Piston Saints Conquering Valparai

Bangalore - Krishnagiri - Salem - Pollachi - Valparai  - Athirappilly 

Day 1

  Piston saints Bikers group, consisting of 9 members left Bangalore by 7 am in the morning on 30th December 2014. We had 5 bikes Duke 200 , two FZ , R15 and Thunder bird 350 . We took the NH 47 highway which connects Pollachi via Salem.  We filled fuel near Hosur and continued the journey. We had breakfast at Krishna motel near Krishnagiri, the food was of good quality and there was ample space for parking.

             After a wonderful meal, the journey for our destination continued on two wheels, the road was brilliant and empty and we were touching top speeds on our machines.  One of the biker on the     R15 touched a top speed of 140 km/hr.  We did take  multiple breaks in between before reaching Salem,  after reaching Salem we and our machines did take some rest at a nearby tea shop  and continued towards Pollachi,   we took the  bye pass road of Erode  and Tirupur and  had a lovely lunch and left to Pollachi,  we reached  Pollachi by 5 30 PM.

From Pollachi, we journeyed towards Valparai, first we passed Aliyar dam it was a huge dam then came the majestic hills, and the view of the hill was breathtaking. We entered the Annamalai Tiger Reserve region and crossed Monkey falls, there were 48 hair pin bends on that region, and we had to ride through the bends to reach the Valparai.  It was 6:30 pm and the sun kissed us goodbye leaving us to ride in the dark.  The night ride on hills began with 48 hair pin bends left  as we were  ascending  on hills the weather became  so cold that we had to  put on our  jackets and gloves  and  then by 8:30 pm we reached Valparai and everyone were exhausted .  We stayed in a wonderful homestay amidst the tea estates. 

Day 2

 As soon as we got up we could see the wonderful view of the tea estates from the balcony of our room, it was mind blowing. We took a small walk   in and around the town of Valparai and by 1 pm we had lunch and left to Sholayar dam which is 30 kms from Valparai.  

The ride was brilliant through tea estates, we did take several pictures on the way.  Sholayar dam was amazing and huge, after spending some time over there we rushed to our homestay, since it was the 31st of December 2014.  We welcomed the first minute of the year 2015 with joy and happiness. 

Day 3 

   On the first day of 2015, we rode to Athirappilly waterfalls is 90 kms from Valparai and is in Kerala. We   took state highway 25, Annamalai to Chalakudy road which runs towards three different divisions (Range) of forest.  Malakkappara is the border between Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where we had to enter our details in the check post of the forest department.  After completing the procedures it was time for us to take our bikes into the forest, it was the first time for everyone to ride inside the forest. Everyone were excited and were hoping to see some animals on the way. The roads for few kilometers were of potholes and loose gravel and then came the newly laid road, riding on that was awesome experience and on that way we saw many animals like the Nilgiri langur, Malabar giant squirrel and took some pictures of the wonderful animals.

After passing through Sholayar Range we rode into Vazhachal range where we had lunch at hotel Manikandan in Puliyilappra, which serves as a source for Poringalkuthu Hydroelectric Project workers and officials. We headed towards Charpa Range where there was other check post   and the forest officials informed us to return by 4:30 pm or else they would not allow us to pass through. We entered the required details that we took from Malakkappara check post and   headed towards Athirappilly waterfalls, on the way we saw Vazhachal waterfalls and Charpa waterfalls.

We reached Athirappilly waterfalls, no wonder it’s called the “Niagara of India”, it was such a beautiful sight.  By 1 pm bought the entry tickets and parked the bikes and walked downwards towards the base of the falls, it was mind blowing and the water from the falls was of great force. We spent a wonderful time at the falls and most of them got wet because of the mist formed by the falls. We headed back in the same route to our homestay, we were also warned by the forest officials to be careful of the elephants while riding back.

Day 4

We had a proper rest and by 2 pm we left Valparai to Salem, on the way in one of the Hair pin curves we can see the whole view of the Aliyar reservoir, descending down to the foot hills of Annamalai.  We spent some time at Monkey falls, most of the tourists were enjoying themselves in the waterfall.  After reaching Pollachi, we headed towards Coimbatore to reach Salem. We reached Salem around 10 pm and took rest at a nearby hotel.

Day 5

We left Salem around 10am and headed towards Bangalore, we had breakfast at Krishna motel near krishnagiri. We reached Bangalore by 1 pm. 

Riders : Abdul Shahad   Afzal muhammed  Asif Elayadathil  Balaji Kumar                                   Deepak Papineni    Kiran Kumar   Satish Kumar   Sunil Kumar   Uday Vikram