Day 3 - Meppadi to Ooty

The alarm clock woke me up at 6.30 in the morning. My limbs were aching, but we must start early for the long day ahead. Plan was to reach Masinagudi which was around 100 km from Meppadi. Before that though, I had to fix the puncture. The bucket full of water helped us to detect the puncture, after which it didn’t take long fixing it. Anil’s foot pump came handy, and although it gives a feeling of ‘ready to disintegrate’, it did the job well.
We made a couple of trips for the bikes and baggage to get them down from the second floor on to the open space near the ground floor. Next was to tie my luggage on the rack, which has become an art work by now. I have realised that if it is not tied very meticulously, the bag is sure to move from is equilibrium position at some point of time. To be honest, even after giving my best shot, I generally had to re-do the job at least twice throughout the day.
Soon we were on the newly tarred undulating road, leaving the small town of Meppadi behind. And suddenly, there was drastic change in the scenery. The coffee plantations that had been accompanying us for most of these last 2 days had now been replaced by tea plantation. And the magnitude of it left us spell bound. The tea leaves looked their greenest, the oblique sun rays was making them glitter. All of a sudden my legs felt so much better. And hence, that small argument with Anil was unavoidable. There was a small lane that was going into a private tea estate, which we later came to know as called Arrapetta Tea Estate. Anil reminded me that we had a long day ahead, and we would have the company of tea gardens all throughout, but I was too overwhelmed to listen to him. With the tea plantation kissing our bikes, the road twisted, turned and dipped into the Arrapetta Tea Estate. I felt like a kid, the unbound joy that we were so used to . At the base of the hill, I stopped for a few pictures. I saw Anil coming down as well. The scenic beauty of the place has rubbed on to him as well.
We rode up, panting and puffing. Back on our main road, we realised we had lost a precious half an hour, but gained bounty of joy. Not a bad trade off, I thought. And surely, that deserves a quick break. We decided to skip breakfast to save time, and had some bakery biscuits and a glass of - well, Tea it has to be!

