A Brisk Solo Ride to Jog Jalapatha

Date: 17th August 2008

With all the hurdles crossed (objections from parents not to go out for ride due to eclipse and stuff), had finally succeeded to convince them to give me the green signal.

Scheduled start 5 am, however invariably got delayed by 45 mins and left my house at 5.45 am. Headed straight to the petrol bunk, only to see it not opened yet. Did not want to waste any further time, headed towards Tumkur. Hit reserve about 20 kms to Tumkur. Refueled to the brim and ready to ride, continued cruising at around the three figure mark. The roads were pretty smooth up to Birur, but not without irritating road humps near every damn village on the National Highway (NH – 206).

Stopped at Shimoga for breakfast, after a nice tasty idli sambar and a super strong coffee continued riding. Just after 10 odd kms, the rain gods were at full play. Put the rain gear on, also with a wide smile on my face. It was quite some time from the last time I rode in Rain.

Nice sweeping bend enroute to Sagar from Shimoga

The paddy fields @ Talaguppa

Arrow straight roads with paddy fields on either side @ Talaguppa

Thanks to the late start and the rain, reached Jog almost an hour late from schedule, which actually ruined the latter part of the plan. I expected quite a few people to visit Jog during weekend in Monsoon, but there were loads of people. Parked the bike and the rain just got heavier. Huh no respite from rain at least to click photos. Found a place where I can take shelter from rain and try my hand at the cam. Clicked a few pics and headed straight to a small hotel there. Had nice hot chapati and palav and left Jog at around 2.30 pm.

First view @ Jog Jalapata

Rain Drops

Umbrella and the rain

With the rain gods still at play and with very little traffic, enjoyed riding not without taking the sweeping bends with good leaning exercise. Rode till Tarikere, but saw a sign board with info that Bhadra dam is only 19 kms, it was pretty inviting to get there. Took the deviation and headed towards the dam. Initially the roads were excellent and started deteriorating to an extent where there was no tarmac at all. The suspension bottomed out at least half a dozen times. Spent about 15 mins there (it was still raining but not as heavy as when I was at Jog).

Bhadra Dam

Rode back till Tumkur and then stopped for a cup of coffee. The weather was dry and I sighed a bit of relief, but the relief was short lived, just after about 5 kms, it started pouring again to an extent where there was water flowing on the highway, invariably reduced the average speed. Finally reached home at 9.15 pm.

Only a little part of life reclaimed. Hoping to ride in the rain more very soon!!!!

Trip Stats

Distance covered: 828.7 kms

Total Trip Duration: 15 hours and 35 mins

Fuel costs: 19.8 Litres @ Rs. 1137/-

Beach – Falls – Rugged Terrain and finally the Mist

Long time no ride, took 3 days off for wat else to do, ride and get the butt sore…………

Riders: Myself – Apache 200

NFSNFS (Santosh) – P180 V1

Day 1: August 19th, 2007

Planned to leave by 4 am initially, then the schedule moved to 6 am and finally got moving by 7 am . Had breakfast at Kamat and continued toward Shimoga via Tumkur. Reached Shimoga to find that there was some sort of a problem with the alternator as no current was supplied to the battery or the lighting circuit. Hmm got some help from one guy at the spare shop and got the coil thing fixed and continued towards Sagar. Reached Jog only to find a huge traffic jam with loads of people who were there at jog . So skipped visiting jog for now and continued towards Honnavar. Just a few kms from Jog the rain gods dancing to full glory. Stopped to get in our rain gear and this is what we were presented with.

With visibility being very very poor we continued riding towards Honnavar. Reached Honnavar at around 6.50 pm. Had coffee n snacks left Honnavar by 7.45 pm. Even though still raining heavily decided to continue to ride towards Karwar. The roads were sick for most parts and one big scare was that I was about to hit a dead buffalo calf on the road , lucky me some how escaped all this because visibility very poor. Reached Karwar at 9.30 pm, dumped all the luggage and had dinner. A sound sleep was very much required…………..

