5 People 5 Destinations

Charmadi – Manipal – Kalyanapur – Agumbe – Kudremukh

After the ride to Honnavar to attend the wedding of my colleague. It was already 40 odd days without a ride. Called up NFS (Santosh) to check if he had any plans of riding out on the weekend. After a couple of days, Vicky joins in with the idea of directions to head as well. Great, the day previous to our ride two more people joined in Srinidhi and Venu

9th June 2007: Day 1

Got up early and check if I had packed all the required things and left towards the Shell petrol bunk Yeshwanthpur. Met up with Santosh, we fueled up the bikes and started riding towards the other Shell petrol bunk near Dasarahalli on Tumkur Road. There we met up with Vicky and Venu and continued riding till Nelamangala. We waited there for about 30 minutes before Srinidhi Joined us. He was late as he had not turned on the alarm (previous days hangover). All five continued riding till Kamat Hotel near Chennarayapatna not before Venu had a fall on his spanking new black ZMA-R. We regrouped after breakfast and continued riding towards Hassan. At Hassan, we stopped for some medical help to get Venu clean up the wounds from the fall he had. We took the deviation towards Belur. The roads here are dream with good amount of long sweeping curves. Almost near Belur, there is blind curve towards left, where Venu lost the front end grip on his ZMA-R only to have another fall and hurt the wounds even more. We pull up on to the empty field and helped him clean up and relax. Mean while an Indica (cab), had a real close call on the same curve when he hit the road divider and somehow did not topple. With the drama thus far, we were checking with Venu if he can continue riding or wanted to head back. Credit must be given to Venu to sticking up and continue riding with us. We all rode together and ensured we stayed together as group and headed towards Mudigere, our lunch destination for the day. After a little hunt, we found a good place for lunch, courtesy Vicky who knows the place/people pretty well here.

We continued riding towards Kottigehara and stopped after the checkpost to click pics of the valley. Now Vicky with his wicked plans/routes found an off roading opportunity and voila good one too, about 6 kms on a jeep track ended up at a small village (not sure of the name) with a few houses. Vicky tried convincing those guys to let us stay there for the day. But an adamant no from the people there, because of the naxals activity around the area ensured it was unsafe for both us and the people there. So after convincing him to let us chill out for a couple of hours, we headed out trying to find all opportunity for clicking. An hour or so passed by, we decided we will ride till Manipal near Udupi.

The next stop was the Charmadi village where we stopped for tea. Now the route was Ujire – Belthangadi – Bajagole - Karkala and then Manipal. Nice roads with loads of twisties (was counting initially, but the shear number ensured I lost the count).

It was already past the sunset, with clouds hovering all over the place, we stopped for a couple of minutes to clean up the visors of our helmets. Nightfall, five bikes one behind the other, each with good quality headlamp, ensured the private buses and Jeeps neither bullied us around nor threatened us. When we reached Manipal it was already 9.30 pm. Found a lodge, one big room, and all five together. We headed out to Downtown (a pub cum restaurant) which was already flooded with people from various professional colleges here. Most of them are not localites. Vicky and Srinidhi wanted to complete the day with Alcohol. Myself, NFS and Venu left the place in look out for good restaurant for dinner. A decent place (at least we thought so) was open and we had to contend ourselves to a couple of Parotas and Dal.

Now time for some Zzzzzzzzzz which was for sure disturbed by Vicky who came back at around 1.30 am and still had wicked idea of going to Udupi beach. Nobody agreed and every body were Zzzzzzzzzz mode now.

10th June 2007: Day 2

Previous days events ensured we got up late and Vicky took Venu to a nearby hospital for some treatment. We got delayed a couple 3 – 4 hours. Myself, Srinidhi and NFS were watching a Kannada movie (Jaggesh known as the double meaning guru) sorry don’t remember the name of the movie.

Finally we left Manipal at around 12.30 pm; we skipped lunch and headed towards Kalyanapur. It’s a lovely place, with back waters, lot and lots of coconut trees, a hanging bridge, a lovely light drizzle a perfect combination.

We decided to ride towards Agumbe via Someshwar. The roads here were ok, but nothing great. We passed through the Someshwar forest reserve and the Agumbe Ghats was a treat with tight Hairpin bends all the way up. We reached the sunset view point and had churmuri there. Churmuri not being sufficient we headed to the familiar hotel Ganesh in Agumbe. Everybody went hogging Neer Dosa; we lost count as to how many we ordered and how many we ate. The hot goli bajji was a great combination.

