Another bicycle ride at night in the southern part of Coorg. A ride under the moonlight covering a distance of about 130 kms, split into three segments just to avoid in mid April's hot sunny days.
An organised moonlight ride but this time in the southern part of Coorg. The total distance of the ride was around 130 kms, split into three segments to avoid riding in the hot sunny part of the day (i.e., 9am to 2pm). Had to choose between a 200km night brevet and this night ride scheduled over the same weekend. Bicycling route was Gonikoppa – Kanoor – Kutta – Irpu Falls.
Night 01 : Gonikoppa to Kutta
Sat, 12 April 2014
A sound sleep night journey by bus and at about 2am we stop at a petrol bunk at Gonikoppa. Having got our bikes uploaded from the canter vans, check the bikes and wear the gear required for the ride and half hour later start on to ride towards Ponnampet. Unlike the last night ride at the BR Hills where there was bright moon shining in the sky, this time it was just a clear black sky. Being summer season, it was not very cold but rather foggy. With lights attached to the bikes or miner’s lamp on, we ride on though the night. Occasionally, had to stop to clear the mist off my riding glasses and sometimes to take pictures. Various birds on tree tops chirped away loudly to hint the break of dawn. As we rode on, the early morning light gave the glimpse of trees on either sides of the road partially engulfed in the fog beyond soon making their appearance in full as the sunlight shone through the treeline making the ones close appear like silhouettes. Soon we reached Shettigeri after about 20km and take a left towards Srimangala.
It was about 5:30am and somewhere further along the road, I stopped to take a picture of a tree about 15-20 feet ahead that banked slightly onto the road. Heard some ruffling of the tall shrubs to the left side of the road. Didn’t give too much thought presuming it to be a dog or a cow. When suddenly just about 20 feet ahead, a huge elephant came rushing out onto the road. By which time, Chethan rode up and stopped just a couple of feet behind me. It stopped to look in our direction. Do we run away or do we take pictures of the magnificent animal that stood in front of us. We had our mobile camera in our hands but were to dumbfounded to react. It then trumpeted loudly and headed straight and off the road trampling the shrubs that lined the side of the road made its way only to disappeared through the trees leaving behind a clear trail of its path. Only then did we realize that we had stood motionless, too perplexed to take even a single picture and cribbed out loud having missed a good opportunity and yet in our thoughts thanking our stars that the elephant didn’t charge towards us. By which time, our two french riders reached here having heard some loud sound at a distance. We narrated the incident and they seemed a bit disappointed for having missed the sight.
We continued to ride further to reach Kutta, where we took a left at the bus stop. Further on at Kembukolly, another left to reach the camp by about 8am after having covered 49.5km.
After good hearty vegetarian lunch and an hour’s rest, we start to ride. A deep-right turn after 3 km towards Srimangala when it starts to rain pretty heavy. Chethan and I were prepared for such an occasion and put on the rain jackets that we had got along while some had to either had to ride on drenched or stop to take cover until it stopped raining. We reach Shettigeri and took a left turn to head towards the KKR river. A nice spot to relax and take a dip in the river, but the rain didnt allow it and lest it gets dark, we headed back to reach camp by about 6pm having covered 26km. Freshened up and just before dinner, we all got to unwind the ride experience around a campfire.
Day 02 : Gonikoppa – Irpu falls
Sun, 13 April 2014
Following morning, we were all ready by 7am. After a good breakfast, we started to ride towards Kutta. Further 23km and reach Kakur where we were to take a left towards Irpu falls. Had been here before with Deepak and Mithi but as it was monsoon time then and we could not get close to the waterfalls. This time was I got to see the waterfalls up close and personal. Taking turns, we all got our share of pleasure of standing under the cold waterfall that was just too exciting. Having spent about an hour there relaxing and taking lots of pictures, we started back and to reach camp by noon having covered 42.5km.
Freshened up and had lunch while our bikes were loaded back onto the canter vans. Soon after bidding farewell to the friendly people from the camp, we start our bus journey back to Bangalore. On the bus, we got into playing rounds of Dumb Charades and later in Antakshari two guys from France got their share of singing songs but in french and they enjoyed it too.
This was quite an eventful trip, where we got to ride in various weather conditions as well as the unexpected encounter with an elephant that my friend and I got to experience.