Day 2: August 20th, 2007

Got to up at around 8 to see the rains still continuing, thought why not get that rain pics as well. A pic to remember :-) With no choice but to ride, we started off towards Panjim. But rains not giving way, bad roads made us decide to visit Polalem Beach which is close to 45 kms from Karwar. Stayed at the beach for a couple of hours before heading back to Karwar. Relentless rain at Polalem Roads on the way after goa border and back to Karwar
My bike
Refuelled at a HP petrol near the Goa border, a good 6 rupees cheaper petrol in Goa . Came back to Karwar, had lunch and packed the entire luggage and headed off towards Sirsi.

We had to visit Bennehole falls and reach there we had to ride pretty fast. The falls is something like 6.5 kms from the main road (kumta-Sirsi road) Complete off roading experience, rains, sluch, boulders, broken tree branches, twigs, what not. Took the bike to last possible path, parked the bike and walked towards the falls, it was already like 6.15 pm. We need to be quick else, if would be tough to find our way back to the place we had parked the bike. With all the struggle this is what we were blessed with

A quick visit and return to the bikes only to a quite a number of leaches happily trying to suck blood on our legs, lucky me again, had Gum boots on which made it difficult for leeches. NFS donated a bit of blood to the suckers. Somehow rushed back to Sirsi and took a lodge and then the fun started to hunt down leeches on our clothes, jackets, luggage, saddle bags, everywhere. It took close to 90 mins to get rid off the suckers and kill a few too. Had dinner and a sound sleep……………..

Day 3: August 21st, 2007

Got up early, packed everything and decided to ride to Unchalli falls. Reached there at around 10.15 am and reached the view point only to find the falls completely filled with mist. Spent around 30 mins just to get few glimpses of the falls when the mist cleared up slightly.

From there rode to Jog falls, as usual clicked a few snaps, and reached Sagar for lunch.

The guy at the hotel, guided us through a shortcut to kodachadri via Hasirumakki, took a Ferry on the Sharavati Back waters.

Reached the other bank and headed off towards Kodachadri. We were at the Kodachadri base at around 4 pm, clicked a few pics as well to enjoy the surrounding.

Just a few hundred metres my bike slipped and slided on the slush to have a fall, so message very clear, “WELCOME TO KODACHADRI”……. Then on being very careful continued riding.

A few stops and were at the top by 5.20 pm. After unloading all the stuff from the bike, to have a hot coffee in the chilling weather. Being very misty restricted our movements to a few hundred feet from the PWD Inspection Bungalow. What next no electricity, nothing to do in the dark, started chit chatting, had yummy dinner at around 8 pm and we hit the bed at 9 pm.

Day 4: August 22nd, 2007

Got up at around 6.30 to find that it was raining heavily outside…. So packed everything and waited for the weather to clear up a bit, but to our luck that did not happen. After breakfast decided to descend from the heavenly place. Reached the ferry place by 9.15 am.

Reached the other bank and rode till Shimoga. Went to the nearby TVS showroom to get the coil fixed again…. Finally got most of the things fixed, but could not fix the compression loss due to no valve clearance. Did not want to take a chance with those mechanics as they seemed to know nothing about the bike. Just rode all the way back from Shimoga with poor compression. Left Shimoga at 3.30 pm and reached home at 7.50 pm. A good good ride with lot of events ended here.

Need to thank Santosh for all the help and his patience to overcome all the hassles and still make it back home riding.......
The Route:
Bangalore - Tumkur - Shimoga - Jog Falls - Honnavar - Karwar - Polalem beach - Karwar - Minvad - Bennehole Falls - Sirsi - Heggarne - Unchalli Falls - Siddapur - Jog Falls - Sagar - Hasirmakki (used the ferry service here) - Sampigekatte - Kodachadri - Sampigekatte - Hasirmakki - Sagar - Shimoga - Tumkur – Bangalore.