We knew we wont be looted at this hotel for all that we ate (if the same thing was at Bangalore then we would have ended up paying in a few thousand rupees for all that we ate, just shows how costly Bangalore is getting). Rode to Sringeri and near the Junction we lined up for a photo session as Venu, Srinidhi and Vicky wanted to head back to Bangalore. Myself and NFS called it a day at Sringeri and lodge at a service apartment and nice coffee again and we chilled off till 7 pm in the evening. We freshened up and visited the temple.

After the temple visit it was time for dinner at the temple. If people did not know, here is a piece of information. Most of the temples in Dakshina Kannada district offer both lunch and dinner at the temple for all the devotees. A list of such places for reference

1) Sringeri
2) Horanadu
3) Dharmastala
4) Udupi
5) Kollur
6) Kukke Subhramanya

All these above temples offer both lunch and dinner, but Horanadu a step by offering even breakfast.

Time to doze off, but before that I called my manager and informed, I won’t be able to make it office, but lot of pressure from my manager to be at office the next day. I just switched off my mobile and did not bother to answer any of the SMS or the phone calls.

11th June 2007: Day 3

Another visit to the temple after which we had breakfast and we left Sringeri and headed towards Kudremukh. Water falls on the way, (it’s called with different names, and the one I am familiar with is Hanuma Gundi Jalapatha). Super weather ensured we spent a quite some time at the water falls. Lovely roads and the mines everything made it a perfect setting. Reached Kalasa and switched on my cell phone. Just a couple of minutes, got the damn call from my manager telling that 2 people are on sick leave and contingency situation had arisen and I had to head back at the earliest possible time.

After lunch, knowing that I had to ride 350+ kms to reach home and then to office, I convinced NFS and left and there we go another endurance ride. Had enough fuel in the tank (both bike and me) to ride non stop to Bangalore. Reached Hassan when it was 5 mins to 5 pm. It started raining, so pulled over to get the duck backs at work. Continued riding only to find an accident between a two wheeler and a bus.

The police who were clearing the place instructed me to ride slowly. I did for a couple of kms and was sure that at this pace I won’t be able to make it office by 8 pm. So decided to rip all the way back home.

The rain ensured my fingers and legs went almost numb. Reached home, took the badge, changed my dress and headed to office. When I logged on to my computer at office, it was 8.25 pm. A hell lot of work with more unnecessary escalations from the dumb sales people.

Stayed back at office till late night almost 3 am and complete all the pending work (not pending from my end, but from people who had taken planned sick leaves). No choice as the appraisal was near ;-)

Weird company policy ensured people misused the sick leave quota.

Nevertheless, all the havoc, the places, the rain, ensured, a good part of life was reclaimed.

Route: Bangalore – Nelamangala – Hassan – Belur – Mudigere – Kottigehara – Charmadi – Ujire – Belthangadi – Karkala – Manipal – Udupi – Kalyanapur – Someshwar – Agumbe – Sringeri – Kudremukh – Kalasa – Kottigehara – Mudigere – Belur – Hassan – Nelamangala – Bangalore

Total odometer reading – 980 kms

Link to the album: http://picasaweb.google.com/n.krishna.p/CharmadiKudremukh

A treacherous and butt paralysis ride to Kanyakumari

With 4 days off and nothing to do is more than inviting for a ride. Checked with Bunty (my friend) if he is free over the weekend to join me for a ride. Yes, is the answer, so it did really feel great more so when a third candidate into the ride is Shiv Kumar and he would be pillion on the bike which Bunty would ride. Bunty has a 2 stroker, we did not want to either test the bike nor risk a break down. So we decided to pick my friend’s bike. With the things sorted out on which is the second bike we take for the ride, we decided to start of around 2 pm on the 5th of April 2007. Packed all the necessary things and ready to hit the roads.

Here goes the schedule

Ride up to Dindigul and rest for the night and visit the Pillayarpatti (more on this place later) temple the next day, and continue to ride towards Kanyakumari along the NH – 7. We wanted to visit a couple of beaches around and chill out at the southern tip of India.

