5th day Climbing Dimbam ghat 98 km

It  was  good  that  I  stayed  in Sathyamangalam  yesterday  as  Bannari  @  foot  of  ghat  section  was  just  13  km  away.   Staying  @  Gobi yesterday  would  have  meant  insufficient  power  for  ghat  climbing  which  consumed  about   10 Ah.   Since lodge  was  in  middle  of  town  there  was  a big  send off   party  mainly  people   curious  about my  trike.  I  had  a leisurely   ride  till Bannari  and  had  a good  breakfast.  I  was bit  scared  as those  13  km  had  consumed  a  quarter  of  my  battery  charge. 

I  cannot  enter  data sometimes  as  I  take readings  later  or  the  batteries  getting  charge  when  I  am  free to  read  data.

Confident  of  climbing  I  started  from  Bannari    @ 9  and  slowly  the  had  the  taste  of  the  ghat  section.  There  are  27 hairpin  bends  which  are  well designed  and  was  easy  negotiate.  Some of  the  strait  parts were  really  steep.  I  wanted  to  stop  to  enjoy  and  take  photographs, but  not  wanting  to  loose  the  momentum   did  not  stop.  Today  there  was  no  knee  pain  but  extra  effort  put  was  noticeable  to  thighs  which was  silent  so  far.

The   road  and  scenery  was  spectacular.  The  road  surface  is  very  good  and  I  had  a  good  idea  of  climbing  ghat  section  by  climbing  Shiradi  and  that  was  very  useful.  I  had  to  be  lookout  for  vehicles  coming  downhill  fast  and  the  one  in  behind  did  not  pose  much  threat  as  they  approach us   slowly.  The  ghat  road  is  very  simlar  to  Agumbe ghat. 

I  was  able  to  reach the  Dimbam  town  @  the  top  of  the  ghat @ 10.30 AM  and  there  happened  to  meet  Raju who  was  a  caretaker   for  a bunglow  &  hails  from  Karnataka.  He  agreed  to  provide  some power  &  the   reverse  phase  was  found  in  first  plug  here  too.  He  said  it  was  recent   addition  to  the  wiring  and  there  was  another  plug  nearby that  was  okayed  by  my  power  strip.  By  that  time  I  went  around  to  take  photographs   but  did  not  take    as  it  was  not  bright  enough  to   my  satisfaction.

Started  from Dimbam  around  115  and  crossed  into  Karnataka  by  1.50 PM.  The  downhill  ride was  thrilling  and  was  very  fast, few times  crossing  40 kmph.  The  road  was  tolerably  good  upto  Chamarajnagar  and  after  that  is  typical  Karnataka  road  and  lot  of  repair  work  going  on.  This  reduced  my reach considerably  and  after  4.30 PM  there  was rain. 

While  waiting  for  rain  to  cease  in  a  roadside  repair  shop   after  covering  the  trike  with  plastic, I  asked  about charging  possibility  only  to  be  told  there was  power cut till 7 PM  and  they  also  mentioned  that  there  is  a  substation  nearby.   There  I  collected  some  power  for  half  hour  from  substation   and  also  a complimentary  tea.  I  also    explored  the  staying  possibilities  with  them  and  they  said  Kavalande  is  10  km ahead  and has  some  possibilities  but  no  lodge.

So   when  I  reached Kavalande  wet  from about 20 minutes  rain  my   first  on  my  list  was  police  station  as  security  for  trike  was  very   important.  They   agreed  to  allow  me  stay  here  and  now  I  am  typing  this  their  record  room  and  tonite  will be  spent  here.  I  am  also  provided  some  ghee rice    plus  bananas  plus  of  course, power  for  my  batteries,  trike, note book computer, camera  and  GPS batteries. 

Total  km  done  today   was   little  less than  100  and  reaching  Nanjangud  meant  meeting  my  target.  Heavy  rains  and  nightfall  prevented  me  from  going  ahead.  It  looks  like  bad  roads, lot  of road  humps  and  power cut  will reduce my  trike  riding  considerably  which  will  be  known  in next  few  days.

The  stay  in  police  station  was  nice &  I  had  record room  all  for  myself.  So opened  my bags  &  spread  out   my  things  all over  the  floor.  The  mat  that  I  carried  was  a good  bed  &  I  had  tolerably  good  sleep.  There  was  power  cut  after  11 PM  as warned  by  Sub Inspector  there  but  by  then  my  trike  battery  was  fully  charged.

Day 4 Reached Sathyamangalam fully wet after 150 km

The lodge I stayed was right next to highway but there was no hotels in vicinity. Last night had to be satisfied with something like rice balls made in small shop. Today went to see if I can get some tea @ 6.30 AM as having got up early as usual I was feeling like having something.

There was a tea shop open and I asked for a cup. I told him I cannot tolerate hot tea and having sensation problem and no firmness in hand. Tea cup slipped out of my cup over the counter and he said GET LOST, but not in loud voice. I offered to pay which he declined. Normally I never get out of home without warm bath as it activates the muscles and makes them cooperate. Here leave alone warm bath, even cup of tea remains elusive.

