Update on my travels: April to June; Spring Tour 2011, Stage Two

I left off the narrative of my Spring Tour in Mysore in early April. Took two days for the ride back to Chennai with an overnight stop in Hosur. After a couple of days at home, did two short rides within Tamil Nadu, one to Mayilaiduthurai and another to Namakkal, timing my ride back to Chennai to meet up with the Madras Bulls Motorcycle Club in Yelagiri for their ninth annual anniversary meet at the end of April.

A couple of weeks at home, then mid-May left for Mysore, to join Bulls of Mysore for their second anniversary ride, up to Silent Valley Resorts in Kudremukh. At the meet I connected with several riders from Shimoga, and rode back to Shimoga with them, where I stayed for a few days with Kenneth, founder of the Bulls of Shimoga club.

On the way back to Chennai I stopped overnight at the APTDC Resort in Horsley Hills in southwestern Andhra Pradesh. At Rs 1500 it was a bit more than my usual budget, but worth the splurge. Nice swimming pool, disappointing restaurant.

Didn't get away until noon the next day, which was a mistake with the long ride I had to get home, via Tirupati, Puttur, Periyapalayam and Ponneri, so the last hour to home was after sunset, which I hate to do. But there was no point stopping en route so close to home.

And after this Mysore-Kudremukh-Shimoga-Horsley Hills ride, I really felt I wanted to take a break from touring for a while. So apart from a brief ride to Mayilaiduthurai in early June, and several shuttle trips to Tiruvallur to the Foreigners' Registration Office for my annual visa renewal, I'm planning to veg out at home for a few months, until it's time to leave in late September for Grand Tour 2011, otherwise known as my annual "avoid being in Chennai during the north-east monsoon" bike tour.