Day 1: April 5, 2007

We started off as planned. Filled up the fuel tanks and we were cruising on the Hosur – Krishnagiri highway. We were something like 5 kms from the Krishnagiri city. Then suddenly Bunty communicates to me that there is some problem with the bike. We pulled over to the side on the highway, and on inspection we see that the precious fossil fuel is leaking out from the fuel tank. To check the extent of damage, I just tried cleaning up the portion where the leakage was present. But the situation got worse as the tiny hole just gave to make the petrol just rush out of the fuel tank. Now what, we had a couple of 2 litre water bottles, emptying them would hold only 4 litres of petrol, but still there is about another 7 litres of petrol. We some how source 3 more such bottles from a local person and ensure very little petrol is wasted. What next, removed the tank, took it to the nearby lorry workshop. These workshop people are well versed to get the tank back to shape. A good 3+ hours wasted in getting it fixed. After reconfirming that there is no leakage, we rode till Salem and called it a day. Salem in summer is awesome for its heat. Even an AC room can make you sweat. In such a situation we had no choice but to opt for the non AC due to unavailability of an AC room. Damn it was hot even at midnight, and to help myself, a cold water bath was not a bad idea after all. We hit the bed at around 12.30 in the night with a shortfall of our target by around 180 odd kms.

Day 2: April 6, 2007

We left the place around 8 am in the morning and started riding towards Dindigul. On the way we came across a few sun flower farms, with the yellow flowers more than inviting for a photo shoot. Since we were already off the schedule we thought we will move on without wasting too much of time.

Now a little more on the temple, the Karpaka Vinayakar Temple Pillayarpatti is an ancient rock-cut cave shrine dedicated to Ganesha, located at Pillayarpatti. This temple is famous for the Ganesha Shrine which is quite big. More so because it is believed that your problems would be solved by visiting the temple and offering prayers.

Reached Pillayarpatti around noon & the sun was scorching ensuring the April noon is pretty hard to bear. The temple had quite a few people waiting in the queue as the day was Sankastahara Chathurthi. Visited the temple and offered our prayers. Spent a close to an hour and half in the temple. Kumar did not have breakfast in the morning, and now no lunch as he would be fasting the whole day. Myself and Bunty had lunch in a nearby small restaurant and we were ready to hit the roads again. We had to ride more than 300 kms to reach Kanyakumari.

First we head to Madurai as we wanted to have the emission test on the second bike (F2) and adjust the chain as it was making weird noises. More than an hour wasted in getting these done and it was already close to 4.30 pm. We had to ride fast until nightfall to cover as much distance as possible because Bunty was not that comfortable riding at night.

The construction work of the 4 – lane ensured we made slow progress. We were making very slow progress all through the evening and I increased the pace for about half an hour and stopped around on the highway about 60 odd kms to Kanyakumari. The place was real dark, hardly any vehicles on the highway. Had lots of windmills all around which had slow revolutions due to the wind. It was cloudy and in a distant hill, I could see quite a bit of lightning. Almost waited for about 20 mins and then Bunty and Kumar joined me. We stop and chill there for about 10 mins. We decided to move not before we were questioned by the highway police as to why we were stopping there. We explained to them that we were on the biking trip to Kanyakumari from Bangalore. Being convinced, they asked to move on quick without staying for long at the place. We rode on to reach Kanyakumari at 11 pm. Checked into a lodge, again non AC. Kumar was really tired and he said he is hitting the bed after a bath. Myself and Bunty refreshed and headed for dinner. After dinner we decided to ride out to the beach which is about a couple of kms away.

The idea enough to keep me awake all night, we rode off to the beach. Wow!!! Was my expression, the cool breeze, the thundering waves, the sound, and almost no humans around us, very little light was very every inviting for me to spend the night at the beach. We sat around for about 45 mins after which Bunty said we will get back to the room as he wanted to sleep. Anyways the waves too was getting a bit more active as if it was enough for the time, making roaring noise when the waves was hitting the rocks on the shore. The distance light house added to the ambience. Its better to experience the place in the scenario rather than read it out in words. We head back to the room and it was already 1.30 am. Time for Bunty to sleep like a log.

Day 3: April 7, 2007
With the alarm set for 5 am and with sleep only for about 3 hours still wanted to capture the sunrise which has eluded me for the past 3 times I visited the place. Tried to wake both Kumar and Bunty but in vain, as they were pretty tired. Got up and headed to the sunrise point only to be disappointed that there was cloud cover, which ensured I was eluded from capturing the sun rise again.

Came back to the lodge, found Bunty and Kumar still asleep, I thought it would not be a bad idea to catch another couple of hours sleep. So we were all up and ready by 8.30 am.

We had breakfast, and then it was time to visit Suchindram. The marvelous temple is about 15 kms away from the southern tip of India. The gopuram of the temple has the puranas sculpted on it. The temple has fantastic architecture, with pillars sculpted out of single stone block. It has musical pillars which generate the saptha swaragalu when hit mildly at the middle of the pillar. The shrine here has Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in a single shrine. There is also a 16 ft shrine of Anjineya. There is a big pond next to the temple as well. This is a must visit temple in somebody is traveling to the southern tip of India.

