Ooty bike trip
30/08/2008 04:07
4th sept 2008 3:30pm, Jnanabharathi
Sandy, Niraj and I start off our photo session. Sandy with his brand new Nikon DSLR and me with my Nikon S550. And after a while Harish drops in.
4th sept 2008 4:30pm, Jnanabharathi
We had planned to leave Bangalore by 3 pm so that we can reach mysore before dusk so that we can avoid driving at night/poor lights. But 3 of our guys are yet to come. They were still attending conf-calls at their offices.
4th sept 2008 5:00pm, Jnanabharathi
We are still waiting........
4th sept 2008 5:30pm, Jnanabharathi
Hope at last. Kiran on his Splender 125, Dev and Chinmay on their Apache 150 arraive. After a quick chat we leave Bangalore.
4th sept 2008 5:48pm, Pitstop at Ramanagaram
4 bikes cruise through Mysore road at 100-120kmph, ripping past trucks, cars and two wheelers. Open roads, fingers on the throttle and wind blowing through my hair. It’s getting romantic. We stop at a paddy field at Ramanagaram. Admire the fields, skies and the sunset. A quick snap session won’t hurt, will it?
4th sept 2008 6:15pm, Maddur
It’s getting dark. We have a lot of distance to cover. But this doesn’t stop us to have a quick bite of maddur vada at Maddur. We start off from Maddur. The Bangalore-Mysore road is an amazing road where we can rip through at 120kmph. But you need to be careful about the careless people who cross the road. The worst part is people crossing the road near ramanagaram even though there is a sky walk in place. Some times people just hop on to the road from the divider.
4th sept 2008 7:30pm, Channapattana
I switch on my head lights. To my surprise the head lights are not all that bright compared to the other bikes. I had recently changed the head bulb to a blue fluorescent lamp. It wasn’t good enough for a high way. I struggle to ride under the fading sun. I asked my biking friends to escort my bike with a tail so that I can drive with the help of the light from their head lights. I call up for some of the official calls at a pit stop which I couldn’t pick up while I was driving.
4th sept 2008 8:15pm, Mysore City Ring road
We reach Mysore City Ring road. We ask for directions to reach KR circle. One of our friends had booked a lodge for our stay. Ideally it must have been the palace of the Maharaja of Mysore. But we managed to get Dasaprakasha. After dumping our luggage and getting fresh we go out for dinner
4th sept 2008 9:03pm, RRR hotel
RRR hotel is famous for Biryani. But we were too late for it. As we heard the cashier saying 'Biryani kaali( Biryani is over)' as soon as we entered the hotel. We go out walking on the roads of mysore to food street near KR circle. We had5 course dinner. Pani puri, hot masala dosa, rice bath with vada, gobi manchurian and finally a big glass full of badam milk with badam toppings and vanila ice cream. Well, this is what I call a dinner :-) We decide to sleep early as we had plans to leave Mysore by 5am. This will help us to reach Bandipur National park early so that we can see a few wild animals. For this we had to get up by 4pm.
5th sept 2008 12:30am, Dasaprakash Lodge Mysore city.
Niraj, Dev, Kiran and Chinmay were in one room.Sandy, Harish and I was in the other and was fast asleep when we heard someone banging our door. Sandy immediately got up and said it was Niraj trying to spook us!
5th sept 2008 6:08am, Dasaprakash Lodge Mysore city.
We start of our bikes. All of our bikes started except for Chinmay's apache which had got rich over night. Any number of kicks dint start it. I pushed the bike untill some distance to start it on gear but was unsuccessful. Niraj said he will help. He kicked once and the bike started! We left Mysore city finally 1 hour behind schedule.
5th sept 2008 6:48am, Petrol station near Begur.
We knew the ride wont be as comfortable like the mysore-blore road. This route is gonna be bumpy. Our bikes go past Chamundi Hill with clouds eclipsing its peak. We reach Begur in no time going past hills and fields. We fill up our tanks with fuel for the ride up ahead.
5th sept 2008 7:38am, Watermelon break at Nanjangood
We stop at a remote place along the highway to have a pre-breakfast snack. There was a shop where we bought a few watermelons. The fruits you get here are fresh and tasty.
5th sept 2008 8:18am, Gundlupet.
We are at Gundlupet and hungry. We drop in at a hotel in Gundlupet. We hog idlies and dosas. Gundlupet has a CAFE coffee day too.
