Monday, November 30, 2009

1st Southern RAID - Yelagiri

If you ask any rider, whether he likes to ride through the 'pin bends', the immediate answer is 'YES'. We too wanted that "YES" experience. RR team worked hard to find out the better place. Satheesh (kero) came out with the idea of riding to Yelagiri hills, which is around 225km from Chennai. Being active member of YMCA, Kero assured for stay and food in YMCA. The date was fixed as 28th and 29th November 2009.

This trip is considered to be more special becuase, the Banglore Jawa Yezdi club have accepted our invitation and they assured to participate in this camp. The ride being special of its nature we named it as 'Southern Raid'.


28th November'09 : I left my home by 5.00 am just gulping some water as early breakfast and dropped at Mummy-dady shop (kilpauk) were, Srikanth was waiting to pick me up to Porrur Shell pump, which is our starting point. By 6.30 am most of the riders got assembled. Xavier's gypsy was loaded with our bags and tool set. Usual meeting with instructions and route was discussed. Hari the lead, moved with first set of riders towards Sriperumbadhur route. Myself being pillion rider this time, waited along with Srini to receive our Mechanic Sekar and Ravee sir. They came late, so we left Porur only by 8.00 am.

It was decided not to take break unless we reach Vellore, which is almost 110km away from from Porur. On the way I received the sms fromXavier that the first batch reached Vellore and having breakfast at Hotel Saravana Bhavan. After we reached Vellore, it was difficult for us to trace the hotel. Traffic police men helped us to find the hotel. The food was excellent though the bill sounded heavy. Our energy level is back now.

Our 15 bikes roared along with 4 Madras Bulls ( Bullet club) from the Vellore towards the direction of Yellagiri.
At this point, Ajay ( oro - nickname) went flying in Satheesh's Roadking bike, who was maintaining a very low profile speed of 50km before. Suddenly he got vanished no were. We all riders after covering distance of 100 kms, got assembled near by-pass road junction(Ponneri) were the signboard showed Yelagiri. By the time, Banglore guys too reached the spot. There were 9 bikes from Banglore club. We did formal introduction to eachother. Banglore guys said they saw a speedy rider heading in opposite direction which actully created doubt in their minds whether they are in the right route. Later we found that the rider is ORO. He went in the direction of Tirupathur. Its no point in waiting for him(ORO), becuase the time showed almost 2.30 pm. All riders were hungry. Now it is 23bikes. All throttled up. We can see the Yellagiri hills...zoooom!!



There were 14 pin bends, and lots of monkeys along the route. The width of the road is not so wide, and looked dangerous at some points. Now we were in the top of the hill, Waiting for the Gypsy and Oro. Unfortunately Xavier's Gypsy got some mechanical fault, and was finding difficult to climb the hills. This made us sad. By God's grace the gypsy was moving bit by bit, and reached the spot.


We welcomed Xavier with applause. Almost after an hour, Oro reached the spot. As he stepped out from the bike, Angry riders took him for a** ride :)Finding YMCA was not so tough. The Local people helped us the route. The location was green and cool. The weather was at the best.
3.30 pm we were in YMCA. The Manager Mr.Antony, welcomed us. We all were hungry and had no clue what to do for lunch. Satheesh enquired the manager whether food is available at this time. Without any hesitation, he promptly gave order to Kitchen, to prepare lunch. Within half an hour the food was ready. I really thank the Manager at this point, because this was an odd time to prepare lunch, but with his orders it happened. By 4.00 the lunch and tea was ready. The dinning hall was crowded with hungry riders. There was no sound, just silence of hunger. The vessels were left empty. Steamed Rice + Sambhar + rasam + bonda + paapad was the menu.

Evening programe schedule was discussed. The campire, music, soft and hard drinks were arranged. The party started with formal speech by Sachi from RR and Amirit from banglore club. They shared the history of the clubs and its member who worked behind the scene. Mementos, gifts and certificates were given to all the riders. And everyone shared their part of experience with their bikes. The party was with full of fun, calling PP , Oro, Kero, Silk Jai names loud. This shows, how the friendhsip is bounded among the riders. Its time for camfire now, the music was on...and the floor was open to dance. Mr.Antony was keep informing that dinner will be closed by 10.00 pm, some heard his words, some were out of the world ! The dinner was quiet simple and good. Chicken curry, Chappatis, Rice, Vegetable curry and Rasam was served.

The night was getting cooler and cooler. Its time to go for nap. I just found a free space in the dormitory, and tried to sleep. But it was difficult. I was surrounded by different makes of Norton + bullet+ triumph bike sound. I mean, I heard different versions of Snoring. Good night !!
I got up early in the morning, hearing Sudersan voice. He proclaimed that he got up early 3.00am and took bath in cold water( hard to believe though), even our Kero was claiming that he got up early. Well, its all in the fun game. The breakfast was ready by 8.00 am. Pongal, iddli, vadai was the menu. The taste reminded our home. Now its time to get our things packed. After a while we did photo session with our group, and 10.30 am, we left YMCA heading down the hill.


We reached Ponneri junction by 12.00 am and its time for us to say good bye to Banglore yezdians. They moved to the direction of signboard showing Banglore, and we towards Chennai. On the way, some of our riders stopped at Ambur ( place famous for leather products) and picked some shoes in cheaper rate, and some disappeared to have ambur biriyani. By 2.30 pm we were in Vellore and all riders gathered for Lunch at Dhabha, which was recommended place by Hari. As usual the food at Dhabha was awesome. This Dhabha is exactly 100km away from Chennai, almost borders of Vellore.
After some Dhabha Roties and chicken curry's are energy level got boosted up, and all us were ready to head towards chennai. Me and Srini, alongwith Kannan Sir left Dhabha as soon as other riders left the place. We just crossed some 40km, and saw Hari along with Sudersan standing with their bikes. Hari's 350cc bike got stopped with no reason. Senthil ( Mechanic) tried his best to solve, but not able to do so, becuase he needed some coils/parts which was packed and kept in Xavier's Gypsy. By this time the first batch of riders reached Savetha dental college, and we informed Sachi and Sekar about Hari's bike condition. Hari said its better to tow the bike, with the help of his fiends who were riding their bullets. The Scene was mindblowing one. Joe from Madras Bulls, tow'd hari's yezdi with an ease. He almost crossed speed of 100km. Something amazing to see bike being towed in 100km plus.The bike went for an stretch of 50km tow. We all reached the savetha Dental college by 6.30pm. Sekhar was waiting for us, who immediately started working on the bike to fix the bug.
It was getting dark, the felow riders said bye to each other and all moved towards their home, safely and peacfully. Tarun from Madras Bulls, helped to drop me in my home.

Thus the 1st Southern Raid came to end with fine happy note.



Cheers !!
Happy riding.

Highlights of the Ride :

http://picasaweb.google.com/vikee007/1stSouthernRAID
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