We returned back to lodge. Kumar was feeling a bit feverish, so was not willing to ride on the bike back to Bangalore. Myself and Bunty check with the local travel agent and booked 3 tickets to Bangalore on the KPN Travels Volvo bus, along with the luggage charge for the two bikes. The bus was at 9.30 pm. With loads of time left, we first headed to the restaurant for lunch. After lunch it was time to visit the Vivekananda Rock which is about 250 odd metres from the shore. One needs to go in a ferry to the Vivekananda Rock and the Thiruvallur Statue which is about another 150 metres from the Vivekananda Rock. We chilled out at the Rock soothing the cool sea breeze and then back to the room.

It was still 3.30 pm, so we decided to rest at the room for about an hour and a half. Then it was time to head out to the beach. We decided to go to the beach about 2 kms from the room Not too many people to disturb us we were enjoying the breeze. Again the sunset eluded due to cloudy weather, actually a bit surprising about the weather as we were expecting a clear sky in April. But our luck ran out with regard to the weather. Left with no choice we were chilling out on the beach. We returned back to the room, packed everything and left for dinner.

After dinner, we had to vacate to the room and ride to Nagercoil to board the KPN Travels bus. All done, we thought but we had about close 15 litres of fuel in the bikes. We had to drain it out, which we did, but had to give it away at a throw away price (Rs. 5/- per litre).

With no further hiccups, we had a good journey in the Volvo right through to Bangalore. After all the hungama, we were back in our home town.

For me a part of life reclaimed and sore butts for Bunty and Kumar.
Photos @ http://picasaweb.google.co.in/n.krishna.p/PilliarpattiKanyakumari

BR Hills - OOTY

Its been quite a while since I rode, had been a part of 2 one day rides in Dec 2007. Definitely did not satisfy my hunger to ride more…….

So up came plan of visiting BR Hills and Ooty.

A little about the place BR Hills

The Biligiriranga Hills, commonly called B R Hills, is a hill range situated in south-eastern Karnataka, at its border with Tamil Nadu in South India. The area is called Biligiriranga Swamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary or simply BRT Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected reserve under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1973. Being at the confluence of the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, the sanctuary is home to eco-systems that are unique to both the mountain ranges. This makes it a very critical habitat.

The hills are located at the easternmost edge of the Western Ghats and support diverse flora and fauna in view of the various habitat types supported. A wildlife sanctuary of 322.4 km² was created around the temple on 27 June 1974, and enlarged to 539.52 km² on 14 January 1987. The sanctuary derives its name Biligiri from the white rock face that constitutes the major hill crowned with the temple of Lord Rangaswamy or from the white mist and the silver clouds that cover these lofty hills for a greater part of the year.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_R_Hills

Udhagamandalam sometimes abbreviated to Udhagai is a city, a municipality and the district capital of the Nilgiris district in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Ootacamund is a popular hill station located in the Nilgiri Hills. The origin of the name Ootacamund is obscure, but "mund" is the Badaga word for a Toda village, and it is probably a corruption of the Badaga name for the central region of the Nilgiri Plateau.[1] Another likely origin of the stem of the name ("Ootaca") comes from the local language Tamil where "Otta-Cal" literally means "Single Stone". This is perhaps a reference to a sacred stone revered by the local Toda people. Udhagamandalam is a more recent official Tamil name for the town. Ooty stands at an approximate height of 7,440 feet (2,268 meters) above sea level.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ooty

To be honest, the Ooty city has lost its charm, but the surrounding place does still have the charm. The reason being Ooty has become more commercialized.

Day 1: 11th Jan 2008

Took leave on Friday and this would be my last leave in the organization as I was changing jobs the same month. With no better reason rather than to celebrate on the occasion of the new opportunity at hand, BR Hill would be the right place to do it.
My cousin had to take his Driving license the same day, what a coincidence and this ensured we could not leave Bangalore before 6 pm. With nothing to do for most of the day packed bags and had a good afternoon sleep. We started after my cousin collecting his driving license and tanked up the Indian Oil petrol station on the Mysore road. With the first destination being Kollegal for the night, we were cruising with just 150 odd kilometers to cover in about 3 hours. Also my cousin was a new bie to ride, so decided to take it easy with ample breaks in between.

