It’s 5 AM and my phone’s alarm goes off. The screen reads “Royal Indians – Camp Denver, Saddle Up!!”. I send an SMS to Jerin @ 5:30 AM asking him if he is awake and on schedule, but no reply from him! Never mind, I got ready and assembled my stuff outside. That’s when Jerin called saying that he’s @ the main gate and coming in towards my house. I take my bike out and quickly take Laddie for a walk. It was drizzling at 6:15 AM when we head off towards Ulsoor, our starting point. I thought we’ll be the first guys there, but was wrong. Arun and a few others had already assembled and waiting for the rest of the club members.

Others start arriving, all saddled up and ready to hit the open road. Meanwhile, all the bullets assembled @ Foto Flash, opposite Ulsoor lake, with their riders in full gear and pillion seats saddled up with mats, cramster saddle backs was an amazing sight. Finally, all members in (except Sreeny, who is waiting for us at the old Pepsi Factory on SH17), and we kicked off with Subbu in the lead. Almost a dozen bullets start thundering and I am sure there were a few residents in the area who’d have been cursing us for the ruckus we created. Have I mentioned that this is my first ride with Royal Indians, or with any group for that matter? I was thrilled and excited beyond words. Just the thundering sound of the engines is what I heard and I knew that I belonged here.

We picked up Sreeny about an hour later and headed of towards Mysore on SH17 with me in the lead this time. I have been on this highway on the bullet once before, but this time was different. I could see only the headlights of the bullets in my mirror all the way till I could. As time went by the hunger pangs finally caught up with us and we started feeling hungry, but food had to wait for a little longer. Kamat Lokaruchi @ Ramnagara was extremely crowded and we didn’t want to waste time waiting. But as we approached Kamat and then headed out, I could see heads just turning in awe. Next stop was Kamat upachar for breakfast. We took a few snaps while breakfast arrived.

With our tummy’s replenished, we headed off again towards Kollegal and bypassed Mysore. We rode through Kollegal, Mallavali before we stopped for lunch @ Chamrajnagar.

Having refueled both the tanks (our stomach and the bike) we started towards Thalavady. We had to reach the Thalavady bus stand where our local contact was going to meet us and then take us to the camping site.

We reached the camping site around 4ish and parked the our steeds, rested our butts. Luckily it didn’t rain much on the way and we were still dry. Soon we started assembling our tents and weighing them down with our luggage so that they don’t fly off in the wind. Once the tents were setup and the luggage stowed away in them, we all changed and let our hair down.

The nice and serene tranquility of the place cannot be described in words. All I can say is it was us an the nature, raw nature. The first thing the camping site owner does is to warn us about trying to jump the fence and go out. He said the fence is electrified because of the animals wandering into the site! Now, that is what I call raw.

We all got fresh and the camp fire started and we all gathered around Baba Raamdev listening to his mesmerizing tales from his Ladakh trip in 2008 and soon veered on to other topics and finally, as it happens around all camp fires, got into a sing along session with antakshari! This is when I kept kicking myself for owning a guitar for more than 3 years now but never bothered to learn how to play! Not anymore, I will start taking lessons soon and carry it along with me on future rides.

We ended the day with the dinner prepared by the local guy for us and crashed into our tents.

Next thing I remember is waking up to the chattering of birds and not a single unnatural or man made sound to be heard till others woke up and started chatting. Such times make you realize, what the f**k am I doing in the city. I should be here. I sure the locals would be saying the same, that they should be in the city. The grass is always greener on the other side.

We all queued up to use the plumbing facilities and fresh’nd up. Packed off our tents due to the fear of them flying away in the wind. Finished breakfast and warmed up our engines for a ride to Dhimbam forest through the ghats. Having driven through the ghats in my car before, I wasn’t expecting much, but boy, was I wrong! Riding through the ghats on the bullet is something else. Sandeep (sanroyal) is the one who showed me a trick or two about riding in the ghats and after that I never fumbled or lost control while riding. Another breath taking view of the city down below with a hill top over looking it greeted us! I held my breath when I saw the view. If there was god who sits down watching over us, I’m sure he’d be sitting down on that hilltop over looking the city. Having digested as much of the view and clean air as we could, we headed of to a dam to cool our feet and this time the ride was through the elephant track. We were asked not to over speed or drive rash or even honk on the way.

After hitting the dam, each of us dipped our feet in the water and chilled out for quite some time. The dam is on the left stretching out almost 500 meters and water all around it. The other side of the reservoir had open plains covered with lush green grass (small variety) for about 250 meters and then the forest starts. Except for the dam, Lord of the Rings could have been shot here!! We saw a few sheep grazing in the plains. The sight was plain heavenly.

Anyway, like all good things, this must come to an end too and we headed of to Chamrajnagar for lunch and then back to the base camp. Tonight, we were all out of fizz and the night was spent just chatting around the campfire discussing our bikes and club and the upcoming IBA Saddle Sore ride and RE Rider Mania 2009 in Goa.

Next morning was the same, but I woke up to the sound of Arun’s Electra being warmed up. A few of us were leaving early to take care of few things back home. The rest of us had a lazy start and started off towards Bangalore by about 9. We hadn’t had enough of the ghat riding that we took the ghats route towards Charmrajnagar. A quick lunch and we decided to to split up and meet in Mysore.

Mysore to Bangalore was a great ride with me and Sandeep in the lead. Next stop was Maddur where we all split for our final destinations. Raahul, Jerin, BB (with his family) and me, we all headed to Bangalore via NICE road and I said our goodbyes.

This has been one of the very many rides that we “Royal Indians” are going to have in the near future. A lot of the bikes used on this trip hadn’t even completed the second service! That means, we have a lot of biking left in us before we rest.

Like Robert Frost once wrote:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.


Ride Statistics:

Total KMs: 720 (450 mi)
Total Bikes: 13 + 1 Car
Total Riders: 17 + 1 kid
Number of days: 3
States covered: Karnataka & Tamilnadu

This is me signing off now. Good night and good luck. Oh, and Happy Thumping…