5th sept 2008 9:12am, Bandipur National Park
The road from Gundlupet to Bandipur is bad. Path holes everywhere. We chose to drive along the muddy footpath rather than the road. Our back bones ruckled. Just after we reached the entrance to Himavad Gopalswami Betta, the road was better.
There is a strict rule in side the park not to use liquor, litter and park on the road. All along our journey till now, we had maintained good speed. But we were driving with 20-30kmph even though the road was very good, hoping to see a few more animals on our way. We were thrilled at our luck to see deers. We were hoping to see more animals. 
There was one curve along the way. We turned and saw a few elephants on the road.5 of them, 3 adults and 2 calves. We immediately switched off our lights, dint use our horns and removed the flash in our camera. The elephants get agitated due to these disturbances. We stopped our bikes 20 mts from them. I got out of my bike and started takingsnaps by moving closer towards the elephants. But its a strict NO NO to do anything crazy like this as the elephants may charge at us. My friends immediately asked me to get back to my bike as it is very risky. 
The calves crossed the road and moved to the other side. Now we had to go through the herd if we have to. We thought of waiting until the road is clear. But Chinmay started off his bike and went past the elephants. The adult mother was looking at his bike cautiously. My bike followed suite. The pachyderms were not moved by our close movement. This helped the other two bikers to follow suite as well. But to our surprise one of the elephants was chained at its leg. We then realized that these elephants were domestic trained ones and not wild!!
5th sept 2008 9:48am, Tamil Nadu check post.
This was an amazing trip. Firstly, it’s my first visit to ooty. Secondly, it’s my first over night bike trip whichI have been longing to do for a long time. None of our bikes got punctured or give any technical snag. It destroyed the mental barrier of fear. It was one of the best trips I had in recent times.
BIKE TRIP TO OOTY
700km in 3 days
30th August 2008 6:13pm, CTR Malleswaram Bangalore
Sandy, Niraj, Dev, Chinmay and I meet at CTR in Malleswaram. We had decided to lay some ground rules for our bike trip to ooty. CTR won the best masala dosa competation recently. We spoke about the trip munching on masala dosas and maddur vadas. Here are some of the ground rules that we decided upon. 
Biking rules:
1) No riding during nights/poor lights
2) We use indicators and hand signals to stop the other bikes for a break
3) We stick together for the entire trip
4) Use a single bag preferably to hold the stuff of both the pillion and the rider
5) Helmets a must for the rider and the pillion
6) Original vehicle documents a must.
2) We use indicators and hand signals to stop the other bikes for a break
3) We stick together for the entire trip
4) Use a single bag preferably to hold the stuff of both the pillion and the rider
5) Helmets a must for the rider and the pillion
6) Original vehicle documents a must.
7) We must have the phone numbers of everyone in the gang.
8) If we need to call up some one, we need to call the pillion not the rider.
8) If we need to call up some one, we need to call the pillion not the rider.
9) We stop for every 40 kms wait, untill all the bikes arraive and then leave.
10) All bikes must be fresh from service.
4th sept 2008 2:30pm, My home
Niraj drops in home and we together leave for Bangalore University, Jnanabharathi on mysore road which is our starting point of our trip. We hop on to my P150 and reach no time. Sandy meanwhile joins us with his Avenger 180.
We took a long break. We started towards bandipur. The road from here had a couple of hair bend curves. Bandipur national park has a forest check post at its entrance. We saw to our surprise deer!!!, a solid 10-15 of them on the road. We were thrilled. These golden color spotted deer were looking at us with the same facial expression which was there on our faces! All I did was take out my camera and started clicking.
Niraj drops in home and we together leave for Bangalore University, Jnanabharathi on mysore road which is our starting point of our trip. We hop on to my P150 and reach no time. Sandy meanwhile joins us with his Avenger 180.
We took a long break. We started towards bandipur. The road from here had a couple of hair bend curves. Bandipur national park has a forest check post at its entrance. We saw to our surprise deer!!!, a solid 10-15 of them on the road. We were thrilled. These golden color spotted deer were looking at us with the same facial expression which was there on our faces! All I did was take out my camera and started clicking. 4th sept 2008 3:30pm, JnanabharathiSandy, Niraj and I start off our photo session. Sandy with his brand new Nikon DSLR and me with my Nikon S550. And after a while Harish drops in.