I got my trike ready as early as possible and pushed off around seven. It was already 6 km on meter when highway sign said time is 7.15AM. I had a reason for happiness as yesterday I had used up more power and my planning was appeared not credible. When I found I had used only 1.5 Ah which was much within limits, there was reasons to be happy.

There was clouds in sky and rain did not imminent though there was some sprinkling. I was able to ride pretty fast and by 8.30 I was in a decent hotel in Karur, on the road to Erode. I was happy about 30 km done till then and leisurely resumed the journey. There was no sign in National Highway in Karur. Just by instinct, I took service road only to find the Erode road junction in that. If I had continued in National Highway, I should have turned back. Missing road signs and most of the road signs in Tamil is big problem over here.

The state highway after Karur was passing thru rural area and was full of greenery. The crops appeared mixed without dominance of any and it was really enjoyable ride. Today my hydration sac was in place and so drift irrigation of my body can take place every now & then. The video clip uploaded shows I am tasking a sip of water.http://is.gd/ezIEO.

I mounted the drift camera on front mount and started taking videos. Later I found that lens direction had not been changed and so we have watch those videos by tilting our head 90 degress. It is not difficult to watch that as most that was recorded was empty road. If you have time watch this http://is.gd/ezOUK otherwise condensed version will do http://is.gd/ezNdN. I charged two sets of batteries for drift camera and GPS and hope it will last till evening. This juggling will continue for some more days.

After 65 km and 16 Ah consumption, I was looking for a place to charge batteries. By coincidence, Singh brothers on a auto happened to be passing by and started to enquire my ideas and intentions. They offered to help when I told them my poor Tamil and first place we went together had power shutdown. Then they asked me to follow another 2 km and took me a Indianoil petrol pump. So my batteries to hooked up to dynamo and electrons flow to my battery started soon without waiting and continued for 60 minutes from dynamo till power is restored.

I had not planned oiling the chain for about a week but having met some rain, I see the necessity for oiling it. The sewing machine oil which is preferred one is not available everywhere & stopping in petrol pump do not solve this kind of the problem.

Left the petrol pump around 1.30 PM and was keen to cover distance. Reached Erode around 2.15 and had to go into the town to cross it. People was tolereant of trike & so crossing the town amidst heavy traffic did not pose any problem. Did not see good hotel in convenient place and had some fruits from roadside shop and continued.

I started observing unusual fall in voltage considering distance traveled and about 10 km before Gobichettipalyam decided to get some charge as voltage was hovering around 34 V but latter realized it happened because I had switched only one battery and that gave beautiful performance carrying me 45 km all alone. Anyway charged that battery for half hour since I had already got off the trike and asked for power. Sathyamangalam was still 35 km away & I was keen to reach it.

I wanted to reach Sathyamangalam tonite so that I will be fresh for climbing the ghat road tomorrow. Since I am all alone unlike backup team with me in Shiradi, it will be better to be fresh.

I had a look @ time while passing Gobi and it was 4.50 PM and thought it is too early to stop and can easily reach Sathyamangalam before it becomes dark. I was doing good progress but suddenly it started to rain. I waited for a while and later quickly put on the raincoat and covered the luggage and started pedaling. Everything including my cycle analyst meter was covered and there was no problem I encountered in trail runs around home when it rained started .

There was heavy rain for about twenty minutes which stopped as soon as I reached Sathyamangalam. Finally got hold a room after three futile attempts and this marwari owner wanted the customer but had no secure place to put the trike in. All the three lodges I stayed past three nights had rooms upstairs. Then after half hour he suggested to go to Zia lodge close by. I declined as tiredness had got over me. I can keep moving as long as I want but once stopped, find it very difficult to resume. There was no lights in front of my trike was another reason. So I asked him somehow to find a secure place. So I got into room @ 8 PM & finally we put it in a studio upstairs after folding it.

As I was wet for about two hours, had got used to that. So had some chapathi first as there are few people here take meals during night and tiffin is served in most hotels. So it was a day without morning tea, no meals and only chapathi @ night with 150 km in between. The track is uploaded to everytrail site and you can see by clicking this http://is.gd/ezHEP.

Day 3 117 km to Aravakuruchi

Morning  I  was  disappointed  that  I  could  have only  tea  before  I  could  leave  @ 8 as  many  hotels  were  yet  to  open.  I  was  happy  that  the  weather was  cool and  pleasant and  sky  was clear.  Maybe  because  of  the  cold  weather  there  was a  bit  of  pain in  knee  which  did  not  come  in   the  way  of  pedaling. 

I  had  decided  to  byepass    Madurai    and  took    smaller  SH  72  instead  of  National  highway  7 that  passes  thru  Madurai   and  it  was  really  nice passing  thru  rural  area  and  smaller  towns  along  the  way.   In  a  small  town, Sholavantham  or  similar sounding  town    I  was  asking  for  route  to  Dindigul  when  a  100 rupee  note  was  thrust  into  my  hands  by  a guy  on  motorcycle.  I  simply  did  not  know  what  to  do &  thanked him and  also  gave  him  a  pamphlet  about  e-triking.

