Kodi Biking Trip

Kodi - it was such an unplanned trip for me. KK was planning to cycle the hills with a couple of friends. My Kodi trip was supposed to start on Friday (28th) evening. Then I thought - what the hell, why would I want to go to Kodi for just 1.5 days? So I checked with KK if I could join him for the cycling trip. Luckily, there was a cycle available for me at the Kodi guest house.

That was it! On 25th morning, I jumped onto KK's Indigo and we drove to Kodaikanal. Reached there around 5pm. Our first stop was the Golf Club where we met the gang. The cycling plan was explained to us and then we were all set.

Day One - We started around half past nine on the observatory road. there were three Ford Endeavors with food and water, two people on the motorbike to help with us any problems with the cycles, and a masseur. the first stretch was an uphill and it was quite bad. most of the them were gasping for breath, but still made it. flat roads to begin with would have been better i thought. from there it was downhill for a while. this road was taking us to Mannavanur. the total distance was around 35 kms. at the downhill stretch, our bikes were speeding at more than 40kmph. little did we know what was going to happen. my bike went out of control at a bend. i tried braking hard - didnt work out that well. the bike was skidding and i was going to go straight into the mountain. thats when i realized that i had to do something. so i jumped off the bike and landed on my back. luckily, nothing serious except for a minor internal damage to the thigh muscle. about 50 mtrs behind another person fell - and that was KK. he had a bad fall - bruised his elbow and knee. we started off again. what was waiting for us was one helluva hill climb - a never ending one rather. with every turn we took, we hoped that it would lead to a flat road, but it never worked to our favor. finally, we came to our lunch spot. it was like a cliff, from where we could see the sheep farm and the area surrounding it. from there it was downhill. we kept cycling till we reached a point where the road forked to Berijam and Kavunji. We took the road to Berijam and cycled a few kms. Berijam is a protected area and tourists are not allowed into that forest belt. a few kms towards the Berijam lake and then it was time to head back.



Kodi Biking Trip

Day Two - started with two rounds of the lake. then we took a right turn at the bus stand near the lake into the road that led to Villupatti. Initial downhill, after that, it was 1.5kms of pure uphill. when we got to the top, most of us were knacker ed. we took the straight road which was another downhill-uphill combination. at one point, the road forked and went further up. if we had done that hill as well, then it would have been the best climb. but didn't do it - junta was tired. that hill was leading us to Nayudupuram. we drove back and took the road to Kurinji Temple. towards the right of the temple there was a small road that was leading us back to the lake - a distance of about 5 kms i guess. this trip was close to 25kms. the best part about day two cycling - the uphill and downhill circuits were more frequent. so, more work. in the day one track, we had flat roads and small gradients as well. in such places we could cycle fast and get some pace. with the uphill downhill combo, the problem was - one needs to keep braking when downhill and then change gears to prepare for uphill. all the speed that you gather when you come downhill comes down by a fifth. if you didnt brake, then you'd definitely be under one of those speeding cars coming on the opposite side.