4th sept 2008 4:30pm, Jnanabharathi
We had planned to leave Bangalore by 3 pm so that we can reach mysore before dusk so that we can avoid driving at night/poor lights. But 3 of our guys are yet to come. They were still attending conf-calls at their offices.
4th sept 2008 5:00pm, JnanabharathiWe are still waiting........
4th sept 2008 5:30pm, Jnanabharathi
Hope at last. Kiran on his Splender 125, Dev and Chinmay on their Apache 150 arraive. After a quick chat we leave Bangalore.
4th sept 2008 5:48pm, Pitstop at Ramanagaram4 bikes cruise through Mysore road at 100-120kmph, ripping past trucks, cars and two wheelers. Open roads, fingers on the throttle and wind blowing through my hair. It’s getting romantic. We stop at a paddy field at Ramanagaram. Admire the fields, skies and the sunset. A quick snap session won’t hurt, will it?
4th sept 2008 6:15pm, MaddurIt’s getting dark. We have a lot of distance to cover. But this doesn’t stop us to have a quick bite of maddur vada at Maddur. We start off from Maddur. The Bangalore-Mysore road is an amazing road where we can rip through at 120kmph. But you need to be careful about the careless people who cross the road. The worst part is people crossing the road near ramanagaram even though there is a sky walk in place. Some times people just hop on to the road from the divider.
4th sept 2008 7:30pm, ChannapattanaI switch on my head lights. To my surprise the head lights are not all that bright compared to the other bikes. I had recently changed the head bulb to a blue fluorescent lamp. It wasn’t good enough for a high way. I struggle to ride under the fading sun. I asked my biking friends to escort my bike with a tail so that I can drive with the help of the light from their head lights. I call up for some of the official calls at a pit stop which I couldn’t pick up while I was driving.
4th sept 2008 8:15pm, Mysore City Ring roadWe reach Mysore City Ring road. We ask for directions to reach KR circle. One of our friends had booked a lodge for our stay. Ideally it must have been the palace of the Maharaja of Mysore. But we managed to get Dasaprakasha. After dumping our luggage and getting fresh we go out for dinner
4th sept 2008 9:03pm, RRR hotel
RRR hotel is famous for Biryani. But we were too late for it. As we heard the cashier saying 'Biryani kaali( Biryani is over)' as soon as we entered the hotel. We go out walking on the roads of mysore to food street near KR circle. We had5 course dinner. Pani puri, hot masala dosa, rice bath with vada, gobi manchurian and finally a big glass full of badam milk with badam toppings and vanila ice cream. Well, this is what I call a dinner :-) We decide to sleep early as we had plans to leave Mysore by 5am. This will help us to reach Bandipur National park early so that we can see a few wild animals. For this we had to get up by 4pm.
5th sept 2008 12:30am, Dasaprakash Lodge Mysore city.Niraj, Dev, Kiran and Chinmay were in one room.Sandy, Harish and I was in the other and was fast asleep when we heard someone banging our door. Sandy immediately got up and said it was Niraj trying to spook us!
5th sept 2008 6:08am, Dasaprakash Lodge Mysore city.
We start of our bikes. All of our bikes started except for Chinmay's apache which had got rich over night. Any number of kicks dint start it. I pushed the bike untill some distance to start it on gear but was unsuccessful. Niraj said he will help. He kicked once and the bike started! We left Mysore city finally 1 hour behind schedule.
5th sept 2008 6:48am, Petrol station near Begur.
We knew the ride wont be as comfortable like the mysore-blore road. This route is gonna be bumpy. Our bikes go past Chamundi Hill with clouds eclipsing its peak. We reach Begur in no time going past hills and fields. We fill up our tanks with fuel for the ride up ahead.5th sept 2008 7:38am, Watermelon break at Nanjangood
We stop at a remote place along the highway to have a pre-breakfast snack. There was a shop where we bought a few watermelons. The fruits you get here are fresh and tasty.
5th sept 2008 8:18am, Gundlupet.
We are at Gundlupet and hungry. We drop in at a hotel in Gundlupet. We hog idlies and dosas. Gundlupet has a CAFE coffee day too.
