CYBikers: Cycling trip to Ooty and back

What: Cycling trip on the Gundlupet --> Ooty -->Gundlupet route

When: Good Friday weekend -6th and 7th April 2012-  (8th being a rest day)
Who: 4 CYBikers- Aditya (ADIY), Kannan (QVS), Somashekhar (STHA) and Nayan (NYBP) -and one guest - Sridhar  
Background

We have a group of cyclists at the Cypress(CY) Bangalore office. We are called CYBikers and consist of people who cycle to work and/or cycle in the weekends and/or want to start cycling..

This was the 1st official trip of our small group. We had a long weekend coming up (Good Friday) and I was thinking of various trips that were good enough for 2 days (to allow a rest day). That is when Aditya along with Soma came up with this awesome plan of doing the famous Ooty climb (One of the toughest climb in south India with a vertical climb of >1200m over a 11km long road). 

The Plan

The plan was just right for 2 days. Drive to Gundlupet (~200kms from Bangalore) in Soma's car with our bikes mounted on it. Park the car at Gundlupet and do the Gundlupet-Ooty climb via the Kalhatty route on the bikes. Stay over night at Ooty and return to Gundlupet next day via Gudalur route. Return back to Bangalore next day in Soma's car. 

The Preparations
We planned to start from Bangalore at ~1:00 am in the night in Soma's CRV. The excitement of the trip and preparing for the ride (preparing bike, packing my stuff etc) took up all of my time and I could not get any sleep before that. Soma and team picked me and my bike up from near my  home at around 12:45 am and we soon started on our way to Gundlupet around 1:00 am.

Bikes mounted on/in the car, All set to leave Bangalore. L to R:  me, Kannan, Aditya, Soma

It took about ~4.5 hrs for us to drive to Gundlupet and I managed to get ~ 2 hrs of sleep in that period. 

Initial Ride through Bandipur National Park

At Gundlupet, we unloaded and assembled our bikes and by the time we started, it was already 7:00 am.We knew the summer heat would catch up with us soon but took solace from the fact that Neelima and team had managed the same trip after starting at 9:00 am exactly a year back in similar weather. We were a good 2 hrs ahead of them! The initial part of the ride was smooth with very small and not so steep uphills - A nice way to get warmed up for the tough ask ahead. 

On the way we passed through Bandipur National Park and Mudumalai Tiger reserve. Due to the summer, most of the trees were dry and there was hardly any shade. We spotted lots of deers and monkeys on the way. But they were very shy of us and just ran away as soon as we came any nearer or even if we stopped far to take pictures. Our first major stop was for breakfast at Masinagudi. We spent close to an hour over here and we used it to charge ourselves well for the tough ask ahead. After a scrumptious breakfast, some of us  decided to find a nice place to take a dip and cool down a bit. I took the opportunity to take a small nap. After a while some forest officers came and started shouting at us as we were bathing in elephant territory and it was supposedly dangerous :). We started from that point at ~11:00 am and the sun was really getting hot now and we all could feel the heat. To minimize the effect of heat, I would just ride hard when in the sun and relax a bit when passing through some shade.

Whenever I am stuck in such situations, I remember a quote by the legendary cyclist Greg LeMond: 

"It never gets easier, you just go faster"

The Climb

Soon, Aditya and me surged ahead of others, followed closely by Sridhar and not so closely by Soma and Kannan. We could suddenly feel the gradient becoming steeper as we reached closer to Ooty base. We found a tree with thick foliage and decided to rest here for a while (until Soma and Kannan caught up with us). We had an orange each and me and Sridhar shared a cucumber. We waited nearly half an hour at this place for Soma and Kannan. 

A nice shady area to rest while waiting for Soma and Kannan. Aditya checking the phone for the distance to the first of the 36 hairpin bends. It was about 600m ahead.

First of the 36 hairpin bends on the climb.
Photo of the actual bend below

Aditya meanwhile checked the map to find that the first of the (in)famous 36 hairpin bends was ~600m ahead. He said he will start riding and wait for us over there. Soon, we were joined by Soma and Kannan. We shared our orange/cucumber/water with them. Since Soma and Kannan were too tired and wanted to rest some more, I decided to start riding as I too was wary of the hard day ahead and wanted to cover as much distance as I could when I was relatively fresh. I had decided that whatever happens, I will not pull my bicycle. If too tired to ride, i will just get off and rest for some time and ride again.. but strictly no walking/pulling.
Soon I saw the sight of the 1st Hairpin bend (36/36 - they are all in reverse order while going upwards). Saw Aditya also over there, I think he had exhausted all his water already and started asking the passing cars for it. I had some half a litre left with me. Took a small gulp and a couple of snaps of the board and the hairpin bend itself and started riding again.
From my prior experiences of the Nandi climb (which was nothing compared to what we were just attempting), I knew that staying hydrated was by far the most important thing for pulling off such climbs..It was already 12:30 by now and we were sweating profusely due to the tremendous heat and lack of shade on the road.. I was seriously scared about whether I will be able to complete the climb. Curve #35 was just nearby and I was happy that I knocked of two curves in quick succession.