Bluff, Bluff, Bluff @ July 21st, 2007

A lazy Saturday morning had nothing to do, what else, a short ride to Shivanasamudram (Bluff). Bluff is about 125 odd kms from Bangalore. One of colleague also wanted to ride along. Great had a companion too

Started off at 6 am and met up with my colleague at Rajarajeshwarinagar arch on Mysore Road. The next scheduled stop was at Kamat Lokaruchi near Ramanagaram.

Reached the place very leisurely and with not many people there, it was happy hour clicking photos.

After about an hour, we hit the roads back again towards Bangalore. This time being the rip session. Reached home after a quick blasting ride from Maddur till Bangalore.

Kodagina Kaveri

After the Kudremukh ride, I and Santosh did not ride together for various reasons ranging from being stuck with work at office and having to get the bike back to shape. All in all a very good reason to ride.

Kodagu is not a bad place by any stretch of imagination at all during the monsoons.

So the plan to start off @ 7 am and the meeting point being the Shell petrol bunk on the Mysore road. Not really bad with the start off time, we head to Madikeri via Srirangapatna

Day 1: 7th July 2007

Being on time really helps. After tanking up at the Shell petrol bunk we rode non stop till the Kamat Lokaruchi after Ramanagaram. Had a nice yummy breakfast and continued on. There was a light drizzle all the way till Mandya. After Mandya surprisingly the drizzle stopped and we rode on a little faster here. After Srirangapatna we took the deviation towards Hunsur to avoid entering the Mysore City and the also the distance will be reduced by about 10 odd kilometers. We rode till Periyapatna. Thought it was definitely not a bad idea to exchange bikes. We rode on for a few more kilometers till Kushalnagar also clicking a few pics on the way.

We stopped over for tea also we required a 10 mins break to clean up the visors and also the bike a bit as we rode through quite deep slush. More so I wanted to ensure it does not hamper the breaking especially the discs. Then from here on we headed towards the Harangi Dam. We reached there about 10.45 am. Spent close to 30 mins, clicking away at the glory of the water gushing out of the 4 outlets of the Harangi Dam. It had completely submerged a bridge.

We rode on till Madikeri town and now the hunt for a decent lodge began. We were quite successful in getting a decent room for a decent price as well. Dumped the entire luggage, freshened up ourselves and headed straight for lunch in the restaurant at the ground floor. Sorry I forgot the name of the lodge. It was raining all the time.

After lunch we headed to Abbey Falls. Wow what a sight. It was just too good; let the pics speak more about it.

Almost an hour we headed back to Madikeri. On enquiring about the route to Baghamandala, the route was closed due to land slides and overflowing river. With the spirits a little dampened, we headed to the Raja Seat. Nice place with mist all around. Spent about 30 mins enjoying the cool breeze, luckily the rain had stopped for a while.

We had to head back to the room as it started pouring. The rain never stopped. Santosh had a very sound sleep in the evening. Left with no choice I was just viewing whatever was relayed on TV. Spend the whole evening in the lodge. Later in the night we watched the Movie “Poison Ivy” on HBO as well.

After the movie off we go to bed.

Day 2: 8th July 2007
As per our discussion the previous day, we first ventured out for shopping. We bought the Rubber boots as it is a cheap alternative to avoid getting your shoes wet during rains.

Packed everything, no better time to test our new rubber boots, we put them on and start riding towards Virajpet and then later head to Iruppu falls. We rode enjoying the scenery around and clicking pics where ever we got a chance. We reached the foot of the Iruppu falls. We had to walk for about half a kilometer here to go near the falls. It was raining all the time. On the way we found a few people coming back from the falls on the hanging bridge. It was a good experience as the water was gushing below the hanging bridge with good speed.
Clicked a few pics and headed back. We could not take the trek there to Brahmagiri as the guide from the forest dept was not available. We rode to Kutta and stopped for Lunch. Here we decided to ride to Sulthanbatthery and then to Gundlupet and back to Bangalore via Mysore. En route we had the opportunity to click a few good snaps.

Reached back home by 9.30 pm, the bed at home never felt so comfy. All in all nothing like a ride or a drive to the Western Ghats during monsoon. They are just awesome.