5th sept 2008 9:12am, Bandipur National ParkThe road from Gundlupet to Bandipur is bad. Path holes everywhere. We chose to drive along the muddy footpath rather than the road. Our back bones ruckled. Just after we reached the entrance to Himavad Gopalswami Betta, the road was better.
There is a strict rule in side the park not to use liquor, litter and park on the road. All along our journey till now, we had maintained good speed. But we were driving with 20-30kmph even though the road was very good, hoping to see a few more animals on our way. We were thrilled at our luck to see deers. We were hoping to see more animals. There was one curve along the way. We turned and saw a few elephants on the road.5 of them, 3 adults and 2 calves. We immediately switched off our lights, dint use our horns and removed the flash in our camera. The elephants get agitated due to these disturbances. We stopped our bikes 20 mts from them. I got out of my bike and started takingsnaps by moving closer towards the elephants. But its a strict NO NO to do anything crazy like this as the elephants may charge at us. My friends immediately asked me to get back to my bike as it is very risky. The calves crossed the road and moved to the other side. Now we had to go through the herd if we have to. We thought of waiting until the road is clear. But Chinmay started off his bike and went past the elephants. The adult mother was looking at his bike cautiously. My bike followed suite. The pachyderms were not moved by our close movement. This helped the other two bikers to follow suite as well. But to our surprise one of the elephants was chained at its leg. We then realized that these elephants were domestic trained ones and not wild!! 5th sept 2008 9:48am, Tamil Nadu check post. After going past Bandipur National park, we reached a point where Karnataka ended and Tamil Nadu border started. There was a bridge that separated the two states. There was a check post where the Tamil Nadu police checked our documents. They also said that they spotted a leopard last night dangerously close to the check post. They also told that there was a lonely calf elephant close by. 
5th sept 2008 10:11am, Theppakkadu
We started from the check post slowly towards ooty. This part of the reserve is called Mudumalai Tiger reserve. We surpassed two elephants. This time we weren’t perturbed. We went past them with ease hoping that they were domesticated. But to our surprise they were wild elephants grazing along the highway!! We reached Theppakkadu. This road has a diversion here. The left takes you through 36 hair pin bent road on Nilgiri hills. It is the shorter of the two routes (36kms). It goes through Masinagudi and Kalhatty waterfalls. The other route (right) takes you through payakara falls, Gudalur and Naduvattam. This route is 70 kms more. This road has only a few hair pin bents and heavier vechicle roads prefer this route. Both the roads go to ooty. We chose the shorter, 36 hair pin bent route.
5th sept 2008 10:43am, Masinagudi - Foot of Nilgiri Hills
We moved out of Mudumalai Tiger reserve. There was actually a point were leopard crosses the road. But we couldnt spot that point, leave alone spotting a leopard! We reached a place where we could see the entire Niligri range. It was an amazing sight.
5th sept 2008 11:11am, Hair pin bent at Bison view point
Then came the place where the hair pin bent curves started. It was amazing riding through these curves.We need to be very careful driving along these curves. It is preferred to ride on lower gears on these curves. Adding on to this they are blind curves as you may not be able to see the vehicles coming in the opposite direction. There is a Bison view point where we stopped. This place has a view to the Kalhatty waterfalls and the amazing nilgiri mountain valley view.
5th sept 2008 12:13pm, Ooty
36 hair pin curves and we could feel the temperature dipping. It was getting cooler with every hair pin bent. It was a brilliant experience. We stayed at Karnataka Bhavan.
5th sept 2008 4:43pm, Doddabetta
This is the first time I am visiting ooty. To my surprise almost everyone knew to speak Kannada! Later I was told that during the pre-independence time, ooty was under the mysore maharajah. We had a quick lunch at Hotel Amaravathi at ooty central market. It’s fun to drive your bike in some other city.
Ooty was one ways and traffic signals, not the type I had imagined it to be. We left ooty to doddabetta ( meaning "the big mountain" in kannada).It is the highest mountain in south India. The temperature started dipping even more. Driving here is difficult as your fingers and face are at direct contact to moisture. My fingers started freezing. I could barely drive. I did get my driving gloves but had kept it at our guest house :-(
There is a check post along the way. We reached Doddabetta. The temperature was very low, say <12*c.>
6th sept 2008 6:15am, Karnataka Bhavan
I got up to see the mist. The guest house had a little garden. I took out my cam and started clicked at will. Then came the turn to check out our bikes. They were frozen. I wondered whether they will start. I kicked my bike once and the engine roared. I was delighted.