I   had  no  chance eat  breakfast  this  morning  and  most  of  roadside  shops  on  the  way  had  exhausted  their  tiffin  stock.  Finally  I  had  some  idli  about  10  AM  after   covering  40  km  from  Thirumangalam.  The  lady  at  the  tea shop   spoke  tolerably  good  English  and when  I  asked,   she  said  she  had  studied  upto  10^th. I  said  you speak  rather  well compared  to  average  Tamilian.   There  I noticed  the  yellow /red  flag  I  had  been  carrying  has  fallen  off  and  only  the  flag pole  was  remaining.  Maybe  it  was  not  tightly fixed   in  the  morning and  I  did  not  observe  later  on. 

Sitting  in  reclining  position  in  trike, sometimes  we  tend to  make  wrong  judgment whether  road  is  going   uphill  or downhill.  My  poor  skin   sensation   only  adds  to confusion regarding  wind  direction.  So  sometimes  I  must    have given   throttle  unnecessarily.  Other  thing  about  safely consideration,  the  speed  difference  between  one on trike  and  other  road  users   is  huge  compared  to  riding  or   driving  &  the  vehicles  approach  us  from  back  with  little  notice.  We  always  have to  be  very  much   alert  about  such  circumstances.

GPS stopped tracking  few  km  out  of  Thirumangalam  and  I  changed  the   batteries.  Then  I  felt  it is  good  opportunity  to take  video  and  mount  drift camera  only  to  make  out  the batteries  in it   are running  low.  By  mistake  I  mixed  up  the  charged  & discharged  batteries  and  have three  pairs of  Uniross  Ni Mh   batteries  which  look  completely  alike.  Dinakar  had  agreed  to  give the  charger  that  can take  four  batteries at  a  time  but  forgot  on  the  last  moment.  I  was  engrossed  with  other preparations  &  neglected  to  remind  him.       With  six chargers  and  eleven  cables  with  me now, I  have  plenty  to  keep eye  upon.

Today  being  Sunday   few  shops  were  open.  Then I  found  two people  in roadside  concrete hollow block  making  factory. These  people  willingly  agreed  to  give  power  but  slowly   changed  tune  &  it  looked  like  they  are  keen  on  money.  I  started feeling  uncomfortable  and  decided    to  move  without  full  topup.  So it  was sort  of  mystery  exactly  how  much  charge  was  taken  but  looking  at  consumption  figure  at  the  end  of  the  day  it  was  about  500 Wh  topup. 

There  was heavy  headwind from    after  Dindigal   and   the  battery  power   consumption  was  rather  high.  I  had  a bit  of  pain  in  the  knee in  the  morning  and  probably  did  not  pedal  hard  enogh  though  I  had  done  my  best.  Anyway  my  power consumption  today was   35.5  Ah  and  1323  Wh. 

People  in  cars  in  two  different  occasions  spoke  to  me  and  I  explained  the  electric support  concept.  They  gave  me  ten rupee  each  when  I  said  that  pamphlet  is not free, costs  me    Rs   Two.   It  looks  like  the  curiosity  can   turn  into  supporter  &  e-mobility   can  be  real  cheap  if  we reach  critical  volume.

There  is two  hour  load  shedding  all over  Tamilnadu  and  so  if   go  asking  for power  during  that  time  I  am  bound to be disappointed. 

The  afternoon  ride, for that matter  most  riding  in National  Highways  is  monotonous, boring.  I would  prefer  the rural  roads  any day.  I would  have  taken  rural roads  in  Kerala  if  it  was of  same  quality  but  narrow  strip of  land  called  kerala  has few  alternate  routes  in  many  places  and so  for  long  cross country  trip  it  may  be  difficult.

I  am  staying in a lodge next  to  NH 7  and  hope to have early  start  tomorrow.  All three lodges   I  stayed in Tamilnadu  had  only  rooms  &  no  food &  no  hot  water  too.  In  coastal  Kanyakumari  it  was  okay  but  here  weather  is  very  cold  &  feels the  need  for  hot  water.     Unfortunately  better  options  were  not available  in  these  places.    In  today’s    case, have  to  walk fairly  long  distance  to  get  something to eat.  I will be  spending  only  one  more  night  in  Tamilanadu  and  mostly  will cross into  Karnataka  on  Tuesday. 

I  was  concerned  about  dwindling  power  available  &  so  wanted  to  find  a place  to  sleep  and  time  was  well past  4.30 PM.  Next  town with  good  hotel  facility  is  Karur  about  30 km  ahead  and  I  was  not  sure  have enough  power  in  batteries.   

5 hour 15 minutes  was  riding  time  today  with  moving  average  of  21.9  km. It  looks  like  for  increasing  the  moving  average  I  have  sacrificed  some  battery power.  Have  loaded  GPS  tracks of todays  ride   
  http://is.gd/ewxIM