Monday, October 06, 2008

RTMC 7A

What with my official trip to the Philippines being postponed for at least 2 weeks due to market conditions, I decided to go ahead for the 7th Anniversary celebrations of the Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club. This year it was held in Yercaud.

Me and the wife decided to start off early morning with the 7 o'clock batch. Turned up before time and as usual, no one was there! Then Sandeep joined us and slowly, one by one people turned up. By the time it was a sizable number, we decided to ride off. By this time, it was already 8 AM. No worries, rode a fast one and had breakfast in Hosur. Then continued on a very scenic route without touching Salem. I have never been on this route and it was awesome to say the least. Due to a large number of stops, we actually reached close to 2 in the afternoon.

Organisation was great and we got our rooms in no time at all. Before settling down, we had a spot of lunch and a couple of beers along with it. That was enough to put us off to sleep and sleep we did!

Night fell and there were quite a number of bikes already. Dinner and some sly drinking (pre-mix) had me in the mood for some really good sleep.

The itinerary for the next day was some insane stuff like Lemon and Spoon and slow bike racing! Took part in the Lemon and Spoon and came in 3rd. Not good enough and had to sit in the sidelines after that. The games continued and I suddenly found out I was short of cash in hand. And Yercaud has no ATMs!! Thought it would be a great time to take a ride and me and wife took off on a ride to Salem.

That was actually a very nice ride. Scenic and very relaxing. Also, good visibility in the hills and made it downhill in no time at all. Fueled up and took money at an ATM in Salem and made it back up again.

This is where things start getting interesting. At lunch, we started chatting about taking a ride around town with some of the guys there. Namely, Horny, Balls, Sandeep and Sai.. :)

So took off with some plans in mind and made it to some perfumery that sold us some really potent locally made medicines. All natural and awesome. Moving on, we went to the Servarayan temple, which is the highest point in Yercaud. Lovely view from there - you can check out a panned image here. Next stop - Bear cave at some local businessman's estate. That was quite a trippy ride inside the jungle on a stony, muddy path. Damn beautiful place and also the cave was scary but fun. Had to crawl on all fours sometimes and locals tell us that this cave actually ends at the temple!

Next stop - Lady's seat which is akin to Suicide point in Kodaikanal. The view from here was incredible! You can see all of Salem from this point and even see the winding ghat roads leading up to Yercaud. We stayed there for some time and waited to take some great pics of the night lights of Salem.

Then rode back to the hotel where a party was awaiting us. Rider Mania 09 was kicked off and some of the prizes were up for grabs. Then started the partying which was to say the least - mindblowing!!! Met some awesome people like Katz and the others from Madras Bulls. Made some new friends and blown, went off to sleep...

Next morning, we were supposed to ride at 8 in the morning. But we finally started off at 9:30 and this time again, it was the six of us riding together. And to say the least - I enjoyed this ride most and loved the company of these great guys!. Beautiful roads and great company - what more does a biker need?

Stopped off for lunch at a dhaba on the way and reached home in the afternoon. Great fun guys! Balls, Horny, Sandeep and Sai - thanks for the company and really enjoyed the ride in Yercaud and back home with you all! Hoping to have more in the future!!

Wonderful....still dreaming of open roads and no-traffic situations....

Update - Pics are up at my Flickr page......

4 comments:

  1. hey mate...looks like you were there too.. did we get to talk at the 7a ?
    was this your first ride?

    D

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  2. Yeah mate, me and the wife was there!! Raveena.....not first ride but am sure the first of many.

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  3. Dude, remember talking to me that night? :-)

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  4. Hehe Renie - I remember calling you!

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