At around 10am, we crossed the border and entered Tamilnadu. And suddenly, the road became narrow and the tea gardens moved closer. It became even more enchanting. Riding through the beautiful tea estates, we crossed the village of Cherambadi at around 11 am. That’s only 23 km since morning. Blame it to the Tea Gardens of Wayanad. Soon we were riding up on to a hill, spinning our legs furiously. With every turn, we were hoping the road to go down only to find it going up...we continued for a while, and then had to get down and push our bikes. After all, walking gives us more time to appreciate the bounty of nature.
Anil was riding with slight hamstring cramps since morning. He complained that he needs a break, and we stopped beside a small tea shop. We had 2 cup of tea each, along with some local snacks. Its past midday now, and at this rate, covering another 70 odd km doesn’t seem probable. So the plan now was to cycle till Gudalur and then take a transport/lift to Masinagudi. That should help us reach Masinagudi by evening.
But that was not be .We were about to get back to our bike when some locals on motorbike spotted - oh yes. Another puncture! And the rear tyre again!! It wasn’t a good feeling. We had been taking break since the last half an hour, that was totally unnecessary now. Before we could dig into our puncture kit, the helpful locals got hold of some spanners and screw drivers and what not, and were trying to take my wheels off. Language was a barrier and we couldn’t convey them that those weren’t needed. Only when I showed them the quick release and displayed how to partially take the wheel off, could they understand what I was trying to tell them. I smiled to them, and they smiled back to us. A language well spoken anywhere.
The flat was repaired, but we lost considerable amount of time. 1.30 pm it was, so more change in the plan. While I was fixing my puncture, Anil had called up a few resorts and hotels in Masinagudi. They were pretty expensive, and we weren’t sure paying so much just for a night( we were leaving early next morning too Ooty) was any worth. Also, reaching Masinagudi now would mean almost no cycling, but just loading our bikes on some vehicle right away. That didn’t sound very exciting to me. We decided to ride till Gudalur, around 40 km away and then get a ride till Ooty.
Fresh after a long break, we continued with our climb. We have asked how long this climb was in the tea shop, and have been promised for not more than a km. What more, we have been told we would be rewarded by a long downhill after that. So happy lads we were, and decided to push our bikes ahead.
But happiness wouldn’t last for long. We had just covered that stretch of uphill, when I realized not all was not well. Puncture! 2nd puncture of the day and the 3rd that I would be fixing since morning. But this must be the most scenic of the locations I would ever fix a puncture in life! This place was at the top of the hill, and was like a view point, with a view of mountains and rolling tea gardens for 270 degrees. This time though, we knew we need to do it well and shouldn’t get distracted by the seductive scenery. We didn’t check the inside of the tyre last time, and that was stupid. We now were suspecting that it could be due to some sharp piece of object getting stuck at the inside of the tyre. I was a little scared to take the rear wheel off. But this time, we were left with no choice. So off came the rear wheel, and we got busy with it. Soon we had a company. A Rajasthani lad was passing through and got curious about us. WE came to know he and a few others get their stock of woollen blankets from Rajasthan and sell it off here. He was going to the town. Of course he was in no hurry, and even offered lending a helping hand to us.
Our suspicious was proved right. The tube has punctured around the same place again. On careful scrutiny, we found a small piece of broken glass stuck at the inside of the tube. As usual, the puncture was fixed, and I prayed to god to make this the last puncture of the trip. The flat being done, we were again on our way, enjoying the riches of the well deserved downhill that lasted at least for 3 km.
At Pandalur, we stopped for a lunch break at a small road side place. Surprisingly, not many people cared to check out our bikes parked next to the eatery. Good for us, we can pay our full concentration to the beef curry and parathas. Well, this time though, the food was average.
The day has been primarily a course in puncture fixing so far, and we didn’t do much of riding. By the time we finished lunch, it was almost 4.30 pm and we have only covered 37 km since the time we started from Meppadi. Anil suggested we hire one of those tempo vans right away for Ooty. I was reluctant as I wanted to ride some more. Luckily the tempo guy asked more than what we thought would be reasonable, and decided to carry on. That decision paid off in a different way, because after a few kms of flat route, the road arched and dipped down. What followed was beyond words. The road curved and snaked through the forests, through the hills and tea gardens. All this and the fact that the road surface was newly laid out made this 6 km long downhill my best till today. It made our day.
The day being made, we loaded our bikes onto a truck that offered to drop as at Gudalur. The driver asked us to come into his cabin, but we decided to enjoy the ride, sitting back along with our bikes. The journey, though exciting, was event less. But with every turn the truck was taking at a bend, I was missing being on the saddle.
From Gudalur, we hired a pickup truck for Rs800 to take us to Ooty. It was getting dark and within in an hour, it got very cold too. I started shivering inside. Anil on the other handed wanted to be little adventurous and was sitting on the open deck of the truck. I don’t know how he was managing that...probably he was thinking the rum will taste sweeter that way once we reach in Ooty. Somewhere midway we stopped for a cup of tea. Back on the truck, Anil joined us in the cockpit....and our driver suddenly wanted to fly. It could be the cold and damp climate; it could be he had to get back home early. I had literally begged him every few minutes to get the wheels on the ground.
8 pm – We reached Ooty . It was freezing...later we were told by locals that temp sometimes goes below freezing. After searching for a while, we found the Youth hostel. We were told rooms were available, and the old person at the counter had a friendly smile when we asked whether we can keep the bikes inside our room. He had checked out our bikes and did our introductions while we were unloading the bikes from the truck. He seemed to appreciate the idea of cycle touring, and I could see the glitter in his eyes. So this time there wasn’t much trouble persuading him to bring the bikes in. We were happy lads againJ. We checked out our room. Construction was old, and the wooden furniture in the room showed every sign of negligence. Else, it was a very decent room for the price. It wasn’t a big room though, and we had to keep our bikes in strategic places.
Anil was quick to find out that the youth hostel has a relatively busy bar, and we decided to check it out. Nice it was. Most of the crowd was local and working men. They seemed to be quite regular since almost everybody knew each other. The person next to us wanted to know if we were tourist, and soon we hit on a conversation. He was Dr Nandakumar, a general practitioner in Ooty and a very cheerful personality. He stays in Ooty and also owns a tea estate in Kotagiri. He was amazed to hear that we have been cycling for the last 3 days, and couldn’t conceal his awe when we said we are married, and got kids. With rum flowing freely, the discussion soon moved to the state of our country, politics etc.

We must have spent at least a couple of hours in the bar, after which I felt myself doing a tight rope walk to a keralalite restaurant suggested by Doctor Nandakumar. It was a few minutes away, and I realised the rum in me wasn’t sufficient to fight the cold; although it was sufficient enough to force me do my balancing act. I was literally shivering. Ofcourse, I wasn’t prepared for this kind of cold, and I didn’t carry any thick jackets as such to save on weight. All I had was a full sleeve thermal, a full sleeve cycling t shirt, and a very thin jacket. And I had all of them on me at that point. Anyways, it didn’t take long for us to reach the place. We ordered some paratha and fish curry, and when I started tearing my Ceylon paratha with my fingers, Anil reminded me of the customary photograph that I had been taking of the major meals of the trip. Obviously, the alcohol had changed the priorities . Well, the food was decent; although not as good as doctor said it would be.
One the way back, we picked up some hand made chocolates. They were expensive, but delicious. Back in the hotel, we wrapped us up in layers of woollen blankets. It felt so good.