Then came a day when we got a leave in the mid of the week , that was for Ramzan, Officially ramzan is being celebrated today by most of the people but as our company holiday calendar was prepared long before it didn't predict this surprise.
Vijay tossed the idea of going a long ride and we were looking for our other friends as time was less we didnt make it big just restricted within me , +selvam vijayakumar and +Alwin Koshy. We just wanted to make a 100+ Km ride that was our prime agenda and should be on the outskirts of chennai covering a scenic route. Vijay took his help from our Chennai trekking club friends and pulled out a trail between Vandlur and Chengalpettu covering offroad and onroad. We decided to meet at pallavaram @ 5.00 PM and left the office.
I set my alarm for 4.00 , planning to get up and pedal. But when i started it was already 4.45 and got a call from +Alwin Koshy that they have already started. So i rushed to the Nungambakkam station and took a train ticket and surprisingly the ticket counter guy informed me to take the luggage with the TT, as none asked me i landed safely in the pallavaram and joined with our guys , who reached 10 mins earlier and have completed a Tea.
As we regrouped we checked the map and we know we have to follow the road till Vandalur and started our pedaling. The highways did not have much traffic, but we took the service route/ highway in a mix to manage the traffic did our first pit stop in a petrol station to refill our water bottles continued our pedaling on the vandalur - medavakam route and took our left towards the mambakam road. After few distance i found that my wheel was not smooth and noticed my rear wheel had less air, i was worried for a flat Tyre but guys were strong and encouraged me to pedal further as we where fully equipped.
This route was the first offroad we encountered and we were pedaling along the banks of the mambakkam lake, it was huge and other sides were complete green small forest. we crossed small mountains and the sounds of the birds were accompanying the complete stretch. we crossed the mambakkam reserved forest along with many paddy fields and mango farms on both sides. It was already 8.00 AM so we planned to stop for a quick break fast.It is another reason for this rides to eat some simple village foods. So we checked into a 4Start restaurant( Since only 4 person including the owner) and had nice dosai with some fruits that we carried along and we continued our tour.
We crossed many reserved forest (RF) like Kayar RF , Kalvoy RF and we decided to detour from our original plan of reaching
As we were crossing many fields we witnessed lot of open wells , old houses , small schools, and we were discussing about how life is so peace and pollution free just away from a hour drive from the city. We stopped at few places for re fueling and also got a chance to get drenched to cool ourselves on a road side water tap.
The wetness didnt last for few minutes and we were completely dry in few mins. we have already covered 65 + Kms we were discussing if we need to ride back or get into a train with our cycles and travel back. So we decided to reach the kuduvanchery station and check for the options. Our navigator +Alwin Koshy checked for the routes and we were close to our original plans and we started following the map, at one place we lost our trail and landed in a dead end. When we were checking for the alternate route, the pleasant smell of the mangoes pulled us into a Mango farm and we were pleased when we found that they have plucked mangoes just now and they were ready to go to market. The person there
offered us a rate of 100 Rs for 3 Kg looking all 3 of us. But we requested her to charge us for that we eat and we took 2 rounds of fresh mangoes and paid her 60 Rs. The pleasant climate inside the mango farm gave us a good break and the fresh mangoes were like a good refreshment. We rechecked the route for Gudvancherry and pushed ourselves to reach there around 12.00 PM.
As we approached to the GST roads we were again feeling the foul smell of the garbages on the road, sound horn, busy people, rash traffic etc. we reached the railway station and enquired for the transport cost , for which the Ticket Checker offered us 200 Inr per cycle, which is 20 times the cost of ticket. We spoke about Go Green, Cycling etc with him and later which he gave a 20 Ruppes offer and said that it will be 180 Rs. So we decided to take this up with the Railway miniisted Mr. Suresh prabhu ( Kidding) and left the station and decided to pedal back.
More than the heat and the traffic, the crazy look of people towards us was very funny to me many times and few did respect us on the highway , when many of us didn't consider as a person on the road. We reached around 1.00 Pm at the Pallavaram where all of us separated towards our direction. And we all reached back home @ 2.00 PM.
The over all experience was wonderful in exploring the south chennai. We did not take much pictures as we were focusing in covering the places.
In case if any one likes to follow the original trail you can use the below link.
https://www.google.co.in/maps/
Happy and Safe Riding :)
2 comments:
Super! 4 star hotel and Suresh prabhu :-D
Super! 4 star hotel and Suresh prabhu :-D
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