This is what happens when you have some like minded guys not around , but in the same floor and in the office. After our FIRST 100+KM the same 3 guys started thinking of the next trip and this time we were planning something on the coastal route. As we started exploring google and followed the trace on the coast from Chennai beach we found a beautiful route till pulicat lake. As we spotted this we didn't have a 2nd thought to freeze this route.
The route was done and now the next was the date, we did not plan November 1st well in advance, but it was just couple of days before our schedule looked fine and now we posted to our group +Dinesh Pandy also planned to join this trip.
Nothing much to plan as Dinesh,Alwin and Vijay started from porur and i was getting ready to receive them in the midway near valluvar kottam as i was getting ready on the November 1st morning i get a call from unknown number introducing himself as Arun Mohit and wanted to join this trip.I rechecked if he is ok for the 100+ Kms he said he has not crossed more than 50 Kms but he will manage to do.
We all 5 joined Near valluvar kottam and started our trip.The heavy rain on the pprevious night gave a pleasant start, and we stopped near the Kasimedu bridge for our first photo shoot.
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After the photo shoot we were able to see the bright lights and we started moving fast on the highway, both the sides of the roads we were accompanied by the huge container lorries moving from/ to the port and the shore also travelling along with us. By now we from Paris corner we have crossed royapuram,Thiruvotriur and reached the ennore bridge. This route was very quite in the morning and it had a good green scenic route on both the sides. we have now almost covered 25+Kms. The sun was popping up and were now on the ennore flyover. Took our next break for the photo shoot.
The river under the bridge was very active with many young and old people busy in fishing. we also spotted some birds like fflamingos and cranes. After our photo shoots we started our journey , checked for the next destination from our map man alwin and headed towards the kattupalli village, en route we ccrossed the NTPC, L&T Ship building port and it was our time for the break fast. Various topics was discussed en route and our surprise elment was Mohit as he was ease with our pace and showed no tiredness. This route is also a dessert ed route and you don't find any hotels or road side shops to eat. Luckily on enquiring to the locals there, we were guided to a small shop( Actually a big shop for locals) and we headed towards that. As we spotted the shop we enquired for food and only idly was there with vada, our guys didn't have any mercy in completing the half of their morning sales and we paid only 125 Rs for 5 of us.
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Few took a quick dip with the water there and were set for the next destination, this time we knew it is going to be an offroading from here. Even google maps does not show the route after this. We started moving in small forest area with mostly pine trees(Guess) and in the muddy road, the hybrid guys were little jealous over the MTB guys in this stretch. The previous day rain filled many of the path way with water and our rear wheels were giving a mud shower to most of us. we crossed the kalenj village and the entire streth were were on the banks of the kosathalayar river on our left and the sea shore on our right. This route was very scenic with green trees, and with few steep terrain and no people over there. It also has the cashew farms in either sides, but we didn't get any fruits as it was not the season.
we were few kilometres away from our destination of pulicat lake and the route was awesome incase if you like to do any offroad biking.
We stepped into the beach for a change and it was round 8.30 AM and now the tides were actually getting more aggressive. Tried to take a dip in a lake near by but we found that it was full of salt water so just pushed off our plan on the dip. We decided the next stop to be the puilicat lake and our bikes were zooming for it. The clock were running fast as this offroading stretch was taking our time than planned. We were even able to see the lighthouse from here. We were moving our journey by discussing about the pulicat lake,dutch people, their fort and few other historical things to the extent of the knowledge we had on this place. The crew become more curious if we are on right track and if the lake is on the way. To break this ice we saw the pulicat bridge and busy small shipping harbour near by. The people around the area was curious and few of the locals approached us to take us boating inside the sea. Even though when all wanted to have a look, the time challenged us and we planned to move on considering this as our U turn point.
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we were actually crossing the busy pulicat fish market and planned to stop for a water break at the end of the village, but for our surprise after we crossed few distance we found we were on a deserted road and no shops came on our way. we continued to cycle with vijay and alwin leading the league and me/mohit and dinesh followed them. Dinesh was tossing up the plan of 200 KM BRM and was planning to take the same team to this event.( Now fingers crossed). we crossed more than 5 kms and found no sign of water stop before we were completely running out of water we saw the small village polachiammankulam with a very nice shop having water for the passers. But the water was not so tasty so we planned to hop into the shop for ice water, rasna, limca, etc.
The below photo will talk more on our looks after 60+ Km of cycling.
It was our time to build strategy and we decided that we will stop only in the next 10th KM that was minjur and no photo stops inbetween.In our whole ride i consider this was the challenging part but the route was scenic across with both sides having paddy fields and no or less traffic in most of the places. As planned we reached minjur for the pitstop and started moving across. After minju we were once again challenged by the heavy vehicles and we started taking the service road. We were now on the Highway route and were near to manali. we stopped here for our pitstop to load ourselves with few snacks and re fill our water bottles. As we started in next few minutes we felt there were some showers dropping down so we moved our gadgets into safezone and started pedalling. When me and dinesh stopped for the first rain our other friends were still pedalling continiously. As we were reaching the manali junction there was heavy down pour. When couple of us had a plan to stop,alwin pulled us to continue pedalling and it made complete sense. It was a very heavy downpour and actually were were moving between the parked trailer lorries. Many of us at the junction asked if it was a race , few were passing comments as crazy guys etc. But the these guys were enjoying the rain and wanted me to take the pics.
I guess the real fun of this trip was in this stretch , cycling in the heavy downpour and from here all our gadgets were running short of powers and also the rain god did not want us to use them back. We discussed our departure plans as me and Mohit took the route to home back through anna nagar. Vijay, Alwin and dinesh continued on the high way as they have to reach porur. Many saw us as mad people !! and i think they are right !! we are mad on these things !! See you soon on our heritage ride !!
Route Plan:
Valluvarkottm-Paris-Royapuram-Kasimedu-Thirvotriur-Kattupalli-Kalanji-Palaverkadu-Minjur-Manalibyepass-MadhavaramByepass-Padibridge-Annanagar
Distance: 125 Kms minimum
Route - Highway / offroad
Places you can see: Pulicat lake, Ennore port,NTPL,Fishing,Beaches,Cashew Farm etc
