Three weekends ago Jason, Andrew, Jimmy (Andrew’s dad) and I went to Wayanad, a district in the southern state of Kerala. All the pictures we took are available here, courtesy of Andrew.
Knowing the roads will by bumpy, I hired out a Hero Honda CBZ (which has a funny TV advert, like many adverts here in India). Andrew and Jason hired Jimmy a Royal Enfield Bullet which looked like it was from the 1940s (there is a reason for this, the old Royal Enfield company dissolved in the UK but continued production in India, even today). Here is Andrew filming us during our three hour ride to Wayanad, the sound has been muted because it was just wind noise.
The roads when entering Kerala were in excellent condition: no potholes, no bumps, just nice long winding roads through the forest. That was fun to ride through. We stayed at a tree house villa that overlooked a jungle.
Jason entering the
the tree house
Inside the tree house
A tree branch going through
the shower section!
The balcony
It was at an extremely welcoming home-stay called Tranquil and the hosts where very lovely people. At one point they called in a Royal Enfield specialist to fix Jimmy’s bike which in the end was fixed without too much inconvenience. Their home has so much attention to detail the place could honestly qualify to be in a Bollywood movie.
The bar area
Swimming pool
Next day we climbed up a hill, went for a swim in the pool and on a safari in the afternoon. We were false charged by an elephant which was pretty scary!
All on a rock
Jimmy & Andrew
Me on the edge
This elephant charged at us!
On the ride back we went through some scenic country routes and also some of the worst roads I’ve experienced in India so far that had huge potholes. It was actually still possible to go 15-20kph by standing on the motorcycle.
Jason taking the side of a
pothole-ridden road
We also spotted elephant
on the way back
It was the most adventurous weekend so far, had a great time with the guys and was a good crash course in handling a motorcycle over tough terrains.