6th sept 2008 8:35am, Coonur road.
The road to coonur has amazing senic beauty. I was told that the toy train amazing scenic beauty too. But when else will u be biking along this road? It’s now or never. The roads were curvy and very well maintained. We caught a glimpse of Wellington cant, an army area enroute to coonur. We say a couple of places and related the same to the movie "Roja". We reached coonur and had breakfast there. Our next stop was Dolphin point.
6th sept 2008 11:21am, Dophin point
Just 10 kms from coonur, we reached bad roads. Pathetically maintained as they lead to private tea plantations. The road led us to some of the best tea plantations in Nilgiris. We were awestruck by the magnificent beauty of this place. It is an brilliant experience to drive your bike inside a cloud.
6th sept 2008 2:19pm, Ooty 
We planned to leave ooty early. Our plan was to reach home tomorrow mid-day. For this to happen we hadto halt at mysore. We had planned to cross the bandipur national park hurdle before the sunset. We left ooty at 2pm.
To our surprise, the police had closed the short route to Bandipur along masinagudi. They said the route was closed.Now this took us by surprise. We now had to go around Mudumalai forest reserve along Pyakara falls which was an additional 70 kms! We started off on this route as we dint have a choice. 
6th sept 2008 3:22pm, Filmy Chakkar
This road was amazing. The road was well maintained. We went past the tall eucalyptus trees and clouds. The ride was spectacular until we reached Filmy chakkar. After which the road quality deteriorated. We reached Mudumalai reserve and road was bad as well. The road was very curvy. The bike leading the pack was blowing horn at each of these blind curves and signaling for every pot hole.
6th sept 2008 4:46pm, Bandipur
We crossed over to Karnataka after we left Mudumalai reserve. Enroute to Bandipur we say peacocks, elephants and bisons. I have never come this close to wild animals before. The size of bison was the size of 3 cows put together. They were harmless but were cautious as we approached them. We left Bandipur and reached Gundlupet. It was 6pm already and we were very tired. We did not want to go anyfurther to mysore. So we decided to take dorms at Gundlupet and rest for the night. The dormitory was very big. It has a big room and 15 beds. We were just 7 of us. We played cricket and football in the evening. We had a sound sleep not before playing mandatory cards. 
7th sept 2008 8:02am, Gundlupet
We left Gundlupet after a quick breakfast. We were riding along the vast country fields. The ride was quick. We were covering 35 kms in 15 mins flat. The ride was good untill we reached mysore outer ring road. We took our own route along mysore city and reached Mysore- Blore road. As soon as we reached Mysore Blore road, we started ripping past trucks and cars. It was amazing. We did take frequent breaks but the road simply makes to cruise your bike hrough it. We reached Bangalore at 1pm after a pit stop brunch at maddur tiffany.
5th sept 2008 10:11am, TheppakkaduWe started from the check post slowly towards ooty. This part of the reserve is called Mudumalai Tiger reserve. We surpassed two elephants. This time we weren’t perturbed. We went past them with ease hoping that they were domesticated. But to our surprise they were wild elephants grazing along the highway!! We reached Theppakkadu. This road has a diversion here. The left takes you through 36 hair pin bent road on Nilgiri hills. It is the shorter of the two routes (36kms). It goes through Masinagudi and Kalhatty waterfalls. The other route (right) takes you through payakara falls, Gudalur and Naduvattam. This route is 70 kms more. This road has only a few hair pin bents and heavier vechicle roads prefer this route. Both the roads go to ooty. We chose the shorter, 36 hair pin bent route.
5th sept 2008 10:43am, Masinagudi - Foot of Nilgiri HillsWe moved out of Mudumalai Tiger reserve. There was actually a point were leopard crosses the road. But we couldnt spot that point, leave alone spotting a leopard! We reached a place where we could see the entire Niligri range. It was an amazing sight.
5th sept 2008 11:11am, Hair pin bent at Bison view pointThen came the place where the hair pin bent curves started. It was amazing riding through these curves.We need to be very careful driving along these curves. It is preferred to ride on lower gears on these curves. Adding on to this they are blind curves as you may not be able to see the vehicles coming in the opposite direction. There is a Bison view point where we stopped. This place has a view to the Kalhatty waterfalls and the amazing nilgiri mountain valley view.
