Another day, another story!

A bit of a different flavour this time. Today we're off to the Cliff in Varkala, and the roads are mostly straight! Our starting point is the railway crossing on St Andrews Road near Kazhakkoottam, and Varkala cliff is about 30 km away. We stay off highways for this one, and go via the more scenic beach-side road through Puthenthope, Perumathura, Anjuthengu, and Vettoor. For the vast majority of the journey, The Parvathi Puthanaar river is our constant companion, adding to joy of the ride! Maybe if we have a water scooter we can do a waterways version of the ride from Kadinamkulam Lake?

Today, bro joins me on the ride, although he stays hidden for most of the video! He's on his Adventure while I'm on the same Duke from ML1, which also happens to be his! I have a sneaking suspicion he's starting/started a motorcycle collection...

The vibration that I called out last time around is a little muted in the videos this time, probably because I now have a wireless Mic hidden under my jacket (yay)! In the first MotoLetter, the sound was recorded directly from the main Osmo device.

Today's ride is split into 4 videos (MotoLetter 2-1 through 2-4). Since this was a longer ride, its a not a complete 1:1 record of the ride!

Oh and my observations come up on screen now, as small captions.

Section 1

St Andrews Road to Puthenthope

We start today at the Railway Crossing on St Andrews/Vettu Road.

The barriers have just gone up and it is a scramble to get across the tracks, as is pretty much usual for any railway crossing in our vast country. Right after negotiating that and some sundry speedbreakers, we accelerate a bit when the traffic opens up, giving us some space. We head down St Andrews at a decent clip - keeping an eye open for peeps who might want to cross the road from either side.

On the way, you hear me mumbling about speed and altitude :D... What am I, an airplane?

At some point we cross over a small bridge across the Parvathy Puthanaar, or West Coast Canal. I think we should have some standardisation in names, to be fair... I mean. this is a prime example - On the board in the video, it says West Coast Canal. In Google Maps its called Parvathy Puthanaar. So take your pick!

Don't miss my frantic attempts to get the "fullscreen" map on the phone... -1/10 for dexterity. Or my hilarious attempt at saying Chilakkoor - Vallakkadavu Road.

This video takes us right till Puthenthope, where we close it shortly after a view of St. Ignatius Church.

Section 2

Perumathura Bridge to Anjengo Fort

We open this video shortly before getting on the Perumathura/Muthala Pozhi bridge. We got lucky with the sun having just cleared the trees and it was a beautiful view to enjoy as we made our way ove to Varkala Cliff. I suppose this would also be a great place for enjoying a sunset over the sea in the evening.

You can see me trying to take a peek at the sun behind me, and try not to lose the bike while doing it! Compared to MotoLetter 1, where I'm in my trusty Demonic Resurrection tee, I'm a "bit" more covered up today!

We continue onward, and you can see the straight ribbon of a road, and us playing peek-a-boo with the sea on the left, and the river on the right. We also come across some signs of climate change, as I see it... broken houses, retaining walls to protect the shore from the sea, windows of rooms that don't exist anymore... How many of the residents had to relocate due to climate conditions, I wonder.

We take a lovely right and a left into the Anjengo Fort Entrance "straight", with a speedbreaker between the two curves being a killjoy there! My bro doesn't believe in sitting and riding over speedbreakers, so he stands on the pegs and just rides over... I try to do the same, very self-consciously, and you can probably see my sheepish smile through the helmet!

Section 3

Varkala Onnampalam Bridge to Varkala-Kallambalam Road

We continue on our way to Varkala. We start this section a little before the Varkala Onnampalam bridge. Immediately after the bridge we take a turn on to the road that runs on the bank of Parvathy Puthanaar. From there, it is pretty much straight all the way to Vettoor, where we say bye to our riverine companion and start climbing towards Varkala - Kallambalam Road.

Somewhere along the way you can hear me badly singing "I'm running free, yeah!", as that song popped into my head at that time! Iron Maiden in my head, Duke 390 as my ride, and Kerala roads setting the pace - not a bad combo for a Sunday ride, don't you think?

In this section we also see some nice curves with elevation changes, and a a couple of electric posts who have deviated somewhat from their relentless straight posture.

Section 4

Varkala-Kallambalam Road to Varkala Cliff

Our last section from this ride on 6th September. We start on the main Varkala - Kallambalam road, but not before having taken a wrong turn into the lanes near Janardhana Swamy Temple.

We then go over a hairpin bend where you can see that my hairpin-bend-negotiation-skill is far from smooth, though I don't end up dropping the bike or anything dramatic like that, thankfully! After a few more sweeping curves and peaceful straights, we turn into the lanes near the Cliff. At one point in the lanes, I honk, only to see a "No Honking" sign immediately afterwards. You can hear my "Oops" at that moment.

We arrive at the Helipad which seems to double up as a parking lot when there is no helicopter scheduled. We find ourselves a nice spot overlooking the sea, and our ride comes to an end!

This could possibly be a great ride in the evening as well, with the setting sun for company. Maybe I should try that sometime.

The first MotoLetter!

From my balcony at Pallippuram, I could see several hills close by and I picked one that seemed closer than the others and thought about going there. Although, now that I think about it, it looks like the hill I picked wasn't the hill I eventually got to!

