Yes, mark -II had to go in for some repairs, its cost us a day but was definitely worth the wait. For starters the chain had to be replaced with a new one and the front tire spokes had to be tightened,the day being a Sunday I could not get a mechanic, even the mechanic I knew was out of town. So Monday morning I was at Dileep’s the bullet mechanic
With the chain and oil changed plus a quick tightening of loose spokes, nuts and bolts. We were all set to hit the road again. I had lunch with my parents and by 2:30 pm I was heading on to Calicut to meet Anwarka at Feroke
At Feroke :
I rode for about 1.5 hours to Feroke, with directions over phone I made it to Dr. Anwar’s clinic at about 4 pm. We didn’t waste much time, did a quick repack including my friends stuff and we were off. Next stop God willing- Mananthavadi!
Stopped for tea breaks in between – (yup! we people love our little tea breaks) especially when it’s at local road side tea stall 🙂
On the road moving on :
These parts of Kerala are known for their enthusiasm for sports and games especially soccer, I mean down south of Kerala – such an open ground would be cultivating some sort of income generating crops – but the middle and up north, open grounds are used for such activities – I guess people are more relaxed and laid back a bit than the south – This is just an opinion I have that’s all 🙂
We started the hair pins kind of late evening and the hybrid cam that I had in my hand wasn’t equipped to take moving nights’ shots much, I think I will spare the blurry displeasing images and move on to the more stable ones from the lot 🙂
Prayer break: at place close to Lakkadi managed this on open shutter on mark -II seat!
We rode for a bit more still the climate started to change had to stop and suit up, right after a warm cup of coffee at Cafe Coffee Day 🙂
This is Shiva the cashier at Cafe, Coffee Day at Lakkadi – He is from Madikeri, a friendly young chap, who is also doing a course in business studies – I can see why 🙂
Just for kicks …. I loved the way they put this no admission sign out at CCD 😀
We made a quick stop to wear our cold gear.As it was the high range and the night chill wind while on the two wheeler made it even colder. We should have been a few kms away from Manathavadi, our destination for the night. Dinner was at a hotel were we took a bit too long to eat , I guess we needed the rest. Anwarka made calls to his family, I had promised my family I’d txt them on and off at certain places depending on the connectivity. I also fiddled around with the hybrid. Photography bug kicking in 🙂
During dinner we had conversations with the hotel owner (Mr. Rafeeq), an ex-expatriate from the middle east, an entrepreneur. He once held a nice position in the well-known company ARAMCO in Saudi Arabia, later he moved to Kuwait to open up a Restaurant there. During the gulf war he had to leave the middle east and head back home. He had opened up a hotel in the city where he was very successful but wanted to move closer to his residence so he shifted out here on the outskirts. I asked him if that would affect his business moving away from the city and his success, his answered “not really!” (vague) but I guess people do many things for their own reasons, what one often defines as success does not have to be the same definition of success to another. I didn’t want to pry so I left it at that. He gave us some information on the conditions of the road to Manathavady and we were on the way again.
Travelogue 