Ride for Passion: Ride to Kolli Hills also called as Kollimalai (16April2010-18April2010)

It was a quite long we did not hit the road and we were longing to go on for a 2-3 days ride to beat the summer heat. If we want to beat the summer only destination we can think of is Hills Station and we wanted to hit the place which is not frequented by tourists and also place should remain untouched. That’s when we decided to ride to Kolli Hills. Here is some background on Kolli Hills.

Kolli Hills also called as Kollimalai (Mountains of Death) in Tamil is a small mountain range located in Eastern Namakkal, part of the Trichy & Namakkal Forest Division in the state of Tamil Nadu. The mountains are about 1000 to 1300m in height and cover an area of approximately 280 km². The Kolli Hills are part of the Eastern Ghats, which is a mountain range that runs mostly parallel to the east coast of South India. The mountains are relatively untouched by tourism and still retain their natural beauty. You can still see the Tribal people leaving in their natural Habitat. The Kolli Hills has 72 hair pen bends to reach the top of the hills. It’s a pretty hill station with a pleasant cool climate. Kolli hills temperature never rises above 30ºC or falls below 13ºC. This is one hill station where one does not feel the biting cold of winter. With such a salubrious climate, kolli hills can be visited round the year, clouds are seen round the year- it’s another amazing scene in south India.

Route : Bangalore – Krishnagiri – Salem – Rasipuram – KolliHills – Nammakkal – Bhavani – Sathyamangalam Forest – Chamrajnagar – Kollegal – Bangalore

Team : It was a gang of 9 Guys with 7 Bullets and a Gypsy. Me, Rajesh, Aditya, Kiran, Charan, Sharavan, Naveen, Sandeep and Rattan formed the team.

Bikes : [Me, Charan and Shravan were on our ThunderBirds] [Aditya on his Machismo] [Rajesh, Sandeep and Kiran were on their Electra] and finally Ratan was driving his Gypsy

It was 16^th Friday Early morning and as usual we all decided to meet up at Silk Board Junction at 5.45 AM. Luckily guys were prompt this time and everyone arrived at Silk Board before 6.00AM and we decided not to waste time and we started immediately. Since the Elevated flyover was opened recently, we decided to ride over the flyover and we were maintaining a good speed and stopped at A2B just before Krishnagiri for breakfast. 7 Bullets cruising at a good speed and with the level of thumps, it was grabbing the attention of people there and we certainly Enjoyed. After the breakfast, we were nearing Salem and it was really getting hot, we could not tolerate the heat with heavy jackets and we were getting roasted inside. We decided to take a small break and had tender coconut to chill our body. I insisted that we ride fast to Kolli Hills before its 12.00 so that we can enjoy the rest of the day. Everyone agreed and we were ripping to reach kolli hills and went via Rasipuram and reached the starting point of Kolli Hills.

Ride up the Hill with 70 Hairpin Bends

The Ride up the Hill was to cover the 72 hair pin bends and we were quite excited. Started riding up the hills and trust me covering these hair bends was wonderful ride, but one should be cautious because there would be speeding vehicles coming down. The Sceneries whiles riding up the mountain was too good and we stopped at lots of places to take some pictures and also for Pit stops. At last we reached the Kolli Hills resort by 1.30PM and lunch was ready. Had a good food and everyone was so tired because of heat, just jumped in to the bed and slept till evening. Later in the evening, it was a guys night out party with drinks, songs and dance. It was wonderful day one.

Wonderful Scenaries way up the Hill

Picture of Kolli Hill Resort

It was 17^th Saturday. There was no rush for us to get up early and we were relaxed and got up late and refreshed our self. We decided to visit Akash Ganga falls which is around 6 Kms from the resort. Reached there at around 10.00AM and its steep down walk to reach the falls. There are energy drinks sold at the start of trek and we had one glass of drink which made of natural herbs. It was a steep steps down and hair pin bends even in that steps, once we reached the bottom, we had a view of falls and there was little water. Had a good bath in the falls and returned to resort for Lunch. After lunch many guys decided to sleep, but I did not want to waste time sleeping and hence me along with couple of folks went to some of the view points and a forest temple. On that day night, as usual parties with some drinks. I had suggested the guys to take the return route via Satyamangalam and everyone agreed to it, and we decided to keep it low on that night because we have to start early in the morning.

Steps to Akash Ganga Falls

View Points at Kolli Hills

On 18^th Morning, we left the resort at 6.30 and riding down the same 72 hairpin bends was simply amazing because midst surrounded the mountains. We reached Namakkal for a breakfast and continued our journey towards Bhavani and Satyamangalam. Ride though Sathy was really superb and one should experience it, and later we had to pass through Bannur Ghats which has 27 hair pin bends. We stopped at many places to catch the view of Sathy forest and also for some good pics. We continued with our ride passing via TN/Karnataka border and reached Chamrajnagar for Lunch at 2.30PM. After we finished with the lunch started towards Kollegal and Malavalli. This route was typical village route and it was good to ride. After Malavalli, the road towards kanakpura was too good and we ripped big time at 110Kms. Finally managaed to reach Blore at 7.00PM and it was continuous ride the whole day. Overall it was a nice weekend.