5th sept 2008 12:13pm, Ooty36 hair pin curves and we could feel the temperature dipping. It was getting cooler with every hair pin bent. It was a brilliant experience. We stayed at Karnataka Bhavan.
5th sept 2008 4:43pm, DoddabettaThis is the first time I am visiting ooty. To my surprise almost everyone knew to speak Kannada! Later I was told that during the pre-independence time, ooty was under the mysore maharajah. We had a quick lunch at Hotel Amaravathi at ooty central market. It’s fun to drive your bike in some other city.
Ooty was one ways and traffic signals, not the type I had imagined it to be. We left ooty to doddabetta ( meaning "the big mountain" in kannada).It is the highest mountain in south India. The temperature started dipping even more. Driving here is difficult as your fingers and face are at direct contact to moisture. My fingers started freezing. I could barely drive. I did get my driving gloves but had kept it at our guest house :-(There is a check post along the way. We reached Doddabetta. The temperature was very low, say <12*c.>
6th sept 2008 6:15am, Karnataka BhavanI got up to see the mist. The guest house had a little garden. I took out my cam and started clicked at will. Then came the turn to check out our bikes. They were frozen. I wondered whether they will start. I kicked my bike once and the engine roared. I was delighted.
6th sept 2008 8:35am, Coonur road.The road to coonur has amazing senic beauty. I was told that the toy train amazing scenic beauty too. But when else will u be biking along this road? It’s now or never. The roads were curvy and very well maintained. We caught a glimpse of Wellington cant, an army area enroute to coonur. We say a couple of places and related the same to the movie "Roja". We reached coonur and had breakfast there. Our next stop was Dolphin point.
6th sept 2008 11:21am, Dophin pointJust 10 kms from coonur, we reached bad roads. Pathetically maintained as they lead to private tea plantations. The road led us to some of the best tea plantations in Nilgiris. We were awestruck by the magnificent beauty of this place. It is an brilliant experience to drive your bike inside a cloud.
6th sept 2008 2:19pm, Ooty We planned to leave ooty early. Our plan was to reach home tomorrow mid-day. For this to happen we hadto halt at mysore. We had planned to cross the bandipur national park hurdle before the sunset. We left ooty at 2pm.To our surprise, the police had closed the short route to Bandipur along masinagudi. They said the route was closed.Now this took us by surprise. We now had to go around Mudumalai forest reserve along Pyakara falls which was an additional 70 kms! We started off on this route as we dint have a choice. 6th sept 2008 3:22pm, Filmy ChakkarThis road was amazing. The road was well maintained. We went past the tall eucalyptus trees and clouds. The ride was spectacular until we reached Filmy chakkar. After which the road quality deteriorated. We reached Mudumalai reserve and road was bad as well. The road was very curvy. The bike leading the pack was blowing horn at each of these blind curves and signaling for every pot hole.
6th sept 2008 4:46pm, Bandipur
We crossed over to Karnataka after we left Mudumalai reserve. Enroute to Bandipur we say peacocks, elephants and bisons. I have never come this close to wild animals before. The size of bison was the size of 3 cows put together. They were harmless but were cautious as we approached them. We left Bandipur and reached Gundlupet. It was 6pm already and we were very tired. We did not want to go anyfurther to mysore. So we decided to take dorms at Gundlupet and rest for the night. The dormitory was very big. It has a big room and 15 beds. We were just 7 of us. We played cricket and football in the evening. We had a sound sleep not before playing mandatory cards. 7th sept 2008 8:02am, GundlupetWe left Gundlupet after a quick breakfast. We were riding along the vast country fields. The ride was quick. We were covering 35 kms in 15 mins flat. The ride was good untill we reached mysore outer ring road. We took our own route along mysore city and reached Mysore- Blore road. As soon as we reached Mysore Blore road, we started ripping past trucks and cars. It was amazing. We did take frequent breaks but the road simply makes to cruise your bike hrough it. We reached Bangalore at 1pm after a pit stop brunch at maddur tiffany.
This was an amazing trip. Firstly, it’s my first visit to ooty. Secondly, it’s my first over night bike trip whichI have been longing to do for a long time. None of our bikes got punctured or give any technical snag. It destroyed the mental barrier of fear. It was one of the best trips I had in recent times.