I had been itching to go on a motorbike roadtrip to Kerala. Sitting in the back of the car isn’t exactly my idea of a fun and fulfilling roadtrip.

Therefore from Oct 2 – 10, I was on my motorbike riding through some diverse terrain and landscapes that included arid countrysides, coastal plains, villages, forests, hill stations and plantations of cardamom, sandalwood, rubber and tea.

The 2118 odd kilometers was done on my little 150cc Yamaha FZ16 laden with saddle bags and supplies. Given a chance, I’d gladly re-do the same roadtrip again on a more powerful machine.

My itinerary for the trip was as follows

• Oct 2, Sat: Home – Salem – Avinashi – Coonoor

• Oct 3, Sun: Coonoor – crash in the mountains – Ooty – Gudalur – Sultan Bathery (Wayanad)

• Oct 4, Mon: Sultan Bathery – Kalpetta – Calicut

• Oct 5, Tue: Calicut – Thrissur – Chalakudi – Athirappally/Vazhachal falls

• Oct 6, Wed: Athirapally – Unknown shortcut through rubber plantations – Kaladi – Muvattupuzha (Rendezvous with my friends here and was no longer alone) – Munnar

• Oct 7, Thur: Munnar – Marayoor – Chinnar – Offroading at Anaimudi – Munnar

• Oct 8, Fri: Munnar – Idukki – Elapara (with lots of detours taking us to awesome spots)

• Oct 9, Sat: Elapara – Vagamon – Parunthumpara – Pambanar (Goodbyes over a heavy lunch and was all alone again) – VandiPeriyar – Kumily – Theni – Madurai

• Oct 10, Sun: Madurai – Trichy – Home

It was a long, wet weekend with rains lashing through Kerala rather heavily. Nevertheless, I was having lots of fun except for the crash in the mountains near Ooty. That was not fun AT ALL. Detailed logs to follow soon.