This was one of my wished rides. To cross the border over Thenmala into Tenkasi and have border parota, then come back. Well, I kind of achieved it this time.
I started from campus by around 05:40AM and caught the Chullimanoor highway to move towards Palode first. I was listening to songs and music on my ride, but the ambience made me to turn off my music and let listen to the surrounding. It was great ambience, which can only be experienced by a cyclist.
While reaching Palode, I experienced that some more drag was adding to me while riding, but I didn’t give much importance to it and continued to ride. I crossed Palode and was reaching Madathara, the road was with climbs and descends which I experienced fourth by this time I think. The first time was in the group ride with Sreeganesh and others, then the couple of rides were the attempts I made to try the 200 BRM route. I was surprised that I reached Madathara so quickly, I didn’t check the time but felt like I reached so fast.
From Madathara, I continued to Kulathupuzha and reached there by around 08:00 AM where I decided to take breakfast. After crossing the town, near the border I saw a hotel and went down for breakfast. I felt that it was too costly, I just had three dosas and one egg curry. Each dosa cost is fifteen rupees and the egg curry costed 30 rupees, totaling to seventy five rupees. I decided not to have coffee this time.
After breakfast, I proceeded to Thenmala where the climb begins. I have seen the road upto some point in Thenmala border, as it was the part of that BRM 200 route. Beyond that point, I have only seen while going on bus to Tenkasi. I was happy to see the places that I travelled through bus alone with my bike. The sun started to shine and the climb has begun. I started to pedal with less pressure by switching to high gears.
On the way, I saw many sceneries out of which one spot was a great one. But, unlucky for me, the spot was occupied by a couple of cars and I couldn’t get a good view on it. With small dissapoinment, I continued and decided that I shall take that spot on return.
After a while, I came to the border of Keralam and Tamil Nadu, at Aryankavu. The border was not that visible in terms of indication. Just a small sign board was kept mentioning that we are welcome to Tamil Nadu. Beyond that point, it is full of descent upto the twist turn point where it becomes flat.
I was enjoying the descent and saw the spot where the cars took it. I saw another spot close by and decided to take a video of it. After taking video, I checked the front tyre pressure by pinching it. It was low. Now, I realized that is the reason for the extra drag that I was facing. I refilled the tyre with the hand pump and proceeded with the descend.
After getting to flat road, I proceeded towards Shenkotai. I saw the route to the bus stand and crossed it. While crossing the bus stand, the incident of missing the Puducherry bus when going to hometown last time was reminded in me. I crossed and checked the route. My plan is to first check the Five Falls, and do a round trip into Thenkasi and return. So, I took the route to Coutrallam and proceeded.
On the way in Coutrallam, I heard someone shouting at me. I thought some thug was shouting and didn’t mind it. But, in a minute a guy in a scooty overtook me and asked like where I am coming from etc… I thought like he was looking for trouble, but he started talking about my bike, saying its brand name and model number and all. Later, he told that he is a friend of the brand owner. It was a nice meet with him. I didn’t ask his name and all, he took a pic of me with my bike and told that he will share with his friend, the owner and said that it will make them happy.
I reached Coutrallam falls entry, and found that it is chargeable. I don’t know if it is the right season and thought not to waste money on this. So, I returned on the round trip towards Thenkasi. Reached Thenkasi, and was happy to see the bus stand where I only came by bus upto now. On the way, I saw an Ibacco store and felt to try icecream there. I felt it will be costly but thought to give it a try.
I went to Ibacco, ordered an icecream scoop and had. Like I thought, it was costly. One kilogram of icecream is about one thousand and two hundred rupees. Mine cost about ninety rupees, paid then proceeded on the route. After crossing Thenkasi, took another route to reach back to Shenkotai to have border parota. I saw a shop on the google maps and decided to go there for lunch. But, the route I took was blocked in the mid way due to some construction work.
I was redirected into a village and there, I saw some good views of western ghats. The road was like I was riding towards western ghats. I took some ride videos on the route and proceeded to reach Shenkotai. Then, after reaching the point where the shop was shown, I was dissapointed to see that there is no such shop. So, I went to another hotel nearby where only briyanis were available.
I had a mutton briyani for lunch, thought it might be heavy but it wasn’t. It was again another shock of its price. It costed two hundred and fifty for me. With the disappointment, I decided to leave this place and get into the route towards Thenmala for the return. While returning is the greatest headwind experience. I couldn’t ride at all. It was strong headwind. Now I understand why the people kept wind mills there facing the hills.
Somehow, I was managed to reach the climb part of the road where I enjoyed the descent while coming. I noticed that again, I am facing that extra drag. Additionally, something else was shaking on my saddle too. I saw that the front tyre pressue is again low and the saddle was got loose. I tightened the saddle with multitool, refilled the air and proceeded. I thought that the tube valve has some issue because of rugged rides on the bumpy roads.
I climbed and reached the border to Keralam, now it is the descend till Thenmala. I enjoyed the descend and proceeded towards Kulathupuzha. Again faced the extra drag, but I continued in the same tyre pressure. The lunch I had was fueling me for the return ride, otherwise I would have bonked in the middle of return ride as it was a severe climby ride on the whole. I managed to reach the campus by around 06:00PM, rewarded myself with an icecream from cafeteria and was enjoying my victory.
I planned for the bikewash and replace the front tyre tube the next day. And on the next day, I saw that the tyre became flat. So, it was punctured on the starting of the ride itself near Palode or somewhere before it. It was the first flat on this bike, I replaced the tube without checking the debris on the tyre. Stupidly, the new tube is also punctured by a small debri on the tyre. I took out the tube, cleared the tyre from debris, patched both the tubes and put back the old tube in the front tyre. Kept the new tube as a second backup, as it was punctured twice in near by spots at that time and thought that it is less reliable.
Overall, it is an excellent experience and now I know what a flat tyre would feel like. Below are the photos and videos recorded during the ride.
Below is the Strava log of this ride.
