Long Ride-5: Hyderabad - Munnar (Round trip) bike ride

Note: Some images in this post are temporarily unavailable. I lost part of this media during migration, I am trying to retrieve it and will update this blog soon.

Hyderabad -> Bangalore -> via Mysore (Non-stop) -> 900 Woods -> Wayanad -> Athirappilly -> Munnar -> KODAIKANAL -> Bangalore -> Hyderabad

1. Total 9 days plan
2. Bike: Classic 350
3. Round Trip: 2830 Kms
4. Spent 50K (Including petrol)
5. For Trip, this is how I plan every time:
   https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQR7v2txYCS7aX410oyE3EmiwaoBqb8JurF782LSGIpijCWResBEKh8JFdteKDMwIY_FHRkAKx70F2R/pubhtml

Here are some pictures that I would like to share:

Story and the plan:

I am a solo bike rider who takes a max of 10 days of personal time off from work (of every 12 months, and these 10 days are only for my long bike ride). Mostly I take these 10 days from the month of December, because it will not impact business and company much, and I like foggy views, year-end feeling, etc. (Actually, December has its own advantages in my case, but it's completely a different story so not covering here)

Coming to the details: (This is to the people who all are reading and planning a long ride to Kerala)

11th December:

-> 5:00 AM: Done with all the setup by marking this sheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQR7v2txYCS7aX410oyE3EmiwaoBqb8JurF782LSGIpijCWResBEKh8JFdteKDMwIY_FHRkAKx70F2R/pubhtml)

-> Around 6:00 AM: Done with Breakfast 2 Idly

-> 6:57 AM: Started from home

-> Took 3 total stops (Max 20 Mins each) in between, before reaching Bangalore.

-> Reached hotel in Bangalore at some around 6:30 in the evening (STOP for the Day 1)

Max speed: 110, Min speed: 60 KMPH

12th December:

-> Started around 8:00 AM from Bangalore and reached 900 woods - (Meppadi -> Thollayiram Rd, Vellarimala, Kerala) (Reached around 6:00 PM) 5 total stops (Max 30 Mins each)

-> Jungle Stay, Night tent camping, sunrise trekking + food was arranged by http://www.wildind.in/ (It was really a great experience to stay in a jungle, in a small tent without having signals for communication... If you are using Jio, you will get some least strength of the signal at a certain point if you stand on a rock and it will not help us in any way to get cellular network, Mine is airtel, so it was a complete shut)

13th December:

Early morning: Trekking managed by Wildind as mentioned above. (Trust me, it was the best trekking in my life till date, and the below pic is proof of that)

Started from Jungle to Meppadi (around 12:30 PM and reached a hotel in Meppadi around 3:30 PM)

-> Pookodi lake from Hotel (Worst Lake I have ever seen in my life) -> 2 Hours literally wasted here.

-> Night at Hotel Meppadi

Max speed: 100, Min speed: 30 KMPH

14th December:

-> From hotel to Chembra peak (Started at 6:00 AM from hotel to the ticket counter of Chembra peak, because only 200 visitors are allowed/day to climb it)

Chembra peak is literally Heaven... I enjoyed it a lot.

-> Returned to hotel from Chembra peak by around 2 PM.

-> Started to Athrirapalli from the hotel (and in between covered Lakkidi viewpoint) around 3:00 PM and took a stop for night stay, in Kodassery (This is near to Athrirapalli), and reached hotel by 10 PM.

Max speed: 100, Min speed: 30 KMPH

15th December:

-> Started to Athriapally waterfalls from hotel around 7:30 AM and reached to it in 50 Mins (Again, it was a thrilling bike ride experience in a scenic forest road)

-> Next stop: Vazhachal Waterfalls (Actually next stop of Athrirapally was some other waterfalls, but I forgot the name of it)

-> Vazhachal Waterfalls to Hotel then started to Munnar on the same day and reached Munnar by exactly 5:00 PM

-> 5:15 PM: Kalari Kshethra (and the people here are very sweet and honest, they helped me to get a good scenic stay)

-> Stay.

16th December:

-> Started from Hotel (Some around 5:00 AM) and covered below

• Sunrise, ponmudi
• Hanging bridge
• Ponmudi dam

• Chunayanmakkal waterfalls

• Varayattumotta

• Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary

and all the above were very close to each other so all these were done by around 10:30 AM, and on the same day below (actual Munnar) was also covered

• Munnar Tea gardens
• If you have a bike, I suggest you to ride on the same road of Anamudi (I don't think a car can go well on that road, but you will not forget it in your life)
• Anamudi

• Eravikulam National Park

• Photo point

• Mattupetty Dam

-> Started from hotel in Munnar to Kodaikanal (Reached Hotel in Kodaikanal by around 9 PM)

17th December:

Done with

• Dolphin's nose
• Echo point
• Pine Tree Forest
• Guna Caves

• Green Valley Viewpoint

• Kodaikanal Lake
• Bryant Park
• Coaker's Walk (Actually Coaker's Walk was covered on 18th December, because of full fog, the view was bad on 17th December so re-visited Coaker's Walk on 18th December)
• Solar Observatory

-> Again, we can cover everything in Kodai just in 8 hours, because all places are very close to each other.

-> Back to Hotel.

18th December:

-> Kodai to Bangalore (3 rest stops, Max 20 mins each)

-> Stay

Max speed: 110, Min speed: 60 KMPH

19th December:

-> Bangalore to Hyderabad (3 rest stops, Max 20 mins each)

Max speed: 110, Min speed: 60 KMPH

20th Back to work.

The only point where I was a little upset is... I was not able to cover Wayanad properly and skipped Alappuzha because of covid restrictions, but anyway added Kodai to my list and I enjoyed a lot in Kodai.

Pranamam 🙏