The periodic boards at every turn are a major motivating factor while doing this climb. You keep knocking them off one by one and your confidence grows slowly and steadily. Soon I too was out of water and was lucky to get another half a litre from a passing car. Then I decided to put my head down and just keep pedalling till I reach curve #18 (half way mark).

Never ending Climb:

The curves were pretty near each other until curve number 20 but after that, #19 is quite far (~2kms of low slope riding).  It was almost 1:45 in the afternoon and the heat was just un-bearable! Add to that the lack of proper hydration and enough sleep on the previous night and I was feeling really really tired :(.. Although the gradient was less steep, the journey from curve #20 to #19 was appearing to be never ending.. But I just kept repeating LeMond's quote to myself and just kept pedalling. I felt like the happiest person on earth on seeing curve #19 and subsequently #18 :))).

My Bike resting at curve #18. I slept for a while on that small white wall that you see on the left.

This was a target achieved and a milestone for celebration! :).. I gulped down whatever water I had (~0.5 litres), parked my bike next to the yellow board, dumped all my stuff (camera, water bottles, helmet, gloves..) next to the bike and just lay down on the small white wall.. Was breathing super heavily for the first 5 minutes or so and one car guy even stopped and inquired if all was well... I smiled at him and answered by just nodding my head (too tired to speak). The time was 2 pm and before I knew, I was fast asleep in the nice shade that was falling on this wall.

Next thing I remember was Aditya walking up pulling his bike at 2:30 pm (so I must have dozed off for ~30 mins). Aditya's strategy was to cycle as much as possible and if his speed dropped below 6 kmph, he would just start walking (at ~4 kmph). This way he insured that he was moving all the time.. I borrowed a sip of water from him (which he had collected from the numerous cars passing by..). After Aditya left, I rested for ~10 mins and then slowly gathered all my stuff that was lying around and started moving again. 

2nd Half of the Climb:
The weather had suddenly become very pleasant with lots of clouds coming from somewhere. Although the sun disappeared behind the thick cloud covering, the humidity was still causing lots of perspiration :(.. Soon I reached curve #12 and was super happy to see some stores over there :)) Purchased a bottle of water and gulped down most of it instantly!.. I could feel a sudden sense of energy and relaxation after having that water. Soon, I finished that bottle and bought another one for the rest of the journey. 

We had another prolonged break at curve #8 where we had a nice cup of coffee with a pack of Oreo cream biscuits. It had started raining mildly and we decided to soak in the pleasant weather. This is where there is a killer uphill which is really a straight climb around 300m long with an angle of at least 30 degrees. A pack of buffaloes were descending from this slope and we decided to let them pass before we restart our climb. I took this opportunity to shoot a panoramic view from this awesome place..

A panoramic view from curve #8. Nice Coffee shop at this place.

The rest of the journey was tough but not that eventful. I managed to reach curve #1 with just 2 more stops in between. The feeling on seeing that board (1/36) was simply un-describable (if at all there was such a word). After about 4-1/2 hours of toiling I had finally done it!.. "King of the world" kind of feeling for those who have seen Titanic. Soon, Aditya and Sridhar also joined me and we took some pictures with the yellow board. After a while, Soma and Kannan also joined us. They had finally given up on the climb at curve #8 and decided to take a truck from there. We took a final celebratory group photo at this place and then started moving into the Ooty town. 

A final group photo after competing the climb! From L to R: Kannan, Aditya, Soma, Sridhar and me

Our place for overnight stay (YHAI Hostel) was at least 10 kms from this place and it took us ~45 mins due to the uphill-downhill terrain within the city. Finally managed to reach there by 7:30. Had a small bath and rested for some time. Soon we were joined by our Photographer (CYClick) friends Noopuran, Shakir and Bigmal - who were traveling by car and clicking photos on the way.. We had nice scrumptious dinner and it was already ~11 by the time we hit the sack..

