On to Ooty

We started off, much later than planned, on the road to Ooty. Here are a few shots taken along the route.

Ciggy break at a hairpin apex. The boys and their machines cooling off amidst the mountains. But actually, this route was mostly through the plains.

The bikes are bent on getting a good angle on things. Shows what they can do if they’ve got the inclination.

Ok, no more PJ’s, I promise. We had a good lunch at Palani, and saw a horrific bus-auto accident on the Coimbatore bypass. This kinda put a major damper on our spirits and we rode fairly slow from there on. The roads were fairly decent and this was an uneventful ride. We reached Coonoor late in the evening amidst the ever present rain and fog.

Three options here. Stay at Coonoor, stay at Ooty, or stay and Masinagudi. In retrospect, we should have done either 1 or 3. Ooty has become this severely commercial tourist-only place where one feels suffocated, rather than free as one should in a hill station.

We had to do a bit of running around in the pouring rain to find an ideal place. 7 beds and a TV to watch the Montreal race. Schumacher the elder won yet again, and Kimi finished a lowly sixth. Copious amounts of alcohol to drown my sorrows. The only consolation was that the Beemer boys Ralf and Montoya stood on the other two steps.