The ride was quite a lot of fun, and I discovered something new at the end of the day!

Today's trip takes us from Pallippuram to Vellanikkal Paramukal over three videos (MotoLetter 1-1 through 1-3). A distance of about 9.5–10 km tops. It takes us through nice roads in sections 1-1 and 1-2, and through quite a questionable one towards the end of 1-3.

Our trusty steed today is a Gen 2 KTM Duke 390 from 2019. She's seen way more long rides than I have and was quite easy to get used to!

There does seem to be a strange vibration that comes and goes, though, and you'll know it when you hear it. My best guess is that it has something to do with the number plate — must get this checked out soonish.

Thoughts for next time

• Start earlier. Today I started around 9:30 am, and that was a tad too late, I would think. Maybe I should try this ride around 6:30–7:00 am.
• Keep going. The road continues beyond where I stopped in 1-3. No idea where it leads to, and it might be worth finding out someday.

Section 1

Pallippuram to Karamoodu

The first section of the ride takes us from Pallippuram to Karamoodu junction. We start this section of our journey beside the long-under-construction NH66, turn right at the junction next to the orphaned flyover, go past the CRPF, SunTec and TCS campuses and stop at Karamoodu junction.

By the way, the latest I've read in the papers is that the NH will get ready in 2028. Apparently, right now we've run out of mud or rocks or sand to build the thing! Poor us.

Along the way

• 00:00 On the right, the perennially under-construction National Highway 66. Any bets on when the work will finish?
• 00:16 Me, in my Demonic Resurrection tee \m/
• 00:35 Nature finds a way — shrubs and vegetation on the under-construction road. I don't know whether to laugh or cry!
• 01:05 Orphaned flyover on the left — you can't get on it, you can't get off it. Yet it stands tall, waiting to be called upon to fulfil its destiny!
• 01:38 CRPF Road — smooth and easy! I really love riding through this section for some reason. The road is nice, and you can smoothly accelerate to a decent pace, though you'd want to avoid speeding too much as there could be unexpected road-crossers to catch you off guard!
• 01:58 CRPF Officers' Mess — don't miss the two statues on guard! On my first run through this road, I actually reduced my speed when I saw them in the distance. I guess to avoid unnecessary comments on my riding style and the general expectations of the authorities.
• 02:15 SunTec building on the right, standing tall and stylish! I've heard that they have a big campus here, so this could maybe be the first of many? Who knows...
• 02:29 New neighbours for SunTec. This will be the new TCS campus, I believe, coming up on the left. I've read that several thousand folks will work here once the facility is up and running. I wonder what this road would look like then. Would it need to be widened?
• 03:13 Karamoodu Junction. We turn onto the Mangalapuram road here. This runs from Murukkumpuzha to Pothencode, and we will turn off from this at Vavarambalam in MotoLetter 1-3.

Section 2

Karamoodu to Vavarambalam

Continuing our journey onward to Vellanikkal Paramukal, we start from Karamoodu in this video and stop when we turn off the Mangalapuram road at Vavarambalam.

This road has had a nice makeover since I first travelled on it some years back. Nice width, good surface, light to medium traffic density, easy curves. Lovely to potter about here. It joins our old friend NH66 at Mangalapuram, and then goes all the way to Pothencode on the other end. There are a few roads that break off from this main road every now and then. The one that we will take to Vellanikkal Para is one of them.

Question to self — Probably worth exploring each of these smaller roads in the coming days?

Along the way

• 00:06 Should I stop or should I go? Duck it, let's go :D
• 00:44 Another car flying past - was that a bit too close for comfort, I wonder.
• 01:33 Nothing to see here - just a car with a renewed sense of purpose to go back where it came from!
• 02:24 Sweeping curves - Probably one of my favourite spots on this road.
• 03:14 Off the main road, and into MotoLetter 1-3.

Section 3

Vavarambalam to Vellanikkal Paramukal

Third and final section of our first MotoLetter! I got off the main road and was pleasantly surprised to see that the road surface stayed good.

Although, to be fair, it did get progressively worse towards our destination, with the last couple of hundred metres having more of a rocky pathway than a "road".

Needed to be on my toes throughout as this was the first time I'd ridden here, and the road was narrow. There was also maybe a deceptive corner or two sprinkled here and there for good measure.

At some point, I rode past a celebration of some sort, and it was surreal to hear the deep, thumpy music just for an instant as I made my way past.

Apparently, I could have taken a path that led closer to the viewpoint, but since I didn't know that at the time, I parked the bike at what looked like a parking lot and walked over to the actual viewpoint. Maybe next time I will take that path instead and get some photos and videos from there.

Along the way

• 01:23 Party near the Para
• 01:37 Pretty hills far away
• 03:11 Road surface changes
• 03:27 Local fauna viewing the intruder (me) with suspicion
• 04:17 A peek at the environs
• 04:22 Car in front stopped to ask for directions; I move on through the narrow road
• 04:52 A peek at the environs again. Beautiful motorcycle-riding countryside.
• 05:11 Road? What road? The view is lovely though, don't you think?
• 06:29 A peek at the environs yet again :D
• 07:20 The path not taken — the path through the arch on the left leads to the actual rock viewpoint, although I didn't know it at the time.
• 07:43 Journey's end — your host in the parking lot!