August 12th to 14th Overnight Ride to Coorg. Covering 600 km
Participating Members: Ajit SR, Vijay Mane, Prashanth Babu, Y C Roy, Ravish, Jayaprakash, S Raju, SR Raju, TV Rajan, Adarsh, Manjunath, Krishnan, Rajasekhar, Ashok, Mandar, Punit, Prashant Mishra, Rajesh AR, Karate, Ganesh, Dipesh, Jeet, Vinay, Asad, Vinod, Sanjay, and Sathyakanth with his son.
Thrissur Sub Chapter members: Shyam Mohan, Pualy, Ameesh and Stanley
This rides announcement had created a big buzz among all the members, over 38 members had shown initial interest immediately after its announcement twenty days before the event itself.. Finally 36 members registered for it and 4 had to drop out due to health/personal commitment. But the final 32 itself was one of the biggest contingents of riders for an overnight ride in IFMR India.. It had 28 members from India Chapter, Bangalore and 4 riders joined from Thrissur Sub Chapter. Another unique feature in this ride was that we had 6 past and present presidents joining and icing on the cake was 11 riders from a single Rotary Club – Cubbon Park, had there been an award for highest participation from a single club award, it would have gone to them. What a great camaraderie they share.
As usual on the 12th morning all the riders were at the start point on time, President Rajesh had a briefing session, group/riders sequence was announced and prayer was recited by Secretary Vinod.
Our first stop was at Dhruvtare restaurant, a clear 90 km from the start point. All the restaurants were running packed due to heavy traffic on the highway due to an extended weekend holiday, Dhruvtare was no different but the staff were familiar with our riders and without putting us on the waitlist we were accommodated despite a houseful board outside. All enjoyed the breakfast and took an adequate break for the long journey ahead. Soon we were on the highway, weather was perfect for riding, stopped at one or two stops for refueling of petrol and tea break and reached for our lunch break at Somwarpet, an authentic vegetarian restaurant, Kalyan Bhawan, was booked before hand by President Rajesh, and ably guided by our member Dayanand Allapur who owns a huge coffee estate nearby. After a sumptuous sit down lunch all visited Dayanand’s estate and kingdom.
All were greeted by him and his family, he took us around his new house under construction and gave a detailed overview of his estate, after spending close to one hour and a few group pictures we started our final leg of the trip to Hodduru, Coorg. It started raining on the way and all stopped to wear their rain gears, all riders were rain compliant and without any break continued the ride. Reached our resort and President Rajesh friend Mr Rajendra’s house close to 5 pm, all were welcomed by him and all were made comfortable in their respective rooms and decided to join for evening get together at 7 pm. After a quick coffee for all, we were taken to a village temple of host Rajendra ji and President Rajesh AR nearby, it was a 500 years old temple which their family trust have given a new structure by retaining the old idols and original place, this temple is maintained by Rajendra ji family. It was good to see how people are religiously committed by donating their wealth for a good cause.
The party started sharp at 7 pm and all were enjoying the hospitality of Rajendra ji and President Rajesh, all were treated to some authentic Coorg cuisine food, drinks, dance and Masti continued till midnight as if there was no tomorrow. We were joined by 3 Rotarian Ann, including President Rajesh wife Rama ji. She too sang many songs. Amongst us we had a guest member, past president of IFMR India Chapter visiting from Kuwait, Rtn Sathykant, he was introduced to all by President Rajesh and as a token of goodwill gesture our pin was presented to him, he had joined this ride with his son. Soon there was an act by Dipesh, Vijay and Prashanth Babu, where they roasted a few of our IFMR members with their stand up act, it was good to hear what people think of other members. Slowly all retired to their rooms.
The next morning the schedule was to visit an irrigated paddy field owned by Rajendra ji, which is slushy and play all kind of games like volleyball, tug of war, running in the slush etc. All had come prepared to experience this event, unique for people living in cities. All spent close to two hours here playing and doing mud spa. After a clean wash, all had breakfast, again with Coorg cousine preparation. President Rajesh had planned a bike ride in and around Coorg covering offbeat places after the Breakfast. All joined in this adventure trip covering 120 km. It had all the elements of fun and thrill, off roading, steep climbing and many water crossings too. Saw some beautiful rolling mountains, the hidden secrets of Coorg natures beauty, stopped at many places and took some stunning pictures. Close to 2 pm reached our venue for lunch, East End hotel, a very popular restaurant in Coorg, to our surprise our Hassan Sub Chapter riders numbering over 23 were present there, they were returning from their bike ride from Mahe, they had come in 15 bikes and two cars. It was a great bonhomie time for all.
Took a few group photos with over 55 IFMR’IAN together. Bid goodbye to them and returned to our base for our second day’s fellowship in the evening, all were little exhausted but the party continued for the second evening, our Thrissur members took over the centre stage and belted out few karaoke numbers, we had a new induction of member from Thrissur Sub Chapter, Stanley, President Rajesh pinned IFMR India pin and welcomed him to the world of IFMR. The party continued till 11 pm and all had an early dinner with new delicacies of Coorg cuisine especially the non vegetarian ones. The next morning we had to return back all retired early. After an early breakfast next morning all were ready to saddle up for the return journey to Bangalore. All expressed their thanks and gratitude to our host Rajendra ji and his wife for going out of their way to give us some lifetime memorable moments.
All took many group pictures with them, thanked them and bid goodbye and started our return journey to Bangalore. With few tea/lunch breaks in between, all were home by the evening with lifetime memories. Biggest thanks goes to our President Rtn Rajesh AR who had worked and planned on this trip with his friend Mr. Rajendra long ago, whatever he had thought of was executed perfectly.