The road till Maddur is a dream, but once you take the deviation towards Kollegal, the roads from Maddur to Kollegal can definitely be rated below average with more potholes than tarmac

Reached Kollegal at 9.30 pm, Checked into the lodge, dumped the luggage and rushed to the nearby restaurant only to find that another 10 mins delay would have ensured we starved for the night.

Day 2: 12th Jan 2008

Saturday morning got ready by 7 am and left for BR Hills took time riding slow all through the route to enjoy the village ambience. Reached the forest check post and after duly entering our vehicle numbers we proceeded further. We stopped at quite a few places in between to click photos and of course hoping to spot a few wildies. But our hope remained as it is, because we could not spot any animals other than few monkeys and birds. Reached the temple and spent some time in the temple to offer our prayers. The environment here is better to experience rather than read about it. So why wait, go ahead to the place and get yourselves lost in the nature.

After a cup of coffee we continued our ride and moved on towards Chamarajanagar via KG Gudi Route. With no roads, we rode pretty slow, again hoping to spot a few animals, but our luck sucked big time on the day. Cross the other end of the check post and then continued riding towards Bandipur and reached there by 1 pm.

It was time for lunch and chilled off till 2 pm. All the while a person by name Richard from Australia was shooting a few queries asking our experience. Started off riding towards Ooty via Masinagudi. This route has the 36 hair pin bends and not so high traffic ensured we enjoyed the climb up the hill. Reached Ooty by 3.45 pm, checked into a lodge, dumped the entire luggage and headed for the nearest service station to get the Bike washed (lot of dust you see) and moved toward Dodda Betta, but the Check Post guys did not let us to the top because the gate closes at 5 pm and we had been there at 5.02 pm (found it ridiculous as per the IST standards, no offense here). Had no choice but to ride back, on the way had masala tea, and found a small place to off road and create our own sunset spot. Clicked pics and headed back to the Lodge, rested for a while and went out for dinner, again clicked a few snaps and came back and slept like a log till 6.30 am next morning… Zzzzzz time

Day 3: 13th Jan 2008

Sunday, got ready by 7.30 am and left for Coonoor, it was pretty cold in the morning, The winding roads, the chilling breeze, got me really excited. We had a very tasty breakfast (Idly and Onion Utthappam) at Coonoor and rode ahead to Lamb’s Rock to find out that we were the first one’s for the day there. The place is best with very less people. Do not know why, but I always preferred to go to places where very few people flock the place. The silence of the place was disturbed by the click sound generated from the camera when we were clicking photos. It was time to move on to Dolphins nose, spent about 30 mins and started riding back towards Ooty and had Doddabetta on the list to be done on that route. Doddabetta is the highest peak in the Nilgiri hills. The place has got a wonderful view all around the hill. Doddabetta already had loads of people around as it was already mid day, and this ensured, I left the place after clicking a few photos.

We headed back to Lodge, had lunch and packed the bags, refueled and starting riding towards Pykara Lake. This lake is about 20 odd kilometers from Ooty city. Pykara is blessed with popular attractions like Pykara Dam, Pykara Falls, and Pykara Lake. With little time left for us to go boating here, we left the place after regular session of clicking photos.

The road towards Gudalur can be termed as horrendous (can conclude as no tarmac). Took more than an hour for us to reach Gudalur. Reached Theppakadu at around 5.30 pm and spent some time at the canteen, actually wasted time over there to ensure I ride through the forest reserve when it’s dark. Took a new road which had new tarmac, none of the traffic took this route not sure as to why. I preferred to take this route to include some adventure in the ride and boy o boy it would, when I spotted a tiger leisurely walking into the bush on a curve. Since it was pretty dark, could not see as to where it was and clicking pics were of no use. Stopped for a minute for my cousin to join me who was riding a little behind, then moved on from there to exit the forest reserve. At last my thirst is fulfilled to spot a tiger in the forest, but no pics to cherish on that.

With the delight of spotting a tiger ensured I was high on energy all the ride on the way back home. Had dinner in Dhabha near Mysore and rode back and reached home at 11.30 pm.

A part of life reclaimed would definitely be an understatement…..

The route

Bangalore – Maddur – Kollegal – BR Hills – Chamarajanagar – Gundlupet – Bandipur – Masinagudi – Ooty – Coonoor – Ooty – Pykara – Gudalur – Theppakadu – Bandipur – Gundlupet – Mysore - Bangalore

Now I will let the pictures do the talking.

Link to the pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/n.krishna.p/BRHillsOoty