reached home by 1.30pm . After A hot shower and some
yummy homemade food I was on the bed
cherishing the fantastic 1250km Road Trip.
Thanks for your time for reading this , will be
back with my travel/photo blogs soon, till then Be Well and God Bless.