A summary of the onward trip from Gundlupet to Ooty can be found below:

Day2- Return Trip Begins

We wanted to start as early as possible to avoid the afternoon heat and reach Gundlupet by at least 12 in the noon. However, it was terribly cold in Ooty and we were without any warm clothes or lights. So, the earliest that we could start was 5:30 am. The plan for return trip was to go via the Gudaloor which is a longer route but much more scenic. It is also not very steep, so allows you to go at a steady speed without braking too much.
The Detour:

On the way we passed next to the beautiful lake Pykara at about 12 kms from Ooty. This was an awesome place which provided an opportunity for small off roads and also soothe the eyes and the mind with the beautiful scenery. Some pictures from this place:

Nice place for some "off-roading". Lots of grass and no thorns! so no worries of getting flats :)

Beautiful view of the lake from the top!

A group photo at the beautiful location

Back on the Road:

Soon we started from this place and it was the time to enjoy the awesome down hill ride! .. No pedaling at all and we were going at speeds >30 kmph. On the way we passed  the cinema shooting spot, The Pykara Dam and boating place etc but we decided to avoid all of them in the interest of time. We wanted to reach Gundlupet as early as possible and avoid the HOT afternoon sun! The super awesome roads and the brilliant weather and landscape all around made this a ride to remember. There were beautiful tea gardens on either side of the spiraling downhill roads. Some pics of them below:

Beautiful landscape and smooth roads made this a ride to remember!

Lush green Tea gardens on either side of the roads. This was heaven for landscape photographers.

The Accident and a lucky escape!

The downside of such beautiful downhills is that in you tend to get too carried away in the fun of cycling fast without any effort. Moreover, you can get engrossed in enjoying the beautiful landscapes all around and every now and then your concentration can waver momentarily from the road ahead. That momentary lapse in concentration can be really dangerous as we found the hard way! We were all riding keeping a distance of at least 15-20 meters between us. Just before one of the turns, I saw that Soma was dangerously near to me. I had slowed down due to the turn and he hadn't.. He tried to overtake me at that turn and I slowed down further to let him go ahead. However, from the other side, a couple of cars were approaching and instinctively Soma applied sudden brakes on his bike. This caused his rear wheel to skid and he slipped on the road. He was riding on our side of the road but slid till the median (center line) due to the momentum. His water bottle fell one meter to the right of the median and got crushed under the wheels of of the oncoming car. (The car driver hardly had a fraction of a second to apply the brakes and stop). Luckily, Soma was safe as he fell on the left side of the median. He escaped with minor bruises on the hands, legs and just above the eye. 

All of us stopped here for a while as Soma cleaned his wounds with some water. I rode his bike a little and it was working really fine.. no damage at all! Unfortunately we did not have any Dettol or first aid kit with us so we decided to ride a little till we reached a place where we could get that.

Soma- Showing off his wounds after getting them cleaned. :-) A word of caution to everyone - Going downhill is more dangerous/difficult than going up hill. Please be careful and ride safe!

We had nice bananas and coffee/tea at the above place and regained some lost energy. Although Soma was fine, he was in a bit of discomfort due to the injuries. So, we decided to ride till Gudalur and then hire a truck from there till Gundlupet.  
We had nice heavy breakfast (almost lunch) at Gudalur and Soma went and saw a doctor to get his wounds cleaned and bandaged. Also, we were joined by our CYClick friends and we were driving together from this place onwards.

The Truck that we hired at Gudalur with all our bikes loaded. Kannan doing some last minute adjustments.

Bandipur Reloaded:

Soon we were again passing through Bandipur National Park and this time we were lucky to sight some not so common animals - Two wild elephants (one female and a male both at different places), a stag who was crossing the road!

Kannan took this awesome snap of the stag while it was crossing the road at super high speed:

Awesome click by Kannan - That thing was going really fast ...  Also, proud of my super fast camera :)

On reaching Gundlupet, we quickly dis-assembled our bikes and loaded them in/on Soma's car again and now it was time to start the drive back to Bangalore. Before we left, it was time for a group photo of CYClickoBikers :-) (A term coined by Noopuran). 

CYClickoBikers: A bunch of happy people after an awesome trip! :) From L to R: Shakir, Noopuran, Kannan, Aditya, Sridhar, Soma and me.

Thus concluded a super awesome trip which had everything: The pain of one of the toughest climbs in south India, the bliss of riding downhill amidst some breathtaking scenery, an accident (!!), and some lucky sighting of some awesome animals in the Bandipur National park. We couldn't have asked for anything more! Hope we do more of such trips! (at least 1 per quarter)

Link to Picasa album from my camera:
https://plus.google.com/photos/101248951236541984759/albums/5729237095759555201?banner=pwa&authkey=CJv2lqzv3aG7ZQ
Link to some Brilliant shots from Shakir's camera during their too and fro drive through the Bandipur National Park:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104067233193489024682/Bandipur?authkey=Gv1sRgCJGLl8aRkYf-Rg#

Following is the ride summary for the return trip from Ooty to Gudalur: