The long-awaited bike ride to Ooty

“Its the journey, not the destination.”

A well put quote, which appears in many forms, from various sources, but is always forgotten by most. The morning I started my ride, I forced myself to remember this but is it too late for the old dog to learn new tricks?

Recently, a kindergarten teacher, Maddie Richardson, went viral who said this in interview:

“I am teaching future humans and not test takers”

Her method of teaching is well praised where along with science she makes sure her students learn important life lessons. You can check YouTube for her interview.

Anyway, my goal of mentioning it is because I strongly related to it. All my life, I studied for exams, practiced my sport to win, prepared to achieve something I am not even sure what anymore. I became a test taker from early childhood, acing them mostly but never stopping and enjoying the journey to them. This also happened on the ride which I realized later even though I wanted the opposite.

A day before the ride I Googled to check what good spots are there on the way and there are some like Mysore spots, Bandipur and Madumalai Tiger Reserve. I planned to visit all of them while on the way but what I realized after the ride is that it was a mistake.

Since GPS navigation works great, I was cruising between planned spots at 90–110 km/h but I feel it was not worth it. There are many villages, forest areas, hills and water bodies on the way, which I totally missed. Planned spots were also crowded and not really worth my time but still one good thing happened on the way, which could have happened more if I didn’t plan much.

On the way, there are many roadside vendors selling fruits and juices and I stopped at a sugarcane juice vendor. While sipping on sugarcane juice, I asked to the seller if business was going good and the conversation ahead was an eye opener.

He used to be adventure sports instructor and have taken trainings from various well-known places in tourism like Goa, Gokarna, Manali, Kullu, Ladakh and many more. He used to work as freelancer with many companies for schools and corporate programmes. Indian Government launches various youth programmes where interested young people are trained free of cost which helps them to become a certified instructor.

It was surprising for me as I was unaware of these free youth programmes. Corona pandemic induced lockdowns affected such talented people and now this gentleman in front of me is selling sugarcane juice on road side, but wait, there is more. It turns out business is booming and he is making good money everyday while working on his own terms. Since lockdowns are also gone, he has lot of options and he sells juice only when he feels like it and other days he is vacationing and training in nice places. Now my friends, that is real freedom!

This made me realize later that over planning a ride is not great. Become a heart thinker to decide where you want to stop, in the moment like near Kaveri river when I just crossed and didn’t stop to check it out. It was a great view from above the bridge and I cruised over it, like a useless brain thinker.

What I loved next part of my journey was ride through Bandipur and Madumalai Tiger Reserve. Forest Department has done exceptionally well in keeping the road well maintained, clean and with proper signs. Stopping is not allowed so you have to continuously keep driving. Deer, elephant, mongoose and peacock were easily spotted. Since leopards and bisons are also common and I was on a motorcycle, I never wished to stop anyway but you know the common people and their cars. Stopping, photography and what not, jamming the lane and activating unknown muscles of my heart. All went well anyway and I enjoyed driving through the scenic views.

After crossing tiger reserve, I can see some hills and I instantly knew, things are going to be different from now on. Roads were all tarmac and nicely maintained. It was an uphill ride and had many hairpin bends with sometime forest, sometimes tea estates and on one stretch huge eucalyptus trees plantation on the sides. I was able to smell eucalyptus and tea leaves in air and it was mesmerising. While riding up I can feel environment feeling thinner, though it must have been just air but the feeling was pure quality and great.

Finally, I reached Ooty and checked in to my hotel. Temperature was good and relaxing.

Key lessons:
1. Become heart thinker. Brain thinkers are dumb on a ride.
2. Don’t over depend on Google Maps for navigation and go where most people are going if you are heading to a well known place.

Ok more stuff later. Bye!